Capability for the confectionery, cereal, snack and cookie and cracker sectors

Baker Perkins highlighted its process and product innovation capability for the confectionery, cereal, snack and cookie and cracker sectors at Pack Expo (booth 7255 in the Processing Zone).

Baker Perkins supplies equipment for extruded, co-extruded, baked and hot-air expanded snacks; systems to make every kind of ready-to-eat breakfast cereal; and a full range of equipment for cookies and crackers. It is the market leader in cooking and depositing technology for the confectionery industry.

Confectionery

The focus was on the potential for new, high-quality deposited candies and lollipops. One shot ServoForm™ depositing systems combine up to four colours and components in a single piece. They offer greater product quality and variety, with lower production costs, compared with traditional methods such as die forming, starch mogul or cut and wrap.

The possibilities for innovation range from hard candy, through ball and flat lollipops to toffee, soft candies and jellies.

The latest ServoForm™ lollipop technology has the potential to generate an array of innovative high-quality flat lollipops. For the first time, interesting shapes, such as flowers and hearts, as well as the colours and patterns in the candy, can enhance the visual appeal of flat lollipops. Embossing the surface is another new way of increasing the interest and variety of round or shaped lollipops.

This continues Baker Perkins’ policy of expanding lollipop product potential; totally spherical and conventional ball plus flat and 3D products are also available.

A multi-headed depositing system is also used for ‘long term’ three-layered products with a genuine ‘sandwich’ appearance. ‘Long term’ layering involves a dwell time between each deposit, allowing the first level to partially set before the next one is deposited. This clear separation gives a true ‘layered’ effect, with different colours, textures and flavours.

Centre-filled toffees, fondants and fudges are just some of the high value products that can be made on the new ServoForm™ Soft Confectionery depositor. Soft centres such as jam, cream, jelly, chocolate, praline and fruit paste can all be one-shot deposited to add value and variety to a product range

Snack

The modular Snack Master™ concept enables companies to enter the market with an uncomplicated extrusion system making standard, direct expanded snacks such as corn curls, chipsticks, and maize rings.

As business expands, a line may be extended in stages to broaden the range of products that can be made to include both traditional and the new generation of healthy snacks. These can include a full portfolio of high-specification, complex products including whole grain / multigrain and sweet or savoury filled pillows with intriguing shapes, textures and surface patterns; plus high added-value sticks, pillows, bars and bites in plain, shredded or filled forms.

A new process makes a completely fresh range of extruded products using an innovative die that produces a thin, wide sheet of dough that is cut into regular, geometric shapes by an in-line rotary cutter. The shapes may be fried as a conventional snack, or oven baked to produce low-fat snacks.

Another innovative process is continuous puffing of pellet snacks using hot air. Based on the proven Thermoglide2™ Toaster the new snack puffing system replaces frying as a means of converting pellets into a finished snack. No oil is absorbed during the expansion process, unlike frying, and only the minimum amounts required for flavour need be added afterwards.

Cereals

Baker Perkins Cereal Master™ systems incorporate designs for both extruded and traditionally cooked cereals production.

Twin-screw cooker extrusion is a reliable and versatile process. In its standard form the Baker Perkins SBX Master™ extruder produces conventional direct expanded cereals using corn, rice, bran, wheat, barley or oats.

A range of post-extrusion forming techniques are available as part of the Cereal Master EX™ system to add value and variety to extruded cereals. These may be purchased with the extruder or added at a later date as business needs and customer tastes change. For example, a line producing direct expanded cereals such as corn balls, multigrain rings and alphabet shapes can be extended in stages to make a range of higher added-value products with sophisticated taste and texture combinations.

Co-extrusion equipment, flaking rolls, shredders, toasters and cereal cookers are available enabling high added value cereals such as flakes, filled pillows and multigrain products to be made from the same standard extruder. A coating system adding value through frosting or glazing is a further possibility.

The principle of expandable lines is also applied to traditional cereal processes in the Cereal Master TX™ system. Based on rotary steam-cooking and flaking of grains, the standard process can be extended to incorporate a wide variety of single and multigrain flake products with either a frosted or glazed coating.

Cookie & Cracker

The TruClean™ range of forming equipment for cookies and crackers was highlighted at Pack Expo. These machines are designed to meet all the latest industry guidelines on hygiene. Every detail is engineered to minimize debris accumulation, improving visibility and access to make thorough and effective cleaning as easy as possible.

The TruClean™ range includes wirecuts, and rotary moulders for cookies and pet foods, and laminating and sheeting lines for crackers.

Baker Perkins’ radical approach to hygienic design is setting new standards. Less time spent cleaning means lower costs and faster changeovers. It allows hygiene standards to be raised while maintaining the lowest possible cost of ownership.

TruClean™ machines retain all the best-in-class process parameters and benefits of previous generation equipment including outstanding reliability, performance and ease of use.