By John Eckberg
Enquirer staff writer

Carl Deeter, the assembly lead man, makes adjustments on the filling head of the SP3 Frank Loader at Planet Products Corp. The machine is a hot dog packager. The Enquirer/MEGGAN BOOKER

Carter Randolph, chairman and chief executive of Planet Products.

The task in 1998 for designers at Planet Product Corp. in Blue Ash was clear.

Build a hot dog loading machine that would virtually eliminate contamination by the bacteria listeria monocytogene from the packaging process and, at the same time, boost production by up to 50 percent.

At the time, Planet Product designer Bill Harrison knew he would be chasing something of a frankfurter Holy Grail. Listeria can be a deadly disease for those with weakened immune systems and will cause gastrointestinal problems for others. Getting it out of the food production system is paramount for processors.

"A hot dog is a ready-to-eat product and this is the last machine that touches the hot dog before it goes into the package and gets sealed," said Carter Randolph, chairman and chief executive of Planet Products.

"That makes sanitary design absolutely critical."

Six years of design, development and production later, the company has rolled out its next-generation hot dog handler, called the SP3 frank loader. Randolph can't estimate the development cost because of the hours logged by two designers in recent years, but says that in the last nine months alone the firm spent more than $700,000 to move it from blueprint into stainless steel.

In addition to the loader, the firm - which was founded in the 1940s and bought by Randolph in 1998 - also builds sausage loading, slicer, sandwich assembly and sandwich cooking systems for companies that include Sara Lee, Conagra, Smithfield Foods, Kraft and Bar-S.

A sleek array of stainless steel framing, trays and long conveyor belts, the SP3 has half as many parts as other loader machines and no gear box to clog with bacteria-laden scraps. It saves staff time in production and cleaning cycles.

It can be disassembled for cleaning without any tools, reassembled in 15 minutes and requires one or two - as opposed to three - employees to operate.

HOT DOG HISTORY

• Sausages are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, but it was during the Renaissance (1487) that the modern hot dog is thought to have evolved. • Frankfurt, Germany, is credited as its place of origin, although the Austrian capital of Vienna (Wien in German) also lays claim to inventing the wiener. • Also known as a frankfurter or frank, the food is thought to have made its debut in America in New York after the Civil War, when immigrant butchers sold dachshund (little dog, in German) sausages on bread. Later, pet dachshunds acquired the nickname "wiener dogs." Associated with their popularity at New York's Coney Island amusement park beginning in the 1870s, hot dogs are also called coneys. • Hot dogs became standard fare at baseball parks in the late 19th century thanks to St. Louis bar owner Chris Von de Ahe, a German immigrant who also owned the St. Louis Browns. • Historians disagree over when the term "hot dog" came into use, but some point to college campuses in the 1890s.

Also, the SP3 can handle 1,600 to 1,800 franks per minute, compared with most machines that package 1,200 to 1,400 per minute.

"That's a 50 percent increase in production, and this machine has a smaller footprint," Randolph said.

The latest meat handling machine from this Blue Ash firm has already changed how hot dogs are packaged at Sugardale Foods Inc., a Massillon, Ohio, manufacturer of smoked and processed meats that distributes worldwide to the retail food service industry.

Sugardale bought a loader in July and has been pleased with the results.

"We have just the greatest things to say about this piece of equipment," said Kristin Clemmer, director of marketing.

"Food safety is of the utmost importance to us. That's why we put this piece of equipment in. It's so much easier to clean because it has fewer parts."

The hot dog loading machine industry is a small niche, Randolph acknowledged, with perhaps only 600 hot dog loaders in the world.

But when the sale of a single loader brings in $230,000 to more than $500,000 - depending upon whether Planet Products is hired to marry the SP3 to packaging machines, cookers or other existing equipment at the client plant - that's enough to get the attention of a small company like Planet Products.

The company employs 76 people at its 54,000-square-foot plant and has annual revenue of $10 million-$15 million. By 2007, Randolph said, revenue should approach $20 million.

So far, SP3s are in Taiwan; Norway; Italy; Canton, Ohio; Flint, Mich.; Oklahoma; and Chicago.

Craig Henry, vice president office of food safety programs for the National Food Processors Association, an international trade association representing 400 members and based in Washington, said final-stage handling equipment offers the industry a challenge.

New federal regulations enacted in 2003 have a zero tolerance for listeria for ready-to-eat meats.

"Since hot dogs go through a cooking step, are cooled then packaged, there is no kill step prior to packaging," he said.

So every step after cooking must be listeria-free. "You really have to be on your toes with a tight program," he said.

One of the challenges for the company, acknowledged John Abraham, vice president of sales, is that tight profit margins and competition means many small meat processors believe they cannot afford a new loader.

"We liken it to driving around without car insurance," Abraham said. "We tell them that sooner or later you're going to get a bug in your package.

"And then it's Jack in the Box all over again and the company now has a huge investment that will be going to lawyers," referring to a 1993 incident in which a 2-year-old boy died of food poisoning after eating at one of the fast-food chain's restaurants in Washington state.

"Food-borne illnesses have plummeted this year. I think there is a heightened sensitivity by all manufacturers that it can bankrupt a company," said Dave Fusaro, editor-in-chief of Food Processing, a food industry magazine based in Itasca, Ill.

The magazine publishes an annual manufacturing trends survey and each year food safety is overwhelmingly the top concern. "It comes in ahead of labor, automation, plant security, logistics, consolidation and energy costs, and this year it was again the top issue," Fusaro said.

Accelerated depreciation, lower interest rates and currency valuations, particularly a cheaper dollar, have led some overseas companies to invest in the newest generation of loader.

America's love affair with hot dogs hasn't hurt either.

Two billion hot dogs are likely to be consumed this month during National Hot Dog Month, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

For 2003, 837 million packages of hot dogs were sold in the United States at groceries with scanners, which represents about $1.8 billion in sales, said Ayoka Blandford, public affairs manager for the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, up from $1.7 billion in sales from 2002.

"Hot dog season starts with the first pitch of baseball," Randolph said. "And now we have all these gourmet hot dogs, too. That's opened a new market. It's not just something you slap into a microwave and shove at your kids anymore. It's become a full meal."

Cathy McIntyre, deli manager at Silverglade's on Clough, an Anderson Township specialty food store, agreed with Randolph. She noticed an uptick in sales of gourmet hot dogs and sausages in mid-2003.

"A big influence is the Atkins diet," she said. "People are eating more gourmet hot dogs and sausages. I don't know when - what meal - but I do know it's no longer just summer season fare."

email:jeckberg@enquirer.com