You send us the symptom
With the data your case calls for: temperatures, pH, formula, process curve. Without those numbers nobody can diagnose seriously — not us either.
Technical enquiry
What is happening to your product?
Almost every problem in a food plant is half a dozen physical phenomena repeating themselves. Find yours below. If it is on the list we already know where to start — and six out of ten are solved in writing, without anybody travelling.
Yield and weight loss
The money that leaves every day without anyone shouting. It is not a crisis, it is a leak — and that is why it has been open for years.
“The ham purges water in the bag”Purge and yield below what was paid for. Myosin never solubilised, phosphate poorly sequenced, or tumbling too short. A single yield point is thousands of dollars a month, every month.To answer you we need: Brine in g/L, injection %, tumbling curve, actual cooking curve, and weights before and after.
“The meat releases a lot of water in the tray”PSE meat or cutting before rigor: pH falls with the carcass still warm and water-holding capacity collapses.To answer you we need: pH at 45 minutes and at 24 hours, chiller carcass temperature, and boning time.
“The ham falls apart when I slice it”Poor intermuscular binding: insufficient protein exudate, over-tumbling, or air trapped at filling.To answer you we need: Tumbling protocol, meat temperature, filling system and cooking curve.
“The product sticks to the slicer blade”Wrong slicing temperature window, or a gel too soft from excess free water.To answer you we need: Product temperature at slicing, blade condition and formulation.
“I lose too much weight in the oven”Thermal loss from an aggressive ramp and low chamber humidity: the water leaves and the network can no longer recover it.To answer you we need: Cooking curve with chamber and probe temperature, and oven relative humidity.
“Frozen meat drips heavily when thawed”Slow freezing: large crystals that pierce the cell. You have to cross −1 to −5 °C in under two hours.To answer you we need: Time to −18 °C at the core, packaging type and chamber stability.
Lost batch
The six o’clock call with the line stopped. Here the cost is not up for discussion: it already happened.
“The sausage batter broke”Emulsion failure: the cutter passed its critical temperature, functional protein was short for the fat loaded, or blunt knives are heating instead of cutting.To answer you we need: Temperature at start and end of the cutter, order of addition, knife condition and real fat %.
“The mayonnaise split”Coalescence: oil dosed faster than the emulsifier could cover new interfacial area, or shear badly set.To answer you we need: Dosing curve, homogeniser rpm or pressure, order of addition and final pH.
“The salami pH will not drop”Fermentation never started: not enough sugar, culture killed by contact with dry salt, or the room is too cold.To answer you we need: pH curve hour by hour — not the final pH — grams of sugar per kilo, strain, dose and actual temperature.
“The precooked flour dough cracks”Gelatinisation outside its window or particle size shifted: the water is not where it should be.To answer you we need: Final moisture, particle size, cooker parameters and viscosity curve if available.
“The kibble comes out soft and crumbles”Insufficient expansion in the extruder: low mechanical energy or conditioning moisture out of range.To answer you we need: Screw profile, conditioning moisture and temperature, drying curve and water activity at the core.
“The tomato sauce weeps water on top”Degraded pectin: a cold break left the depolymerising enzymes active and the system can no longer hold its water.To answer you we need: Break temperature and time, degrees Brix, pH and Bostwick with the temperature it was measured at.
Shelf life and microbiology
The only thing on this list that can close a company. Also the hardest to change consultant halfway through.
“The sausage swells in the bag before its date”Post-process recontamination: cooking killed them and the environment put them back, between chilling and packing.To answer you we need: Cooking curve, cold-point temperature, cold chain and the flow layout between cooking and packing.
“I got a positive for listeria on a swab”A persistent environmental niche with biofilm. Surface sanitation does not penetrate: it has to be dismantled and physically removed.To answer you we need: Swab history with exact locations, zoning layout and cleaning programme.
“The product tastes rancid before its date”Lipid oxidation catalysed by iron released during cooking, with salt pushing and no antioxidant holding it back.To answer you we need: Peroxide value or TBARS over time, antioxidant system, residual oxygen and packaging barrier.
“Green mould is appearing on the salami”The noble mould did not colonise in time and the environmental flora took the niche. You fight it by occupying, not by disinfecting.To answer you we need: Application method and concentration of the surface culture, and relative humidity of the first five days.
“Jars are swelling on the supermarket shelf”Osmotolerant yeasts that survive the preservative at its usual dose, or recontamination at the filler.To answer you we need: pH, water activity, preservative and dose, thermal treatment and filling point.
Colour, texture and customer complaints
The slow pain. It does not stop the line, but it drains your rotation until the delisting letter arrives.
“The sausage is grey inside”Three different phenomena that must be told apart before touching anything: colour never formed, bacterial greening, or photo-oxidation in the display case.To answer you we need: Residual nitrite, presence and dose of reducing agent, time between curing and cooking, and residual oxygen.
“The sausage turned rubbery”Functional protein was replaced with extenders without redoing the water balance: two networks that gel differently are not one network.To answer you we need: Full formula and process profile. This is the case where a written enquiry pays for itself fastest.
“The pasta cracks after drying”Unbalanced internal moisture gradient: the surface contracts over a still-wet core and the microcracks appear days later.To answer you we need: Full drying curve by stage, semolina specification and final moisture.
“The dry-cured ham has colour patches”Uneven salt and nitrate diffusion, or incomplete reduction by inhibited flora. And here the capital has been tied up for eighteen months.To answer you we need: Salting protocol, temperature curve by stage and salt profile across the cut face.
Scale-up and process
When what worked in the trial stops working in production. It is not the recipe: it is that the timescales do not scale the same way.
“It was perfect in the trial and fails at full scale”Heat transfer and shear do not scale linearly. The formula is the same; the thermal and mechanical process is not.To answer you we need: Formula, spec sheets for both machines, and both process curves.
“The pellet arrives as dust at the farm”Low durability: poor steam conditioning, wrong die specification, or fat added before pelleting.To answer you we need: Temperature and moisture after the conditioner, die specification, formula and measured durability.
“The meat meal comes out low in protein”Dilution by bone or overcooking that destroys amino acids. And if the fat is acidic, the problem is in inbound logistics, not in the cooker.To answer you we need: Time from raw material to cooker, process temperature and time, and protein, ash and free fatty acid analysis.
How it works
Did you recognise yours on the list?
Write to us with the symptom and the data your case calls for. If we can solve it in writing, we say so and give you the price before starting. If it needs a trial or a visit, we tell you that up front too — not afterwards.
We answer in writing
The most likely cause, how to confirm it, and the concrete correction. With the mechanism explained, not just the recipe.
If more is needed, we say so
Some problems demand a trial or a visit. We say that up front, not after charging you for an enquiry that was never going to be enough.
On additive dosages: we always give the industrial working range and tell you where to check the legal limit currently in force in your country. We never publish a legal figure: they differ by market and are revised every few years.
Pricing
What it costs, said before we start.
We publish the price because asking what something costs should not take three emails. The quote is closed before we touch your product, and if your case is not for us we say so without charging you for finding out.
Technical enquiry
One specific question with one specific answer.
USD 120Remote, worldwide
- Written answer within 24 – 48 working hours
- The most likely cause and how to confirm it
- The concrete correction, with the mechanism explained
- One follow-up question within 7 days
Plant diagnosis
We tell you where you are losing money, with numbers.
from USD 950Remote. On-site in Latin America: from USD 1,400/day
- Video walk-through and review of your documents
- Report with findings ranked by money, not by whim
- A prioritised 90-day correction plan
- A 60-minute call to go through it
- If we do not find at least five actionable findings, you do not pay
Project
Reformulate, develop, validate shelf life, build HACCP or assemble a dossier.
from USD 2,900Quoted by scope: lines, products and destination country
- Cost-down reformulation per kilo
- Product development through to technical sheet and process
- Shelf life validation and HACCP plan
- Regulatory dossier and labelling by country
- Monthly retainer from USD 600 a month
Founder pricing: these are launch prices for our first clients, and they rise once the first case studies are published. External laboratories, where needed, are invoiced separately and in plain sight. 48-hour rush: 35 % surcharge.
We answer in seven languages and deliver written reports in English and Spanish. If your enquiry arrives in Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic or Polish we will read it and reply — but the technical report comes in English or Spanish. We would rather say so up front than keep you waiting for a translation we never promised.
Frequently asked
What people ask before they start.
How long do you take to answer?
Between 24 and 48 working hours from the moment complete data arrives. What makes a diagnosis slow is not thinking about it: it is waiting for the client to send the cooking curve.
Why do you ask for so much data before answering?
Because without it any answer is guesswork, and guesswork in a plant costs another batch. A serious diagnosis starts by ruling out, and ruling out needs numbers: temperatures, pH, times, formula.
What if my problem is not on the list?
Send it anyway. This list is what repeats most, not everything that exists. If the case is not ours, we say so and do not charge you for finding out.
Do you work with small plants?
Yes, and they are the ones who need it most because they have no technical department. Size does not change the physics: an emulsion breaks the same way in 50 kg as in five tonnes.
Do you keep formulas confidential?
Yes, and it is signed before you send anything if you prefer. A formula is a company’s asset; anyone who does not understand that should not be in this profession.
Contact
Ask us from wherever you are
We answer in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Arabic. If your question is technical and specific, so is the answer.