Food Engineering is the food & beverage industry's leading manufacturing publication. FE's exclusive editorial focuses on processing, packaging, automation and food safety issues, critical for Plant Operations, Engineering, Production, Packaging and senior management at food & beverage manufacturing companies.

Food Engineering brings full coverage on flexible manufacturing, advanced information exchange, and the changing role of the food engineer. The articles are a blend of processing technology updates, worldwide food manufacturing trends, and case histories.

Food Engineering is edited for the cross-functional manufacturing management team at North American food and beverage processing companies. It is edited for executives with job titles in General Administration, Plant Operations, Engineering, Research and Development and Purchasing.

Each issue of Food Engineering features updates on regulatory affairs, food safety, and food packaging, as well as new product information, in-plant-systems and applications, and extensive coverage of new and emerging processing and packaging technologies-from automation and sanitation to extended shelf life systems, energy management, and maintenance. (magazines.com)

FEATURES 
64 COVER STORY
31st Annual Plant Construction Survey
LEED provides the tools to measure sustainability in new and existing projects.

95 Food Automation Conference Report
Best practices in food safety, asset utilization and sustainability were front and center at this year’s industry idea-exchange.

103 Tech Update: Post-Production Solutions
The integrated-plant concept works great, up until the finished product is filled. Machines may do the repetitive tasks, but coordinated activity remains elusive.

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Editor's Note
One instance where heavy can be healthy

Are we truly in a recession? While CNNMoney.com declared the recession official back in February, other financial experts have not.

In mid-May, JP Morgan’s CEO said he thinks we are just in the beginning. And the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook states that the US holds the top spot as the world’s most competitive economy.

According to a Conference Board Report in late May, things are starting to look up. While higher energy and food prices are some of the factors that led to a less robust global economy, the report says we were never headed to a severe recession.

The Conference Board goes on to say that the economy is not strong enough yet to deliver 3% GDP, but is it also not weak enough to drop into a sharp downturn this summer. More realistically, with the economy now in its third straight sluggish quarter, more slow economic growth and modest job declines could be ahead, the report continues.

Of course, most of us know more people who have lost their jobs in the last six months compared to this time in 2007. And while I hear friends and colleagues in some Southern states talk about the foreclosure signs in their neighborhoods, I have not seen them here in the Northeast.

One old adage says the food industry is recession-proof. While this may not hold true today, the industry is certainly holding its own. Take a look at the 31st Annual Plant Construction Survey, which begins on page 64 in this issue. In the midst of our recession-manic society, I was expecting the total number of plant projects to be considerably lower. In fact, the opposite is true. While we have hovered around the 500 range of total food and beverage projects of more than $1 million since 2001, we uncovered a healthy 613 projects for 2007.

Although the food industry is not out of woods financially speaking, the growth in plant projects is surely one instance where heavy is healthy.

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Food Engineering: The Magazine for Operations and Manufacturing Management.

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