I was scanning the headlines on one of the industry newswire sites I follow when one of them stopped me dead in my tracks. How many ‘civilians’ know the lengths food processors and manufacturers go to, to make sure we’ll be happy when we buy their products?
Tea tasting: An onerous task for the few who are chosen – to make
sure each cup tastes exactly the same as the last!
The headline read: “Kemin releases troubleshooting guide for tortilla manufacturers”
Is this a joke? I wondered. Who ever heard of such a thing! Or even dreamed it? But it turns out to be all too true. The story begins (according to the official news release)…
“Kremin, a well-known global ingredient manufacturer, releases the Kemin Flour Tortilla Guide, a new downloadable performance resource, complete with troubleshooting checklist, to help tortilla manufacturers resolve common performance challenges.
“Our new downloadable tortilla performance guide and troubleshooting checklist helps manufacturers deliver better tasting, better performing and longer lasting tortillas,” said Courtney Schwartz, marketing director, Kemin Food Technologies – Americas. “We created this complimentary resource, available on our website, to help tortilla manufacturers improve their production process and overcome common operational and shelf-life challenges.”
The Guide provides solutions to 12 common tortilla manufacturing line problems, from the obvious ‘Off-Shaped Tortilla’ to ‘Staling’ (rollability and hardening issues). And we learn about more than a dozen analytical tests and pieces of sophisticated testing equipment it takes to make a simple tortilla.
And who among us lowly consumers ever considered all the imperfections an improperly-made tortilla can suffer from? The Guide lists no fewer than 11 fatal flaws: Breaking; Cracking; Lacing; Extensibility; Foldability; Rollability Score; Pillowing; Sticking; Peeling; Zippering; and Opacity. Really.
I mused, “If these weren’t real problems faced by Tortilla manufacturers every day, Kremin wouldn’t have gone to the trouble and expense of publishing its Guide.” But it’s because industry partners such as ingredient supplier Kremin take the time, that we on the consuming end come to take for granted ‘perfect’ appearance, texture, flavour and performance in the products we buy and use very day.
Not just tortillas…
Every food processor and manufacturer has scores if quality control tests and standards they use to ensure that, every time you buy their product, you enjoy a consistent, reliable, high-quality experience.
Tea and Coffee processors pay their master blenders and roasters big money to make sure that every batch they produce is exactly the same as the last. They even employ specially-talented folks with uber taste buds – known as supertasters – to taste test every batch of their products, to ensure the flavour matches an established brand standard.
Manufacturers who sell confections, snacks, convenience cooking products (pre-formuated mixes) and other ‘trademark’ products all spend a lot of time and cash to ensure that consistent experience purchase after purchase.
Suppliers of food colouring and flavouring agents also provide indepth support to manufacturers, through armies of ‘consultants’. GNT Group, one of Canada’s leading food colour suppliers, even promotes a ‘colour of the year’. For 2020-21, it’s Red.
Even higher education
Even the Fast Food folks go big on quality control and ensuring that their products meet their patrons’ expectations visit after visit. McDonald’s, the acknowledged global leader in Fast Food innovation, even established its own ‘university’ at which students earn their degree in ‘Hamburgerology’. That was 60 years ago. And, since then, the institution has turned out more than 250,000 graduates. It’s not all how to build the perfect Big Mac. The American Council on Education sates, with a straight face, that Hamburger U. grads can earn as many as 23 credits that are transferable toward an associate’s or bachelor’s degree at 1,700 US colleges and universities.
It’s time to recognize the unseen heroes!
… The thousands and thousands of folks who labour in windowless labs analysing batch after batch of Coca Cola, tasting hundreds of cups of tea a day, squint until they’re nearly blind comparing production line samples to ‘official;’ brand standard colour swatches! If you just muse on it a while, you’ll realize what a great debt we owe them – and how unjust it’s been to have taken them and their work for granted ’til now!
~ Maggie J.