Baking & Snack - June 2015 - 117

Some of the most seemingly harmless
ingredients ... can actually pose
some of the biggest threats.
in less water consumption and less time
cleaning the belt."
One way to combat pooling of water
and other buildup is making sure there's
no place for it to gather on the conveyor
itself. "When the application calls for a
wire mesh or modular plastic belt, the
bigger openings you can have, the better,"
said Joe Gongaware, sales engineering
manager, Eaglestone, Inc., St. Charles, IL.
"As a general rule, you want a more open
area and fewer hinge points on the belt;
the hinge points are often the most dif-

ficult to clean," he added. "But you really
have to consider the product and the type
of transfers you're going to have as the
first priority."
Today, many belts are designed to protect against water, too. For example, AMF
Bakery Systems, Richmond, VA, engineered its dough conveyor to include a
solid urethane belt, which does not fray or
absorb water.
It is also important for the belting to
have no exposed fibers or fabric at the
edges. "The edges should be capped

Pass the meat, please
For myriad reasons, the bakery plant of today is not the same as the
one 10 or 15 years ago, especially as we enter the age of the Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). And because some of the best
ideas are borrowed and not born, the baking industry is taking food
safety cues from the meat and poultry industries, where food safety
standards are much more stringent under USDA.
Until the dawn of FSMA, bakers relied on ovens as the kill step.
Now the government is starting to question whether the oven is
good enough, and the big challenge is backing up the answer with
tangible proof. After all, what baker in his or her right mind wants
to introduce salmonella into the bakery? Until that can be resolved,
bakers must look at every facet of production with a food-safety
lens. One way to ensure that with conveyors is to adopt rules reflecting those strict USDA standards.
"We build per USDA standards," said Bill Schiltz, director of sales
and marketing, Kofab, which designs conveyors for both the baking
industry and meat and poultry. All equipment is designed and built
to meet or exceed USDA specifications.
Eaglestone, Inc., also manufactures in both industries and sees
a progression in sanitary conveyor designs from meat over to baking, regardless of the types of products a bakery is making. In fact,
Eaglestone just worked with a company that makes garlic bread to
design about 15 conveyors for its new plant. "We looked to a lot of
designs that we'd use in the meat industry, such as fully welded frame
designs that minimize any bolted connections or closed tubes," said
Joe Gongaware, sales engineering manager for Eaglestone. Garlic
butter can get very messy and be extremely hard to clean out from
behind bolted connections. "This customer went with a welded frame
design; it makes sanitation easier and better for swab tests, as well."

Baking & Snack - June 2015

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