News
Stevenson's signature spiral chutes have reached their newest level of recognition. This week, Stevenson Company was awarded the 2019 Innovation Award. This distinction, bestowed during the Small Business Awards ceremony in Topeka, recognized Stevenson's spiral chute as an outstanding innovation that contributed to the business community. The spiral was deemed to have a significant positive impact on the food processing industry.
Since its inception, the Spiral Chute has been a solution that customers were looking for. Our products are completely “green” in the environmental sense, starting with stainless steel that is sixty percent recycled content. Spiral Chutes have no moving parts, require zero lubrication, and are wholly recyclable. The real environmental impact is that they reduce thousands of pounds of waste by preserving product integrity and therefore avoiding landfill use.
Stevenson Company is a finalist for the Small Business of the Year award, in part because of our innovative team. Our first spiral chute was installed at the local potato chip factory, who needed to eliminate product breakage. The Spiral Chute quickly paid for itself: Saving chips was saving money! Soon, every sister-plant wanted a full complement of spirals to gently and quickly move product while eliminating waste, increasing shelf appeal and boosting customer satisfaction.
Stevenson Company is a finalist for a Small Business Award, recognizing a solid history of creating innovative products. Russell Stevenson bought a small tin shop in 1952 and advertised in the local business directory: "Sheet Metal Work of All Kinds." The business was located in a former stable. Though our facilities have been updated tremendously since then, we have remained at the same location. We have expanded to a total of 15,500 square feet and armed ourselves with state-of-the-art metalworking equipment.
Stevenson Company first entered the food industry when working with a customer to build an egg-breaking machine. The invention allowed whites to be separated from yolks. It removed human hands from the process, thereby reducing risk of diseases spread to processors and consumers.
Joe Pennington, president of Stevenson Company Inc., has been certified with Preventive Controls Qualified Individual Training to help customers train and comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirement. The training was provided by Fadi Aramouni at the Food Science Institute.
The Food Safety Modernization Act is the most extensive reform of food safety laws in the United States in more than 70 years. With the proactive goal to prevent food contamination, one key change included in the reform that applies to the majority of food processors is the need to have a food safety plan prepared and implemented by a PCQI.