Dollars and Cents: A Story About Dog Food
Water activity lets you see the total food quality picture-allowing you to control microbial growth, shelf-life, texture, moisture migration, caking and clumping, and more.
When you see the whole picture, you can adjust your recipe to maximize product quality and maximize profits at the same time.
A pet food manufacturer we know produced at 8% moisture content. Why? Because at that level, he had never had spoilage problems or shelf life concerns. He had a safe product. But he discovered that he was drying up profit. Then he used water activity measurements to get a more accurate food quality picture. The water activity of his product was 0.50 aw. A little additional information revealed that he needed only to stay below 0.65 aw to produce a quality shelf stable product that was below the mold growth limit.
Without knowing his exact costs, we can still infer the profit margin represented by a difference in 0.50 aw and 0.65 aw. If he
produced 20,000 pounds of product per hour
operated sixteen hours a day five days a week
sold the product for forty cents a pound
raising the target water activity level would allow him to produce an additional 1,877,314 pounds of product per year and would generate an additional $750,925 in revenue. Even better, much of that would be profit since this change would reduce utility costs while keeping man hours, raw material costs, and wear and tear on equipment the same.
Just a tricky little story problem? Not at all. Many manufacturers have decreased costs and increased profits using water activity. So can you.
Call Decagon Devices today to discuss how measuring water activity can help you in your application. With four different water activity instruments, interest-free payment plans, and the best application engineers in the industry, we're sure to find a solution that suits you.
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