At present, the plant runs approximately a half-million pounds of product daily.

"In the next year, it will be running double the capacity," says Eldon Roth, BPI founder and president. Product produced at the company's South Sioux City plant typically come in 60-pound boxes. BPI is also approved to supply product for use in the USDA-AMS commodity ground beef program.

How it all began

"Our company evolved as ground beef fat content went down and more trimmings became available," Roth says. "In the beginning, technology was available to recover lean, but it was not very successful. So we developed a better process to recover it."

What's remarkable is that BPI largely succeeded by designing its own equipment for its own unique processes. Although Roth isn't college educated, he is widely praised by his associates for his technology and equipment-designing skills. And when it comes to designing equipment, Roth possesses something more valuable than a college education--hands-on experience.

"We have an old saying: 'We know how to do things ... because we do things,'" Roth says. "And we've been doing things a long time."

After high school graduation, Roth did clean-up work at an ice cream plant for four years. "In doing cleanup, you learn a lot about machinery because you have to take it apart and put it back together," he says.

Roth soon learned about refrigeration, and the rest is history. Today, BPI designs or modifies most of the machinery and systems used in its plants.

"We design our own equipment [and parts] from sanitary pipe fittings to sanitary pumps to centrifuges to our roller-press freezer to frozen-block grinders [and more]," Roth points out.

Almost every piece of equipment BPI operates in this plant has "some BPI fingerprints on it," adds Ron Yockey, head of operations, who will be with BPI 20 years this fall.

"You may see a machine in this plant with another brand name, but we likely tinkered with the design of that machine in some way to customize our needs," he says. "The freezing equipment, tempering equipment, process pumps, hoppers, and dumpers are all our own design ... both for reliability and sanitation."

Before touring the plant, Roth proudly tells this reporter while at the Dakota Dunes, SD-based company headquarters several miles away: "You have to see this plant to truly appreciate it. You'll never see another food plant like this in the world."

And he was right.

Plant at a glance

At first sight, the view of the plant floor is overwhelming--shiny stainless steel equipment and vast networks of piping loom everywhere--which is truly unlike any meat--processing plant this reporter has ever visited.

The process begins when fresh USDA-inspected beef trimmings arrive from approved companies meeting BPI's raw-material specifications. Raw materials are inspected by trained BPI employees to ensure consistency and quality prior to further production. Selected trimmings are then transported by conveyor to a material accumulator, which feeds product into a desinewing device. Here, potential non-functional proteins are removed, including cartilage, sinew, and connective tissue. Next, trim is tempered to near postmortem temperature to facilitate the separation of lean from fat by centrifugal force. BPI closely matches finished product fat and moisture content to customer specifications, typically achieving a 94-percent lean-or-better finished product.

Next, the pH of the lean trim is elevated through use of a patented pH enhancement process. The pH-enhanced product, marketed as BPI[R] Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, is approved for unrestricted use in ground beef and hamburger with no labeling restrictions other than beef. When used in a formulation, the elevated pH of the trimmings enhances food safety.

"We have three different [lines] so we can blend different ratios together to come up with the precise blend customers want," Roth says.

Lean beef is then transferred to a 14-foot-by-12-foot Roller Press Freezer[TM] and contact-frozen to the drum in 90 seconds. This rapid-freezing technique minimizes dehydration, locks in freshness, and significantly improves the microbiological characteristics of finished products.

As product comes off the Roller-Press Freezer[TM], it's passed through an in-process metal detector and packed in 60-pound boxes. Next, sealed cartons pass through a metal detector and are coded, dated, and palletized.

The time it takes between product entering the process to the finished package: just seven to nine minutes.

Food-safety highlights

Here are some of the plant's food-safety highlights:

* All processing equipment and its related infrastructure are stainless steel.

* Wall tiles use an absorbent epoxy between tiles.

* Equipment is attached to walls with sealed stand-offs, which allows cleaning behind the equipment.

* Flooring is acid brick.

* Outside of the processing area, the plant air is washed, refrigerated, and sanitized before being pumped into the processing area. A positive air-flow within the room helps prevent unsanitized air from entering the processing area.

* Components of the processing equipment, including all air-carrying ductwork, incorporate clean-in-place (CIP) capabilities. Each BPI facility uses CIP sanitation systems that can re-circulate 40,000 gallons of water a minute at 190[degrees]F with 160 psi for cleaning. Spray misters below and above raw material conveyor systems (which feature drip pans) allow continuous sanitation.

* All floor drains are stainless steel with built-in feed lines that allow for continuous sanitizing.

* Wherever possible, critical processing is electronically monitored and computer monitored from the master-control office at corporate headquarters in Dakota Dunes, SD. The master-control office constantly monitors all automated plant systems in BPI's processing plants and at Dakota Cold Storage.

* Quality assurance monitors and records microbiological results on incoming raw materials and finished product. Comprehensive food-safety tests are run regularly. And a portion of the composite sample becomes part of the two-hour composite that is sent to an outside lab for microbial testing.

* A catwalk on the second floor spans the entire plant, which aids cleaning and sanitation.

BPI-designed grinders

BPI is building a 40,000 square-foot facility near the plant to assemble BPI-designed frozen-block grinders. Company research indicates that properly grinding BPI[R] Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings at 0[degrees]F can, as a portion of the overall meat block, enhance the color and particle definition of ground beef. The BPI product will also blend more evenly, which results in lower micros throughout the entire meat block.

"We're selling these grinders along with our products, and we've [assembled] thirty-four of them so far," Roth says. "If you have the right-sized motor, one grinder can grind sixty-thousand pounds of frozen meat an hour."

BPI's new fully automated Dakota Cold Storage facility will help the company keep up with increasing product demand.

"As each box comes from the plant next door [via enclosed conveyor], boxed product will be palletized, completely shrink-wrapped, put into frozen cold storage, and finally shipped," says Clint Vos, corporate sales.

Highlights of this new facility include:

* Packaged product arrives from the adjacent South Sioux City processing plant via conveyor in an overhead, enclosed bridge.

* Each box entering the facility is untouched by human hands until it reaches the processor.

* An automated palletizer stacks boxes in a variety of configurations.

* The freezer holds up to 28 million pounds. Fifteen levels of cold-storage racks soar 115 feet in height and are loaded by automatic crane.

* Temperatures are: Palletizing area, 27[degrees]F; holding freezer, 0[degrees]F to -5[degrees]F; and truck loading, 40[degrees]F

* Delivery trucks back into one of five loading doors--backing in far enough inside of the facility to prevent product exposure to the outside environment.

Looking to the future, Roth says BPI is investigating possibilities with poultry. Yockey adds: "I expect we will continue to grow the business within the walls of the facilities we operate today The next big step will be employing the technology to related processes--to whatever looks best."