Food & Beverage Manufacturing
Nothing to Report:
How automation specialists reduce food contamination risk
Failures of Process
01
When systems work as intended, manufacturers can take pride in their products and processes, especially when that process is protecting the food on our tables.
Food Engineering’s featured article, titled, ‘Cross-Functional Food Safety: Breaking Silos to Drive Safe Food Manufacturing”, identifies automation teams as an often-overlooked powerhouse in Food Manufacturing plants.
We are inclined to agree.
Contamination in food manufacturing is rarely the result of a single point of failure. Typically, it stems from preventable process inefficiencies. For instance, cross-contamination during equipment changeovers between product runs due to incomplete cleaning and sanitation, environmental cross-contact, or lack of visibility into cleaning procedures. Even slight variations in temperature, humidity, timing, or parameter control may cross the safety threshold, contributing to bacterial contamination.
This is not a food safety problem, but an operational efficiency problem with food safety implications.
Long before a product ever reaches the shelves, controls engineers are, ideally, already at work, building the process precision that keeps allergens and harmful bacteria where they belong: out of the picture.
“Almost always, allergen recalls are preventable and when they happen, they are essentially failures of process."
Food Engineering Magazine
02
Automation and Operator Buy-In
Broadly speaking, food safety, like all successful safety-related strategies, is grounded in a cross-functional approach. It is the nature of this approach that there be broad inclusion and participation of interdependent elements of a product facility.
The mistake many facilities make is treating buy-in as an implementation problem. In reality, it is often a design problem rooted in incomplete problem analysis. Too often, the challenges identified by supervisors and managers are incongruent with the issues plant operators experience. This mismatch tends to lead to resistance and slower adoption of new systems, workarounds, and, in many cases, employees will defect to the old system, especially where systems are confusing, unintuitive, or overly complex. This is where a cross-functional approach becomes critical.
“A process that best supports operator buy-in is one which was designed with input from front-line workers (process operators), and where they were involved early in the design process.”
Jordan Engineering P. Eng
2026 FRC Season
4th
McMaster Event Finish
Provincial Ranking
38/120
34th
In the Provincial Championships
Quickstrike opened their 2026 FRC season at the McMaster University event, finishing 4th overall and earning 37 district points. They followed up a few weeks later at Niagara College, earning an additional 25 points. These results allowed the team to qualify for the Ontario Provincial Championship held in Niagara Falls, where they advanced to the divisional semi-finals and finished the season ranked 38th out of 120 teams in Ontario.
We're proud to support a team that embodies the same values that define much of what we do: precision, persistence, and the belief that the best results come from learning together.
Ben hopes to return as a mentor for the 2026/ 2027 season. We can't wait to see what these incredible students pull off next!