Blog Posts
Commercial Baking: Thinking inside the box for a unique tradeshow experience
LAS VEGAS — As equipment exhibitors constructed their machinery in the days leading up to the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE), which took place Sept. 18-21 in Las Vegas, WP Bakery Group USA was busy building something quite different. The global supplier of commercial and retail bakery equipment erected in its booth the “Big Black…
Baking & Snack: Inspirations from IBIE
The bakery business is all about the people, after all. Rick Oleshak, vice president of marketing for AB Mauri, reminded attendees at a Sept. 20 educational session during the International Baking Industry Exposition in Las Vegas that companies that don’t run themselves – ‘’people do.” “B2B does not mean business to boring,” Oleshak during the…
Baking & Snack: New ways to create artisan bread at scale
No ifs, ands, or buts. That’s the purist response when asked about automating authentic artisan breads. In the real world, however, art is open to interpretation, and baking is no exception. “Can real artisan bread be made to scale? This is a question I get all the time from bake shops that have a handful…
Baking & Snack: Immersive video experience at IBIE 2022
LAS VEGAS — WP Bakery Group USA (Booth No. 1633) offers IBIE 2022 attendees an immersive video experience in its Big Black Box built on the floor. Every 30 minutes, up to 15 people can enter the booth with floor-to-ceiling screens to view the video featuring beautiful shots of baked goods and more. The video,…
Baking & Snack: Explore the options for boosting a fryer’s capacity
Snack makers need to make the most of their fryers with the strong demand for donuts, chips and other snacks throughout the day. Boosting throughput in the short run, however, isn’t as simple as attaching another zone to a tunnel oven. Often raising capacity means investing in another kettle or hiring additional shifts to work…
Baking & Snack: New frying technology controls cost of oil use
Everyone wants a long life, just not old age. That’s especially true for snack makers searching for ways to get the most out of their soy, palm, canola, sunflower and other cooking oils that have possibly doubled or even tripled in price due to global weather, geopolitical and supply chain challenges. While large food manufacturers…
Baking & Snack: Automation streamlines changeovers for fresh donuts manufacturing
In a fresh donut operation, changeovers are inevitable as bakers are producing all of their SKUs daily to satisfy customer orders for the next day. The controls from automation not only provide product consistency but can also make changeovers easier and faster. “An automated system should be designed to produce the same product that is…
Baking & Snack: Automation poses hurdles for fresh donut producers
Walk into any manufacturer making fresh donuts before 2020, and the production room would be full of small lines producing 400 dozen to 600 dozen donuts per hour. Today, these producers are turning to automation for one major reason: labor. “They were living with that production system pre-COVID because they had the employees to staff…
Baking & Snack: Reducing friction at the divider opens up automation to new products
Protecting product quality at the divider means reducing stress on the dough as it goes through the equipment. While this might not be as important for some products, reducing friction opens up the world of automation to more sensitive doughs. “When the dough is stressed during dividing, the gluten structure will be damaged,” explained Patricia…
Backing & Snack: Maintenance is critical when production runs at high speeds
High-speed bun and roll production offers a bounty of reward for bakers. The risk of high-speed production is that any breakdown in the line is going to result in catastrophic loss of product before the rest of the process can be halted. Downtime to repair the line also becomes costly, so maintenance becomes even more…