The pilot plant facilities are utilized for:

• research and development of food products and processing techniques;
• production of product samples and standard reference materials;
• teaching and research in graduate, undergraduate and continuing education courses.

The processing equipment listed below may be used to perform a wide variety of unit operations.

Smoking and Drying

• AFOS Mini-Kiln smoking cabinet;
• heat pump forced-convection dryer;
• Niro atomizer spray dryer;
• Rota-cone end-over-end vacuum dryer;
• Buflovak steam heated drum dryer;
• Stokes Model 21 freeze dryer.

Comminuting and Deboning

• Fitzmill Model D and Comitrol Urschel Model 3600 food comminutors;
• Hobart Model 84145 and Stephan Models VCM-40 and UM-12 silent cutters;
• Hobart Model 453255 meat grinder and Hobart Model A-120 meat grinder and mixer;
• Bibun SDX16, Paoli Model 19, Yanaziya and two ABCO deboners;
• Bibun Model SUM420 meat strainer;
• Townsend Model 600-S fish and liver skinner.

Mixing and Cooking

• Bordeau TRT-30 steam jacketed kettle;
• Ritz twin screw steam jacketed cooker/mixer.

Solid-Liquid Separation

• Westfalia CA220-010 and Bird 6" continuous decanter;
• International Equipment Co. 11", Bird 26" and Tolhurst 26" basket centrifuges;
• FMS Model 75B screw-press.

Chilling, Freezing and Cold Storage

• Dole plate freezer;
• four walk-in chill rooms;
• So-Low Environmental Equipment -80oC freezer;
• two computer monitored walk-in, 32 m5, -30oC cold stores;
• eight variable temperature cold storage boxes.

Thermal Processing

• computer controlled WSF pilot scale retort;
• American Can vacuum can closing machine and two hand seamers;
• Kramer-Gebe Model D3560 gas flush, vacuum sealer for plastic and plastic laminated pouches;
• Doric and Hewlett Packard data logging equipment interfaced to microcomputers for heat penetration and retort evaluation studies;
• Calsoft, TPRO and ProCalc thermal process evaluation software;
• Chadwicks and Sentinel heat sealers with variable seal pressure, dwell time and temperature control.

Product Development and Evaluation

• well-equipped test kitchen, sensory evaluation room and debriefing rooms;

In addition to the equipment listed above, there is a large inventory of general purpose equipment such as pumps, ice makers and scales.