Baking & Snack - December 2009 - 60

PRETZEL PROCESSING

partment. While temperatures are less in the dryer than
in the oven, there is greater air movement, and dwell times
can be more than twice as long as those in the oven.

Soft Solutions
For companies looking to produce soft pretzels, Fritsch
USA, Cedar Grove, NJ, manufactures pretzel twisters. The
company's Multi Twist is a pretzel former, or "slinger," and it
accepts a string of dough, grips it at either end and loops
it around two forming heads or pins. The dough string,
which has been moulded under pressure boards like other
stringline products, falls off the supply belt with this center
engaged by the work platform.
"The pretzel twister is a very universal unit and cannot
only do pretzels from 30 to about 200 g but also rings and
other products," said Josef Hoos, senior manager, Fritsch
GmbH. The twister is equipped with servo drives and is
able to handle up to 2,000 pieces per hour."
Fritsch components can be switched over within a matter
of minutes without special tools, and an intelligent tool
control system is constantly
on the alert to ensure that the
system operates with the right
combination of tools.
Fritsch can do turnkey projects
for manufacturing these products from mixer to packaging,
and it also offers an alternative
system for creating pretzel cords
with a sheeting and cutting process without intermediate proofing, Mr. Hoos added.

}

QUALITY AND CONTROL. Bakeries also should look to
modernize their quality assurance programs because new instrumentation is available such as near-infrared vs. moisture
determination balances for measuring moisture of pretzels,
according to Mr. Eshelman. And while it may look like it
costs a lot to initially invest in these tools, when taken over the
long run, it is a good investment, he said. In fact, some pretzel
manufacturers are putting near-infrared sensors on lines to
constantly measure moisture levels in products.
Many pretzels lines use PLCs and/or PC-based control
systems. However, PC-based systems are more comprehensive and offer storage and memory capabilities that are not
available with PLCs or touch-screen interfaces, according to
Mr. Eshelman. Anything that is being electronically operated or monitored can be trended and saved by PC-based
systems, so a company can save data such as extrusion
pressure, caustic percentage of cooking solution and oven/
dryer temperatures at any particular time. "Manufacturers
will have remote access to the process PC, so they can look
at lines from remote locations," he said. "A couple of larger
companies save all data for up to six months, and if brand X
sees an inordinate number of returns because it is too salty,
burned or stale and the manufacturer has a UPC code, it
goes back and reviews what operator and processing parameters were used at the time the product was made."
Pretzel processing equipment continues to evolve
and today systems feature more automation and greater
controls to assist processors in making a wide variety of
consistent quality products.
◾

SMART ROTARY

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BAKING & SNACK / December 2009

Baking & Snack - December 2009

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