SEASONING SPOTLIGHT

A Revolution In Seasoning And Process Area Technology

Consumers love to snack but creating the products they love isn’t easy. Seasoning is crucial to the flavour and appearance of your snack product — and we all know it’s taste that sells snacks.

On a snacks production line, on-machine seasoning and process area seasoning equipment does what the name suggests: applies seasoning. But while it sounds simple, the perfect application of herbs, spices and flavourings starts well before the powder hits the product.

When sourcing equipment, it’s important you look for solutions which can deliver top performance, efficiency, application accuracy, and of course, amazing flavour. Choosing the right equipment for your product, and your recipe, doesn’t need to be a complex decision — if you work with a ‘seasoned’ expert.

It’s the quickest and easiest way — to understand the various systems and technology for your specific application — and gains you access to years of industry experience and snacks seasoning process knowledge.

What’s the secret to great seasoning coverage?

What’s the best flavouring system for my product?

Seasoning systems fall under three categories:

• In-kitchen seasoning systems

• On-machine seasoning systems

• Belt coating systems

In-kitchen seasoning systems

In-kitchen or process seasoning systems consist of a large coating drum, seasoning metering device and a seasoning spreader device. They are ideal for core products on process lines that change flavours once a shift, or less. These systems are great for high volume products and designed for continuous product flow.

Advantages

• Ideal for large production lines that have few flavour changes

• Most consistent seasoning

• Equipment can be rolled in-and-out of the line

• Typically lower capital investment

On-Machine Seasoning

On-machine seasoning (OMS) systems apply different seasonings — at each packaging station — without cross contamination. Development of this technology has innovated the seasoning process and can provide significant savings, and flexibility for snacks applications like potato chips, snack foods, crackers, tortilla chips, nuts and trail mix. The best systems make it easy to manage product and seasoning flow, application rates and dwell time.

OMS systems give you the flexibility you need to create new products or produce a wider range of products. Our patented On-Machine Seasoning (OMS) application method is proven to provide industry’s most efficient and uniform coverage. Our OMS systems offer significant savings and flexibility by applying seasoning to products just before they enter the weigher.

OMS will improve your processing line output, packaging efficiency, and production versatility — even for medium-capacity snack and potato product producers.

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• Crackers heatandcontrol.com

Continuous Coating Systems

Defined by their crunch, freshness and flavoursome ingredients

— coated snacks are created when food-based ingredients in the form of liquids (or solids) are sprayed onto a product to enhance its texture and taste. In addition to flavouring the product, coatings are also applied to help protect the primary ingredients of the product, and for decorative or product differentiation purposes, and to enhance shelf life.

Most commonly used seasoning systems for savoury snacks:

Conveyor based dusting system

• Drum based single-stage dry flavour application

• Drum based two-stage oil and dry flavour application

• Drum based slurry

DRY ONLY SYSTEMS

For products with natural tack

• Fried potato chips and crisps

• Fried pellet snacks

OIL AND DRY SYSTEMS

For products without natural tack

• Tortilla chips

• Corn chips

• Mini rice cakes or other dry puffed products

• Popcorn

• Baked chips and crisps

• Extruded snacks

SLURRIES

• Extruded snacks

• Popcorn

• Puffed snacks

Belt Coater

Our automatic Belt Coater quickly and uniformly applies chocolate, yoghurt, and sugar solutions to nuts, fruits, candy cores, cereals, and other products. A Belt Coater allows you to maximise your productivity by eliminating the labour, inconsistency, and long batch times of conventional pan coating. This style of fully automated coater can do the work of multiple pan systems — in a fraction of the time.

Coating Drum

A key component of a successful coating system is a properly engineered coating drum. Product throughput, bulk density, shape, and other characteristics all factor into the drum’s length, diameter, and design. But attention to application and design requirements are key. The function of the coating drum is to gently lift and fold the product repeatedly to allow each product piece exposure to gradually build-up liquid and dry coatings.

Dry Ingredient Application

Applying dry seasoning to products (either over a conveyor belt or more commonly within a coating drum as part of a continuous coating system) requires both an auger-based powder feeder and a scarf plate distributor. An example of this is a powder feeder which meters and dispenses the dry seasoning/salt at a consistent and accurate rate onto the scarf plate distributor.

A scarf plate distributor is a fixed speed, vibratory conveyor featuring a narrow, mirrored finish, bias cut tray. Easy to operate, easy to clean, and compatible with most dry seasonings, salts, and other granular products to create a consistent curtain of the applied dry product. The scarf plate distributor is positioned within the coating drum, so a gradual coating of seasoning is applied to the product as it travels through the coating drum. The seasoning curtain expands the coating zone for a consistent evenly-coated finished product.

Whatever your recipe, we can design application solutions for your powdered seasonings, oil and water-based coatings, slurries, chocolate, yoghurt, or release agents. Our comprehensive range of equipment is designed for flexibility and hygiene — with uniform and measured application which reduces seasoning waste — and helps you create the products consumers love.

We understand quality and consistency of your product (in its finished state) is critical to ensuring your brand’s reputation and market success. And we’re ready to work with you, to identify the right process, and equipment for your product specifically.

Coating product is typically completed in single, or multiple stages. The two-stage coating system is an example of a coating process that applies a liquid ingredient, such as oil, and tack agent and follows with a dry seasoning application. Corn and tortilla chips, seasoned crackers, and extruded snacks are examples of products which utilise a two-stage coating system.

Other coating systems utilise a slurry spray system to apply a mixture of oil or water and dry seasonings. A typical example of this type of system is a ‘corn curl’ type product, or a breakfast cereal.

Another seasoning application, referred to as ‘dry seasoning only’, requires no liquid application at all. Products processed in this method of coating either have enough surface moisture or have residual surface moisture so that only a dry seasoning is required.

Oil roasted nuts are an example of this type of product.

Liquid Coating Application

A coating system’s design principles remain the same regardless of the spray system utilised. By utilising an effective spray design with multi-nozzle manifolds — it maximises the coating zone within the drum. This combined with correct nozzle placement, target sprays the product travelling beneath the spray nozzles (within the drum) and allows for a gradual buildup of applied liquid to the base product, resulting in a more evenly coated product.

A variety of spray system options from “airless” pulsing oil spray applicators to air-assist or high-volume oil spray systems are available, as well as slurry spray systems for applying emulsions, sugar solutions, liquid-solid slurries, or other high-viscosity liquids.

Complete Snack Solutions designed for your business

Across industries and applications, we design specialised solutions. Bringing together leading brands in processing and packaging equipment for the snack food industry. Our solutions set the standard for yield, efficiency, and safety while producing the highest quality snacks. Whatever your product needs, we can meet it with precision and passion.

• Preparation + Processing

• Frying + Oil Management

• Drying, Baking + Roasting

• Coating + Seasoning

• Product Handling

• Inspection, Packing + Weighing