Tom Stabosz of Toxic Tommy's Beef Jerky has used Pawkit from Decagon Devices to test the safety of beef jerky.
Stabosz previously dehydrated the jerky to 73.9C.
He said: 'I was tired of sticking temperature probes into sliced pieces of drying meat in an open oven and hearing the inspector say "not 73.9C yet".' Stabosz wanted a simpler and quicker solution and chose water activity using Pawkit from Decagon Devices.
The USDA says any food with a water activity of less than 0.85 complies with the non-potentially hazardous food regulations.
Water activity is a quick, reliable safety check and Pawkit is a simple, fast portable meter that checks water activity at the production line.
Pawkit acts like a point and shoot camera: it gives a quick and accurate picture of food quality and safety.
A sample is put into Pawkit, which gives a measurement in five minutes.
Over-processed food means higher ingredient costs, higher electric bills, higher labour costs and often a product that doesn't taste as good.
Stabosz discovered that by checking water activity, he could save at least 20 minutes of processing time for each production run and could produce a more consistent, higher quality product.
Pawkit has improved Toxic Tommy's productivity by 10 per cent.
Stabosz estimates Pawkit will pay for itself in less than a year.
