Monthly Archives: January 2012

Udi Melamed

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Udi Melamed, born 1962, married with 2 kids.

I joined Strauss in 1994 after serving as Chief Technologist of the “Cookie Man” cookie plant.

 

I started out as Development Technologist and later Chief Technologist at the Salads Division, helping develop numerous products and processes, and of course, the construction of the salad plant in northern Israel.

 

After 8.5 years in this division, I moved on to become New Business Development Manager, a totally new job at the (then) pre-merger Strauss.

 

This proved to be an exceptionally interesting position, exposing me to an array of new businesses and technologies, such as the development of soy products and the consolidation of ties between Sabra and Strauss at the beginning of their joint journey.

 

During my diverse career at Strauss, I also managed the Health HQ, and today I am in charge of the quality, safety, and environmental quality of Strauss Israel.

 

Having worked for more than 17 years at Strauss, I recognize the numerous professional and personal development opportunities it provides ,as well as its “never a dull moment” trait.

Responsibility Above the Law

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In the August issue of Ecology & Environment, I read a fascinating article by Alon Angrt entitled “Global Warming-Scientific Facts, Historical Perspectives”.

 

This article reviews various studies to address a controversial question: Does humanity indeed influence global warming, or does it result from natural and cyclical processes in nature?

 

Three key scientific facts presented in the article:

 

1) Human activity caused a 39% increase of gas concentration in the atmosphere so far, and the current trend toward concentration will increase fourfold by the end of the century.

 

2) A further increase in concentration of greenhouse gases will cause additional warming.

 

3) There is uncertainty regarding the rate of warming, but the continued increase in emissions at current rates will continue, causing a rise of two degrees by the end of the century.

 

The implications of global warming are familiar to all of us: climatic changes, expanded deserts, scarce clean drinking water and more.  It is clear that we are in urgent need of immediate, wide-scope activity in order to prevent further destruction of our planet by these effects. There is no time for legislation – we must take matters into our hands.

 

 

We can all work together to improve the situation, starting right now, from the production line employee to the manager in the office, the technologist and the engineer – all can make a difference, generating change at both the personal and professional levels.

 

Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, former Vice President of the U.S, and creator of the best documentary of 2006  “An Inconvenient Truth“ (warmly recommended!), said:

“Global warming has become the most pressing problem of our world .. We are facing a climate crisis that may at times appear to be happening slowly, when in fact it is happening very quickly– and has become a true planetary emergency.

 

If we do not recognize the fact that this is a real crisis, and act, the consequences will get worse. Storms with destructive power will hit us often, more animals will perish, the water level will rise and millions of people will be forced to abandon their homes… ”

 

These frightening truths are addressed by Mr. Gore :

 

“Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands.”

 

In the Introduction to his book, Mr. Gore states that he likes the fact that the Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters:

 

The first is a symbol for danger; the second is a symbol for opportunity. 

A nice sentiment, don’t you think?

 

Clearly, as a company, we are committed first and foremost to compliance with the law, including environmental laws, and we are indeed very active in this field. We recently described our corporate responsibility activities on the Strauss Blog, and I will be happy to share more of these activities in my next posts. What’s important is that we, as a company and a society, go the extra mile.

 

We should not only follow the provisions of the law but go above and beyond it, because we recognize the importance of it, the opportunity granted to us and our ability to make the world around us a better place.

 

 

In our written environmental policy – our Corporate Responsibility Report, we address environmental issues at length:

 

“As a manufacturer we are aware of the effects of our actions on the environment and accept full responsibility for them. We recognize that adopting an attitude of environmental responsibility on our part may contribute to an environmentally sustainable planet for future generations. Thus, we regard it as a goal and a challenge to reduce the impact of our actions on the environment and increase awareness of the environment among our employees, suppliers and consumers ….”

Coffee and Research / David Nini

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Part One

 

Did you know that coffee is a mixture of more than 1600 components, including carbohydrates, fats, vitamins (B3, E), minerals (potassium, magnesium), alkaloids (caffeine), organic compounds and dietary fiber? Coffee is one of the richest foods in anti-oxidants such as polyphenols and mainly chlorogenic and caffeic acids.

 

Coffee is one of the most researched products. The main reason for such extensive research activity is that coffee is the second most consumed drink after water, and that almost every third person drinks at least one cup of coffee a day. The desire to understand how coffee affects our health and the risk level involved in its consumption has, therefore, generated such a huge research momentum.

Moreover, the economic aspects were the driving force of research among many companies. The coffee market is enormous in size, and its trading volume is one of the largest in the food industries, and hence the urge to develop quality coffee types, insects-resistant and bearing large crops.

 

Overall, study in the coffee industry focuses on three major topics: chemical composition of coffee, including flavorings, health implications of coffee drinking, and coffee growing including genetic engineering that aims to improve it.

 

How Tasty is Your Coffee? It’s Up to the Coffee Experts, Humidity and Oxygen!

 

Understanding the composition of coffee aroma – which is an underlying fundamental in understanding and safeguarding the coffee quality – required the development of sophisticated analytical machinery and complex analytical methods to identify very low-concentrated components, in order to evaluate their impact on the aroma quality. One of the problems of coffee production is the need to retain uniform, sensory quality of the product, despite the fact that the raw material comprising it, namely green coffee, changes in the course of the year. This role is assigned to technologists and sensory experts, who adjust the roasting conditions to the desired sensory nature of the end-product. Today, the use of analytical machinery that simulate the human nose and tongue is growing steadily. However, since this type of machinery is still relatively young, and their sensitivity level still low, they can’t replace the human expert.

 

The need to preserve coffee freshness is the subject matter of extensive research work. Due to its complex chemical composition, coffee is highly sensitive to oxygen and humidity, and this requires packaging technology and materials with suitable qualities. Such demands, like the demand for “green technologies”, engage many researchers around the world in the development of “uniquely smart” packaging materials.

 

Part Two

 

In my previous post I described the importance attributed by commercial and research firms (both under the same roof sometimes) to studying coffee and its impact on our life. Research – including chemical examination, health impacts and improved coffee types – is at its advanced stages and has so far produced impressive results like the simulation of the human tongue through technological means. But how healthy is coffee for us?

 

Coffee and Health – Myths and Research

 

Coffee contains caffeine, anti-oxidants and other ingredients that impact positively on our health. Many myths have been linked to coffee and its affect on hour health: it is thought to be the cause of every possible disease, from cancer to hair loss, from an addictive substance to a fattening and weight-loss agent at the same time. Coffee is, effectively being “persecuted” by every researcher, dietician or physician who don’t think twice before speaking against this black beverage.

 

All these “descriptions” are based, of course, on rumors for the most part rather than on established research findings. Today, due to the massive and comprehensive research activity carried out in this domain, we have come to know that coffee is not harmful but beneficial to our health. Researchers focus on trying to discover the medically active substances and their mechanism. Since there is still more to these mechanisms than meets the eye, it will take many more scientific studies until the scientific/medical community can crack the chemical code of coffee and unveil the highest-impact substances and their mechanisms.

 

Excellent Coffee or Coffee-Made-Excellent?

 

Coffee is one of the most important agricultural industries and a major source of income for millions of families worldwide. Therefore, coffee growing as well as improved coffee types are the topics engaging numerous researches in coffee-growing companies and in countries that provide know-how, processing and irrigation practices for this industry. In the past, coffee was grown under relatively primitive means and conditions, and coffee types evolved depending on the climate, soil and nutrients available naturally in a given area.

 

The crops, coffee quality and the life span of a coffee bean plant were at Heavens mercy. Today, the coffee industry is undergoing far-reaching changes both technologically and scientifically. All growing stages are constantly monitored with controlled irrigation and automatic fertilization, providing plants with the quantities and durations required. The quality of coffee beans and life span of coffee bean plants are today at their pinnacle point.

 

Countries such as India and Brazil invest enormous resources in R&D in the coffee industry. Israel is today a key developer of computerized irrigation and fertilization systems for agriculture, with such systems already applied successfully in many coffee growing countries. R&D centers in India, Brazil, France and Israel are world leaders in genetic research of plants and in utilization of genetic engineering and cross-breads in a bid to develop unique-qualities coffee types. Extensive research is also targeting the development of natural extermination of pests.

 

The cup of coffee we prepare for ourselves every morning is not just another brewed beverage. It is the end-result of vast research and development activity. It is evident that the coffee quality, mode of preparation and serving only improve and change once researchers apply “out of the box thinking” (or out of the coffee jar thinking) and impressive technological creativity.

 

Engineering- Not What You Thought

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Strauss’ engineering headquarters was established a few years ago, after realizing the importance of such a function, in addition to the engineering plant units. Why is this so important to Strauss and why do we need an engineering headquarters?

 

Strauss group is consisted of different plants, under different divisions, in charge of different products: dairy products, fresh salads, snacks, chocolate & others. On the commercial and administrative side of the various departments we find the operational, logistic, quality assurance, engineering and maintenance units. The engineering department in each plant is responsible for implementing its programs so that the plant can carry out its manufacturing processes and future strategy with greater efficiency. The department operates the engineering projects from the early planning stage, through the introduction phase and until all required approvals are obtained.

 

The role of the engineering department can be demonstrated through a fictional product I just came up with: chocolate garlic pudding. Let’s begin with the assumption that the marketing department agreed that this “innovative” product will stir up a large demand. The engineering department first examines the innovations and adjustments needed to produce such a product; is there a need for new instruments or can we use the existing platform? Is there a need to change work techniques? Is there even a technology that allows manufacturing this? As soon as we receive the answers to these questions (and many more) we can begin the development and implementation processes.

 

Ok, chocolate garlic pudding probably won’t reach the shelves any time soon, and it’s not every day that a new product is launched, but still, the engineering department is constantly busy determining the feasibility of many different projects, with only a small percentage of them expected to hit the retail chains. Project managers at Strauss tackle 4-8 projects simultaneously, while needing to meet challenging scheduling and budget goals. This is an inseparable part of the job in a company that’s devoted to innovation in every area of operation.

 

The headquarters work alongside the departments from the different plants and provide them with guidance and support. Sometimes we carry out with some of the projects ourselves if the plants are not able (or not available) to do so. In this case, the headquarters is capable to place and manage external engineering teams or to serve as a professional implementation reserve. It all depends of course, on the nature of the project and the existing workload, and their place within company priorities.

 

Another task of the engineer headquarters is to plan and overlook the application of fixed, structured and methodological work methods throughout the project management process. The need for coordination and unification of action-methods derived from the substantial growth of the company, with the goal of uniting work methods to adjust to the company’s needs rather than to a personal preference of a single manager. Strengthening the coordination process between multi cultural groups, all communicating across different areas, channels and time zones, is inevitable. Because of this we must continuously strive to become more efficient. When so many people are involved in a single project, efficiency and availability become the name of the game, therefore giving the headquarters an advantage in assembling and coordinating the information on all parallel ongoing projects, when planning ahead for the future.

 

The engineering headquarters is exposed to a large range of project types. The knowledge and experience we accumulate further benefits the company after we distribute this information to each plant or by individual project basis. The planning and development of methodical tools that aid the promotion of ideas throughout the entire company, contribute to an active, efficient and productive cooperation for all.

 

Although “engineer headquarters” sounds like a large unit, truth of the matter it consists of a project manager and…me. We are able to manage all the groups’ projects through the methodologies we create, and cooperation we receive from our loyal colleagues. The engineer headquarters is an excellent example of the advantages through efficient and lean matrix management, which allows availability and flexibility for every project or need that arises.

 

In my following posts I will happily share with you the challenges in creating unity between the various engineering departments at our many plants over the world. In addition, I will discuss the tools we use to create this unity and the challenges in bridging the gaps between setting the foundations for a plan and actual execution.


India’s official coffee festival

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India is celebrating IICF2012 today – India’s official coffee festival.

 

This festival was established by local coffee companies in a bid to familiarize both the companies and the various coffee consumers with the market, as well as to learn more about the various products available, and, of course, to explore options for cooperation in coffee.

 

The festival is a very interesting event, which demonstrates how coffee has become such an integral part of Indian culture and how India is becoming a pivotal player in the global coffee industry, with production of over 5 million bags of coffee annually (In terms of coffee volumes, this makes India the sixth largest country in the world).

 

 

The unique climate and growth regions in India facilitate growth and processing of the superb Arabica and Robusta types. The coffee manufacturing industry utilizes them extensively in high-quality coffee blends and products. Strauss Coffee’s high-quality coffee products are also based in part on varieties that come from India.

 

Coffee in modern Indian culture plays an essential part in the lifestyle, leisure activities and social life of the people living there. Previously identified with workshop and factory workers, coffee has become popular across all classes, due to the wide variety of beverages that can be produced from coffee beans, from black coffee to instant coffee, cold drinks and stylish shakes.

 

While Israel does not yet have an official coffee festival, there is no doubt that coffee is an intergral part of Israeli culture too, be it in the numerous coffee shops around, the many ice coffee drinks available, black coffee drunk during military reserve duty or even the warm cups of coffee drunk whilst writing seminar papers.

 

 

If you want to learn more about coffee, you can take a look at my last post which was entitled “ A big story about a small coffee bean”. Happy drinking!

 

 

 

My Meal

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Nadya Vesker

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Nadya Vesker, married with 2 children and grandmother to two grandchildren, is a food technologist with 20 years experience in the food industry, 18 of which in the extrusion field of snacks, cereals and bread substitutes.

 

Nadia has previous experience in the areas of lab technician, lab management and also technical expertise in manufacturing and product development management. Currently she is a manufacturing technology professional at Shderot’s salted snack factory.

 

Nadia has a master’s degree in Food Engineering and has been with Strauss for 13 years.

The Art in Technology

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In the global world in which we live today, you can find and buy almost anything you want. All you need to do is reach out your hand to the product placed on the shelf and go to the checkout point. Consumption has long become an inseparable part of our life, and although we value quality, only those of us with a curious mind (myself included), think about how the products reaching our homes, stomach and life are produced.

 

 

The lack of knowledge about production and preparation processes creates misconceptions at times. This is particularly evident in industrialized food. The art required to make these mass-produced products resemble unique boutique products as much as possible, is sometimes inconceivable even to me, a food technologist at the Strauss salty snacks plant.

 

 

Allow me to introduce you to the technology that enables us to stay closest to the products our mothers and grandmothers used to prepare in their kitchens, even though we now consume them from the shelf in the grocery store: extrusion. This technology is used for the preparation of numerous plastic products (bottles, toys and more), pet food, spare parts for cars, cereals, bread substitutes, pasta and of course snacks.

 

 

Before the blend reaches the extrusion phase, we undergo a challenging and fascinating development process, which I like to compare to the artist’s work:

 

 

The artist stands before a clean canvas, ready for his artwork.

 

There is still no sign of color on the page, but the artist’s mind already has both an idea and a plan to deliver it. The same goes for product development: at first, nothing exists besides the dreams of the marketing and development people. Imagination precedes action until the finished product phase – the shape, color, smell and flavor – is complete.

 

 

The artist starts to fulfill his ideas on paper.

 

First as a draft, illustrating and sketching trees and flowers, the horizon line and mountains, a lake and ducks… Development, too, starts with a blueprint and preparations. I plan the technical part of production and the components that will undergo extrusion in order to make the idea come true.

 

 

An artist carefully selects his shades of color – mountains in green, lakes in blue-green, trees with flowers in red… In the development phase we, too, carefully select the raw materials from which we should get the best (and tastiest) results. Our raw materials include vitamins, dietary fiber, sugar or sugar substitutes, salt (if required), and more. While each raw material makes our assignment more complex, it also becomes more pivotal to the completion of the assignment, sorry, the creation.

 

 

Unlike birth, both the artist and the development people are always left with the feeling, once their work is complete, that they could have done a better job – that the product could have been perfect. But the supreme judge here is the consumer, and therefore, consumers determine the success of a product when they reach out their hand to buy it for the first time, and more importantly, for the second and third times.

Hummus – flavored myths part 2

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This post is a continuation from my previous post. We’ll address hummus related myths such as “Is hummus fattening?” and others.

 

Preservatives in Hummus

 

Preservatives are sometimes regarded as a health hazard, even though this may not always be the case. Adding an FDA-approved preservative such as potassium sorbate preserves product freshness throughout the “best by” date we commit to, and also prevents the risk of micro-organisms entering and growing in the hummus once the pack is opened and exposed to the air.

 

Is Hummus Fattening?


The answer is, of course, complex, depending on the type of hummus in question. Are you, too, debating with yourself in front of the yogurts shelf which yogurt to choose, the 0% or 3% fat? Strauss’ Achla hummus contains 15.9% fat. You should not exceed this amount of fat in any hummus you buy.

 

 

Nutritional Benefits of Hummus

 

Overall, hummus has qualities that make it a nutritious food and a good daily dietary choice. Our hummus contains 219 calories per 100 grams. Hummus satisfies hunger for longer. Also, combined with tahini it provides all the amino acids required by our body. Hummus has low glycemic index and a relatively high level of dietary fiber. Hummus made of whole-sesame tahini increases these nutritional benefits even more. It is also preferable, of course, to the chocolate spreads favored by children in their sandwiches. By the way, some scientific studies prove that hummus even improves your mood (but you already know this…)

 

To sum up, hummus is a good and tasty food. You can enjoy it dining out (just don’t overdo it with the pita bread), and can also enjoy our or any other store-bought hummus at home. It is important that we are all edcuated about the ingredients of store-bought (industrial) hummus, and other industrial products in general, so that we are well-positioned to make the best and tastiest choice for us.