Baking&Snack - March 2013 - 40

SHEARER’S FOODS

QA technicians conduct some tests on the plant floor and do other measurements, including FFA, moisture and package seals, in a fully equipped lab.
Blane Sutton

batch fryers, allowing quick heat
recovery and increased production
rates. The choice of thermal fluid
supports the company’s sustainability practices.
An oil mist eliminator removes oil
droplets from the exhaust system. A
full-length hood covers the kettle to
retain heat and create a steam blanket over the hot oil to purge oxygen,
thus prolonging oil life.
Time and temperature determine
every aspect of kettle cooking. The
supply system sends a batch of potatoes to the weigh hopper at the
front of each hand kettle. But potatoes have to wait until the fryer’s oil
temperature reaches the proper set
point. Then, the hopper drops the
potatoes into twin Urschel highspeed centrifugal slicers, which deposit the cut pieces into the fryer.
Thermodynamics take over, and
the high-moisture potato slices cool
the hot oil. When the oil’s temperature drops to a pre-set limit, the

/ Baking & Snack / March 2013

thermal tubes automatically add
heat to the system. In the meantime,
the fryer’s Chip-Stirr automatic
stirring apparatus moves to and
fro through the kettle, its paddles
gently agitating potato slices to prevent chip clusters and soft centers.
Programmed time and temperature
settings come into play again when
controls signal the fryer to release
its load. The paddle assembly skims
chips out of the oil and onto the
short discharge conveyor. Chips
proceed to an inspection station and
then to the accumulator.
Regular potato chips are made
by a Heat and Control Model PC
42 continuous potato chip system.
This 43-ft-long fryer continuously
circulates its cooking oil between
the fryer, filter and heat exchanger.
Its multizone design permits custom
temperature profiles to achieve specific product characteristics. Fryer
metering paddles and a submerger
conveyor control cook times for
consistent, uniform product.
A Key Technology’s IsoFlow
weighbelt conveyor delivers 16,000
lb per hour of peeled potatoes to a
Heat and Control GentleWash flume
system that takes them to the line’s
four Urschel high-speed centrifugal slicers. A second flume moves
the sliced potatoes to the fryer and
rinses their surfaces of excess starch.
Slices drop directly into the input
end of the fryer.

Cutting down on fat
Shearer’s produces an even healthier version of kettle-cooked chips
by passing freshly fried products
through a Heat and Control heated
centrifugal fat-reduction system.
The process differs somewhat
from regular kettle-cooked chips.
Centrifugal force combines with
forced-air heat to spin the oil out
and take moisture down to the
company’s target levels. Reducedfat kettle-cooked chips contain 25%
less fat than regular styles and 40%

less than conventional continuously
fried potato chips.
“The reduced-fat product has
great flavor, more potato-like than
baked chips,” Mr. Surmay observed. “And the seasoning companies are making seasonings that
adhere better to these products
than previously.”
Potato chip lines operate 24 hours
a day. The batch and continuous
fryers employ clean-in-place (CIP)
sanitation. A continuous fines removal system in the batch fryers
uses conveyors that travel along the
bottom of the kettles. In the continuous fryer, oil circulates constantly
through the fines filter.

Packaging in the middle
Flighted conveyors take kettlecooked and continuously fried chips
to separate TNA accumulating systems. The conveyors rise as they
move the warm chips from the chip
kitchen through wall ports leading
to the distribution platform in the
packaging room.
Phase II allows Shearer’s to offer
more flavors than ever, and packaging room design carefully keeps seasonings in check. Movable partitions
screen each scale from the next one
down the line. Plastic curtains surround the feed systems to further
isolate flavor and seasoning varieties.
Higher capacity complicates the
changeover challenge, which particularly affects snack food seasoning and
packaging operations. At this plant,
changeovers on such operations are
done on the run, with a change in
product style automatically signaled
from the chip kitchen to the packaging room and operators via the
company’s management information
portal (MIP).

Serial No. 1 machines
The company collaborated with
Heat and Control on the MTKF
MasterTherm Kettle Fryers. “We
installed the first three of this se-

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Baking&Snack - March 2013

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