CEM Corporation: Innovation in Food Processing

The food processing industry is very dynamic and competitive in nature, where every organization is trying to gain market share through product and process innovations. The development of new technology for compositional analysis of food is a critical component in process improvement allowing for the highest quality, most cost-effective products for the consumer. CEM Corporation offers new revolutionary technologies that provide improved process control and give customers a competitive edge in today’s marketplace.

Backed with 200 patents and over 10 ‘R&D100 awards’ for its unique products, CEM is a recognized industry leader in providing solutions for quality control and process control for a wide range of industries including food processing markets. Its technology is unique in allowing for the first time ever, rapid, direct measurement of critical components replacing the older, indirect spectroscopic methods (IR) which typically require extensive and on-going calibration.

“What CEM offers is unique; it eliminates the shortcomings of the technologies that have been available in the past. Our technology is unique in providing rapid, direct measurements eliminating the need for extensive calibration,” says Dr. Michael J. Collins, the CEO of CEM. The company’s ProFat Meat Analyzer for meat and poultry testing provides fat, moisture, ash and protein results for samples such as beef, pork, chicken, turkey, meat blends and more with excellent accuracy and precision.

The primary aim of the ProFat Meat Analyzer is to offer a simple, rapid and direct method for compositional analysis that eliminates and replaces the classical, outdated techniques of meat and poultry testing.

Such breakthroughs and innovations—notably the Sprint protein analyzer —have earned CEM a Green Chemistry award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Sprint utilizes a non-toxic dye-binding technology that eliminates the need for solvents when analyzing food-based products. Likewise, CEM’s proprietary nuclear magnetic resonance technology allows the company's ORACLE universal fat analyzer to completely isolate protons in fat from all other proton-sources within food matrixes, such as carbohydrates and proteins. The advantage of the ORACLE is that it provides greater accuracy and precision compared to wet chemistry techniques, all without the need for calibration or method development. This has significantly reduced the analysis time from 20 – 60 minutes to a mere 30 seconds. Alternatively, ORACLE can be paired with other devices such as the SMART6—an advanced microwave moisture analyzer—for combined rapid fat and moisture analysis in less than 5 minutes.

CEM derives its name from the combination of its founders’ skill sets—Chemical, Electrical, and Mechanical expertise; the trio shared a common vision for creating an innovative microwave drying technology that could revolutionize the speed with which moisture or solid analysis is performed. Today, CEM has not only transformed the field of microwave chemistry but has excelled in many areas beyond microwave technology, supplying high-quality products and services to key markets beyond meat and poultry processing organizations. The state-of-the-art equipment and systems produced by CEM help food processors of all sizes, in all markets, to operate at peak efficiency.

Bolstered by these products and its technological expertise, CEM is developing a new wave of innovative solutions for the meat and poultry processing industry, thereby driving excellence in performance, food safety and sustainability. Food testing will continue to be a major focus of CEM’s new product development, which will further aid in strengthening business operations, ultimately providing customers a much-needed competitive edge in the food processing industry.