Appliance Design - January 2009 - (Page 27)

COMMERCIAL APPLIANCES Food safety is just one aspect of keeping the customer healthy. Increasingly, more consumers are concerned about eating healthier. According to the National Restaurant Association 2008 Restaurant Industry Forecast, three of four adults – and about the same percentage of teenagers – said they are trying to eat healthier in restaurants. To help them, appliance manufacturers are developing equipment that can prepare healthier foods. Electrolux Professional developed the air-o-steam combi oven that Grillas says results in consistent cooking results, and maintains and improves healthy cooking in several ways. With the ability to cook in three different modes – convection, steam and a combination of convection and steam – the air-o-steam controls the humidity level and air distribution better and keeps up to 90 percent of the vitamins and other nutrients in the food. This activity toward eating healthier does not have to be limited to a restaurant or lunchroom. New “connectionless” steamers such as those from Stellar Polaris can operate untethered from a boiler, drain, or even electrical socket. It is fully portable and is fired by a 30 lb. propane tank. Entrees such as seafood can now be served in places where it previously might not have been possible. Sometimes the move toward preparing healthier meals is driven by outside factors. In many school systems around the country, boards of education have either banned or are proposing to ban the use of trans fat oils in school fryers. While the use of trans fat free oils in a standard fryer is possible, their use was hampered by the oil’s additional cost, especially considering that many fryers use about 50 lbs of oil at a time. A solution for using the trans fat free oil, while keeping its use economical, was developed by the Gas Technology Institute. They developed a new type of gas-fired fryer that uses a smaller volume of oil. The fryer uses about 35 lbs of the oil to cook. The low-volume fryers allow the oil to have a longer usage period by using drag out. Drag out occurs when food is fried. The food absorbs some amount of the oil, which lowers the overall amount of oil in the vat. Each night, the oil level needs to be topped off. Because a lower volume of cooking oil is used, the amount of drag out is a higher percent of the original amount of oil so the www.applianceDESIGN.com oil stays fresher longer. The fryer did require a change in how the oil is heated. Previously, heat exchanger tubes at the bottom of the fry vat heated the oil. But, because of the reduced volume, the heat exchangers would not fit; they would interfere with the fry baskets. The heat exchanger tubes had to be moved to the outside of the vat. Innovations such as these are just some of the new menu of features available in today’s commercial appliances. As more foodservice operators become aware of how new technologies can improve their bottom line, they become more willing to pay for innovation. And, that benefits everybody in the food chain, from the makers of commercial appliances as well as the people consuming the food that comes out of them. < Marine Engines Problem EC 2 You are searching for a coating solution for your aluminum castings and parts which will: Solution Superchargers Alodine® EC2™ C heat resistance Value Proposition Alodine® EC2™ has the potential to: HVAC Cond e Fins nd Coils Condenser ins HVAC Co enser Fin and Coils Learn More ec2@amtrim.com amtrim.com/ec2 to: 2™ brochure Pistons American Trim is a licensed product center for Alodine® EC2™ . Alodine® EC2™ was developed by the Henkel Corporation as a protective pretreatment system for aluminum. AD01094ATrim.indd 1 applianceDESIGN January 2009 27 12/11/08 3:21:22 PM http://www.amtrim.com/ec2 http://www.amtrim.com/ec2 http://www.appliancedesign.com

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Appliance Design - January 2009 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch Supplier Spotlights Commercial Appliances Plastics & Parts Electronics Motors Design Marts Association Report: NAFEM Advertiser’s Index

Appliance Design - January 2009

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