PAMP Newsletter 2014 November/December

Nov/Dec 2014
Volume 1, Issue 2
December is a busy time for meat processors. Most of us are dealing with deer season
and hopefully an increase in customer traffic
with special holiday orders. Although the buzz
of the holiday season seems to take center
stage, it is not too early to begin thinking
Imagine that guy that gets up every morning looks
about the upcoming spring and which meat
in the mirror and realizes he is going to a job he
products you intend to bring with you to
hates.
State College, PA to enter into the processed products competition on May 2, 2015.
Even though we are all at the time of year when we The PAMP organization is the largest state meat processing organization in the Nation.
need to work 26 hours a day and 9 days a week we In addition, we have some very talented individuals making some of the best cured and
smoked processed meat items around. Besides the camaraderie and educational proare better off than him. We are all in a profession
grams enjoyed during the PAMP annual convention, the processed meats competition is
that is physically demanding and mentally draining
growing and changing within our organization by the guidance of the PAMP board memand we're still better off than him because we are
bers. Although the 2015 competition rules have not been finalized yet, I wanted to make
all doing what we love. How lucky we are.
you aware of some of the changes and additions that will begin a new era of this friendly
This is also the time of year when all of our amazing competition.
suppliers come through for us when we need them 2015 Featured Class – The featured class for the 2015 product show has been voted
most. From equipment sales and service, casings,
and decided upon by your board. This year’s competition will showcase the ground and
spices, lables, etc. We would really be in bad shape formed venison bacon that was demonstrated at the 2014 pre-convention workshop by
without our great team of suppliers.Thanks!
Rodney Schaffer of Con Yeager Spice Company. Several different methods to produce
ground and formed venison bacon were demonstrated during the workshop. Begin perHope everyone has a happy, healthy, and safe holi- fecting your method/s and flavors now so that we have a nice variety to evaluate and
day season. And may the joy this time of year brings critique during the competition. Keep in mind this item should be cooked and/or
find it's way to you all.
smoked and may include specialty flavors to show your creativity. The rules will be set
for this class and made available after the February board meeting.
Thank you
Small Diameter Sausages – The small diameter sausage class is always a challenging
Aaron Waters - President
class of product to evaluate. There are a number of important flavor variations that can
impact even the best judge’s ability to fairly evaluate products. It is because of the huge
What’s New @ PAMP
variations of specialty flavors that the board agreed to remove the use of such specialty
ingredients from this class. As a general rule, specialty non-meat ingredients would in Phone # 844-599-PAMP
 Address: 1209 Rockdale Road Rockwood clude, but not be limited to some of the following examples: various cheese inclusions;
rice; fruits and nuts; mushrooms and other vegetables; hot chili peppers, for example
Pa 15557
habanera or jalapeño). These varying inclusions can increase the difficulty in evaluation of
 Web Page: www.pameatprocessors.org
traditional smoked sausages, as well as impact the flavor of other specialty products. The
 Facebook Page– be sure to “Like Us”.
board does recognize however, that these specialty flavors are growing in both variety
 Classified Section: Place an ad for equipand popularity. If you produce small diameter sausages that have these specialty ingrediment you would like to sell.
ents, you will still have the opportunity to have them evaluated at the 2015 and future
 Supplier Spotlight: We will be highlighting PAMP Processed Products Competitions. Due to the growing numbers of specialty flavored products and their popularity by consumers and processors alike, a separate class
a supplier each newsletter! Be ready…
was voted to be developed to distinguish specialty flavors from a more traditional flavored smoked sausage. This new rule will also impact the Wieners/Frankfurters class, as
Mark you calendars:
well as the ring bologna class, although it is rare that such specialty non-meat ingredients
and flavors are added to ring bologna. As a general guide, small diameter products may
PAMP Convention
be skinless, presented in natural casings or stuffed into edible collagen. Colored casings
May 1-3 2015
should not be used because this could potentially give an unfair advantage when
AAMP Convention
June 18-20 2015
(continued page 3 - CHANGES)
CONTINUED
evaluating and comparing any external deficiencies that the
product may have due to improper smoking and thermal processing.
Sausage diameter should generally not exceed 40mm. Please keep these
guidelines in mind when purchasing processing supplies and raw materials,
and please remember to review the rules prior to entering your products
into competition.
Wieners, Skinless – The Wieners class does not currently allow for natural casing sausages to be entered into the competition. Upon review of this
class, the board felt that there was not a sound reason to exclude collagen
or natural casings from being fairly evaluated against a peelable cellulose/
skinless product. The 2015 competition will allow for various edible casings
and skinless products alike to be entered and evaluated for competition.
Please keep in mind that products containing any of the specialty non-meat
ingredients described previously should not be entered in this class for
evaluation.
Some of the other changes agreed upon by the board concerning the product competition rules will include changes to how the internal appearance is
evaluated. Currently, judges are encouraged not to penalize items for air
pockets and bind issues with ground and formed meat items, for example
commercial style boneless ham. There was much discussion on this one
point alone due to the fact that some processors may feel that entries
stuffed under vacuum have an advantage. This is simply not the case for
most bind issues and holes that are visible during product evaluation, but
rather how the product is handled during stuffing. A processor may have air
pockets and bind issues with product stuffed under vacuum as well, especially if care is not taken to properly utilize the machine. Excellent processed
meat items for competition may be manufactured using any of the piston
type, hand crank and water stuffers alike that are practically devoid of air
pockets and other stuffing errors that may be visible on a cut surface. In
most cases, = 50% of the points in each class relate to product flavor and
mouth feel. It is more important to manufacture a product with desirable
flavor attributes than to be concerned with the one or two point deduction
that a judge may make because of the internal appearance to the product.
Additionally, processors that win the esteemed “Best of Show” award for
overall product classes are not currently allowed to enter products in the
next year’s competition due to the fact that they are acting as an invited
judge during the competition. The board feels that this rule penalizes a processor for making an outstanding product in the prior year’s competition.
The 2015 and future PAMP Processed Product Competitions will allow
processor judges who are the Best of Show winner from the prior year’s
competition to now enter products for the current year’s competition. This
will only be allowed in a case where the processor judge does not have
product entered in any class that they may be judging. If a product remains in
the Best of Show evaluation that they manufactured, the processor judge
will be excused from evaluating and voting on Best of Show for the current
year’s competition.
The meat lab is excited to host the 2015 products competition in conjunction with the 76th PAMP Convention, and we hope to continue to grow
and evolve our product show to be one of envy across the country. I am
personally excited about the format of the 2015 PAMP pre-convention educational sessions hosted here at the meat laboratory, and I am very appreciative of the hard work and effort your board has provided you, the membership. I wish everyone a very happy Holiday season with much success
and prosperity in 2015!
By: Dr. Jonathan A. Campbell,
Penn State Extension Meat Specialist
THE RIBEYE
Today’s Reality
New Ideas
For a
Classic Cut
By Kathy Kolb
Perhaps you’ve tried to ignore the Internet in your business plan up to
now. Maybe you’ve tried to launch a website with varying levels of success and frustration. You’re not alone! As a website developer with more
than 15 years in the business (I started in 1996), I know the challenges
involved in launching and supporting a decent business website. It could
be that you’ve settled or made due with your Internet effort up to now.
Let’s take a look at the realities of marketing today.
Newspaper Readership is down significantly - people get their news
online.
Yellow Page-type directories don’t include personal cell phone
numbers, so the white pages are not used much anymore. Google
search results are now used much more than telephone directories.
Radio and TV have encountered major competition from online
sources including Pandora, YouTube and Hulu.
Facebook usage has soared! One out of every seven minutes online
is spent on Facebook!
Local news coverage may be less than it has been in the past.
Smartphone usage is soaring.
Your goals remain much the same. You want to reach your LOCAL customers and potential customers with your specials and sales pitch; however, with so many people with their eyes on their cell phones how do
you do this?
The basics include having:
A company Facebook page
An attractive company website
Keeping them both updated
A stable company email address (This could be an email address at
your company domain name or a Gmail address)
Steak-loving
chefs have a
secret that they've
only just started to share with
their customers. It's the Ribeye Cap
(spinalis dorsi/IMPS 112D), that highly marbled, supertender
layer of meat wrapped around the Ribeye, and it's starting to
show up on the menus of innovative chefs around the country. With all the flavor of the Ribeye and all the tenderness of
a filet, the Ribeye cap is perfect for dry-heat cooking methods
like grilling, roasting and pan-searing. The flat, oblong muscle
can be cooked in one piece as a roast, cut into individual
steaks, or rolled, tied and cut into medallions, and it's ideal for
a stuffed and rolled presentation.
Top chefs favor preparations that highlight the outstanding
flavor of the Ribeye cap. The French Laundry pairs grilled calotte de boeuf (the French name for this cut) with a selection
of seasonal vegetables, while Ad Hoc, the French Laundry's
more casual cousin, has featured the Ribeye cap alongside
lobster and slices of roast Ribeye on a family-style "surf and
turf" platter. It's also become a popular addition to steakhousestyle menus, including Michael Mina's Stripsteak in Las
Vegas. And the rich, beefy flavor of the Ribeye cap stands up
well to intense sauces and earthy flavors, the way it's served
at Vetri Ristorante in Philadelphia where it's roasted and
paired with sofrito and trumpet royale mushrooms. Versatile,
tender as butter and loaded with flavor, any way you cut it,
the Ribeye cap is too good to keep secret!
By NCBA Executive Chef Dave Zino from
www.beeffoodservice.com
More serious efforts can include:
Current customer email list to send special offers
Online advertising / sponsorship
Pinterest /Instagram (sort of a visual type of
Facebook - good for visual retail products)
E-commerce for your website - sell products online
(higher degree of difficulty)
Search Engine Optimization - get your business listing up higher in
the Search Results
By now, you have a good idea of whether or not you have the time to
tend to these marketing issues internally. If not, turn to a reputable Web
Site development firm for help. Kolb Net Works has worked on a number of Butcher/Deli websites and would be happy to help you, too.
We’re also a PAMP supplier. Call us at 570-326-2888. Say you read
the PAMP newsletter for a special deal.
http://www.kolbnetworks.com
http://www.NorthCentralPa.com
GEORGE D. LAPSLEY, M.Ed.
Food Safety Specialist
4988 East Rolling Glen Drive
Pipersville, PA 18947
Phone: 267-221-2426
[email protected]
What happens when you don’t engage
her at your meat case.
Have you heard the sad tale of Susie Q. Shopper? Once upon a time,
she went grocery shopping looking for quick and delicious options for
dinner, but, alas, she did not have a “happily ever after” experience.
Susie was a typical customer shopping at her local grocery store, hoping that the meat case would inspire her with a great dinner solution.
She stared at the packages of fresh pork – so many choices! If only
there were someone in the meat department to ask how many
pounds of pork would feed her family of four, or recipe cards with
appetizing photos to help her transform those raw cuts into a meal
her family would enjoy. “Is there really a difference between pork loin
and pork tenderloin?” Susie wondered. “I wish there was something
here to just help me figure out how to cook these cuts,” she thought.
Susie blindly chose a package of pork and cooked it that evening, just
like her mom had taught her. Unfortunately, what Susie didn’t know
was that it’s now okay to cook pork to 145°F, so that it’s medium
rare and pink in the center. Susie’s pork was overcooked, and just not
as tender and juicy as it could have been had it been cooked to the
proper temperature. It’s a shame there weren’t materials at the meat
case to to educate Susie about the new temperature change.
What’s the moral of the of Susie Q. Shopper story?
Not engaging your customers can adversely affect how they perceive
your meat department; everything from quality, price, assistance and
education is judged by the eating experience they have at home. Based
on her less-than-satisfying experience, it’s unlikely that Susie will purchase that cut of fresh pork again. There were multiple opportunities
throughout Susie’s shopping trip to educate, engage and inspire her to
ensure she had a more rewarding experience both in store and at
home.
For more information and hands-on ideas you can implement in your
meat case to connect with your customers visit:
www.porkretail.org/filelibrary/Retail/Pork%20Biz%20%233%20FINAL%20041612.pdf
The bottom line:
not connecting
shoppers costs
fresh pork sales.
with
you
Don’t miss opportunities
to reach customers at
the meat case.
from
Bob Luke
Phoenix Scale
THE MODEL B350A GRAVITY FEED AUTOMATIC SLICER
This newsletter I am giving something other than a service tip.
Lately we have had lots of calls for good automatic slicers that
will hold up in damp or wet, cold environments. Our customers have had great success with the Biro B350A automatic /
manual slicer. It has a special place in anyone's plant or shop.
Our B350A automatic meat room/deli slicer, detachable
sharpener not shown, (13-3/4”, 350mm diameter blade) is
designed to provide trouble free service in a damp meat room
environment with features such as IP65 motor, electrical components, and connections, plus non-corrosive metals, all of
which add to the water resistant benefits of this all purpose
boneless food product slicer.
The BIRO Semi-Automatic Slicers are designed to provide
trouble free service in a wet meat room environment. Features such as Water Resistant Motors, Electrical Components
and Connections, plus Non Corrosive Metals all add to the
water protection benefits of the slicer. The B350A Automatic
slicer operation provides an auto piece count selection range
of 0-99 pieces with automatic shut-off. It is equipped with an
adjustable ten speed motor that can be adjusted during operations while providing three stroke length options to accommodate varying product sizes. The 13 3/4” (350mm) Dia.
blade is a Hollow Ground Alloy Steel blade. It is designed with
a special step face to relieve surface friction on the products
that allows for a slicing capacity of 9¼” (235mm) on round
products. The thickness control allows for cuts from 01” (25mm) with indicator positions shown on the index knob
in 1 mm increments, providing precise slice consistency. Minimal number of removable parts allow for easy clean up while
the ergonomic and easy glide carriage allows little resistance
during manual slicing. Built in safety features include: Blade
protective ring guard, which prevents exposing the blades
edge when the blade cover is removed for cleaning. When the
table is locked open for cleaning it prevents the thickness
gauge from being opened exposing the blade edge. The remote sharpener mounts easily when needed, but is stored
away from the slicer when not in use, providing added hygiene
security to the slicing operation.
For more specs and info about the above equipment, contact
the PAMP office at: 844-599-PAMP
The Handtmann family commitment to innovative engineering,
precision machining and skillful manufacturing dates to 1873.
It was then, in Biberach, Germany that the family first forged
customized bells for church steeples throughout Southern
Germany and developed what became the region’s best brewing and sausage making equipment.
Since then at our headquarters in Biberach and in all of our
local operations, that same focus by each of us in the
Handtmann family on engineering, manufacturing and service
excellence has been at the heart of our Handtmann performance standard.
While my customers routinely acknowledge our Handtmann
quality, they seem to most appreciate the durability, reliable
performance and lifecycle value Handtmann equipment provides them – and the quality of product that Handtmann helps
them reliably deliver to their customers.
But, what has really propelled Handtmann into global food
processing leadership and defined our reputation here in
Pennsylvania, is the rugged reliability, technical product knowledge and individually tailored support that accompanies each
of our Handtmann stuffers. We are proud that today’s
Handtmann equipment and our Handtmann team is so religiously extending the Old World traditions started so many
generations ago with good beer and melodious ringing from
church steeples in Biberach.
Mark Holm
Territory Manager, Handtmann, Inc.
CLASSIFIEDS
Hope you and your family enjoyed
Thanksgiving!! Hopefully it was a day of
rest and you were able to focus on
family, friends and all your blessings.
PAMP would like to wish you a Merry
Christmas. With all the hustle and
bustle take the time to enjoy the true
meaning of Christmas!
Happy New Year!! As we close another year and welcome 2015 we
hope you and your business much success and happiness in the the New
Year.
A Warm Welcome to New Members
S. Clyde Weaver, Inc.
Nate Neff
5253 Main Street
East Petersburg, PA 17520
717-569-0812
McAneny Brothers, Inc.
Joel Lellock
470 Industrial Park Road
Ebensburg, PA 15931
814-472-9800
T&E Meats
Joe Cloud
256 Charles Street
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
540-434-4415
Our new website (www.pameatprocessors.org) is up and running. We
would like to send a special thanks out to Tom Springman for all his help and
input with the design of the site….. Be sure to check it out!!
2015 Dues have been sent. Please submit if you haven’t already. We look
forward to having you as a member of this great organization!
SAVE THE DATE: MAY 1-3, 2015!!
Its convention time and we can’t wait. Still in the planning stages and more
details to follow but we are excited for the events being planned. Hope will
be able to join us!!
2014-2015 PAMP OFFICERS
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Immediate Past President
Aaron Waters
Bob Wenner
Amanda Luke
Renee Pletcher
Chad Hollenbaugh
FOR SALE: 1992 Handtmann VF 200
12 vane - Heavy Duty Meat Pump - Brand New Control
Panel - Brand New MC Panel - New Rebuilt Bush Vacuum
Pump, and wiring schematics gone thru 2 months ago. Just
Serviced last Summer for 3000 hours by Handtmann Tech.
Works Great - just to big for my production at this point.
Looking for Smaller Handtmann. This machine is a workhorse and can be sold with or without the linking assembly
( Linking assembly new in 2006 ). Asking $30,000 for Stuffer
Only; Asking $37,500 for Stuffer and Linking Assembly Call
Tom at 570-279-3534 for more details.
FOR SALE: EFA SK 30 Circular Breaking Saw.
Was used to split hogs. Saw is like new. 220 volt single
phase. Contact Aaron Waters at (215)-679-3485 for details and pictures.
FOR SALE: Pro Smoker 300 SS Smokehouse
Single phase, 230 volt with smokesticks and 4 shelves
$7,000.00; Tim Pounds 724-845-7661
FOR SALE: Brine Pump
TOP of the LINE: Commercial, like new Brine Pump.
(Waterproof Motor) Excellent condition. Stainless steel
pump. Add instant value to your products. 4 prong needle holder with 3 sets of needles.
$2250 or Best Offer!!
UPS Shipping Available
Contact: 1-518-669-6111