The Global Miller: December 2018

December 21, 2018

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from The Global Miller and Milling and Grain

The team here at The Global Miller blog and Milling and Grain magazine would like to thank all of our readers for your continued support.

In 2018, our magazine and blogs have only continued to expand and excel, we are excited to say that Milling and Grain and The Global Miller will only continue to improve in 2019.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

December 20, 2018

Delegation from China visits North Iowa to learn about ethanol production

A group of government officials from Binzhou, a city in the Shandong province of China, visited Northern Iowa last week to learn about ethanol production. Their visit included a tour of Golden Grain Energy in Mason City, time at Sukup Manufacturing Co. in Sheffield, and a tour of a farm near Dougherty, Iowa.

The group also posed for a photo with Governor Kim Reynolds and Lt. Governor Adam Gregg who were at Sukup Manufacturing on December 13th for a meeting of the Governor's Empower Rural Iowa Initiative. China plans to include 10 percent ethanol in all fuel sold nationwide by the year 2020.

Image credit: Sukup Manufacturing Co.

"We have tremendous resources and knowledge of ethanol production in North Iowa, which the Chinese delegation acknowledges and hopes to gain from," said Sukup Manufacturing CFO Steve Sukup. "China will have a major demand for ethanol in the near future, and we hope their visit was productive and will help them understand how to meet that demand."

The visit concluded with a formal signing ceremony at the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates for a Memorandum of Understanding, which Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig attended to witness and provide remarks.

About Sukup Manufacturing Co.
Sukup Manufacturing Co. is the world's largest family-owned and operated grain storage, drying and handling equipment manufacturer. The company is headquartered in Sheffield, Iowa, and covers 1,000,000 sq. ft. of office, manufacturing and warehouse space.

The company employs more than 600 people, making it one of the largest employers in North Central Iowa. Three generations of the family are now active in the business. Sukup's product line includes on-farm and commercial grain bins, portable and tower dryers, centrifugal and axial fans and heaters, stirring machines, bin unloading equipment and bin floors and supports.

Sukup also manufactures a line of material handling equipment that includes bucket elevators, drag conveyors and chain loop conveyors, as well as a line of steel buildings. Sukup has six distribution centers located throughout the Midwest. Sukup products are sold throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as more than 80 foreign countries.

Visit the Sukup Manufacturing Co. website, HERE.

New directions for the feed machinery industry

We often wish that the world could stop changing and developing

Just as we feel comfortable in our space and life, a new development knocks us sideways. Unfortunately, that is the inevitable mark of progress that we need to grab onto and keep up with in order to survive and even thrive as we move into the future.

The feed machinery industry is no different. In 2014, China initiated a new ISO technical committee to develop standards specific to stationary feed machinery. China is one of the top producers of feed machinery and animal feed. They saw this window of opportunity for international support in what they perceived as an underserved industry. While the response of the international community was mixed on the topic, there was enough support to gain approval and the establishment of ISO TC 293 Feed Machinery.

International standards need to represent the majority of global manufacturers. Different regions of the world develop processes that align with their geographic needs as well as national regulations. Balanced standards must provide enough generality to accommodate the majority.

The US initially voted against the proposed technical committee as US manufacturers did not perceive a need for standards specific to feed machinery. With the international committee formed, the US made the decision to get involved in order to help balance the global participation which initially included Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

Work began with the development of the foundational terminology to be used in the subsequent standards being planned. US involvement assisted in the clarification and reduction in the overall number of terms deemed necessary as a foundation. The proposed drafts were translations from Chinese standards and as there isn’t a direct translation for many of the terms used in the English language, expressing ideas and explaining differing viewpoints has been a challenge for the countries involved. Work continues as the terminology standards are being refined with an eye toward publication in the future.

The committee focus is now moving toward the applications of Safety and Hygiene in feed machinery, two important areas. The second international gathering of represented countries will take place on January 15-16th, 2019 in Winterthur, Switzerland.

Read more HERE.

Yildiz company profile

Adopting quality as a lifestyle, HB GROUP aims to reach higher standards and continuously improve these standards.

With its modern manufacturing facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the company manufactures food safety management systems without compromising on taste and quality.

The main principle of HB GROUP is to be the best with their customer-oriented work strategy, to give the necessary information to human resources, to make business ethics and honesty as the indispensable condition and to be a world player who is aware of the power that gives power to our country.

Visit the Yildiz company website, HERE.

Joel Newman to retire after 15 years as AFIA’s President and CEO

The American Feed Industry Association's President and CEO Joel G. Newman formally announced to members today that he will be retiring from the association effective December 2019. The association has formed a selection committee to facilitate the transition process over the next year and hired Kincannon & Reed to assist in recruiting Newman's successor.

"It has been my privilege to represent the industry and lead AFIA through a period of exciting and significant change," Mr Newman said. "I am very proud of the many achievements and successes that we have accomplished together. My deepest thanks go to the AFIA members and staff who have supported and made this success possible."

Joel Newman
Image credit: AFIA

Mr Newman has led AFIA for the past 15 years, in which he has ushered in a landmark era of change. During the early 2000s, Newman worked with members and staff to develop a strategic focus that better aligned the association to meet the future needs of the changing industry and led to the creation of AFIA's four Promises of Member Value.

Over the years, Mr Newman expanded the AFIA staff team, adding top talent to deliver on the four Promises of providing legislative and regulatory representation and member access to top expertise. AFIA's education programs and networking events also saw tremendous growth during this time.

Mr Newman championed an expanded global focus on the development of international food safety standards and opening more international trade opportunities for the industry. Most recently, AFIA has implemented a Sustainability Initiative, which includes the development of collaborative industry messaging to address consumers' concerns regarding the animal protein industry. All of this has led to a more than 50 percent increase in member engagement and increased industry value.

Mr Newman has also served as president of the association's public charity, the Institute for Feed Education and Research, since its inception 10 years ago. He has represented the US animal feed industry on international issues, including serving on the International Feed Industry Federation's Board of Directors, and previously as IFIF's chairman, and as a member of the US delegation to the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

Mr Newman has spent his distinguished career in the agriculture and food industries. For the past 48 years, he has held executive positions at Agway, Inc., Maple Leaf Foods, Inc., and United Cooperative Farmers, prior to joining AFIA. He holds an MBA in finance and marketing from Syracuse University and a bachelor's in animal science from West Virginia University.

Mr Newman will continue to serve as president and CEO of AFIA over the next 12 months and will assist with the transition through the end of 2019. As part of its succession planning, the AFIA Board of Directors appointed a selection committee in May to lead the recruitment and succession process.

The committee will be working with Kincannon & Reed to recruit a strategic, collaborative and results-oriented individual who can lead the organisation to deliver on its mission and develop strategies that address its vision for the future. The association aims to conduct candidate interviews in the spring of 2019 with the goal of making a candidate recommendation to the Board for its review by the summer. Pending the Board's final approval, Mr Newman expects to officially introduce and onboard the new president and CEO in the fall of 2019.

For more information visit the AFIA website, HERE.

USDA Cochran Fellowship program participants visit IGP Institute

Educating potential foreign buyers of the benefits of US grain and feed was the focus of the recent USDA Cochran Fellowship Program held at the Kansas State University IGP Institute December 3-14, 2018.

The seven participants from Vietnam learned about identifying new commodity markets, and increased their knowledge of grain processing, purchasing and storage. The US Sorghum Exposure and Utilisation for Vietnam course participants were primarily trained by Carlos Campabadal, outreach specialist in feed manufacturing and grain quality management, and Patrick Clark, technical consultant.

Patrick Clark (centre) explains how a local co-op receives sorghum on a field trip to MKC in Manhattan, Kansas.
Image credit: IGP KSU

"The USDA Cochran program hosted at the IGP Institute focused on providing the fellows a deep look on everything related to US sorghum from the agronomy side all the way to the processing into food and feed products," Mr Campabadal says.

Participants completed lessons about grain storage and handling, feed manufacturing, animal nutrition and engaged in learning new techniques for grain marketing. The group also received additional training on the opportunities for processing and utilisation of sorghum for human consumption. Throughout the two-week course, participants were able to visit farms and grain elevator cooperatives.

"The fellows had the opportunity to visit the locations and people which actually export and grade the products that are purchased for use in Vietnam," Mr Clark says. "The experience helped the fellows realise where their commodities come from and how the US has the safest food system in the world. It will help open up new markets for the US grain sorghum producer."

This is one example of the many feed manufacturing and grain quality management customised courses offered by the IGP Institute. In addition, the IGP Institute provides trainings in the areas of grain marketing and risk management, and grain processing and flour milling.

Learn more about training opportunities at the IGP Institute, HERE.

More information on the Cochran Fellowship group and more of their events, HERE.

December 19, 2018

A pilot line for continuous improvement

by Setrem, France

Since 1986, Setrem has been designing and marketing single-screw extruders and their peripheral equipment all over the world. Originally specialised in the dry process (manufacturing of extruded soybeans, cattle feed), the company has considerably enriched its skills to meet all production requirements.

Thanks to the small size of the company, Setrem is able to offer a customised solution for every industry.

Furthermore, the flexibility of its extruders allows Setrem to followed and anticipated changes in the market by offering tailored equipment:
• Flexibility and robustness of use,
• Low cost of operation,
• Quality of extruded products.

Its extruders are as well adapted to the dry process as to the semi-wet process and make it possible to manufacture the most elaborate products:
• Petfood (dog and cat food),
• Foods for aquatic species (floating or sinking),
• Livestock feed (high production dairy cows, other cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry (layers, meat), horses)

But also used in:
• The processing of raw materials: soybean, linseed, wheat and other cereals.
• The preparation for the mechanical extraction of oil on oleaginous plants.

The manufacturer offers complete lines, with capacities from 40 kg/h to capacities of 10 tons/h. In various factories, Setrem have installed pilot lines that permits companies and clients to carry out further research and development on extrusion.

Read more HERE.

Essmueller company profile

The Essmueller Company’s roots go back to Saint Louis, Missouri in 1878. One of its co-founders, Fred Essmueller, immigrated from Germany in 1865, thirteen years prior to his first partnership.

During this period, he gained fame as a millwright with IQ Halteman & Company. His specialties included ground-up building and renovation of flour mills along the Mississippi River.

Fred Essmueller had native talent and a strong will to succeed. Between 1878 and 1899, he formed and dissolved several partnerships. His last partner retired in 1899, and with the help of his son, Will (WC), he renamed the firm Essmueller Mill Furnishings Company.

It retained this name until 1941 when it was incorporated as The Essmueller Company. The company performed machining and fabrication 'job shop' work and one-of-a-kind equipment for mills in grain belt states.

Diverse on-site work locations were centered in Saint Louis and Kansas City, Missouri.

Visit the website HERE.

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

December 18, 2018

Olmix is launches Algimun® during Group’s annual symposium in Berlin, Germany

Olmix Group's annual symposium took place in Berlin, Germany, and shed light on the company's algae-based biosolutions to produce more and better in a changing world.

Image credit: Olmix

Olmix Group wrote another page of the Breizh Algae Tour in Berlin, Germany, where the company hosted its annual symposium in the presence of 400 customers and partners from 51 different countries between the 11th and 14th November.

If last year the event shed light on the scientific and technical research progress on algae and their key role to get a balanced microbiome, the 2018 edition focused on how to boost natural defences of animals, plants and humans through natural, innovative and environmentally friendly solutions, and on how to move towards a low carbon agri-food chain by reducing the use of food chemicals, chemical fertilisers and pesticides and antibiotics.

Read the full article on the Milling and Grain website, HERE.

IGP KSU grain elevators managers course set for early 2019

January course to provide managers and aspiring individuals knowledge about grain quality management in elevators.

Quality doesn't just revolve around the final end product. Quality can be traced back to the harvest conditions and procedures, mill equipment and machinery, and storage and handling processes. In grain elevators, managers and operation workers, strive to uphold this high-quality during their operations from receiving to storage and ship out.

The Kansas State University IGP Institute is set to host the IGP–KSU Grain Elevators Managers Course at the IGP Institute Conference Centre, January 22–25, 2019. This course will benefit those individuals who are responsible for and aspire to supervise grain elevators.

Image credit: IGP KSU

"The Grain Elevator Managers course is a training focused on teaching grain managers and operators on how to maintain quality during handling and storage," says Carlos Campabadal, IGP Institute outreach specialist for feed manufacturing and grain quality management. "Additionally, the course will focus on real-life case scenarios on maintenance, cost calculations and safety."

This training covers topics within grain management and provides valuable information that new and current grain managers will be able to take back to their companies. Other course topics that are discussed include: personnel management, grain quality assessment, grain handling equipment, grain drying, grain operations costs, grain inventory management, grain receiving and shipping, grain aeration principles and strategies, and grain fumigation.

Previous course participant Harry Franklin, manager trainee for Bungee, shares that the various participant backgrounds and learning experiences within the course helped him better understand the topics.

"We had a diverse group allowing us to intermingle and learn about our different markets, which helped us understand different styles of operations," Mr Franklin says. "In this course, we had a core group of participants from grain elevators and co-ops, but we also had managers of river facilities, feed mills, flour mills and grain merchandisers."

Learn more about this offering, HERE.

In addition to supporting industry professionals through feed manufacturing and grain quality management, the IGP Institute also offers trainings in grain processing and flour milling, and grain marketing and risk management.

To learn more about other upcoming courses visit the IGP website, HERE.

Optical sorting: a brighter, better, and clearer view

By Dr Heike Knörzer, Petkus, Germany

The future of seed and grain sorting is a bright light.

Is it? Indeed, advanced optical sorting systems with divergent optics and illumination techniques are a booming trend. The range of optical sorting systems is increasing and more and more vendors are on the market. Sometimes, general promises such as steady sorting accuracy levels of >99 percent are proclaimed.

Theoretically it is possible. Often it is also practically possible. But as nature is highly variable and never constant, accuracy levels for all lots or sorting tasks of 99 percent are not realistic. But the fact is, that optical sorting can rescue production and prevent tremendous revenue loss.

In certified oat seed production in Europe, there is a zero tolerance for wild oat. A Spanish oat seed producer faced the issue of having 5714 kernels of wild oat in one tonne of mechanically cleaned oat seed (0.02 percent). The official certificate would have been labelled with “not certified”, as his own 5.5 kg sample analysis with 31 wild oat kernels indicated.

Ten hectares of seed production most probably lost and to be sold as commodity. With an average oat yield of two t/ha and a commodity price on the CBoT stock exchange with €250/t, the difference in revenue between commodity oat and seed oat would have been €5,600; excluding the higher price of the field production. With a yield of 5 t/ha, the difference would be €14,000. The sample was sent to the Roeber Institut GmbH, a member of the Petkus Group, in Wutha-Farnroda, Thuringia, Germany, where it was analysed before and after optical sorting with the Petkus OS 901 colour sorter with one re-sort cycle. Wild oat could be completely separated by the OS 901.

The “accept” fraction showed a purity level of > 99 percent. There were no kernels of wild oat left in the sample after sorting. According to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Agriculture and Food Division (DPIRD) in Western Australia, the annual costs to the industry of wild oats was estimated to be USD 80 million, and wild oats having the potential to decrease yields by up to 80 percent.

Read more HERE.

NEUERO Industrietechnik company profile

NEUERO follows the ‘made in Germany’ tradition with 100 years of activity in supplying reliable and high quality equipment for crucial projects in industrial plants around the world.

Neuero is a specialist in pneumatic and mechanical bulk material handling and is manufacturing Continuous Ship Unloaders (CSU), the most environmentally accepted solution in ship discharging activity and Ship loaders Global client oriented, flexible and cost effective.

Neuero utilises the state of the art technology and reliability to assure the success of all realised projects. NEUERO has its own 6.550 m2 manufacturing facility plus a new logistical area which was added beginning of 2013 in Melle, Germany.

Equipped with their own machining shop, painting shop and Lab they are in the position to provide continuous engineering solutions to our customers. Worldwide presence is assured with the operation of Neuero Corporation in Chicago/USA and our partnership with Brazilian companies for grain and mineral handling (www.maquinascondor.com.br and www.isomonte.com.br).

Using expert know how for upgrades, retrofits or complete new installations, their goal is always the same – solving the tasks effectively on budget and on time. The result is quality solution engineering that respects and protects the environmental, health and safety (HSE) requirements of your company and your communities.

Neuero is an ISO 9001 certified company and received the OHSAS 18001 certification in 2013. Neuero is working together with well-known German sub-suppliers like SEW, Atlas Copco, Danfoss, Rothe Erde and others.

Visit the company website, HERE.

December 17, 2018

IGC Grains Conference 2019 registration now open

Take advantage of a special, reduced rate and secure your place at the 28th IGC Grains Conference in London, on 11-12 June, 2019. Early bird Discount ends 31 January 2019.

The forum has long been established as the industry's flagship conference, bringing together trade professionals, policymakers and business leaders from across the entire supply chain. Offering a truly global perspective, top-tier speakers will share insight and knowledge in a series of panel discussions, including on market fundamentals, economic drivers and the latest developments in technology.

Building on the success of last year's event, the Conference has again been extended into a second day, during which stakeholders will have the opportunity to share views and engage with market experts in a series of interactive workshops.

For information on registration or other queries contact Ann Knowles at conf@igc.int or by call +44 (0) 20 7513 1122

From the Conference launch to the event day, your business will play an integral role and benefit from its association with the IGC Grains Conference. You will receive a structured publicity campaign across all platforms, increasing your exposure through multiple direct contact opportunities.

To discuss sponsorship requirements contact Philippe Pestelle at ppestelle@igc.int or by calling +44 (0) 20 7715 9827

Visit the IGC Conference website, HERE.

ZENzyme: The future of mycotoxin detoxification

by Rebecca Sherratt, Production editor, Milling & Grain

As the population of the world only continues to increase, the need for a drastic increase in food production becomes only ever more vital to combat issues of world hunger.

It is estimated that the Earth increases in population by a whopping 83 million people per year, and our population has increased seven-fold since the beginning of the nineteenth-century. Feeding our 7.7 billion people is no easy task when climate change and pollution are continuing to cause problems for our food supplies.

This is also a multi-layered problem, as this increase in food production we so desperately need also cannot afford to come at a cost to our natural ecosystem and biodiversity. This gap between resources we have and resources we need is what is known as a ‘yield gap’, and this gap only continues to expand as the human race continues to populate the earth at a drastic level.

Thankfully, Biomin have a solution. At the World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, their Austrian Research Team Leader, Dr Wulf-Dieter Moll, delivered a thrilling talk about the future of mycotoxins.

The primary problem
There are a myriad of reasons for the yield gap, such as failing crops caused by harsh winters and overwhelming droughts, but one key reason is the contamination of feed by mycotoxins, one of the primary ones being zearalenone. Dr Moll discusses the dangers of zearalenone, and the imminent need to resolve the problems it causes. This mycotoxin is an estrogenic metabolite, produced by Fusarium, a common fungi menace for many farmers. This pathogen is commonly found in wheat, maize and other crops.

Zearalenone binds itself to the oestrogen receptors in livestock, interfering with natural hormone signalling. This can result in a variety of reproductive problems, such as livestock infertility, abortion and other breeding problems. Farmers need only imagine the damage Zearalenone can do, if an entire herd of livestock becomes affected with such a contaminant.

Animal nutrition innovators, Biomin, are working rapidly on a mycotoxin decontamination technology, which will work by utilising what we already know regarding detoxification and biological degradation. A discovery of a new family of enzymes for hydrolytic cleavage (the splitting of a compound into fragments via adding water), and detoxification of zearalenone seem to be the new answer to mycotoxin contamination, which Biomin is determined to make into an attainable product for the feed industry worldwide.

Read more HERE.

Wynveen International company profile

Wynveen International B.V. is a leading Dutch company, specialising in the design, manufacture and installation of complete mills for the animal feed industry.

With a knowledgeable, experienced and enthusiastic team, the company focuses on the development and construction of high-quality innovative equipment and installations for animal feed, aqua feed and pet food manufacture.

In addition to turnkey projects, their core products are hammer mills, ribbon and paddle mixers, double-shaft paddle mixers, rotary sifters and coaters for liquids (vacuum and atmospheric).

Approximately 80 percent of their products are exported. In order to guarantee its high quality standards, Wynveen assembles and tests all its key equipment in-house.

Wynveen always aims to fully understand customer requirements, working in partnership with customers and using all their accumulated knowledge and experience to deliver the optimum, often highly innovative, technological solution.

That’s why their company motto is: ‘Versatility in feed processing’.

Visit the company website, HERE.

Erik de Graaff joins Van Aarsen International as new Sales Director

Erik developed from Salesman to General Manager and Sales Director, with both national and international responsibilities.

During his career he worked in different industry fields, both national and international, but the majority of his working years he has been active in the area of solids handling and processing in several industries like petfood, plastics and the chemical industry.

Erik de Graaff
Image credit: Van Aarsen

The last decade he has been in the area of pelleting, grinding and conditioning in, amongst others, the animal feed industry. This specific knowledge and his broad experience has given the Van Aarsen management team enough confidence to appoint him as the new Sales Director.

Erik intends to strengthen the global position of Van Aarsen as one of the leading companies in feed mill design and construction. By strengthening the agent network, creation of partnerships with customers and further development of the sales team, his aim is to secure the continuous growth of Van Aarsen.

He is proud to be part of an experienced group of experts, and is always striving to serve our global customers in the compound feed industry to his best abilities!

For more information visit the Van Aarsen website, HERE.

December 16, 2018

The future of the African food industry

by Matt Holmes, Features editor, Milling & Grain

De Wet Boshoff, of the Animal Feed Manufacturers’ Association, South Africa, spoke of the opportunities and challenges facing the African continent at the World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town.

Mr Boshoff said the African continent is slowly, but surely, starting to perform economically. Ironically, Africa weathered the financial crash of 2007-2008 because it is not fully integrated into the international network.

“The effect of the economic meltdown in 2007-2008 did not have such a negative effect as it had on the developed economies,” he said. “While the developed world struggled to kick-start their economies after 2007-2008, and the majority are not fully functional at pre-2007 levels yet, some developing African economies outranked and, in some cases, still are outranking developed economies, although mindful that in most cases it was from a low economic growth and production basis.”

Positive economic growth gives way to an increase in demand, due to an increase in job opportunities, and therefore a higher pool of disposable income which, in turn, leads to an increase in demand for products and services, he said.

This higher demand is determined by a variety of variables all depending on the Living Standard Measure (LSM) group the consumer falls into. In most cases, where economic growth takes place and disposable income per household increases, the consumer moves up to a higher LSM group due to a higher household income (disposable), which causes higher demand due to being able to spend more.

Spending patterns of the LSM groups can differ dramatically with spending on food and food products normally at a considerably higher level in developing or third world economies than in developed first world economies.

In the higher LSM group places, like the United States, they spend 6.4 percent of their disposable income on food or food products; Singapore 6.7 percent and the UK 8.2 percent, whereas developing nations like Nigeria see as much as 56.4 percent spent on food and food products. Kenya spends 46.7 percent; Pakistan spends 40.9 percent and Algeria 42.5 percent, whilst Canada spends 9.1 percent and Australia 9.8 percent of disposable income on food and food products. Four of the top 20 animal feed producing nations in Africa feature on the list for spending the highest percentages on food and food products.

Read more HERE.

Superior Grain Equipment company profile

Superior is a family-owned company based right in the heart of farm country – in Kindred, North Dakota. They offer a complete line of robust grain storage, handling and conditioning equipment suitable for commercial facilities and farm operations.

Their state-of-the–art manufacturing locations feature the most advanced manufacturing equipment and quality control procedures. Meanwhile their dedicated workforce understands the importance of crop protection to your livelihood.

Superior are committed to providing superior bins and grain handling equipment that can be relied on for generations. You are invited to call or visit to see for yourself why Superior is more than their name, but also their promise to you of the quality you can expect from every one of their bins and their complete line of grain handling equipment.

Designed to fit your operation’s needs
Small or large, Superior Grain Equipment can help. Whether it’s a single farm bin or a large commercial facility complete with conditioning and handling systems, their experts work with you to determine the most efficient and economical storage solution for your operation while keeping in mind future growth.

- Site Analysis & Selection
- Project Design & Management
- Engineering Support

Construction you can rely on
Strength and stability. Superior take pride in manufacturing using only the highest quality materials and incorporating the latest innovations to build the most durable storage systems available.

- Lifetime Warranties Engineered
- Precision Fit Designs
- Withstand Highest Winds & Loads

Total support, from start to finish
Superior understand that it’s not just grain, but your livelihood that their products protect. From day one, they are committed to using their decades of experience and dealer network to support you and your operation’s growth.

- Top to Bottom
- Construction Service & Warranty
- Worldwide Dealer Network

From farm and commercial binds to grain dryers and accessories, all of the superior products are built with superior materials and attention to detail. Their decades of experience means that they understand exactly what it takes for you to get the most out of your grain storage and handling equipment. We pride themselves on delivering exceptional service and products.

For more information visit the Superior Grain Equipment website, HERE.

December 13, 2018

Pastazym PD greatly improves the cooking tolerance of pasta

Pasta tends to stick together quickly if it is cooked or kept hot too long. The quality and therefore the cooking tolerance of the pasta suffer considerably, especially when low-protein flours are used.

In Pastazym PD, the Ahrensburg flour expert Mühlenchemie has developed a new enzyme system that ensures excellent cooking stability of the pasta even under extreme conditions. Not only does this have a positive influence on consumers' purchasing decisions; above all, it proves extremely useful in the food service sector.

Image credit: Mühlenchemie

The optimal raw material for producing high-quality pasta is hard wheat, but fluctuating wheat qualities, restricted availability and unstable prices are increasingly causing pasta manufacturers to resort to soft wheat or mixtures of hard and soft wheat. Pasta with this composition has considerably less tolerance in respect of cooking times, and the desired al dente bite of the pasta is lost.

Just a small amount of Pastazym PD – 40 g per 100 kg flour – extends the cooking time to as long as 20 minutes and ensures a pleasant mouth feel as well as reducing the stickiness of the cooked pasta.

Mühlenchemie's innovative enzyme was first used at high altitudes, where the reduced air pressure lowered the boiling point of the water. This in turn increased the cooking time for the pasta. With Pastazym PD, it was possible to achieve acceptable quality in spite of prolonged cooking times of up to 20 minutes, with a significant difference as compared to untreated pasta.

The use of Pastazym PD is also of interest to pasta manufacturers who supply companies in the food service and restaurant sectors; these are than able to guarantee their customer's uniformly high quality in spite of long standing times and frequent re-heating of the pasta.

Pasta manufactured with the addition of Pastazym PD is classified as a "clean label" product and does not require adjustment of the label declaration – a fact that makes it particularly attractive to consumers.

For more information visit the Mühlenchemie website, HERE.

AFIA launches new website focusing on policy issues impacting animal food manufacturers

The American Feed Industry Association has announced the launch of its new website to better communicate the animal food manufacturing industry's key legislative and regulatory priorities to policymakers and the public.

The revamped, mobile-responsive website (afia.org) will also feature an optimised search function and resource centre that allows its roughly 5,500 monthly web visitors quickly find and share content about the animal food industry.

www.afia.org

"One of AFIA's four promises to members is that we will convey one powerful, unified voice that represents every segment of the animal food industry to members of Congress, federal regulators and the public," said Victoria Broehm, AFIA's director of communications. "With AFIA's Marketing Committee, the communications team developed a one-stop-shop online resource that provides even more information about the issues impacting America"s 6,200 animal food manufacturers and arms AFIA"s members with communications tools to be effective in their advocacy efforts."

The website organises the association's policy issues impacting US animal feed and pet food manufacturers into five overarching categories, including: the access and availability of technology; feed and food safety; the availability and cost-effectiveness of ingredients; global competitiveness; and health, safety and the environment. It boasts an improved advocacy section that allows members to directly contact their elected officials on urgent issues.

The resource centre allows members to quickly search through hundreds of AFIA news updates, advisories, reports, guidance documents and more by topic. Web visitors can also quickly find facts and stats on the industry and all of AFIA's multimedia content in the #FeedFacts section.

Web visitors can still register for one of the association's many conferences and/or webinars via the events page and search AFIA's Online Buyers' Guide, the industry's go-to resource for searching for feed, pet food, ingredients and equipment.

In addition, AFIA's members will have access to an all-new, members-only dashboard that allows them to easily update their profiles, search the member database and pay their invoices.

Visit the new AFIA website, HERE.