When High Road Craft Ice Cream wanted to add a high-speed production line for a new product, they turned to Pond’s expertise in food safety, sanitary design, and food manufacturing. Our master plan services prepared the client with a phased approach to achieve drastic impacts on product output, focusing on the programming and layout needed to reconfigure the operating facility to support increased production for this fluid dairy to frozen dairy foods plant.

Pond's report evaluated the current facility and operations and indicated a variety of plant modifications and enhancements that enabled High Road to determine the best capital expense implementation plan. Pond collaborated with the client and vendor equipment representatives to develop three conceptual designs that defined the work’s schedule, operational impacts, and cost that the client desired while ensuring food safety practices and FDA standards.

The conceptual plant layout, processing equipment list of all major items, room hygienic criteria, utility infrastructure needs, rough-order-of-magnitude cost estimate, and a complete project schedule were furnished in a cohesive report. In addition, Pond advised the client of any expected building code impacts that might be considered. A dissolved air flotation process waste treatment system was selected to accomplish the treatment of increased process wastewater.

The high-speed ice cream bar line utilizes a flash pasteurization or high-temperature shot-time pasteurization (HTST) process. Pond selected a clean-in-place (CIP) tray wash for the manufacturing line and an automated clean-out-of-place washer for the tray feed system.