Equalizing Temperatures for Meat Tempering Facility

Glenn Valley Foods of Omaha, Nebraska, was founded in 2009 by Gary Rohwer to provide high quality beef and chicken products to a wide range of customers including restaurant owners, grocery stores and ultimately the consumer. Whether their products are utilized as the key ingredient for a new menu offering or direct by the consumer, they can be trusted for their convenience and versatility while maintaining high quality flavor. Products are sold under the Gary’s Quick Steak brand and can be found in over 5,000 grocery stores. Glen Valley Foods products are also served in many national restaurant chains.

Glenn Valley Foods had observed issues with their new meat tempering facility, so Nebraska MEP enlisted the Food Processing Center (FPC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The FPC planned to visit in early 2020 to map the temperatures in their new tempering room. However, due to the pandemic, the FPC could not visit their facility and Glenn Valley Foods could not accept outside visitors to mitigate the spread of the virus. As a work around, Dr. Grace Danao of the FPC provided Glenn Valley Foods’ Vice President of Operations Rich Needham and his staff some wireless temperature and relative humidity sensors and advised on how to use them to map room temperatures. The data were downloaded and analyzed by Glenn Valley Food leadership and staff to evaluate strategies and new equipment needs to mitigate temperature fluctuations.