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General Spice

Spice Manufacturer Ensures Quality with Centrifugal Sifter

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—General Spice has been satisfying customers since 1968 but the struggle to keep raising the quality standards demands new ideas and new machines. When it was time to add another screening machine to keep foreign materials and oversize lumps out of a wide variety of seasonings, General Spice decided to try a Kason CENTRI-SIFTER Centrifugal Sifter. General Spice had been using another manufacturer's machine but for this highly important job of meeting higher quality standards, General Spice wanted a sifter that is designed for this specific food processing application.

Because of height limitations, this special CENTRI-SIFTER unit has a truncated product discharge spout, allowing it to fit under a blender, explained General Spice Plant Manager Saul Samberg. Kason is virtually always willing to customize its screening equipment, making it fit into even the most compact processing lines.

General Spice has formulas or recipes for thousands of blends for its many customers. They always want consistent flavors and textures, and when they want an order filled, they want the flavoring delivered as soon as possible, according to Samberg. Thus, as a plant manager, he is responsible for ensuring high quality 100% of the time and blending flavorings according to specific formulas. Reliable sifters and other processing equipment are essential to meet this demand.

Quality control at every step of the processing helps Samberg determine how well the sifters and blenders are performing. No blend is packed unless it has been thoroughly examined in our lab, he said. So far, the CENTRI-SIFTER unit has served well and we've been satisfied with Kason's service. In addition to reliable service, the CENTRI-SIFTER unit is a good choice for this application because the helical paddles inside the unit de-agglomerate any breakable spice lumps, permitting maximum utilization of each ingredient. The totally enclosed, sanitary design of the unit keeps flavorings pure, and the large access door permits inspection, cleaning, and screen changing in a matter of minutes when needed. With certification from baking industry and dairy industry trade groups, the CENTRI-SIFTER can be relied upon to meet sanitation requirements.

Double seal outboard bearings lengthen trouble-free service life in the CENTRI-SIFTER unit. This helps companies such as General Spice fill their orders quickly year after year.

Modifying the standard design so General Spice's unit could fit into a tight space was not a problem for Kason since it solved this problem before. In fact, numerous modifications have been made for special applications. For example, an integral independent feed screw is available for flow control and preventing surges, twin or dual barrel units are in use for maximum screening area, and specially sealed and constructed units are in use for the elevated temperatures for sterilization. A new model has also been designed for pressurized processing systems.

Accessories for centrifugal sifters include air brushes for materials that tend to blind, and feed splitters for twin units. These feed splitters ensure equal amounts of material reach both screens, increasing efficiency, output and screen life length. All of these innovations emerged from the manufacturer's commitment to solving customer problems.

Screen Tips Volume 8, Number 2