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all right now for some live touring of
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Tech Source systems so this is what
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you're saying is a is a rack so you have
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a four system rack this is what you're
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talking about and there's 47 trays that
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you can put in here right there's
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actually 48 heaters but this top heater
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is there just to radiate heat down onto
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the tray below it uh of course this one
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doesn't have all of the heaters in place
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but you can see that that's the way that
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they work what makes ours unique is that
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and so this is the heated shelf here and
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this is the heater this is uh vulcanized
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onto the back of the uh plate this is a
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hard anodized black hard anodized
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aluminum this is extremely hard wow
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there's um you can see the the traces in
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here uh for the heater the reason that
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we use this plate this type of plate
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there's two reasons one is that the
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surface is is very very uh hard uh and
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so you're not going to get any uhu
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wearing out of this as you put trays in
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and out the other one is this High
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emissivity is going to give off heat
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very very efficiently the fact that you
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can remove this is beneficial uh because
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if you have a product that is uh bigger
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than an inch and a half these are at a
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two and or an inch and A2 pitch if you
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have a product that's larger than that
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you can move every other sh
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and do larger product of course the
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other thing is is that if a heater
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malfunctions then you can replace it
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it's easier to replace than a light bulb
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and I think what's kind of nice too is
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like I don't see a whole lot of wires in
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here you know it's not things that are
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going to be faulty for someone who's an
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amateur like myself other people you
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know people are going to be working with
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these racks who are going to be trained
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by someone who is experienced in freeze
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drying as an owner but maybe they're
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going to be hiring you know 18 24 year
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olds in college running these machines
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stuff like that so it's like there's not
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a whole lot of things that are going to
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really mess up and cause a lot of damage
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right and then the other thing that is
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particularly uh different about uh our
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systems is the embedded uh temperature
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transmitters in the heaters so this is
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broken up into three zones and in the
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middle of each zone is a special
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heater pull this out you can see back
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here there's two temperature
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transmitters these are actually IC
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transmitters okay and they're sending a
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signal to the PLC of what the
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temperature of the heater is these
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temperatures are averaged if one of them
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goes out it ignores the one that goes
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out and so what that's going to do is
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that's going to ensure that you never
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have a section of product that goes bad
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because your temperature sensing has
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gone out the other benefit is each of
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these zones is controlled individually
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so you don't have a single thermac
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couple controlling the entire Zone you
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end up with microclimates in the freeze
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dryer this tends to be too hot this is
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just right playing the Three Bears here
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and this one is too cold so this way
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we're able to control these individually
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this increases your yield your
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throughput significantly now you talked
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about I brought up uh the fact that I
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freeze dry ice cream uh for my own
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business and my countertop unit uh does
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very well but you said that um other
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systems that are built commercially
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aren't built to do ice cream well why
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why does ice cream not work in some
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commercial freeze jars and why would it
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work in yours ice cream is is really
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sensitive to um melt back okay a lot of
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uh commercial freeze dryers struggle
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with this because the the outside of the
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say that you're doing an ice cream
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sandwich the outside will be great but
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then the inside will melt and you'll end
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up with a a hollow hard Chunk in the
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middle of the Ice Cream Sandwich and so
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what we're able to do is we're able to
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temperature and the vacuum level very
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very tightly so that we never get close
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to that point where it's going to um
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melt back what else can you tell us
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about like how like how does someone get
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this type of rack into the system is it
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very hard to push around um yeah it it
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actually uh pushes around very easily
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once this is all loaded up uh this is
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closed up it um and then you can see at
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the top here I think on the camera you
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can see these rollers in the top of the
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chamber there's guides and so you push
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it up the ramp turn it sideways that
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goes in between the guides and it just
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Glides to the back once it's inside you
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have two connectors here this is the
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heater connector and this is the
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temperature connector you hook this up
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uh to fittings are in the top of the
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chamber and that connects it to the
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control system and when we're talking
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about recipes I just want to note that a
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recipe would be indicated by what does
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the product look like what's the texture
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um how like do you want it to be super
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shrunk down uh like you might see with
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dehydration or do you want it to look
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exactly like the original product like
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we have so a recipe is just really
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refining the freeze drying process so
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that every single one of these trays and
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every single one of your racks is coming
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out with very little waste and so that
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you're getting a very good product every
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time you set that freeze jar up to do
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the cycle yeah and and that's one of the
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things that really is unique about our
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systems is the countertop systems really
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are very very good for producing a very
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high quality product uh there's not very
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very many commercial systems that can
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reproduce that and that's where that's
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where our systems are able to uh say you
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take an apple slice and uh you run it
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through our system comes out it looks
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exactly like an apple slice it's not
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shriveled it's not shrunk uh and that's
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very difficult for other companies to do
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where it's that's that's what we excel
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in awesome and I just finished talking
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about recipes but like what are some non
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food related things that get freeze
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dried that you've been more aware of now
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that people are making a business out of
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it um probably the biggest one is
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cannabis and so uh that's where our
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systems are able to to work better than
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some systems and the reason for that is
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when they're drying the the Cannabis if
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they want to be able to do it for
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extraction then um it it's very very
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efficient you don't have to have the
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worries about hang drying it the they as
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far as uh mold and all that kind of
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stuff but then also if you're if they're
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doing the smokable product we can
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control the vacuum level so the vacuum
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level doesn't get down to the point
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where the uh tpping are removed it keeps
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the tping within the uh the product that
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they that they want to have and so uh
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that's a t that that's a non-food
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application yeah now the inquisitive
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person that I am what's the strangest
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thing you've heard freeze dried probably
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probably the uh uh animal parts is is
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one animal parts yeah for Taxidermy uh
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there's a company back East that does
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strictly turkey heads uh that's all they
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freeze dry as turkey heads for uh
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Taxidermy and so uh same with the feet
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and that kind kind of thing so what does
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freeze-dried turkey head well they they
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can reattach it to the to the rest of
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the turkey when they're reconstructing
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the Taxidermy bird and it's just a lot
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easier and more realistic uh than trying
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to come up with a fake turkey head also
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I've heard of uh freeze drying pets uh
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so fluffy passes on and a person uh will
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have it freeze dried talk to me about
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the different types of trays for food
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prep that you would then freeze and then
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put on the racks yeah it it turns out
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that a tray isn't a tray you know there
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there's different types of trays most
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this kind of a tray here that um has a
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wire inside of this and it's called a
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closed lip Okay and the issue is is you
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can see that there's a gap there so
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you'll get moisture and crud up there uh
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trapped in this area and there's no way
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to sanitize so as you can see like the
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little gaps and believe it or not you
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probably are used to this if you take a
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look at baking sheets that you have
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today um you'll notice that kind of like
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Groove that kind of is bent over that's
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what can get food in here and that's a
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no no for food safety if you really want
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to be pure about food safety measure and
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so what the FDA likes to see is they
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like to see this design where it's
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called an open lip Okay where the
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material is thicker and uh you don't
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have anything that can trap back there
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so anyway that's that's one of the
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things about the trays and then our all
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of our products use the standard
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full-size baking tray and then this is
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the rack that we use on our large
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systems we have systems that use four
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seven or 10 of these racks
