Baking & Snack - May 2009 - 19

MAC Equipment celebrates 40 years
As MAC Equipment marks a major
milestone, the company continues to succeed in innovation, quality, customer
satisfaction and the dedication of
its employees.
In 1969, Gary and Virginia
McDaniel established MAC
Equipment in Sabetha, KS.
The company started out as
a business pioneering the development of dust collection
and clean air systems based on
the Clean Air Act of 1970. For
four decades, MAC has demonstrated the ability to respond and react
to changes in the industry because the
business and its employees are anchored
with a can-do attitude and a determination
to make things happen for its customers.
Through the 1970s MAC continued
to be on the forefront of new technology related specifically to dust collection
and reduced emissions in the grain and
food industries. In 1978, MAC acquired
COLT-ON Industries, which added pneumatic conveying to its offerings and also
incorporated the trademark logo of MAC
Equipment - the workhorse of the
industry. In 1979, Gary McDaniel
was named the National Small Business

Entrepreneur of the Year by thenPresident Jimmy Carter.
In 1984, MAC acquired Boothe
Industries, which added dense
phase conveying to its line of
equipment offerings, an integral technology in the food
processing industry. MAC
moved its corporate headquarters in 1986 to Kansas
City, MO, and opened its
single-source Service Center
for MAC parts, components,
small system sales and ancillary
parts associated with dust collection
and pneumatic conveying. Through the
1990s, MAC continued its advancement
by acquiring SEMCO Systems in 1993 and
Allied Flo-tronics in 1994, furthering its
foray into pneumatic conveying.
Gary McDaniel retired in 1998 and
sold the business to George K. Baum
and Co., allowing for continued growth
in both dust collection and pneumatic
conveying during the next decade. This
dramatic growth in such a short span of
time caught the attention of Clyde Process Solutions PLC, which acquired MAC
in 2007. The acquisition created a global
presence for both MAC and Clyde tech-

nologies that continues today.
MAC Equipment employs more than
350 people in offices located in Houston,
TX; Sabetha, KS; Kansas City, MO; and
Milford, OH. More than 30% of MAC's
workforce consists of degreed engineers in
mechanical, electrical, chemical and milling science disciplines. "Our experienced
in-house engineers enable us to implement
complete system design, project management and turn-key installed projects," said
Jay Brown, president and c.e.o. of MAC.
"This unique combination, together with
our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, test labs (pneumatic and filtration)
and leading research and development
personnel, makes MAC the premier source
for pneumatic conveying, process controls
and air filtration."
"Successful innovation, together with
the effective use of advanced technology,
has fostered the global expansion of our
business throughout the food, baking and
snack industry," said Dan Geller, executive
vice-president. "With evolving regulations
concerning OSHA, NFPA and food safety,
MAC has stayed on the forefront of understanding and designing equipment for
plant safety and cleanliness." And it plans
to do so for another 40 years.

AIB International addresses audit procedures
AIB International, Manhattan, KS, released
an extensive account of its role in the audit
of the Peanut Corporation of America's
Blakely, GA, facility.
In defending its services, AIB said thirdparty audits play a "critical role" in securing a safe food supply. In the case of its
audit of the PCA plant, AIB said a number
of factors changed between the time its
inspection was completed in March 2008
and when the Food and Drug Administration conducted its own inspection in
January 2009. Those factors included the
departure of PCA's plant manager in June
2008 - a new manager was not hired until October 2008, according to AIB.
"Four months without day-to-day ongoing technical oversight would be more than
enough time to cause such a facility's condi-

tion to decline," AIB said. The Blakely facility was a "highly complicated operation"
with aging equipment that required constant upkeep and attention to remain within
acceptable sanitation levels, AIB added.
By the time the FDA investigation was
initiated in January 2009, AIB said conditions clearly had "significantly worsened,"
adding that had the more serious problems
and unsatisfactory conditions found by
FDA investigators in January and February
2009 been present at the time of the AIB
audit in March 2008, they would have been
flagged by the AIB auditor.
AIB noted that while its inspections
follow detailed standards based on FDA
regulations and Food Chemicals CODEX
standards, they are not certification audits
and cannot get around deception.

As part of its commitment to continuous improvement, AIB identified several
updates and revisions to its consolidated
standards, including:
* Increasing the time required to
conduct an audit
* Making achievement certificates
more difficult to obtain
* Changing the title on its GMP
inspection certificates from "Certificate
of Achievement" to "Recognition of
Achievement" to lower the possibility
that the process is misunderstood as
an actual certification
* More clearly stating on reports
whether audits/inspections were
unannounced or announced
For more information, visit
www.aibonline.org.
May 2009 / BAKING & SNACK

http://www.aibonline.org

Baking & Snack - May 2009

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