Baking & Snack - September 2022 - 58

ARTISAN BREAD
TOO MANY TIMES, BAKERIES UNDERESTIMATE
THE AMOUNT OF SPACE NEEDED FOR
AUTOMATING THE ARTISAN PROCESS.
it the proper resting time to control the entire process. "
To produce large quantities of artisan breads, Fritsch,
a Multivac company, offers the Impressa bread line and
SoftProcessing Technology that adapts to a dough's
high-hydration and open-cell structure. For sheeting,
Fritsch provides the SDS, a sheeter designed to produce
a continuous sheet for soft doughs while still maintaining
weight accuracy.
To make consistent dough pieces, Ms. Laisne said,
Artisan at scale
requires versatile
makeup lines that
can consistently
create a wide variety
of products.
Rondo
Mecatherm's M-NS constantly measures the density
of the dough and gently cuts it to the proper weight
and volume.
" This divider produces pieces of dough, which do not
hold tension that could subsequently disrupt the shaping
or proofing stages in a pan, faithfully reproducing
the process employed by the artisan baker, " she said.
Ramping up production also requires adjustments
throughout the production line.
" Even if you are running 2 tons of dough per hour,
you need to make sure you automate down the line with
continuous resting, proofing and baking, " Mr. Weissbach
said. " Otherwise, you have too much labor involved to
handle all the trays. It becomes counterproductive. "
He added that high-volume lines need enhanced
communication among all equipment to operate efficiently
with less labor. He suggested using software and
digital controls to monitor line speed, motors and drives
to ensure they are properly maintained while providing
better traceability throughout the process.
Patricia Kennedy, president and chief executive officer,
WP Bakery Group USA, pointed out that advances
in software and other digital systems not only enhance a
bakery's efficiency but also adapt to new product changes.
With WP Connect, she added, bakeries also can
constantly monitor the status of the line as well as gear
boxes and motors to provide preventive maintenance.
" In the past, everything was manually adjusted by the
operator, " she said. " Now the line is doing this 90% by
itself. With a smart recipe controller, most steps are fully
automated, and the rest are done by the operator. "
Such technology wasn't readily available in the baking
industry 10 to 15 years ago when many bakeries
previously installed their current artisan bread lines.
Today's systems commonly incorporate the use of robotics
for water scoring, cutting, folding, rounding, depanning
and other steps of the makeup process, noted Hans
Besems, executive product manager, AMF Tromp, an
AMF Bakery Systems brand.
" Another nice example of new technology is also
the targeted application of decoration of a bread, " Mr.
Besems said. " With our Smart Applicators, seeds, corn,
bran or cheese can be applied to an exact spot right
on top of the bread to avoid wasting expensive toppings
like sesame seeds and cheese, which can lead
to big savings and a shorter return on investment on
the machine. "
He said AMF Tromp designed its new artisan bread
line to handle highly hydrated specialty doughs with a
low-stress system that maintains all dough properties.
Addressing ways to reduce waste is another big change
in sheeting technology over the years.
" We even suggest process changes to reuse scrap
dough into a slurry with bakeries and producers, " Mr.
Besems said.
58 Baking & Snack September 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
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Baking & Snack - September 2022

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