Baking & Snack - June 2017 - 44

BFY BRANDS

"Our Little Rebellion is a rebellion
against the assumption that snacks
that are better for you and better for
the world don't taste good. We
disagree with that premise."
Gunther Brinkman, Ideal Snacks

pressure followed by high heat that moulds and bakes
them inside a proprietary shaped cavity - to create a
steady cascading stream of "cakes" falling delicately onto
a 40- to 50-ft conveyor.
"In many ways, the process can be compared to popping popcorn kernels," Mr. Shultis said. "The heat and
pressure forces the ingredients to pop into a light, airy
snack that is later seasoned."
Finished cakes convey to the seasoning drums where
they are oiled and seasoned. Upon exit from the drums,
they flow into bucket conveyors, which take them to the
packaging mezzanine. Here, Yamoto and Ishida scales
meter them into the UVA or Hayssen vertical form/fill/
seal baggers.

Home of the rebellion
About a 30-minute ride from Liberty, the Middletown
operation produces all company-branded snacks. The
facility houses eight processing lines in 15,000 sq ft
along with 20,000 sq ft for packaging, 40,000 sq ft for
warehousing and 30,000 for office space. About 170
people work on three shifts, five days a week at the SQF
Level 2-certified plant.
Unlike at Liberty, the non-GMO corn is delivered via
rail, providing significant cost savings, according to Jared
Swift, Middletown plan manager. Specifically, a pneumatic
inboard delivery system directly transfers the non-GMO
corn via a rubber hose and pipes from rail cars, each holding about 160,000 to 190,000 lb of grain, and into the building. Each week, Norfolk Southern swaps out the empty cars
to ensure a four-week supply to the operation.
Inside, a K-Tron bulk handling and sifting system
transfers the corn and removes any foreign matter. Next,
the corn hydrates in a continuous steeping system that
eventually turns the cleaned kernels into a malleable
mash that forms the base of the popped snacks. Specialty
ingredients such as peas and beans arrive in 2,000-lb supersacks at both facilities.
The department also houses several silos, including
a 100,000-lb bin that holds about a day's worth of corn
and serves as a backup in case there are any glitches with
the rail system. Liquid ingredients such as sunflower oil
are stored in three 1,500-gal tanks. "With this system, we
streamline the handling and processing of the corn as
well as provide strict food safety controls to the front of
the process," Mr. Swift explained.
From there, the corn mash transfers pneumatically into
four elevated 1,000-gal holding tanks, each dedicated to
feeding two processing lines. The system pumps the base
and other ingredients through a long line of pipes, then
diverts the mashy mixture to automatically feed each of
A 100,000-lb silo holds non-GMO corn for better-for-you snacks.

44 Baking & Snack June 2017 / www.bakingandsnack.com

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Baking & Snack - June 2017

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