GREEN MACHINES

Future proof your factory for sustainability

What will your factory of the future look like? Sustainability is a key challenge for the food industry and processers globally are recognising their part in safeguarding our future. As the world’s population continues to grow, so does demand for food products. Global production of potatoes currently exceeds 359 million metric tonnes per year and the global demand for frozen potato is rising rapidly.

Greater volume of production is leading to increased pollution and waste levels, and many processors are now actively engaged in sustainability reporting. Global Reporting Standards (GRS) are helping processors assess (and define) their sustainability strategies, to better manage and understand their impact.

Sustainable Potato Processing is Possible

To achieve their sustainability goals, processors are investing significantly in equipment which helps — reduce fuel costs, energy waste, air pollution and water consumption — and meets the rigorous pollution control regulations of the worldwide agencies.

While modern processing equipment must address all the themes of sustainability — it must also improve efficiency and profitability — if it is to be adopted widely, in the future.

As interest in sustainable technologies grows, turnkey suppliers are helping processors plan their factories of the future, and are advising them on how to adopt, or upgrade existing equipment to process more responsibly.

Multiple technologies are currently available; which will reduce your fuel costs, energy waste, air pollution, and water consumption. Working with a turnkey supplier is a great way for a processer to access the expertise needed; to understand the new and emerging technologies for sustainable potato processing.

Create Positive Change with the Right Equipment

Our KleenHeat® Heat Exchanger is a great example of a pollution control solution, developed to combine the incineration of fryer exhaust pollutants with high-efficiency oil heating — to help processors meet emission control regulations.

This innovatively designed heat exchanger is a versatile oil heating, energy saving and pollution control solution — described as ‘Best Available Control Technology’ (BACT) by regulatory agencies worldwide. KleenHeat exceeds the thermal efficiency of ordinary heat exchangers (which don’t offer pollution control), and low oil volume promotes fast oil turnover which inhibits formation of free fatty acids.

KleenHeat offers processors high energy efficiency oil heating; with built in pollution control to remove oil, odours, and particulates from the fryer exhaust. The rapid and uniform heat transfer facilitated by this equipment will also allow your fryer to respond quicker to changes in product load which protects the quality of your oil, by maintaining a low, oil film temperature.

With KIeenHeat, there is no need to invest in additional fryer pollution control systems, and a variety of sizes are available which can be provided: ready-to-run, pre-piped and wired, and fully compliant with US, EC and Australian regulations.

Multiple Solutions to Process More Responsibly

In potato production, it’s no secret oil management can be expensive. Custom designed, oil management solutions can maximise oil quality — reduce oil pollution — and maximise energy savings, for sustainable and environmentally-safe operations.

Oil Sweep De-oiling System

This oil management solution is used by processors of French fries, potato wedges and potato co-products; to strip their fried products free of surface oil, prior to freezing and packing. Stripped oil is recovered through a bank of cyclones and returned to the fryer oil recovery system. Solid fines are separated, and reusable oil is transferred back into the frying system.

The typical oil pick-up on French fries is around 6-8 per cent. While much of this oil is contained within the fries themselves, this system has been designed to recover most of the free surface oil, which results in increased yields and healthier finished products. In addition, less product surface-oil improves the performance of the defrosting and cleaning cycles of the pre-cooler and freezer and helps reduce oil particles clogging cooling coils in the pre-cooler.

Processors will benefit from lower operational costs thanks to decreased downtime for maintenance, and energy savings (from greater cooling efficiency) and this is a great way to achieve your sustainability goals. The Oil Sweep® De-oiling System can be retrofitted into existing lines, and has low maintenance requirements.

In a recent installation, we delivered a complete French fry system which included the Oil Sweep De-oiling system, and a flexible batter coating system which featured a two-stage, multi-zone cooking feature with customisable cooking conditions, for coated and uncoated French fries.

The Oil Sweep system is now helping our customer achieve increased production capacities of 18,000 kg/hr (37,400 lbs/hr). This installation is a great example of how working with a single source equipment supplier can help you adopt or upgrade your equipment to help you process more responsibly.

Water Conservation

Did you know — the water used for your product or equipment cleaning can be recycled to provide you with further valuable benefits? We all know high levels of water usage can be costly. But, using equipment such as the Heat and Control Water Cleanup System (used with a slice washing system) can reduce your freshwater usage by up to 50% over other conventional slice washing systems.

Our water cleanup system is designed to clean and reuse wash water — to concentrate starch and fines for more efficient removal — and this reduces sewer loading and burden on the starch recovery system in your line.

Other equipment such as our Oil Mist Eliminator (used to remove oil mist from the fryer exhaust) can do so without water or high-horsepower fans and a heat recovery system recovers typically lost heat from the fryer exhaust stack. This can condense otherwise wasted steam; to make hot water for blanching, sanitising, or building heat, and adoption of innovative equipment such as this is already future-proofing factories for sustainability.

Integration of new and emerging sustainable technologies — can help your operation achieve greater production efficiency and reduce your environmental footprint. When sourcing equipment, make sure you look for solutions which incorporate innovative manufacturing designs; that will reduce your pollution and waste levels. Working with a turnkey supplier is the quickest and simplest way, and can also help you achieve a significant return on your investment.

As market circumstances drive up energy costs and raw material prices – efficient cooking techniques and innovative oil recovery systems are helping our customers manage their production during uncertain times.

Frying oil and oil wastage are key areas for optimisation and cost savings. As the skyrocketing cost of oil puts pressure on the profitability of potato processing; saving and preserving your oil becomes critical.

Did you know — optimising your oil management — with the right equipment — can gain a saving of over 10% on oil consumption?

Reduce oil wastage with Heat and Control’s Oil Sweep De-oiling System, for French fries and potato wedges.

Typical French Fries leave the fryer carrying around 8% oil by weight.

Representing An Oil Consumption

While much of this oil is contained within the Fries themselves, we can recover much of the free surface oil.

Total oil recovery is approximately 1% of fryer throughput. This represents an oil consumption saving of over 10%.

Oil Sweep De-oiling System

Our Oil Sweep De-oiling® system is custom designed for the French fry and potato products industry. We developed this innovative system as a solution that could help processors; increase the life of their oil and achieve significant cost savings through reduction of oil usage, and waste.

Typically, french fries leave the fryer carrying around 6% - 8% oil by weight. While much of this oil is contained within the fries themselves, our Oil Sweep technology can recover much of the free surface oil, to achieve significant cost savings, increased yields, and a healthier product.

The Oil Sweep strips fried products such as french fries, potato wedges and potato co-products free of surface oil prior to the packaging and freezing process. Fryer oil is then recovered through a bank of cyclones and returned to the fryer oil recovery system — solid fines are removed — and reusable oil is transferred by a pump back into the frying system.

The Oil Sweep can remove and recover up to 200 kg/hr of fryer oil on a 20t line, and this increases production time thanks to a low build-up of fat in the pre-cooler stage. The total oil recovery is approximately one percent of fryer throughput, representing an oil consumption saving of over ten percent.

How it works

The Oil Sweep features an inline triple cyclone bank and lowpressure extraction ducting underneath a permeable chain conveyor. Product is first received from the fryer and then conveyed over a series of three suction plenums, where air is drawn downwards through the pack to strip the surface oil. The stripped oil is recovered through the bank of cyclones and then returned to the fryer oil recovery system — allowing the expensive frying oil to be reused in the production process.

Oil Sweep can be retrofitted into existing lines and has low maintenance requirements. Less product surface-oil improves performance of defrosting, and cleaning cycles of the pre-cooler and freezer. The system is easy to clean thanks to innovative spray balls which have the ability to connect to your existing cleaning and inspection units. The system also has an automated CIP system and hygienically designed ductwork; with hinges on the ends of the plenum which can be easily opened for cleaning purposes.

Easy to clean – there are spray balls within the Oil Sweep, which connect to the customer’s existing cleaning and inspection units.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF USING THE OIL SWEEP?

- The Oil Sweep can be retrofitted into existing lines

- Ability to operate at high temperatures

- Low maintenance requirements

Ideal Applications

- French fries

- Potato wedges

- Potato co-products

MEET INDUSTRY’S READY MEAL SUPERSTARS

Relentless consumer demand for convenience and healthy meals is driving food processors to create healthier versions of traditional favourites. To create their new recipes, they’re using industry changing equipment and advanced processing methods — and it’s helping to achieve more yield, efficiency and safety than before.

Ready meals have come a long way and modern consumers are spoilt for choice. The tasteless TV dinner is a thing of the past and today’s options cater for almost every taste and nutritional consideration. High protein, gluten free, organic and plant-based options are all trending and there’s a growing demand for natural products with few (or no) additives.

As a single source supplier, Heat and Control has a complete range of industrial processing equipment which can help you keep up with consumer trends — respond to demand — and bring your best ready meals to market.

AirForce® Impingement Oven

A genuine impingement oven is the industry standard for processors of partially and fully cooked ready-to-eat meats. A true impingement oven uses high velocity airflow (above and below the belt) which is distributed evenly across the width of the belt, and along the length of the oven.

The AirForce Impingement Oven is proven to cook products faster and with more uniformity than other ovens. Meat, poultry, seafood, and baked products can be cooked precisely to specifications and each product is cooked equally, regardless of its location on the belt.

The reason this oven cooks dramatically faster than comparable ovens is due to the independent fans above and below the product which create the highest possible convective uniform airflow enveloping the product. This maximises heat transfer to the product allowing for the fastest possible cook times. This unique process preserves flavour and moisture and produces higher finished yields.

This industry workhorse has many ideal applications including meat, poultry, seafood, prepared foods, breaded/battered foods, baked foods, plant-based products and even pet food.

Lower Oil Content Food Products

The popularity of air fried food continues to grow, and many brands are taking advantage of new product opportunities in the market.

The AirFry System pairs the Airforce Impingement Oven with highly accurate Spray Dynamics® oil application equipment to create a high performance, industrial linear air frying system. The system produces a “fried-like” product using controlled application of topical oil, followed by the uniform flow of pressurised, high velocity cooking atmosphere from an impingement oven.

A variety of products can be processed which achieve taste, texture, and appearance that is similar to foods fried using traditional (submersion) frying methods. The equipment can be sized to meet desired production requirements and works with standard batter and breading application systems and ovens, or retrofit existing ovens.

Ideal Applications

• Breaded products: non-free-flowing (flour), free-flowing (crumb), Japanese crumb

• Chicken breasts, strips, nuggets, and other boneless chicken pieces

• Breaded seafood, such as popcorn shrimp

• Breaded vegetables, such as onion rings

• Breaded cheese sticks

• Non-breaded products, such as baked taquitos and egg rolls

Breading and Coating

The best equipment for batter and breading applications creates better products by being able to uniformly apply batters, marinades, breading, and flake coatings. Batter and breading solutions from Heat and Control create better tasting products with a tried-and-true method — that provides total coverage to all surfaces and cavities — and handles a variety of coatings and product types.

The SureCoat® Batter Applicator is a tough one-for-all coating applicator. This applicator uniformly applies batters and marinades to all surfaces of formed and natural products. All surfaces and cavities are thoroughly coated, including underneath the product. This equipment is built for easy cleaning and reliable operation so production can run without delays and it’s available in submerger, curtain-fall, and under-pumping models. Ideal applications include poultry, seafood, meat, vegetables, French fries, prepared foods and meat alternative products.

With over 121 million gluten-free consumers in the world, processors are investing heavily in equipment to help them produce (or expand) ready meal ranges and include gluten-free versions of traditional favourites. The biggest trend in breadings right now is gluten-free, and clean label.

Working with an experienced food industry supplier is the best way to create your new recipe — to ensure quality — and make sure the new recipe achieves the same crispiness and flavour development, as traditional breadings.

The SureCoat® Breading Applicator provides ultimate coverage for all product surfaces and is the industry’s hardest working applicator. It achieves the fastest changeover and cleaning times available and is perfect for products like meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, prepared foods and plant-based products.

SureCoat Breading applicators have a unique design that allows them to uniformly apply flour or batter pre-dust, granular, and non free-flowing breadings — and even delicate Japanese-crumb or flake coatings. Breadings are quickly transferred using large diameter, adjustable-speed augers, and top and bottom coatings can be adjusted independently, which is how they achieve such superior coverage.

Breaded Products Fryer

Widespread restaurant shutdown during the pandemic has contributed to the huge increase in the demand for ready meals. Improved and updated recipes allowed many consumers to enjoy their fried food fix at home, and the undeniable convenience (and year-round availability) of these meals will see their popularity continue.

Clean, efficient, high-capacity frying is key to processing the highest quality breaded products for ready meals. The type of fryer used to cook these types of products has a dramatic impact on the quality of the finished product.

The Breaded Products Fryer provides clean, efficient and highcapacity frying for products such as chicken nuggets, bone-in chicken, meat patties, tempura shrimp, breast fillets, meatballs, egg rolls, coated vegetables and plant-based products.

The Breaded Products Fryer is an industry favourite for prepared foods because it significantly reduces system oil volume; by eliminating heating elements from the fryer pan. Every minute 100% of the system oil volume is circulating between the fryer, filter, and external heat exchanger — and this provides superior oil quality — which creates the highest quality product possible.

With this fryer, incoming oil and product velocities are carefully matched to preserve the product’s coatings and orientation, and gentle-flow oil inlets eliminate high velocity currents and maintain uniform oil flow and temperature, across the width of the pan. This innovative fryer uses just enough oil to cover the products, and its total system oil volume is 25-40% less — than comparable direct heated fryers — which allows for faster oil turnover and achieves a longer shelf life for the product.

There’s no denying the industry is in a state of transformation. But there still are many reasons for us to remain positive and look forward to the future. Technology and automation give us the opportunity to address costs, and adoption (and integration) of the right equipment is helping us to achieve greater production efficiency and reduce our environmental footprint during this time.