Del Monte Foods, Inc. is one of the largest producers, distributors and marketers of premium quality, branded food products for the U.S. retail market. Del Monte® Foods offers a range of fresh and canned fruit & vegetable products. Their brands include Del Monte®, Contadina®, College Inn®, and S&W®. The company is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California with 8 factories and several co-manufacturing facilities across the country and the globe.
Challenge:
- Find the source(s) of contamination in a cream corn line spanning over several pieces of equipment including two pipes, 2-inches wide and over 100-feet long, and a filler bowl with 40-50 filler heads
Solution:
- Abiotic marker
- Customized 135ft snake inspection camera with onboarded UV-flashlight
Outcome:
- Minimal amount of taking apart of pipes, limiting line downtime
- Validation / Rejection of contamination source hypothesis
- Adaptation of cleaning protocol based on the results
