Keep Pet Food Free of Contaminants with Eriez

Cannon Holdings, based in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, has a 40,000 square foot facility that mainly produces chicken slurry used for their customer lines of dog and cat foods.
According to Dave Johnson, Plant Manager at Cannon Holdings, the company produces 80-100,000 pounds of slurry each day at the Quakertown plant. The slurry is processed from chicken carcasses that Cannon Holdings purchases from various suppliers. To complete the loop, Cannon Holdings is the main chicken supplier to Freshpet, based in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The company’s high grade dog and cat food–free of contaminants–rightfully begins at the Cannon Holding’s facility, which now includes an Eriez Xtreme® Standard Metal Detector along with an Eriez Xtreme® Liquid Line Metal Detector. The equipment detects any metallic particulates that otherwise could end up in final packaging.

When metal is detected in the product flow, a reject signal is channeled to one of the available output relays. The output relay can be used to activate a ball valve, control a visual or audio alarm, or send a signal to a PLC. Complete systems from Eriez can be provided in pipe sizes ranging from one-inch (25 mm) to six-inch (150 mm) diameters.

The Xtreme Metal Detectors are designed to work under harsh conditions and built for highpressure wash downs. The constant flow of chicken carcasses and slurry inside the humid Cannon Holdings facility made the Xtreme a wise choice, says Johnson. “These units are very tolerant and hardly need any maintenance. We are able to wash them down and clean them out every day with no trouble. It’s going to be very inexpensive to maintain.”