Baking&Snack - August 2013 - 28

PAPA PITA BAKERY

Papa Pita’s mixers provide energy efficiency and
sanitary design. The bakery has three 2,000-lb
dough mixers and one 1,300-sponge mixer.
or they can bypass it to create softer
steamed bagels. The Babb 100-ft
oven features the same options as
the one on the flatbread line, except
it has stone hearth side walls and a
maximum temperature of 700°F.
The variety bread line also provides extensive versatility. Sponges
are created in a Shaffer 1,300-lb
mixer then receive up to a 4.5-hour
ferment in a conventional first-in,
first-out fermentation room before
entering a third Shaffer 2,000-lb dough mixer.
“One of the things that is important to us is to stay
true to our process and not be tempted to cut steps
for efficiency and speed,” Mr. Mohebbi explained.
“Although we run at the highest rates, our process still
manages to keep a long natural fermentation that creates
good flavor.”
The Gemini Bakery Equipment makeup line features
a WP Haton single-pocket divider and WP nonstick
cone rounder that uses light warm air to round doughs
without flour or with a slight dusting of flour or a dab
of oil. Dough pieces then travel under two pressure
boards that can be combined to produce a wide variety
of textured products. A topper between the boards allows seeds and grains to be rolled into the dough pieces
as they travel under the second pressure board and are
then panned.
After traveling through the CapStep proofer, similar
to the bagel line, the pans pass under a Burford seeder
and into a Babb 100-ft air-impingement oven. The washdown oven can reduce bake times by up to 30% while
lowering energy usage by 35%. The bakery can control
not only bake times and temperatures but also convection velocities and the heat above and below the hearth.
Of special note, Mr. Mohebbi said, is the oven’s ability
to raise or lower temperature by 150 F° in two minutes,
which streamlines changeovers. “We can bake one pan
or an oven full of pans without heat flashing,” he said.
“Every loaf is the same color. This is a huge advantage on
a combination [bread and AMF bun line] and reduces
waste tremendously.”
The empty pans travel on a Capway conveyor through
a 50-ft tunnel that cools them from 375°F to about 95°F.
Specifically, ambient air blows through the tunnel to remove the heat from the pans. This system provides the
necessary cooling as the pans recycle back to the front
of the line so as not to shock the dough pieces prior to

/ Baking & Snack / August 2013

entering the proofer. Meanwhile, the warm loaves travel
along an IJ White spiral cooler and on to packaging.
At this year’s International Baking Industry
Exposition, to be held Oct. 6-9 in Las Vegas, Papa Pita
will look for additional ways to streamline its packaging operations. Currently, the packaging department
features a battery of UBE baggers and slicers and Kwik
Lok closure systems. All systems can be washed down,
but most of the tray loading and basket stacking remains
manual. The bakery also casepacks products for foodservice accounts and stores them in a 160-pallet freezer.
In addition to continuous investment, Papa Pita plans
to focus on continuous improvement, noted Mr. Malkin,
a start-up specialist and expert in lean manufacturing
who’s worked at multinational corporations throughout
his career.
Ramping up the flatbread line, he acknowledged, involved a pretty large learning curve since the old bakery
had a lot of rack ovens and was much more manually operated. The bagel and bread lines, however, came online
much faster. The next step will involve ongoing training
to lower costs further and improve the operations’ efficiencies. “We’re driving down the idea that every second
of operation uptime counts,” Mr. Malkin said.
Mr. Mohebbi said he couldn’t have completed the
project without his key suppliers. “I had one thing in
common with all these vendors: They are owned by an
individual like me, and their personal relationship commitment to excellence and promise to me was the key
factor in choosing them to build my new bakery, and I
sense that they are just as proud of the end result as I
am,” he said.
And, of course, he thanked his management team. “I
could not have done this without their tremendous hard
work, countless hours of stress and sleepless nights and
the dedication and passion they have poured into this
two-year project,” he said.

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Baking&Snack - August 2013

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