Tag Archives: education

Knowledge at Your Fingertips

Posted by Marketing Dept.  –  Education, Food Safety, General, Laboratory & QA/QC, Packaging, Packaging & Ingredients, Processing & Flow Control, Production & Material Handling, Safety & Personnel
February 1, 2021

Resources made available with Nelson-Jameson’s Learning Center! This educational learning library was created to encourage our customers to seek out information, when applicable, to aid them in making informed purchasing decisions within the food, dairy, and beverage industries. By providing this free resource for anyone to use, our goal is to have you feel comfortable and confident in the products you purchase.

An intriguing aspect of our Learning Center is that the information we are providing is supplied to us by manufacturers, and industry associations. It is our goal to relay to you the most up-to-date information for your convenience. The information within this resource falls into several categories: Laboratory & QA/QC, Packaging & Ingredients, Process & Flow Control, Safety, and Sanitation & Maintenance. Within each of these 5 areas, there is a range of subtopics that we determined were important for our customers to expand their knowledge on. Here is a brief overview of each of these sections:

Laboratory & QA/QC: We offer food safety products and solutions that help the food and beverage industries protect the quality of their products by utilizing proven, methods-based laboratory procedures. Learn more about Hydrating 3M™ Petrifilm Plates, pH Electrode Selection Guide, pH Testing Tips, and Nelson-Jameson pH Buffers, and more.
Packaging & Ingredients: Food safety begins with quality ingredients and packaging. Learn more information about our wide line of food and dairy ingredients, Choosing Cheese Packaging, Selecting Cultures & Coagulants for Taste & Texture, and Packaging Films.
Process & Flow Control: Keep food and beverage production running smoothly. Learn more from these resources designed to help meet your unique food, dairy, and beverage needs, such as Hose Maintenance Tips, Gaskets, Pump Maintenance, and Filtration Ratings.
Safety: In the food, dairy, and beverage industries, it is important to protect employees from injury and food product from possible contamination. To protect your assets, learn more about Noise Reduction Ratings, Protective Clothing Materials, Footwear Sizing, and peruse our Glove Selection Guide.
Sanitation & Maintenance: Keep your plant clean and safe with quality sanitation and janitorial products. Learn more about Broom Bristle Options, Insect & Pest Control, and Disinfectant Mats™.

At Nelson-Jameson, we strive to make our customers’ lives easier by providing products, solutions, and technical expertise when needed. Whether it’s figuring out how to clean a tank properly or learning about broom bristle options, Nelson-Jameson is your one stop shop—Click here to view our Learning Center and learn more about our areas of expertise!

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Metal Detectable Products: A Critical Component in Food Safety

Posted by Melissa Pasciak  –  Food Safety, General
June 23, 2020

A critical component in food safety is the detection of contaminants. One of the worst nightmares of anyone working in food processing, is finding something in the final product that is not supposed to be there. This can cause costly product loss, clean-up and maintenance costs, and the potential for recalls and/or litigation. Even though everyone tries to prevent foreign object contamination, pieces of tools such as scrapers can break off, or items such as pens can fall into the product. To make sure that these items are caught, and that contaminated product does not make it out the door, many plants utilize metal detection devices and products.

Metal detectable products are constructed of a few different materials. They are often blue for easy visual detection. Blue is also the most common non-food color. Metal detectable products are made through a unique manufacturing process that involves the inclusion of a metallic pigment. This enables the plastic to be detected. In some objects such as earplugs, a stainless steel ball bearing is enclosed in the plug, making them detectable. A product with embedded metal is only detectable if the product piece containing the metal goes through a detector. With a product that is impregnated, the entire piece has fine metal particles throughout, making the entire piece, or parts of it, detectable.

Metal detectable calibration is an important aspect of a metal detectable program. To maintain calibration, you should periodically check calibration by passing a known calibration test tool under the unit to check for accuracy. Test tools can be made of ferrous, non-ferrous, or stainless steel and include rods, cylinders, balls, whips, cards, and more. Depending on the food being produced, machine calibration must be adjusted and set to a threshold that is determined by the company in regards to the size of contaminant they want the detector to reject. Many things affect the setting of the machine including whether the food is wet or dry, its size, and its speed. If you don’t test your calibration, the metal detector can allow larger pieces of foreign object contaminant to get through than the threshold setting, which threatens the finished product’s safety. 

Nelson-Jameson can help you start or expand your Metal Detectable program with our wide range of products. Our new Metal Detectable Flyer features 32 pages of products ranging from writing utensils and office supplies to calibration tools and scrapers. We also have metal detection and x-ray equipment from Valcour Process Technologies to help enhance your program. Request your free copy of our flyer, or visit our website to download it today!

 

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Nelson-Jameson Lab Training Workshop

Posted by Mathew J. Bartkowiak, Ph.D.  –  Education, Food Safety, Laboratory & QA/QC
September 24, 2018

Nelson-Jameson is proud to announce that we will be holding “A ‘Calibration’ of Lab Testing” this October 17th at the University of Wisconsin-Richland. The seminar will be lead by two Nelson-Jameson Lab Team members in our Technical Services area: Steve Zdun and Dayton Bruha. Best practices in pH, microbiology, and salt will all be featured in the workshop. Perfect for food and beverage lab personnel, participants will get a hands-on approach to tackling these core areas.

Registration before October 1st, will guarantee an early bird rate of $150 ($175 after). Call one of our customer service representatives and mention item #333-3333 for more information!

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Back to Cow-llege

Posted by Amanda Sasse  –  Cheese & Dairy Products
February 10, 2016

cheesecertificateSix years ago, I had the honor of going back to school. Before you start envisioning a Rodney Dangerfield ‘80’s movie, I can assure you that it wasn’t that kind of school. Yes, it took place at the renowned party academic institution of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but this was cheese school. The Wisconsin Cheese Tech Short Course, to be exact. I had just joined Nelson-Jameson, Inc. after working in the retail and merchandising industry for a decade, and I needed to learn about the core business of my new employer. So, like many of my colleagues before me, I was sent to Madison for a week of immersive classes provided by the UW’s Center for Dairy Research, one of the world’s premier dairy research institutions with which Nelson-Jameson has always held a close relationship.

Taught over the course of a week, the Cheese Tech Short Course covers cheese making production principles and technology and includes an optional cheese making lab that offers hands-on experience in cheese production. When the CDR describes the course as “intensive”, they aren’t kidding. I used every bit of my high school and college knowledge of chemistry, biology and algebra to comprehend the over two dozen lectures that included topics such as “Secondary Microflora”, “Pasteurization” and “Starter Cultures”. Even seemingly easy-sounding subjects (“Shredding and Slicing”, I’m looking at you), proved to be much more complicated than one would think. I took comfort in the fact that I wasn’t the only novice in our class whose previous experience with cheese mostly revolved around consumption. My classmates ranged from Marketing Directors for Fortune 500 food companies to novice Cheesemakers to QA Managers at local dairies to R&D Executives from foreign countries. To someone new to the food processing world, the diversity of our group clearly demonstrated the importance of the cheese and dairy category in the global food industry and solidified my choice to join a company that contributed so greatly to what was clearly a dynamic and important part of the food production world.

It was a fascinating week that I’ve never forgotten, and the information that I learned served me well in my early days in sales. Now, as a marketer, it’s provided an intellectual foundation for my creative process in communication and promotions. And, as I grow with Nelson-Jameson, the knowledge taken from the Wisconsin Cheese Tech Short Course will surely supplement any role that I may undertake. Turns out that not only does the cheese stand alone, it also stands out.

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Nelson-Jameson Team Member Wins Scholarship

Posted by Amanda Sasse  –  Press Room, Sanitation & Janitorial
January 6, 2016

178f7b62-142f-4f5b-a385-9b8dffe132b2At Nelson-Jameson, we like to remain involved and in-the-know. We offer continued training for our employees, attend and exhibit at many trade shows, and are involved in networking, educational and philanthropic organizations that range from community-minded to industry-oriented. One of these trade associations to which Nelson-Jameson belongs is FISA, the Food Industry Suppliers Association.

FISA is trade group dedicated to promoting distribution in high purity industries, such as food and beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, personal care and biotechnology. Its members are comprised of distributors and manufacturers who go to market through distribution. Nelson-Jameson has been involved with FISA since its inception more than 50 years ago, and we’ve found tremendous value in the networking and educational opportunities provided by FISA.

One of these opportunities involves the University of Innovative Distribution, a concentrated educational program focused on the unique needs of the wholesale distribution industry. Sponsored by FISA and other leading industrial trade organizations and in cooperation with Purdue University, UID provides a world-renowned educational experience to wholesale distribution professionals. FISA provides two annual scholarships to UID that are open to employees of member organizations, and we are proud to announce that a Nelson-Jameson team member has once again been awarded one of these scholarships.

Devon Nov15

Congratulations go to Devon Vogel, our Inventory Solutions Supply Chain Manager/MRO Product Manager, who will be attending UID this March via scholarship. Devon hopes “to use the information gained (at UID) to become a more efficient and innovative category manager, as well as (to become) a positive female role model for other women who are interested in going into the industry.” She’d like to use her educational experience to “contribute to (Nelson-Jameson)…and to providing solutions in the (overall) supply chain.” We couldn’t be prouder of Devon, and are excited to learn from her educational and developmental experiences at UID!

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