Vacuum before shock-freezing

Businesses are increasingly using vacuum-conditioning to prolong the freshness of baked goods. Fredy Hiestand uses it before shock-freezing part-baked products.

Fredy Hiestand is an institution in the baking sector, at least in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and probably far beyond it as well. He had a reputation in the nineteen-eighties as the “Croissant King”, on which he built up a worldwide group of companies. Now 74 years old, instead of a quiet retirement after selling his shares, he has founded a new bakery. On a 3,000 m 2 site in Baden near Zürich, “fredy’s” produces mainly top-class frozen goods with a guaranteed minimum shelf life of between 90 and 180 days for major customers. A maximum of 5% leaves the manufacturing facility’s yard as fresh products. This year, together with his Operations Manager Marcel Baumgartner, he invested in Cetravac vacuum cells.

They spent a long time considering it and carrying out tests. Baumgartner says: “I know all the suppliers, and have practical experience in using several of them. The fact that this process takes out less moisture from the baked products was the factor that decided us.” He has used a single-trolley vacuum cell for croissants, Danish pastries, cheesecake, Swiss carrot cake, tartelettes etc. since January this year, and since May an additional double-cell for soft breads, panned breads and 2-pound loaves. According to Baumgartner: “We combed through our product range to find out the products for which vacuum technology can benefit us, and we developed the optimum process sequence for each product.”

Baumgartner places vacuum technology as an intermediate step between baking and shock-freezing. “Basically, this allows us to pass through the delta-T faster, and any ice crystals formed during freezing remain smaller than without the use of vacuum. That helps maintain the structure. Simultaneously we save baking time, and consequently more moisture remains in the product.” For cranberry rolls, toast or baked products containing ingredients with essential oils, it has been possible to shorten the baking time by 40%. Baumgartner: “Crusts are improved, the volumes are better, and there are no longer any gluey streaks. The products have a nicer gloss if the process is halted at the right time and the crust has not begun to split. Croissants are crisper, and it’s a big help especially with lye croissants. They no longer become ‘shabby’.” Fruit bread rolls are currently being tested, but similarly large savings are expected with this product as well. As far as breads are concerned – soft, panned and 2-pound loaves – it still means a 30% shorter baking time.

Baumgartner says: “Using vacuum technology has given us a significant capacity boost. On the one hand we save on baking time, and on the other we can put the products into the shock freezer considerably faster than without vacuum technology, and even get better quality as a result.” The decisive factors in all of this are the application technology, customizing the entire process to the product, and the recipe, since ultimately the raw materials used are of the finest quality and from selected origins. 20 to 30% of sponge doughs matured for between 16 and 24 hours are just as much a matter of course as the 2% of wholegrain flour and the wheatgerm that are added to almost every dough. All the doughs are prepared by the slow method and are largely free from baking agents. Makeup intentionally relies on a lot of manual work. According to Baumgartner: “It doesn’t involve creating a particularly hard vacuum or doing so especially quickly. Instead it’s a question of considering and modifying the whole process from fermentation to freezing. As a rule, our processes operate at 250 to 400 mbar, and we go to 150 mbar for the fully-baked croissants that we are now also putting through the vacuum method. Taking bread as an example, the decisive factors are that we retain more moisture in the product and obtain a better crust and a softer crumb.”

Baumgartner also achieves a second effect by using vacuum technology. All the products delivered to customers now need exactly the same baking program and the same remaining backing time for the rest of the completion. That’s just as important for restaurateurs/caterers, for whom baking is one of their sideline activities, as it is for the retail, where there is a shortage of skilled staff.

The group that bears his name has worldwide revenues of around EUR 3bn, and fredy’s makes just CHF 30 million.

Nevertheless, Fredy Hiestand doesn’t want yet another change. According to Hiestand: “It’s quite simply a different corporate culture. The way we deal with employees, raw materials and processes here makes me feel good, and I have a clear conscience. Our most important success factor has nothing to do with management strategy, it’s the fact that we follow where our heart leads us.” +++

++ Fredy Hiestand’s philosophy is: “Goodness thrives where goodness is encouraged.” This also includes his endeavors, both in this country and abroad, to promote sustainability, regionality and sincerity in his dealings with people. The tradition of addressing one another informally in the fredy’s company is as much a part of it as Fredy’s Plantation on the Ivory Coast of West Africa, where products grown ecologically in mixed cultivation are offered in local markets, and the profits from exporting are reinvested in the project.