Foodhorizon Uses Technology For Optimum Dining
A 4-year-old Research Valley company has weighed in quickly as a heavyweight in the food service industry.
FoodHorizon of College Station creates a science out of the food preparation process, giving production plants a quantum leap in efficiency and doing the same for small food preparers and retail restaurants.
Even companies with more than $5 billion in annual revenue and 100,000 employees are saluting the innovation Research Valley companies are introducing into the food industry.
“I’ve never seen a community embrace university research and development in such an innovative manner to accomplish their goals,” says Norman Ouellette, a Starbucks vice president for research and development who sits on the advisory council of Texas A&M’s Institute of Food Science and Engineering, or IFSE.
The food research institute helped jump-start FoodHorizon’s development of cutting-edge food technology services. The company visits food manufacturing sites, developing a paperless system for ensuring ultimate food safety and preparation efficiency through Sentry9000, its flagship product.
“The benefit to consumers is unprecedented,” says Jose Quintana, FoodHorizon’s president and chief technology officer. “Sentry9000 reduces the risk of food safety-related problems.”
Over the course of eight weeks, FoodHorizon develops a matrix for monitoring and tracking every food process.
“We use wireless technology,” Quintana says. “Our system monitors, 24 hours a day, the critical processes in a factory, such as temperature control. The plant can take immediate action if there is a problem.”
FoodHorizon also offers digital systems to enhance operations at small food-processing firms and restaurant operations. The companies achieve major boosts to their bottom line while ensuring their product is safe and well-prepared, Quintana says, pointing to clients like The Cheesecake Factory, which has more than doubled its production within months of employing the Sentry9000.
FoodHorizon’s founders invested more than five years of research with the food institute that helped hatch FoodHorizon at Texas A&M’s Research Park. That asset, says Quintana, “is like having a $450 million mega R&D facility.”
