FORMING AND EXTRUSION


An SME-sized solution We move to the United States to report on a small, medium sized enterprise (SME) bar maker that wanted to upgrade from its original clunky and slow forming machine. However, the company


assumed that a new bar-making


line would be out of its financial reach. The chief operating officer (COO) therefore began researching used equipment but was disappointed to find that the best option available to the company would potentially pose maintenance issues as the company did not have its own in-house engineering department. The worry was that the originally imported second-hand line would have some communication gaps when it came to service provision. The COO therefore turned his attention to new entry- level bar forming options and came across Egan Food Technologies, where he identified a potential solution that could meet the company’s needs – with a forming line that starts at $95,000. The COO flew to Egan Food Technologies’ Michigan headquarters to receive training on the production line before the equipment was delivered to the facility. With remote engineering support from Egan, the company was able to start up the new equipment and very soon it was producing up to 12,000 bars per hour – a significant increase from its previous production rate of around 2,000 bars per hour.


The COO was delighted with the solution which he says is easy to clean and maintain and which has also enabled more accurate control of bar weight that has resulted in savings on material costs. The company has also seen savings on labour costs as it is possible to man the new forming line with just one or two people daily. The solution can also be expanded, with the addition of more equipment, so it will be able to grow with the company over time.


Filling a forming gap


According to Wikipedia, fudge ‘is a type of sugar candy that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk, heating it to the soft- ball stage at 115°C, and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency.’ Pictures accompanying this description are of traditional fudge products – formed into a cube or parallelepiped shape using cutters, sometimes with inclusions and sometimes combining two or more flavours and/or colours. and milk, heating it to the soft- ball stage at 115°C, and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency.’ Pictures accompanying this description are of traditional fudge products – formed into a cube or parallelepiped shape using cutters, sometimes with inclusions and sometimes combining two or more flavours and/or colours. The perception of fudge has not really changed much over the years. While traditionally, it has been possible to fill caramel or fudge candy using a chain-forming system, to achieve dense fillings of up to 25% of the product. Nuova Euromec set out to develop a solution that would offer confectioners a new way to present fudge, by making a feature of the filling and helping the product to stand out from other fudge offerings in the eyes of the consumer. Filippo Rizzi, Plant Operations Manager at Nuova Euromec, takes up the story: “Although we can already put a large amount of filling inside a chewy soft candy, the fudge or caramel cover that surrounds and protects the filling represents the greatest obstacle to its view and therefore to the immediate perception of it being a premium product. “To meet the demand for a more innovative way to present filled products – and to create added value – we have developed a forming solution that makes the filling visible as in a candy cup. This chain system can also create products with larger amounts of filling, which is also immediately visible. We feel that this makes the product more inviting and amplifies its consumer appeal. The candy cup can hold a filling that forms up to 30% of the total weight of the product. It is also possible to achieve multiple combinations with different types of filling, such as liquid, cream, pectin, powder and solids geometrically regular, layered or side by side.”


36 Kennedy’s Confection July 2022 KennedysConfection.com


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