Baking & Snack - April 2016 - 94

TORTILLA TECHNOLOGY

This new line produces
restaurant-style tortilla
chips and features 89 ft of
baking surface.
Casa Herrera

tion is stainless steel.
We removed cracks and
crevices and eliminated bolts from the tops of surfaces.
All electrical conduits met IP 65 standards for water
resistance. And we got rid of square tubing for frames,
using diamond-section tubing instead. We eliminated
boxes and basins that could catch water, and all belt
and conveyor surfaces conform to US Department of
Agriculture-level protection."
Improving the cleanability of equipment has economic benefits, too. According to Tim Reardon, group
solutions manager, processing, Americas, TNA North
America, the company's FOODesign fryer, constructed
from food-grade stainless steel, has fewer corners and

Science of tortillas
Texas A&M University leads in tortilla research. For more
than 30 years, its professors and students have studied corn
and wheat tortillas in detail, exploring their origin, ingredients, nutritional content, phytochemical properties, quality
aspects, shelf life and production technologies. And it has
produced a steady stream of scientific articles.
But it was not until 2015 that this research was published in an authoritative textbook. Tortillas - Wheat Flour
and Corn Products, edited by Lloyd Rooney, PhD, and
Sergio Serna-Saldivar, PhD, is now available from AACC
International Press.
Dr. Rooney recently retired as a professor at Texas A&M
University's Cereal Quality Laboratory, and his student,
Dr. Serna-Saldivar, is now a professor and researcher at
the FEMSA Biotechnology Center at Monterrey Institute of
Technology, Monterrey, Mexico. Together, they dedicated their
book to the memory of Ralph Waniska, PhD, a Texas A&M colleague who pioneered in research about tortillas. Dr. Waniska
put the book in motion several years before his death in 2007.
He and Dr. Rooney are well remembered for the many presentations they made over the years to the Tortilla Industry
Association at the group's technical seminars.

94 Baking & Snack April 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

areas for particulates to build up. "Since there is less
risk for corrosion, manufacturers benefit from a longer life-expectancy of their equipment," he said, "while
the system's easy-to-clean design significantly shortens
washdowns and allows manufacturers to uphold the
highest hygienic standards."
Cleanability also involves taking equipment apart
and, sometimes, moving it to a dedicated cleaning area.
"Handtmann equipment can be fully dissembled and
power-washed onsite," Mr. Zelaya observed, "or our
latest execution offers mobile versions so the equipment can be easily moved to a sanitation room for those
bakeries where onsite cleaning is not an option. After
sanitation is completed, our equipment can be fully inspected to confirm that the cleaning process was properly followed."

Wheat: round 'em up
Both dough ball and sheeting processes comprise the
makeup of wheat flour tortillas. While dough ball systems account for the bulk of table tortillas, sheeted styles
are often used for burritos and preparation of frozen
Hispanic specialties. Both technologies have seen recent
improvements.
"The process dictates quality," Mr. Herrera said.
Equipment vendors are designing dough-ball systems for ever-faster changeovers, according to Bruce
Campbell, vice-president, product technology, AMF
Bakery Systems. "With the push of a button on the AMF
Flex series of dividers, they will immediately begin making the new dough ball weights with high accuracy,
±1 g," he said. "And the rounding technology with the
belt system now gives good symmetry at higher rates
than available with older volumetric style rounders."
Mr. Zelaya affirmed the weight accuracy of
Handtmann vane cell technology as aiding finished
product consistency. "We also feature a servo drive flow
divider that addresses any weight fluctuation from side
to side on multiline systems," he added.
Dough balls benefit from a short rest in an intermediate
proofer before pressing. For improved performance,
Lawrence Equipment added servos to its automatic loader system that deposits dough balls in exact position optimized for the press pattern. "It pre-forms the dough ball
before it reaches the press and centers it exactly on the
bullseye," Mr. Shelton explained.
"We recognize how the elasticity of the dough ball
impacts the way the tortilla forms at the press and affects the finished quality of the tortilla," he added.

High-speed sheeting
Tortilla experts note that sheeted and die-cut tortillas,
when compared with pressed styles, tend to be less

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Baking & Snack - April 2016

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