Extending Freshness, Ensuring Safety: Demakes Embraces HPP for Meat Products
For over 100 years, Demakes Enterprises has been a staple name in quality meats. Founded in 1914 by Greek immigrant and great-grandmother of the Demakes brothers with her famous Greek sausage recipe, this fourth-generation, family-owned company continues to craft exceptional deli meats, sausages, hot dogs, and more from their headquarters in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Keeping Generational Traditions Alive
Using time-honored generational recipes, Demakes sources only the finest meats and ingredients to produce their retail, food service, and private-label products. The company combines artisanal processes with state-of-the-art equipment in their SQF and organic-certified plant, aiming to deliver maximum flavor and quality to consumers.
From those early days selling Greek sausage to neighbors, Demakes now manufactures a wide range of value-add products from raw marinated meats and prepared meat skewers to shaved meats and heat-and-serve entrees. As the company has grown, its commitment to taste, tradition, and relationships has remained constant.
Demakes remains a family passion, staffed by friends and neighbors who care deeply about the food they make, staying true to their values: quality ingredients, and exceptional taste.
Keeping Quality from Coast to Coast: How HPP Helped Demakes Enterprises Go National
To deliver their exceptional meats to more consumers while retaining freshness, Demakes Enterprises has embraced high-pressure processing (HPP) technology.
As a post-packaging preservation method, HPP provides extended shelf-life through a natural process without compromising the company’s artisanal quality and clean label.
By using only water and high pressure to eliminate pathogens, HPP enables Demakes’ premium deli and cooked meats to stay fresh for up to 120 days. Their raw marinated chicken has 42 days of shelf-life, while beef reaches 56 days. HPP further helps to marinate using pressure, creating a moist and juicy flavor profile.
Since implementing a Hiperbaric 420L machine from Hiperbaric in 2014, followed by a 525L model in 2022, Demakes has fully integrated HPP into their production. From meat trimming and cooking to final packaging and processing, everything now happens in-house allowing for quality control and efficiency.
Andrew Demakes, Director of Operations, states “HPP took us from being a regional manufacturer to a national manufacturer. It extends shelf life naturally, which is a big component because we sell very high-quality products with minimal ingredients. We want to make sure that we maintain the integrity of the product, so being able to pick up that additional shelf life without compromising quality was very important to us.”
Demakes HPP Tolling Center: A Fresh Advantage
The benefits of HPP for Demakes Enterprises extend beyond their own production needs. Through its Fresh Advantage business line, the company now offers HPP tolling services to other food and beverage processors seeking access to the technology.
With its expertise in manufacturing, quality control, warehousing, trucking, and distribution, Demakes provides a competitive edge. Customer can rely on their legacy of freshness while leveraging the full range of in-house capabilities.
In addition to HPP capabilities, Fresh Advantage offers other ancillary services like storage, bottling, date stamping, case labeling, and more.
From humble beginnings selling Greek sausage to the adoption of innovative technology like HPP, Demakes Enterprises has come a long way while retaining core values. As this neighborhood expands its distribution and services, its commitment to taste and freshness remains. They continue honing the tradition sparked over a century ago, one neighborhood at a time.
Learn more about how HPP enables value-added meat products here.
