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St. Clair Foods is a Tennessee-based company that manufactures dressings, dips, entrees, and salads for retail and food service. St. Clair is determined to source the cleanest ingredients while providing customers with the best possible taste and quality.
Like Rodem St. Clair is a family-owned and operated business that has become a trusted frozen food provider for nearly 50 years. St. Clair strives the deliver “the best tasting, safest, and highest quality products” to their customers.
Starting with salad dressing in 1976 St. Clair has moved to create a full offering of soups, meals, and salads that are sold through QVC and at Sams Club locations across the United States.
St. Clair Foods came to Rodem seeking a solution for burn-on issues they were experiencing during production. Historically, St. Clair had used steam as the heating media for their processor jackets. This method led to fast heating but often resulted in burn-on issues for some heat-sensitive products.
The steam method for heating not only led to burn-on issues but also created a domino effect of other bottlenecks. Additional issues within the process as a result were:
Fortunately, the project team at Rodem was there to help. Our team determined that additional control of heating media would prevent burn-on issues, maximize processing flexibility, and eliminate subsequent problems as a result.
St. Clair enlisted the expertise of Rodem for this project. Donald Baines, with the help of our SaniSmart Solutions team, created a method that would offer more control over cheese melting and heating.
Donald Baines and Rodem’s engineers introduced hot water in place of steam for heating to provide better temperature control for sensitive products. Rodem designed controlled heating and piping isolation that would allow the customer to select:
The controlled heating and piping isolation solution allowed St. Clair to have complete control over their processes to minimize heat-up time while preventing burn-on issues. The new processing room project utilized Chester-Jensen Cooker/Coolers and was accompanied by a Thermaline hot water set, IPACS controls, twin-screw pump technology from Axiflow for cheese transfer and MTC bucket lifts to complete the turn-key solution.
The result was increased production, maximized processing flexibility, and more. Not only was St. Clair able to prevent burn-on issues in their processing system with our solution, but they realized a variety of other benefits including:
Through the exceptional service of Donald Baines and the complete processing solution our team provided, the St. Clair facility will reap long-lasting benefits for years to come.
From a simple modification to a turnkey solution, we’re here to help. For 50+ years Rodem has supported the leading brands of processors who feed, nourish, and heal America.
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