August 10 - McCain Foods

Today was the 12th day of my 6-week work period at McCain Foods in Florenceville, where I am currently interning at the PPTC (Potato Processing Technology Centre), which is in charge of producing French fries and improving the science behind those tiny strips of potato. Having spent more than two entire weeks at this facility already, I did not quite realize until this morning how much my assigned reading and general research had already taught me about microbiology and food science. It only became clear to me when realizing that the bread – which was originally meant to be my breakfast – had moldy spots growing on it, and that I was able to mentally recall the fact that cell walls of mold are composed of cellulose or chitin. This was all still in a state of slumber, yet I almost managed to recall the page number that I read this on in one of my supervisor’s huge microbiology books.

The morning continued as usual: with my music blasted, I embarked on my one-hour drive on New Brunswick’s typical back roads to Florenceville, where I work mainly on ATP testing and occasional processing. With the arrival of a new ATP luminometer, my first task this morning was to prepare materials in the Analytical Lab to complete the second part of one of the protocols I am working on, which is to test three ATP metres’ accuracy and sensitivity (for better comprehension: ATP metres measure the amount of bacterial contamination on a surface by reading the amount of light exerted by microbial energy on a surface swab.) The procedure of my protocol involves measuring pre-set standards of 20, 200, and 2000 femtomoles of ATP (with one femtomole being one millionth of a billionth of a mole) and recording the results shown by the luminometer.

With this procedure taking up most of my morning, lunch came around quickly, and after one hour of relaxed conversation with my co-workers about McCain’s history and whether or not peanut butter was acceptable on bananas, I – fully equipped with a lab coat, safety shoes, and hairnet – joined the people in the processing lab where we work on making earthy potatoes into savoury French fries. With this lab producing for research purposes only, we worked on different methods of preparation and, after all the measuring was done and the final numbers were put into the protocol chart, we tasted the final products and compared our (sometimes humourous) reactions. In between the times when potatoes in all states and forms were moved from one place to the other, there was friendly conversation going on everywhere, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Merzouk, one of my co-workers, ask me if I spoke any French. What followed was a cheerful conversation in the language I had learned and loved for nearly 10 years, and the afternoon of processing seemed to fly by.

After almost half of my stay here at McCain’s, I can certainly say that I love the amount of knowledge, experience, and amusement this place surprises me with on a daily basis. My co-workers and supervisors are extremely friendly, inclusive, and always ready to answer questions, jump in for help, or, in Cole’s case, patiently explain something for the third time to ensure that I don’t burn myself with fryer oil. I am extremely curious to see what the next 3½ weeks have in store for me!

Rica Konder
Hometown: Millville, NB