ConAgra Fire Roasted Rotel Line

There is perhaps no tailgate food more iconic in the U.S. than Rotel dip. The company behind this household name, ConAgra Brands, brought SSR to the table to design a new processing line for the next iteration of Rotel—Rotel Fire Roasted.  

The multi-million-dollar expansion of a manufacturing facility in California added upstream processing equipment to create the production capability for the new fire-roasted tomato product portfolio, while utilizing existing downstream canning and packaging equipment. This added equipment included hundreds of feet of new conveyors, peelers, fire roasting ovens for redundancy, transport flumes, weigh belts, troughs, and color sorters, located on elevated steel support platforms to maintain product segregation and prevent cross-contamination while integrating with six filling lines. Overcoming many hurdles, the project was designed in three months and then constructed and installed in four months. 

A (Near) Impossible Job 

“What makes this project so unique is that nobody really thought we could do it. We faced challenge after challenge,” said David Cooper, leader of SSR’s industrial team.  

Utilizing 3D scans of the existing plant, SSR created mechanical, electrical, structural, and process engineering designs that integrated the new line into the plant’s footprint and around existing equipment with minimal interferences to ongoing production. However, the day our team was ready to issue drawings for construction approval, a significant change was requested. 

Due to unforeseen challenges, the client needed to relocate the plant’s fire roaster to the opposite side of the facility, requiring a complete redesign. As one of the 50 largest food and beverage companies in the world facing a strong consumer demand, Conagra also needed our team to perform the redesign while maintaining the original construction deadline. 

Undeterred, we immediately began the redesign process. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this process got even bumpier, introducing significant equipment delays and diminished labor forces. Despite these obstacles, we continuously adjusted our schedule and equipment specifications to accommodate delays, ensuring we stayed on track.  

Our deep understanding of construction processes allowed us to work efficiently and stay within budget, maintaining constant contact with contractors and often bypassing formal RFI procedures in favor of direct phone calls to address immediate needs. This combination of teamwork, dedication, and effective communication helped ensure project construction started on time—even finishing a week ahead of schedule. 

Engineering Success 

The new Rotel Fire Roasted line has operated as designed with minimal disruptions since production began. After successfully navigating the many obstacles of this project, SSR’s David Cooper believes “SSR can do miracles. It’s unbelievable the task we were able to pull off, and our team and Conagra are equally proud of what we accomplished together.”