Baking & Snack - February 2018 - 99

feed rollers that put positive dough pressure on the extrusion screws.
Bühler offers the specific pump to match extruder flow
rate to assist with consistency and weight accuracy. "The
consistency and rate of pumping filling is based on appropriate size and type of pump," Mr. Shaw explained.
On its new forming and extruding equipment,
Handtmann creates the desired product shape with
forming tubes mounted on the outlet of the servo-driven
flow divider that ensures consistent weight and sizes on
every row of the system.
With co-extruded products and their filled centers,
maintaining the proper ratio between inner fillings and
outer shells can be an issue. "Another typical challenge
in co-extrusion is being able to enclose 100% of the
filling without tearing the outside or expose the inner
filling," said Cesar Zelaya, bakery sales and technology
manager, Handtmann. The company's co-extruding
systems feature servo drives to address these challenges and precisely control and adjust the dosing ratio of
each filling.
Bühler's equipment is designed to properly seal
products that are filled. Mr. Shaw, however, suggested
that snack producers make sure the outer shell is thick
enough to prevent tearing as there are physical limitations in the capabilities of the equipment.
"Also, the colors of the filling and outer shell need to
be considered with product design," he said. "If there is

A common theme in improving
sanitation is making the equipment
easier to disassemble, particularly
without the use of tools.
a chocolate filling with a chocolate outer shell, for example, a thinner shell might be permissible. "

Keep it clean
As with all commercial processing equipment, sanitation is always a concern. Food manufacturers and equipment suppliers are always looking to streamline this part
of commercial food production.
"We understand that equipment in today's production environment needs to not only to perform well but
also be cleaned and maintained in a timely manner," Mr.
Pasquini said. "We also recognize the importance of safe
machine operation and designing purpose-built guarding that protects the necessary hazards yet provides adequate access for operation and sanitation."
A common theme in improving sanitation is making the equipment easier to disassemble without the
use of tools. RBS recently redesigned its system with
that capability. This helps the sanitation team take the

The Shape of Snacking
New shapes are another way extruded snacks
can differentiate themselves from one another
and grab consumers' attention. Unique shapes
touch on two major trends.
In the snack category specifically, consumers are seeking out products that stand out,
whether with interesting flavors, textures or
shapes. Handtmann developed a new generation of forming and extruding equipment that
offers more options to develop and produce
3-D shapes.
A larger food trend toward the perception
of artisan or handmade has led bread bakers to break away from uniformity and more
toward irregularly shaped pieces. Snacks are
no exception.
"As we were challenged in the past to produce a high-quality product that appeared pristine and did not change over time, we are now
faced with the task of maintaining the high

quality but creating a product that appears less
factory-made and more resembles something
that comes from a small batch process and
looks handmade," said Vince Pasquini, pretzel
and snack technical sales engineer, Reading
Bakery Systems.
Flexible equipment is key to this. Previous
trend cycles led the food industry to pursue
dedicated lines of equipment that made the
same product with minimal changes. While
dedicated lines certainly have their places and
value, there is a movement today toward more
nimble production lines. "We are also seeing
the need to develop flexible platforms that can
be easily adapted to make different product
with minimal downtime," Mr. Pasquini said.
"As well as product cycles expire, these can
then be used for future products that may be
significantly different than what the process
was originally developed for."

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