"Bugs in your BBQ wood?"

Aug. 24, 2009 - PRLog -- Bugs in your BBQ wood????

           “Not in our wood!!”, says Dorie Clark, President and National Sales Manager for the family business, Maine Grilling Woods, LLC located in Brooks, Maine.  “Several months ago, we started getting questions from our customers about the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer and other nasty little bugs that may be transported by wood.  I talked with my brother, Skip Theobald who is our VP and Operations Manager about ways that we could assure our customers that Maine Grilling Woods were ‘bug free’”.

           “I researched the problem online and corresponded with several people who were familiar with the process used by pallet manufacturers to insure that wood borne insect larvae did not hitch a ride on wood pallets”, says Mr. Theobald.  “Since all of our wood is harvested by local cutters from private lots with no pesticides, we did not want to use chemicals.  Our alternative was to heat our wood. Although heat and time seemed to be the key to killing all insect larvae, there appears to be some question about how much heat and for how long.  For instance, the USDA website calls for 56 C (140 F) for 30 minutes while I have seen other recommendations as high as 160 F for 90 minutes. We decided to go for the maximum to make sure that we did the job right.”  

           Beginning on August 1, 2009, all of Maine Grilling Woods’ ten varieties of chips, chunks, planks, and smoker logs will spend at least two and one half hours in the company’s new propane fired “Super Cooker” oven before beginning their journey through the drying and processing procedure.  According to Skip Theobald, “it takes about an hour to get the core temperature of a batch up to the required minimum of 160 F.”  “Depending upon the variety of wood and how it is cut really determines the length of time in the cooker”, he says. “We had to monitor each batch and log in the particulars in order to set the standard for each situation”.

           “After meeting or exceeding the standards for bug free wood, we had to let our customers know that they could buy our wood with confidence” says Dorie Clark.  “We designed a logo certifying that all of our wood had been heat treated to exceed industry standards.   We are now placing our ‘Heat Treated Certificate’ logo on all of our consumer and institutional packages.  All packages will also include an identifying batch number for tracking purposes.” -30-

           For more information or questions, you may contact Dorie Clark or Skip Theobald  at www.mainegrillingwoods.com or 207-454-9995

# # #

Manufacturer of 10 varieties of chips, chunks, planks, smoking logs and dust for bbq retailers and restaurants