By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief
When 33 men became trapped in the San Jose mine near Copiapo, the Chilean Safety Association (ACHS) called on National Restaurant Association member and National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show participant ARAMARK to help feed them. ACHS recognized the company’s extensive history, skill and experience in serving remote camps, innovative technology, and capabilities and focus on safety and wellness. Working right up to that remarkable day of the miners’ rescue, ARAMARK worked closely with ACHS and global experts to provide a constant supply of fresh and nutritious food under some extraordinary conditions.
In one of the most remote regions of the country, ARAMARK used its innovation, expertise and technology to prepare hot, nutritious meals. The company transported those meals across rugged terrain and used state-of-the-art processes to send them half a mile through the earth. In doing so, the company’s team provided the miners with good food that gave some small sense of the comforts of home.
Transporting meals that included beef stroganoff, roast chicken, lentils and rice, and fresh fruits more than half a mile beneath the earth’s surface was no easy task. It required a lot of logistical innovation.
- To minimize any operational risks, ARAMARK assembled a team of food engineers, nutritionists, chefs and technology experts specialized in remote site food preparation and delivery.
- Each portion prepared by the team was individually vacuum-sealed and transported by mobile equipment that to ensure an unbroken cold chain.
- To finish, each piece was rethermalized in cutting-edge technology containers installed at the San Jose mine base of operations. This process involved returning the neutrons in the food, which had been slowed to prevent contamination, to normal speed.
- The food was then heated to 75 C, which allowed it to maintain freshness and to be eaten at normal temperatures.
- The thermalized portion was introduced in a PVC tube to protect it during its way down through the lifeline underground tubes operated by the mine’s rescue team. Delivery of four meals for 33 miners took approximately 90 minutes each day. ARAMARK provided more than 5,500 meals by the time the last miner was safely out of the collapsed mine.
These processes are being put to use not only for the Chilean miners, but in other extreme settings around the globe, from offshore oil rigs to copper mines.
Blogger’s note: Ira Cohn, President, Business & Industry Group, ARAMARK served as the convention chair of the 2010 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.
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