Baking & Snack - March 2019 - 75

EQUIPMENT
Batter Depositing

WEIGHING THE

OPTIONS
The wealth of technology allows bakers to ensure
accurate weights and clean cut-offs when depositing batter.
by Charlotte Atchley

When depositing batter, the trick is controlling the
weight. Accurate deposits ensure that bakers save money
and provide people with a consistent product.
"The depositor is the cash register in a batter bakery,"
said John McIsaac, vice-president, strategic business development, Reiser, "Inaccurate portioning leads to more
money spent on ingredients through excess giveaway. It
also means more money spent baking since an uneven
portion leads to inconsistency. It can create issues with
packaging because different sizes do not fit well into the
same package. Most of all, it means a loss of control,
which can result in not putting the best product in front
of your customers."
Having that control not only results in precise portioning, but it also ensures that the batter winds up in
the proper place in the pan. By avoiding drips and tailings, bakers avoid even more product loss as well as a
mess on the pans or conveyor belts. All of this comes
from technological innovations made throughout the
years at this critical step in production.

Maintaining control
The downsides of inaccurate deposit weights cannot be
overstated. If a depositor is not portioning the correct
amount of batter, everything downstream will be impacted.
If the deposit isn't accurate, the bakery will not only give

away product, but the batter will also rise too much in
the oven and cause problems in packaging, according to
Bob Peck, vice-president, ET Oakes.
Giving away too much product means consumers are
paying less for more. "Ingredient costs and labor costs are
at an all-time high," said Lance Aasness, executive vicepresident, Hinds-Bock. "Any amount of extra product
that is lost with inaccurate depositing will ultimately affect the bottom line. If a production worker is required to
monitor these accuracies and 'fix' the inaccurate deposits,
unnecessary labor costs will be incurred and, again, affect
your bottom line."
Inaccurate weights also cause problems in the packaging department. Not only do bakers risk the product
not fitting into the packaging correctly, but the weight
listed on the label also will be misleading. "Accuracy also
refers to spreading, clean cut-off at the end of the deposit
cycle and correct distribution of batters," said Andy
Sigrist, product manager, Unifiller.
The diverse technological innovations available today
help bakers achieve the precise portions and accurate
positioning for even bakes and efficient production.

Servo depositors are
electronically controlled
and allow bakers to monitor
the speed and amount of
batter being deposited.
Unifiller

The right tech for the batter
Because accurate weights are so critical to batter depositing, several technologies and production strategies are

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