As one of the largest halal meat processors in Canada — supplying more than 75 different products to Canadian retail outlets and restaurants —Solmaz Foods values food safety.
Specializing in Turkish-style meats, Montreal-style turkey breast, halal pepperoni, deli cuts and sujuk sausage, Solmaz Foods was founded in 2001 when father-son duo Tahsin and Mehmet Solmaz opened a small butcher shop in east downtown Toronto. Today, the company’s processing plant stands on a 20,000-sq.-ft. space in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke and processes 135,000 lbs. of the finest halal meat monthly.
Rapid expansion and increasing sales volumes led to the addition of an in-line Fortress Stealth pipeline metal detector to inspect meat before it is stuffed, cooked, smoked, sliced and eventually packaged. Having the combination of both upstream and end-of-line conveyor metal detectors gives Solmaz a competitive edge, Mehmet Solmaz says. Double inspections equal double reassurance that contaminants are not going undetected and undermining the company’s food safety values.
“Now we have a control where we can identify if a product has any metal pieces or other materials inside earlier in our production,” Mehmet Solmaz says. “That gives us better control and peace of mind that our products are safe.”
Aside from improved food safety upstream, adding the Stealth Pipeline has reduced costs across the board by 50 percent.
“That 50 percent is basically combined time and labor savings, plus risk reduction,” Mehmet Solmaz says. “Our in-line detector eliminates a lot of waste because the moment this system detects any material in the meat, it automatically discharges that part of the batch, and we can still process the rest of it. So, this gives us two control systems in place where before we only had one on the packaging line.”
With this robust food safety foundation in place, the halal meat processor describes its metal detectors as essential equipment.
“If we didn’t have these machines, it wouldn’t really matter what our production schedule is,” Mehmet Solmaz says. “We would be getting tons of food safety questions from our regulatory control inspectors about whether we have the right safeguards in place. We now have peace of mind that we can make a certain amount of product, and whatever wasn’t discharged by the detectors is safe.”
