Posted on 04/14/2017 1:44:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
McALLEN — Amid a time of uncertainty for business along the border, Scantech Sciences is doubling down with a new technology it predicts will revolutionize food safety practices.
Scantech, a developer, manufacturer and operator of food treatment systems and facilities, already has a building in the Sharyland Business Park in McAllen. But the Atlanta-based company has not had an electronic cold-pasteurization food treatment center before.
Scantech began construction Thursday on a 100,000-square-foot facility connected to its current building. It’s expected to open, at the latest, by the beginning of 2018.
Bret Erickson, president of the Texas International Produce Association for the past five years, will be general manager of the new facility. He said Thursday that the new operation will create more than 170 jobs. Scantech is putting nearly $30 million into this project.
CEO Dolan Falconer and COO Chip Starns, both nuclear engineers, were in town for Thursday’s announcement. Though the two have nuclear backgrounds, ECP is a non-nuclear methodology of irradiation that eliminates food-borne pests and pathogens and will add more than two weeks of shelf life to produce.
ECP moves food through electron beams for milliseconds on a high-speed conveyor while maintaining the molecular structure of the produce, Erickson said, which is why there are not any risks to the process.
The facility will push through more than 40 trucks per day, with each truck taking 35 to 40 minutes, Erickson added. Scantech is the first company to receive USDA clearance to build this ECP food treatment facility, Starns said.
Go to Scantech’s web page and read about ECP. Very interesting.
www.scantechsciences.com
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