Make your confectionery production shine

Consumers are demanding healthier options and choosing new types of products and flavours with a preference for sustainable manufacturing. To create these new products requires innovative ingredients and adapted processes. Maryke Foulds spoke to James Outram to get the lowdown on the equipment and product concept that make this a reality.

Consumers of baked products are always looking for something new and different. If that new product is also accessible in terms of price, and is healthy and tasty then you are onto a winning formula.

In traditional markets there is established consumer demand for low-fat products – healthier alternatives to fried potato chips is one example. “Baked, not fried, snack products based on potato and other starches such as pulses are produced to perfection on our state-of-the-art cracker lines,” Outram enthuses. “Across our product range, we have worked with customers to make gluten-, grain- and wheat-free products coupled to low-fat and reduced-sugar products. This is especially true in the area of cookies and cakes, which are essential indulgent products. It is always good to take away a bit of the guilt and make them more permissible.”

When new products call for more better-for-you ingredients (anything from fibre or protein) and less of the bad-for-you ingredients (such as fat and sugar), then the trend of using non-traditional ingredients will continue.

The use of these popular ingredients also impacts on the design and functionality of Bühler’s range of processing equipment.

Traditional sheeting and laminating lines were initially designed for wheat-based products, using the elastic properties of gluten and a limited range of ingredients.

With new ingredients come new challenges in terms of dough properties. “We have moved outside the comfort zone of wheat-based products into a challenging space with new dough types. Stickiness, hardness and elasticity are the new properties, and these must be accounted for with adapted and redesigned features,” he points out.

Improved properties

• Gauge rolls with independent drives to prevent the dough sticking

• Improved hygienic design for quick allergen cleaning

• High-specification gauge rolls can go to smaller gaps allowing for doughs with higher recovery rates for industry-leading dough piece weigh accuracy

• Hybrid oven technology creates products with just the right texture.

Sustainability and global warming are growing challenges for society and the industry as consumers bring greater focus. The days of using fossil fuels to heat bakery ovens are numbered. “It can be anticipated that we will have to change to electric ovens, so we have launched our new Turbu E oven. This has all the advanced features of even heat distribution; easy cleaning and efficiency of our Turbu 4 oven but powered by electricity. If you can source electricity from wind, solar or hydro sources, then it would be possible to bake products in a carbon-neutral way,” Outram concludes. •