Kirby Risk Connected Fall 2022

turnkey processing facilities would be the best,” says Fleck. “Farbest was a likely candidate.” He reached out to Farbest and explained that ABB was looking for a company to participate in a photoshoot. Initially, there wasn’t a lot of information other than Farbest would be the first to use the product in exchange for their participation. “I told them they would get free samples to use and be the first to try the product,” says Fleck. “They were very open to trying it because it would help better their processes.” Farbest Foods, Inc. is headquartered in Jasper, Indiana. It supplies raw, fresh and frozen turkey products to top-brand, further processors located throughout the United States and around the globe, according to the Farbest website.

Cable ties are used as cable management on the processing line. The production line has different cables that run down for sensors. These cables and cords need to be out of the way of the items in production. Cable ties are also used to mount signage in a facility. “In food and beverage processing, it’s important that these are metal because everything has to go through a metal detector to make sure there is no metal in the meat or on the system,” says Fleck. Eric Gladish, Director of Maintenance and Refrigeration for Farbest Foods, oversees facility and maintenance at the Vincennes and Huntingburg plants. Each plant has roughly 35 employees in the maintenance and refrigeration department. Gladish and his team oversee maintenance of all

processing equipment across the facilities. He has worked with Fleck as a customer at Farbest for 10 years and even previously with a different employer. “Any time we can look at improving food safety or product quality, we are going to be interested,” says Gladish. “Being in the food industry, that is our number one goal other than employee safety.” When offered the opportunity to try something new like the TyGenic™ cable tie, Gladish felt there was limited potential of risk to try something new. “The metal detectable quality of the Ty-Rap® is extremely important, but the added antimicrobial feature is obviously intriguing,” he says. “If for some reason this does get in the product,

CONNECTED | FALL 2022 13