This post comes courtesy of Terry Stemler, President of Automated Process Equipment Corporation (APEC). APEC specializes in designing and manufacturing custom processing equipment for companies around the world in various industries. APEC was founded in 1992 and is based in Lake Odessa, MI USA.

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Interested in how your bag of popcorn or nuts is produced? Obviously, it doesn’t come straight from the farm to your grocery store, but what exactly goes on behind the scenes?

So you can get a broad understanding of how snack foods are made, here are the processes as well as equipment involved.

Weighing and Measuring Equipment

When food first enters the processing phase, scales and balances are used for quality control and to help ensure the snacks are fresh. This step safeguards quality for consumers and profits for manufacturers.

A few of the different types of scales most utilized are:

  • Ingredient Scales: Ingredient scales are typically grouped into three categories: major, minor, and micro, which range in capacity from 2 cu ft. to 368 cu ft., and 25 lbs. to 5 tons.
  • Checkweighers: A vital piece of equipment, this is used to spot-check raw materials or finished products.
  • Truck Scales: Weighs inbound and outbound freight which helps to manage inventory and billing.
  • Bin, Hopper, and Tank Weighers: A weight sensor that goes in existing storage bins, they’re available in stainless steel, watertight, and explosion-proof models.
  • Forklift Scales: Enables weighing and transporting to take place at the same time.
  • Conveyor Scales: Offers the ability to increase processing speed since it operates while the conveyor is in motion.
  • Bench and Floor Scales: Used when shipping, receiving, or sorting inventory.

The proper use of scales facilitates the gathering of vital data. When automated scales are used, data can be entered immediately into spreadsheets or charts to be analyzed and optimized. Doing this decreases waste and increases productivity.

Mixers

Transforming raw ingredients into consumable food is a science. The main goal is to establish consistency with proper mixing. Taste, texture, color, and appearance are all influenced by this process.

In the case of making peanut butter:

  • First, roasted peanuts and other ingredients are put into the mixing bowl.
  • Second, a dual-shaft mixer may be used to mix the ingredients together.
  • Third, the peanut butter passes through an inline rotor/stator in order to get its smooth consistency.
  • Fourth, the peanut butter is pumped into plastic drums to await final packaging.

The type of mixer used is determined by the type of ingredients being mixed together (solid with solid, liquid with solid, or liquid with liquid) and the desired viscosity and density of the final product.

Extruders

Used to form individually shaped pieces and continuous ropes, extrusion is a very useful process when making snack foods. Some of the other things that can be done with the right heads on an extruder are:

  • Multi-strand twists
  • Spirals
  • Flat sheets
  • Strips
  • Folding
  • Crimping
  • Cutting
  • Toppings
  • Fillings inside snacks or candies

Taking into account all the things that can be done with an extruder, they are considered to be a valuable piece of snack food processing equipment.

Heating and Cooling Sources

Most food processes involve transferring heat into or out of food. There are three ways this can be done:

  1. Radiation: The transfer of heat by electromagnetic waves (microwave).
  2. Conduction: The movement of heat by direct transfer of molecular energy within solids (through metal containers).
  3. Convection: The transfer of heat by groups of molecules that move as a result of differences in density (heated or cooled air) or as a result of agitation (stirring liquids).

When dealing with food, proper temperatures must be maintained throughout the entire process in order to maintain health and safety standards. This can be done with high-quality fryers, ovens, food chillers, and blast coolers among other types of equipment.

Liquid Coating Systems

Many snack foods, including nuts and popcorn, have liquid coatings applied to them during the manufacturing process. Examples of liquid coatings include:

  • Oil and butter
  • Saltwater
  • Liquid smoke
  • Chocolate
  • Glaze
  • Various flavorings
  • Food coloring

While some liquid coating equipment is made of stainless steel and consists of spinning disks, others utilize nozzles that spray in a continuous process.

Packaging

Snacks that aren’t being eaten immediately need to be sealed inside a package to protect the food from moisture, oil, air, and light. For this level of protection, food-grade material must be used.

Different equipment can be used depending on the type of package you choose. Some packaging examples are:

  • Cartons
  • Multipacks
  • Pillow bags
  • Roll wraps
  • Stand-up pouches
  • And many others

Compliance Requirement Automation

The importance of efficiency with automation to help with FDA compliance requirements is vital in producing snack food. A few of the things that can be done with the proper system in place is:

  • Bar code confirmation of ingredients
  • Lot tracking to identify arrival and usage dates of ingredients
  • Time and date stamping to provide detailed usage and production reports

The most successful snack food manufacturers are known for maintaining high quality in their products. They achieve this by optimizing and perfecting every step of the process, from weighing and measuring to compliance and automation.

 

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