Spice Manufacturing Facility is Organized and Even ‘Chic’ Due to Volunteer Support

Ivorian cuisine covers a wide range of tubers, grains, fish and vegetables, typically garnished with a range of local spices. In many households, these spices are ground by hand, making their daily use tiring and inconvenient. In 2016, Mrs. Yao Glawdis decided to change the status quo, by establishing SITRAV, a processing company that made affordable, ready-to-use spices. Eight years on, SITRAV has grown to become one of the leading producers of local spices in Côte d’Ivoire. To meet growing demand, SITRAV has had to expand their current production facility to new premises nearby. They looked to PFS for support on how best they could optimize their space while observing good hygiene practices. 

Kevin Richter, an engineering manager at Ardent Mills joined this project to support SITRAV. In his daily job, Kevin helps manage capital projects throughout the company. The range of experience he has garnered has been very useful to PFS as one of our committed and long-standing volunteers. He has nearly twenty successful projects under his belt, since he started volunteering in 2013. “Volunteering is a good way to give back, whether it is in the local community or like in my case, all these places that I may never even travel to. It’s also important to me because the clients (at PFS) always have a thirst for knowledge, curiosity and an improvement mindset which makes it easier to work with them.” 

Together with another volunteer from Bühler, Kevin reviewed SITRAV’s production process and came up with a plant layout design that prioritized food safety and put the requisite documentation in place. “The project was really about upping the food safety culture and trying to set the basic standards for what a United States (U.S) audit would require for walking zones for employees and ensure that dirty products are not mixed with clean products after processing,” said Kevin. 

SITRAV modified their plant’s layout based on the volunteers’ recommendations, setting the fundamentals for the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification they are aiming for. Kevin has signed up for another project with SITRAV to help resolve aspiration problems in their spice grinding room. He is working with them to develop a filtration system that will reduce how much spice blows back into the room to eliminate most of the dust.  

Mr. Beni Ngouan, operations director for SITRAV expressed his gratitude to Kevin and his team, saying, “Thanks to the volunteers, we achieved our objective. It was quite tough to have to pull down a portion of the walls and tiles but in the end, we are very happy to see the transformation of our building; the space is well organized and chic!”   

“Volunteering with PFS is always a good experience and I’m always happy to help. Don’t be afraid to start volunteering! The PFS teams are very patient, and the clients face the same problems that we do in the U.S – just on a different scale. Volunteering allows you to step back from the lens of large-scale manufacturing and focus on a small-scale issue which could be of a different raw material (like spices or cocoa beans) than you are used to. This shouldn’t scare you, because whether you know it or not, you have learned a lot from our culture at Ardent Mills, which you can hopefully impart to others,” said Kevin.