Meat + Poultry - June 2009 - 86

MINI-BURGERS

stagnant and now processors and endusers are enlivening the category."
Reiser's customers want equipment to
help them differentiate their products in
the market. "Processors need the ﬂexibility to efﬁciently produce different burgers, as well as other products," McIsaac
says. "For us, this means equipment that
can have quick changeovers to run different blends, shapes and sizes. It also
means ﬂexible systems to allow interleaving and stacking of product, as well
as automatic placement into trays."
One common challenge facing processors is to stay in front of the trend.
"The mini-burger trend has the risk of
failing into the same rut that we have
seen in standard burgers - everyone producing the same commodity and battling
it out over price," he adds. "Mini-burger
producers need to be able to differentiate their products."
Reiser's FM250 former, in conjunction
with a Vemag stuffer and inline grinding, produces a truly unique burger,
including mini-burgers, McIsaac says.
Unlike mass-made, mold-plate burgers,
FM250 burgers are made one-by-one at
an extremely high speed. Each burger
comes through the inline grinder and
is portioned onto a belt.
"Here it is ﬂattened to produce a
home-made look," McIsaac adds. "The
look and the bite are of a homemade
burger. The system can easily handle
different sizes, often with the pushbutton change of recipe. Tool changes,
when required, are simple one-piece
affairs that can be done in seconds. The
equipment also has the capability to
handle blends that include particulates,
such as cheese, bacon or mushrooms.
Reiser conducts product sample testing virtually every week on the FM250,

The Formax
Maxum700 includes
unique features, such
as a one-piece pump
box and pivoting
product hopper to
offer the highest level
of hygiene of any
forming system, the
company says. (Photo
courtesy of Formax)

he says. "We see pork-patty activity for
the breakfast market - the original miniburgers," he adds. "We also see customers who are playing both sides, with
huge burgers on one end and mini's
on the other. They appreciate that our
equipment can run this spread with
minimal changeover."

Mini-sandwich
demand increasing
NuTEC Manufacturing, New Lenox, Ill.,
has witnessed increasing demand from
customers for mini-burgers, says Craig
Colegrove, Eastern regional sales manager. "Our customers come to us and
ask for speciﬁc applications. Demand
is increasing not only for mini-burgers
from beef, but also poultry, pork, seafood and veggies, as well."
In addition to smaller portion sizes,
some retail and foodservice customers
are looking for that home-made look
and homemade quality, Colegrove says.
"But it's also very important for the
equipment to be fast and efﬁcient," he
adds. "Producing mini-burgers requires
different packaging for such products,
Reiser's FM250
former, in
conjunction
with a Vemag
stuffer and
inline grinding,
produces a
truly unique
burger,
including
mini-burgers.
(Photo courtesy
of Reiser)

MEAT&POULTRY

June 2009

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

which can be a time-consuming challenge for some processors."
NuTEC's involvement in supplying
technology for mini-burger production
has primarily been in the area of re-tooling. "Sandwich processors can change
out their mold plates very easily on our
equipment," Colegrove says.
NuTEC's 745 machine, for example,
can run 7,800 regular-sized patties
per hour with a two-hole mold or it
can run 11,700 patties per hour with
a three-hole mold. "So when you go
down to the minimum size and the
smaller mold holes, processors will
be running much more than 11,700
mini-patties an hour," he says. "This
meets the processors' demand for
speed and efﬁciency. Within a couple
of minutes, molds can be changed on
any of our models."
Colegrove says customer demand always challenges equipment manufacturers to come up with solutions. Sandberg
adds, "The evolution of mini-burger
forming technology will follow the general forming technology evolution since
they are one and the same."
Processors will continue to add new
product "looks," Reiser's McIsaac says.
"We are adding different belts and rollers to put different textures and scores
on the burger surfaces," he adds. "We
will continue to listen to our customers and work to keep them ahead of
the trends."
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Meat + Poultry - June 2009

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