Ozone Depletion and Country Pride- The Nutrimix Experience

Wheat is believed to be the first food crop raised by humans. It is one of the basic ingredients used in Trinidad and Tobago for making breads, cakes, rotis, doubles biscuits and cereals. With this in mind, The Nutrimix Group of Companies incorporated Nutrimix Flour Mills with the aim of delivering quality flour and unrivaled service to industries, bakeries, supermarkets and local food vendors at affordable prices.

Nutrimix Flour Mills is a state of the art flour mill that has one of the world’s best cleaning and milling systems, supplied and installed by Buhler of Switzerland.  At Nutrimix Flour Mills, we take pride in our products and are strongly committed to supporting and stimulating sustainable agricultural practices. We are aware that agriculture accounts for a notable part of the environmental impact along the food chain, including impacts on water, air quality, climate, soil and biodiversity.

Nutrimix Flour Mills has carefully implemented cleaning and sanitization, fumigation and insect monitoring systems that make flour production not only food safe, but also adding minimal contribution to Ozone Depletion.

Stored-product insect pests reduce the quality of stored grain and processed grain products around the world. Pest management is important not only to maintain consumer confidence, but also to eliminate insect presence in processing facilities and insect fragments in processed goods. Pest Management, together with facility sanitization issues, present ongoing struggles for managers at flour mills, feed mills and other grain processing facilities. Nutrimix Flour Mills has placed major emphasis on its Pest Management Program by allowing the use of integrated strategies to reduce the need for chemical fumigations in order to control insect infestation.

Nutrimix Flour Mills has invested much time and effort into our cleaning and sanitization and monitoring programs. This is done to minimize and identify the pattern of distribution of pest species.

All of our grains imported out of the USA are inspected and checked by the United States Department of Agriculture (Federal Grain Inspection Service), to ensure and verify that all standards have been met. Consequently, an Official Export Certificate, as well as Phytosanitary Certificate, are issued and accompanied with all shipments. The cargo and documents are further scrutinized by the Plant Quarantine Department at the port of entry before discharging operations. This ensures that no pest or diseases enter the country.

Good inbound raw material product testing and monitoring, together with regular and prompt cleaning of spills and equipment are carried out. Routine inspections are also done on equipment which may lead to a source of infestation.

As a method of monitoring pest activity, Nutrimix Flour Mills has installed bait stations, moth traps and beetle traps throughout the facility. Each station or trap contains bait pheromones or attractant oil which are deemed “food friendly” or made of natural substances.

If however, insect infestation does occur, fumigation is the primary tool used to manage it. Fumigation is the application of a chemical gas or smoke to an area for the purpose of disinfecting it. Methyl Bromide was initially one of the major fumigants used widely in food processing and storage facilities for the suppression of stored-product insect pests, however, it was gradually phased out as part of the Montreal Protocol. In abiding by this, Nutrimix Flour Mills has replaced Methyl Bromide with alternative chemicals or gas fumigants and tablets that offer an effective and safe replacement to that of Methyl Bromide. These tablets, and/or gas, reduces flammability risks, produces no spent residues, and personnel safety is enhanced because of its remote application that eliminates the need to enter the fumigated area. It is also extremely effective against all stages of the target pests.

Nutrimix Flour Mills has also extended its efforts in promoting environmental friendliness by instilling fire safety measures that assist restoring the ozone layer. One approach is by replacing all fire extinguishers in and around the flour mill with dry chemical and carbon dioxide.

Flour milling is basically a dry process and produces negligible waste. Even though this is the case, Nutrimix Flour Mills has implemented operations that ensure a prudent use of natural resources, an effective protection of the environment during the entire production process, and the production of valuable co-products in order to minimize waste and guard the ozone layer from destruction.

Written by Stephanie Downing

Food Safety and Quality Assurance Technician

Nutrimix Flour Mills