"factory" news and stories

Remember when Cadbury had to recall a large number of candy bars in the UK earlier due to the discovery of traces of salmonella in their factory? It looks like Hershey's is now having a similar problem. The company voluntarily recalled several brands of chocolate chips, chocolate bars and candies, including Oh Henry!, Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Glosettes, that were manufactured its Smiths Falls, Ontario, factory. All totaled, there are 25 items included in the recall and they can be easily identified "by checking the back of the package for date codes, starting with four digits ranging from 6417 to 6455." The recall did not include any Halloween or Christmas candy, and company spokespeople said that most of the potentially contaminated products were still in warehouses and had not been distributed. The factory was closed last week after "after a routine quality control check detected an 'externally sourced ingredient' which could potentially cause salmonella" and will not reopen until the company can guarantee the safety of its products to consumers.

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Fast Food News recently pointed out an interesting little article on the ways fast food companies produce their "grilled" chicken. The piece, which ran in Fast Company, details the process of how chicken breasts are flavored en masse in a "tumble marinator" before being cooked by jets of hot air and then sent under the hot branding wheels of machines like the CM-40 II Charmarker to get that fresh off the grill look (right). Then they're frozen and shipped. A Burger King chicken breast has over 30 ingredients and Panera's grilled chicken is flavored with beef extract, according to Fast Company. Coincidentally, Fast Food news had another funny post about using meat as a condiment.

A McCain potato-processing factory in England had to be evacuated when workers discovered a grenade amongst the potatoes as they were washing the spuds. The factory, which is the largest in Europe, imports many of its potatoes from other countries. It is not uncommon for debris from the first and second world wars to turn up amongst the spuds from Belgium and France, but in the past week the workers not only discovered the grenade, but a shell tip, as well. Following both discoveries, workers vacated the plant while the bomb squad came in and detonated the devices.

Worker safety is of paramount importance, and a company spokesman said that they would have to speak with their suppliers about checking the shipments more thoroughly, as "it is obviously not an efficient use of [the] staff's time if we have to keep evacuating the premises."

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A recall of Coca-Cola brand soft drinks in Japan, originally issued last week, has been broadened to include an estimated 2.4 million bottles, according to BeverageDaily.com. Defective equipment at Japanese factory is believe to be responsible for iron powder in some bottles. Coca-Cola says that the iron powder does not present a health concern, according to a Forbes article. The number of drinks involved in the recall has risen from six to 27 and includes Coca-Cola and Fanta brands as well as local beverages including Qoo and Aquarius, Beverage Daily reported. MSN also reports on the initial recall.

Zurich-based chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut recently announced plans to open a new $20 million factory in Russia early next year, according to a company press release. The plant, to be built near Moscow, will employ about 70 people and have a production capacity of 25,000 tons. Barry Callebaut is already the largest chocolate importer to Russia, so putting a new factory there was a logical decision, according the chocolate-maker's CEO Patrick De Maeseneire. The company's press release goes on to predict that Russian chocolate consumption will top that of the U.K. by 2009. Barry Callebaut was formed 10 years ago through the partnership of Belgium's Callebaut and France's Cacao Barry. In 2003, the company also acquired American candy company Brach's Confections Holding, Inc.