A food testing company has left Los Angeles for Orange County.
Chicago-based Silliker Inc. moved its regional headquarters to Cypress, bringing about 50 workers to a 16,500-square-foot site. Silliker had operated in Carson for 35 years.
The Cypress digs are bigger and newer, the company said. And it puts Silliker closer to OC’s crop of restaurant chains, including Taco Bell Corp., El Pollo Loco Inc. and In-N-Out Burgers Inc., all of Irvine, Lake Forest-based Del Taco Inc. and Carl’s Jr. in Anaheim.
“You drive around anywhere in Orange County,you see food companies,” said Norm Corlett, division vice president of operations.
The regional office is responsible for Silliker’s customers in Southern California and the Southwest. The branch is one of 25 locations in 10 countries that Silliker operates.
Although it won’t disclose client names, Silliker’s customers include 20 of the “world’s 25 leading food manufacturers” and nearly half of the top 25 retailers, including restaurants, according to a company statement.
Silliker’s operation at 6360 Gateway Drive in the Warland/Cypress Business Center could grow by up to 25 workers in the next few years, Corlett said. The site in Carson was about 5,500 square feet smaller than the new one, which was built in 1989.
Silliker tests meats, vegetables and other foods that are used in food-processing plants. It also audits food-processing plants and provides training for workers, among other services.
Silliker said the Cypress site would boost testing speeds with a more efficient layout and new gear.
The company uses robotic arms that fill hundreds of test tubes with precisely measured samples. Storage refrigerators at the new site are built into walls that can be opened by workers on either side of the walls.
“We’re able to do a lot more with the same amount of people,” Corlett said.
The food testing industry has expanded in recent years as concerns about safety have grown, observers said. A watershed event in 1993 hit restaurants and food makers when several children died from eating meat with E.coli that was linked to a fast-food chain.
“Food quality and safety were somewhat of an afterthought (about) 10 years ago,” said Mark DeSorbo, editor in chief of Food Quality, a Yardley, Pa.-based magazine. “I think it took some scares as well as a threat of going out of business, which really brought food quality to the forefront.”
The federal government instituted the biggest change in regulations since the early 1900s in the aftermath of the E.coli outbreak. The requirements spurred more demand for Silliker’s services, DeSorbo said.
