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Strict regulations control the quality of ingredients and processes. Two separate GMP compliant facilities manufacture human and animal products, using the latest technology and equipment to produce capsules, tablets, liquids, powders, soft gels, chewables, sublinguals, pellets, pastes and meal replacements.
Our Production Team delivers Uckele's customer confidence guarantee of ethical and responsible manufacturing procedures. To ensure Uckele's guarantee that your product is fresh, pure & potent, all products are manufactured using Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and FDA compliant procedures. Uckele is a founding and audited member of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC).
Uckele continues to manufacture only the highest quality, affordable supplements using the finest ingredients, providing full fact labels, a complete analysis, ingredient list, lot number and a Best-if-Used-By date. Your end product is the result of constant communication between Quality Control and Production, following consistent standards of excellence.
Pellet Making Process
Preferred by both horses and horse owners, the greatest benefit of pellets is their palatability to horses and the convenience for owners. The ration can be accurately measured, the contents are consistent and uniform, they are convenient, simple to transport and store, and take up less room in the barn.
In addition, according to Jim Trowbridge, who operates the pellet mill, "Horses don't sort through pellets they way they can powder. Also, there's no dust or fines and the horse eats all the pellets without leaving residue on the bottom of the bucket like powders can." Jim described the pellet process for us:
1) Raw ingredients for the pellet formula are dropped from a shoot down through the bind feeder; the technician has control over the speed of the drop, which depends on the consistency of the pellet.
2) The bin feeder then feeds the formula into the conditioner, which remixes the product, breaking up balls or chunks.
3) The formula falls into a forcefeeder, which also has a variable speed motor that runs according to the amps the pellet mill is using. This feeds the formula into the die mold to form pellets.
4) The pellets go into a leg that pulls them up into a cooler.
5) After the pellets are cooled, they go through a sifter, where fines and dust are filtered out. They are then sprayed with probiotics by a proprietary mechanism and process that was developed by the Uckele team to ensure the even distribution and effectiveness of the live, beneficial bacteria.
6) The pellets are then transferred to another leg where they are packaged by a mechanical bagger that can fill 50 pound bags to 5-pound pails, and anything in between.
Uckele's Customs Process, Start-to-Finish
Uckele custom manufactures privately labeled products for many of the industry's largest, well-established and highly respected brands. We also take special pride in helping small, new companies develop successful formulas to enter the nutritional marketplace. And many individual customers utilize Uckele's unique custom manufacturing option to pre-mix their horse's multiple supplements into one formula.
Whether it is a large corporation or a single client, Kristina Goulet, Uckele's Director of Product Development, assists clients in building the perfect nutritional formula that targets their horse's specific needs. "Nutritional needs vary drastically from horse to horse," Kristina explains, "even horses that share the same genetics or environment may require different nutritional programs."
"The biggest advantage our customers find by custom blending multiple formulas into one is the ease of dosing." Kristina continues, "If they are boarding their horses, charges for the extra service of feeding multiple supplements may be reduced, and not only that, a custom blend decreases the extra time and clutter of multiple supplements in the feed room."
Custom blends can be derived from various sources:
• A hair mineral analysis (HMA), the lab test that measures mineral levels of the body's tissues and identifies imbalances or deficiencies and provides information on metabolism, blood sugar response, endocrine function and stress response.
• The results of hay testing, which can identify nutritional imbalances in forages, leading to vitamin and mineral deficiencies and excesses.
• A customer's request to blend their horses' multiple formulas into one mix.
For example, the HMA derived custom recipes are developed by Jack Grogan, Uckele's VP of Research & Development and Senior Nutritionist, which Kristina turns into a batching formula for a 60-day supply based on percentages calculated from the recipe. Each batch is individually prepared, mixed and measured by hand, and blended separately. Turn around time is typically 5 - 7 business days.
Every custom product gets a unique customized label listing ingredients, feeding directions, the customer and horse's name, the date formulated and a scoop tailored to the specific dosage required for that particular blend. "This is a true custom product," Kristina explains, "the size of the scoop varies, based on the final density and volume of that individual product."
One of the Uckele Plant proprietary manufacturing processes protects trace minerals both physically and chemically as they are transported to the small intestine, where they are absorbed.
Benefits of the Polysaccharide Complex are:
• Higher bioavailability and absorption
• Less interference from antagonistic nutrients/compounds such as Sulfates, Iron, Molybdenum, Fiber, etc.
• Potential for reduced basic feeding levels while maintaining optimum production
• Less breakdown of vitamins in feed and premixes
Uckele's Powder Process
David Bruce oversees production from start to finish, making the most of Uckele's experienced and skilled production team to ensure that our customers receive the quality product they require. He explains the powder production process, which constitutes the majority of Uckele supplements, "After the formulas are developed, quality in the manufacturing process continues to be the highest priority. There is constant communication between Quality Control and Production. We are always looking for ways to refine and improve the procedure."
1) After careful research & testing by Uckele's experienced Product Development Specialists, a master batch formula is delivered to the manufacturing plant for each and every formula. More than just a recipe, the batch sheet spells out:
• Ingredients
• Quantities
• When ingredients are added
• Blending times
• The final form the product will take, which can include tablets, capsules, powders, liquids, gels, etc.
• Primary packaging specs, such as container type and size
• Secondary packaging specs, ranging from container seals to shipping boxes, with many other possible components
• Label verification & lot numbers
Dave explains, "The next process is relatively complex, with all of the strict standards we require. The number of ingredients in a batch can become a greater factor than the size of the batch." This explains why:
2) Following the Master Formula, ingredients are weighed out before being added to the main batch for mixing. Each weight is cross-checked to ensure proper measurement. Equipment sanitation, facility cleanliness and climate control are just a few of the strict standards followed to ensure that product and ingredient integrity is maintained.
3) Once mixing is complete, the product is then directed to the appropriate processing equipment according to the batch size and output type. The end-product is counted or weighed out, bottled, labeled, and sealed, with a sample of each batch inspected before being released to the shipping area.
Dave concludes, "The team keeps an accurate log of each batch we run, that way, we can keep it consistent, and we can duplicate the process every time."
Uckele has acquired a new automatic bottling line, which allows our production team to fill bottles at speeds up to 30 bottles per minute. Dan Gragg, Product Development Technician, is pleased with the increase in efficiency, which increases productivity, "Recently a 1,000 bottle order was filled in 2 & ½ hours, compared to our previous process, which would have taken nearly 7 hours. We expect continuous, improved output as our manufacturing associates continue to perfect the process." Dan describes how the line works:
1) Empty, pre-labeled bottles are loaded onto the conveyer system
2) The first pass is under the desiccant inserter, which inserts one or multiple packs as needed. The packs absorb moisture and keep the product fresh.
3) The bottles follow the conveyer to a capsule counter with an electronic eye that determines the numbers of capsules placed in each bottle.
4) The conveyer takes the bottles to the cotton inserter, which protects the contents from damage.
5) The bottles are then transported to the automatic capping machine, which passes the bottles through side conveyers and places lids on the bottles under a series of wheels that torque the lids.
6) Then the bottles pass through the induction sealer to seal the safety foil, beneath the heat seal placement machine, and finally, through the heat tunnel to shrink the outside safety seal. |
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