Ranging from breads and bagels through cakes and cookies to pastries and pasta, the dry foods and bakery sector covers a highly diverse set of flour-based products. Increasingly, it includes bakery mixes and frozen dough products, which are growing in popularity to accommodate the expanding convenience and thaw & serve markets, while also meeting the need to 'de-skill' the baking process. Just as diverse as the bakery products themselves are the processing needs and shelf life requirements from one category to another.
Temperature control is essential, for instance, to ensure that dry ingredients (such as flour, sweetener, shortening and yeast/leavening) remain dry and pest-free during storage and distribution around a bakery. Before being packaged, baked goods must be cooled to about 21°C (70°F). Without proper cooling, the product can be too tender, overly moist and prone to breakage. In the next step, processes such as slicing, bagging and wrapping call for careful handling due to the sensitive nature of the foodstuffs. Before slicing portionable products, for example, it is often helpful to freeze the crust to maintain rigidity and shape for subsequent freezing.
To meet these needs, we have developed a range of chilling, freezing, fumigation and inerting technologies and services that ensure the perfect fit for each step in your processing chain.
Pre-processing
We have developed a dedicated closed-loop temperature control system. It has the added advantage of pest and fumigation control in the storage silos as it blankets the storage container with a high concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Cooling
We have also developed a range of freezing and chilling solutions to cool baked goods quickly and effectively. Unlike air-cooled spirals, these increase productivity and product quality by optimizing moisture content and reducing the tendency to mold. Cryogenic cooling also helps to retain taste and texture.
Handling & packaging
Depending on your shelf life and processing requirements, we offer a range of technologies and applications to optimize handling and packaging.
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Cryogenic chilling/freezing
Cryogenic freezing is the ideal way to firm up products prior to packaging. We offer a range of gentle, yet highly effective cryogenic freezers. You can use these as standalone solutions or combine them with existing freezers for rapid scale-up without massive capital outlay. -
Modified atmosphere packaging
We offer dedicated gas mixtures to enhance product quality, extend shelf life and increase product reach. -
Creaming
We can advise you on the benefits of nitrogen to 'cream' bakery fillings and make them significantly more appealing to your consumers.
