In this edition:
Feature Article
TMG Opens Western Division
On September 4th, 2018, Tri-Mach Group announced the opening of a new division in Western Canada, located near Winnipeg, MB. This new division will be led by Sales & Operations Manager Warren Nordquist, who comes to Tri-Mach Group with over 25 years’ experience within the food and agriculture industries. Warren’s positivity and knowledge in the field will be a large asset to Tri-Mach Group, as he expands the TMG brand across Western Canada. Warren stated he is “extremely excited to be given the opportunity to join a team that has such an outstanding reputation, along with an aggressive growth forecast…It will be a pleasure to extend Tri-Mach Group’s high-quality products and services into new regions of Western Canada.” With this new expansion, Tri-Mach Group is excited to begin working with new customers in these areas and grow the reach of their cutting-edge products and services offered.
Tri-Mach Group’s expansion stems from the ongoing success in Western Canada’s food and beverage industry, predominantly within the meat sector. Currently, meat production across Canada has experienced growth over the past years, with beef production alone increasing 9.6% from 2015, reaching a total of three billion pounds produced last year. Provinces in the western regions are experiencing the largest upraise, due to the amount of livestock and processing plants in these areas. In 2017, Alberta and Saskatchewan held the largest inventory of beef cattle, together totaling over 70% of the country’s total.
Canada’s Beef Industry – Fast Facts
Industry Trends
Alternative Proteins
As the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles become more popular within North America, the food industry is adapting by finding alternative methods to meet the demand for protein. A recent study found that 10% of the Canadian market is now either vegetarian or vegan. Furthermore, the millennial generation, including individuals under the age of 35, are three times more likely to be vegetarian or vegan when compared to consumers over age 49. With this trend being so predominant within the younger generation, it is clear this movement is here for the long run, and will continue to alter the food industry over time.
Within Canada, sales of plant-based proteins are already growing at approximately seven percent each year, which last year represented a $1.5 billion market. Some large companies such as A&W have already welcomed this shift in dietary choice, through the introduction of their ‘Beyond Meat Burger”. Though this burger looks,tastes, and even bleeds like a traditional beef burger, the patty is made from 100% plant-based protein. Another example of a large corporation hopping on this trend is President’s Choice, with the introduction of their cricket protein powder. Insect-eating is already a fairly popular practice within the rest of the world, however, North America has only begun opening up to the concept over the past few years.
These large corporations are realizing the shift of lifestyle in their consumers and becoming early adopters in the market. This new addition of alternative proteins is not forcing meat and dairy producers to completely change their products, but rather add complimentary plant-based products to their line. The Canadian government has already shown its support towards the cause, with the recent $150 million investment in Canada’s plant protein industry, taken from the $950 million Supercluster initiative. This investment will be put towards the research and development of plant-based proteins, putting Canadian farmers at the forefront of the alternative protein industry.
Eating crickets goes mainstream as protein alternative hits Canadian shelves
Plant protein producers aim for mainstream with new research, investments
New at Tri-Mach Group Inc.
TSSA Certification Upgrades
Tri-Mach Group recently received upgrades to our Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) certifications for piping. These upgrades have widened Tri-Mach’s services, allowing our team to now New at Tri-Mach Group Inc. work on a variety of piping projects, including caustic, steam, air, water, glycol, and liquid nitrogen. With these certifications, Tri-Mach Group is able to install any pressure or chemical piping systems, which were previously outside of our capabilities.
The TSSA offers a wide variety of certifications and services which relate to public safety in Ontario. Their main goal is to put emphasis on preventative activities within the safety value chain, to be certain the best practices are being followed.¹ TSSA certifications ensure companies are trained and fully capable of operating all of the equipment involved, creating a safer work environment for the workers and the general public.
With these upgrades in place, Tri-Mach Group has the capability to complete all welding jobs in-house, keeping projects entirely in their control. The outcome is an efficient turnkey solution for the customer, limiting variables that could result in errors.
TSSA
Food Safety 101
New CFIA Chicken Salmonella Regulations
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently announced a new sanitary regulation for retail-sale packaged breaded chicken products, requiring the measurement of Salmonella levels at the manufacturing/ processing level in an attempt to reduce the levels below detectable amounts. This regulation comes into effect on April 1st, 2019, at which time all facilities that manufacture these products must have reviewed their current processes to implement control measures.¹
This regulation will apply to all frozen raw breaded chicken products which are packaged for retail sale and appear ready-to-eat. At this time, these regulations do not apply to raw breaded stuffed chicken, as well as turkey or duck products. These new measures were put in place due to a continued link between frozen raw breaded chicken products and an outbreak of food-borne illnesses within the country. In order to abide by these regulations in your facility, the CFIA has suggested the following four control measures.¹
The first option is to include a cook process to your operation that has been validated to achieve a 7-log reduction in Salmonella. The second option is to implement a testing program in the raw chicken process, which can demonstrate that no Salmonella is detectable in the product. The third option involves employing a hold-and-test program for all finished frozen raw breaded chicken products, completed within the same day as production. The final option is to incorporate a combination of processes which have been validated to achieve a 2-log Salmonella reduction, and also implement a sampling program into the operation.²
With the food industry continually adding and amplifying regulations to ensure safety to the general public, more and more emphasis is being put onto implementing and maintaining a successful sanitary process. With Tri-Mach Groups new TSSA upgrades and Ever-Kleen® technology, any custom sanitary solution can be fully designed and implemented in-house, ensuring you meet your required health and safety regulations.
Government of Canada
Government of Canada
Project Showcase
Riverside Natural Foods Ltd.
When Vaughan-based granola bar manufacturer Riverside Natural Foods Ltd. was experiencing issues with the cleanliness and efficiency of their current conveyor equipment, they turned to Tri-Mach Group for a solution. Due to the company’s strict health guidelines, Riverside conducted regular deep cleaning of their processing equipment to ensure the safety of their products. This proved to be an issue for their Asian-manufactured conveyors, taking them up to nine hours to completely disassemble and clean each component to satisfactory.
As Riverside Natural Foods heard about the Tri-Mach Group brand through tradeshows and other food producers, they began to learn the benefits of Ever-Kleen® technology. After hearing the details of Tri-Mach Group’s proposed solution, Riverside was greatly impressed with the quick conveyor disassembly, the sanitary design, the build quality, not to mention the fact all conveyors could be custom-built to be integrated into their existing processing lines.
With the addition of three SL-2 incline conveyors to their operation, Riverside Natural Foods is now able to disassemble their conveyors within a matter of minutes, decreasing downtime and increasing production revenue.
A Message From Our President
It’s been a great start to the third quarter at Tri-Mach Group. It seems that every quarter, our company is growing and has some exciting news to share. Tri-Mach Group has been working on some big projects this summer, keeping our shop busy as always. Our focus for this quarter is in the meat processing industry, as there is such a high demand this summer, especially because of barbeque season.
Tri-Mach Group has hired a few new faces in the shop, sales and millwrighting departments – including Mona Hisaki, our new Production Control Manager. In her role with Tri-Mach Group, Mona will oversee the production planning and the purchasing department where she will work to improve lead times, quality and create new, efficient processes. She has an excellent track record of continuous improvement which will aid us through our next big projects!
Our team is not the only thing that is expanding at Tri-Mach Group, we have some new plans in the works for 2019. Tri-Mach Group is happy to announce that the recent purchase 18 Donway Court where we will be building our new Elmira Head Quarters! With the new facility, Tri-Mach Group expects to be able to reduce our lead times, have a dedicated FAT area and of course be able to take on even bigger projects!
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers and suppliers for their continued support. Thank you all for your part in such a successful second quarter! We have a lot more work ahead of us and we are eager to take on even bigger and more complex projects in our new facility.
Thank you for reading this edition of IMPACT.
Ryan Martin
President
Tri-Mach Inc.