FORMING AND EXTRUSION
“When it comes to forming and extruding technology, confectionery producers should be looking for solutions which can offer them the maximum amount of flexibility”
This, of course, allows them to meet the growing demand for more effective cleaning in addition to evidencing that due diligence protocols for confectionery manufacturers are being adhered to, and ultimately will also enable confectioners to be ready for any future changes in legislation.
Stuart goes on to explain that, whilst preserving the theme
of flexibility, confectionery producers are also looking to minimise the amount of manual input required for operation. Energy consumption is another concern as the confectionery industry, along with everyone else, battles ever rising energy costs against the market pressure of consumer spending. The latest generation of forming and extrusion equipment
needs to be designed to address the need for energy reduction. BCH’s latest offerings, for example, using between 50/60% of the energy that would be required to power older-generation solutions. “The latest generation of extruders have been introduced to yield an operating lifecycle up to three times longer too, along with reduced maintenance requirements. Equally, these new offerings are available at a fraction of the cost of older technology versions, due to their design and use of the latest manufacturing processes,” explains Stuart.
There are other benefits to be found by employing modern technology – efficient automatic start up and shut down procedures, for example, can help reduce product waste. “Stand-by colour and flavour injection systems allow some SKU switches without even having to stop the line which can considerably increase system up time,” points out Stuart.
A turnkey solution
BCH was set a challenge to provide a turnkey solution for a leading confectionery brand. The brief was to replace old and costly-to-operate technology, and to provide a solution that would allow the new product development (NPD) team to develop products that had not been possible with the original extrusion and forming technology employed. The main technology features that convinced
the
confectionery company to replace its old, outdated equipment and to adopt new technology solutions included: • Raw material delivery (wet/dry ingredients) to the kitchen system – The new system was fully automatic which helped reduce labour costs and also mitigated the risk of non- compliant product due to human error. The new solution also incorporated the ability to introduce new ingredients under controlled conditions, enabling healthier and functional products to be developed.
• The new kitchen system allowed the production of liquorice slurry, a premix for new 100% healthy fruit snacks and also the production of multiple centre filling options for single or multiple co-extruded products.
• Combined cooking, evaporation and extrusion processes – The incorporation of these three previous independent processes
into a single process has extended the
possibilities of the system, which is all managed by an intelligent control system.
• Automatic colour and flavour dosing application – The new system was designed to allow the dosing of some functional ingredients that were being introduced under a new range of products.
Kennedy’s Confection July 2022 35
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