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Subramanyam Lab

Comments

Each of the comments comes from an individual. The language and text have been reproduced "as is" from the evaluation questionnaire.

General Comments

  • (Box lunch) Much better than an extra value meal @ McDonald's... Hey, where my toy (KSU trinket)?
  • I like the one where plants have been heat treated and what they learn. Very good. Use of equipment and what is new and better
  • Keep to 2 days, not 21/2
  • Keep talks simple and on time
  • Outstanding workshop. Keep doing them!
  • Most of the speakers were excellent/good. Hope to attend more in the future
  • Subi - thanks to you and your group for a very informative and useful workshop
  • It would be good to have the evaluation forms at teh start, so that each presentation is fresh in your mind
  • Overall - excellent workshop. I have been to a number of meetings on methyl bromide alternatives and this is by far the best from a practical point of view and from the number of industry participants
  • If we elect to utilize this approach we would like to present our experiences/learnings

What topics would you like to see covered in the next workshop?

  • What about updates from our foreign visitors with their efforts (successes/learning curves/best practices) on their heat treatments?
  • More detail on trend analyses with pheromone trapping and utilization of this data to improve sanitation and pest management strategies
  • An update with tom Dykstra's research - excellent topic!
  • Wheat flour heat treatment
  • Methods of assessment of effectiveness
  • Small group discussions. I am very new to this part of the industry (pest management), it would be nice to have small group (diversified groups) to discuss large topic
  • How about some small-treatment demos/hands-on practice? Pieces of processing equipment, etc.
  • Targeted heat treatment
  • More information on maintenance/engineering's important role in heat treatments at facilities
  • Heat treatment + DE (diatomaceous earth)
  • Common maintenance issues encountered during heat up
  • Heat treatments will be an economic downfall for pest management industry
  • Someone who has treated a mill without shutting it down - least downtime or NO downtime
  • Case studies; Both good AND bad with lessons learned from each
  • More open dialogue, people/techs presenting problems and/or problem areas in their facilities and getting input/ideas from other people in the industry on how to solve these problems
  • More "plant" folks with "real time" problems and solutions. Tips/tricks
  • Would like to hear from the equip. people, plc, etc on the heat tolerances of their equipment. What heat can this stuff take?
  • More on trapping and pheromones. This will help you decide if/when to heat treat
  • Salvaging heat treatments when equipment fails
  • Elements of heat treatment
  • Heat treatment from maintenance department's perspective
  • Different approaches to heat treatments in food plants, pet foods plants, bakeries, summer heat treatments versus winter heat treatments
  • Listing out heat treatment horror stories
  • List of items not to be heat treated
  • Medical testing results of employees starting heat treatments, during heat treatments, and post heat treatments. i.e: BP, respiratory, moisture/wt. loss, any other metabolic rates, etc.
  • Relation between food plant sanitarian, pest control operators and heat treatment providers
  • Presentation from insurance company representative on their coverage for heat treatments
  • How to teach heat treatment to food plant employees
  • Heat treating food products, packaging supplies, and ingredients
  • Ask some of those in the room if they are going to do a heat treatment at their facility in the next year. If so, ask them to prepare a talk on how it went to discuss at next year's conference
  • Determining heat loss for individual facilities (methods and factors) Whoops! I spoke too soon! Thanks Sham
  • Heat treatment for flour silo (concrete and metal)
  • Heat absorption rates of different material types. These rates are needed to determine BTU need to meet certain timeline, or to determine treatment time with existing systems. Also need this for efficiency rating of treatments
  • Possibly to allow "volunteer" workshop participants to participate in the actual heat treat - setup, round the clock (2 hr shifts), monitoring, taking care of problem opportunities, etc.
  • Comparison of different types of heat measurement instrumentation. Possibly side-by-side comparison in the feed and flour mill heat ups
  • Very "basic" heat transfer concepts/calculations
  • Examples of convection patterns in open buildings - impact of equipment
  • Heat sterilization i.e. killing microbials
  • Economics, building types, product effects, liability, insurance, impact on electric equipment, heat sinks

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What will you implement from the information gathered at the workshop?

  • The workshop has increased my interest in "cool spots" and the need to identify and address these areas to have a more effective treatment
  • Heat treatment in Japan should be started like in US
  • Spot type heat treatments - mostly bin type areas
  • Currently using heat treatments, but will make use of contacts to improve how we are doing them, e.g. how to spot treat, how to heat up faster, etc.
  • Evaluate discrete/limited heat treatment at a few of our facilities

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