Bühler Aeroglide Appoints New Director of R&D and Food Safety

Bühler Aeroglide has promoted Steve Blackowiak to the position of Director of Food Safety, Research and Development. In his newly-appointed position, he now oversees the application of food safety requirements to all research and development work at Bühler Aeroglide.

“Our Food Safety Team is comprised of research and development engineers focused exclusively on food safety and this is driving hygienic equipment design,” said Steve Blackowiak. “Our newest generation of dryer designs promote cleanability, microbiological safety and increased productivity. We have over 30 new innovations and four patents that address these critical operational concerns. These innovations are helping processors maximize profitability, while ensuring the highest standard of hygienic food processing.”

Blackowiak’s career in equipment design started at Food Engineering Corporation, Inc. (FEC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, designing drying equipment for Kellogg’s, General Mills and MOM Brands. Here, Blackowiak held several positions from Designer to Project Engineer where he learned about dryers, fabrication, sheet metal, welding and overall manufacturing. Soon, he was promoted to Engineering Manager working with customers to address design challenges. When Aeroglide purchased FEC in 2002, Blackowiak moved to Cary, NC to champion food safety.

Since then, Blackowiak has worked to change the way the equipment manufacturing industry views food safety. He leads food safety forums designed to engage department teams and he’s an industry spokesperson tuned into global food safety. In recent years, Blackowiak helped introduce One Voice, a new approach to equipment innovation and hygienic equipment design for the food and feed industry. Leveraging Bühler Aeroglide’s own successful collaborations, he demonstrates how original equipment manufacturers and consumer packaged goods companies can achieve results by adopting new guidelines that offer a uniform approach to non-proprietary sanitary equipment designs meeting a base food safety requirement for the manufacture of low-moisture foods.

“Food processors and equipment suppliers all want to ensure that food and feed is processed safely,” said Blackowiak. “We’ve agreed there are three design levels that address critical components of hygienic equipment design and we are working with our suppliers and the industry to acknowledge these as standards.”