Granola, nutritional and energy bar makers have become the quick-change artists of the snack industry. They have reignited the category with mood-boosting and energy-packed handheld products targeting everyone from hard-core decathletes to wannabe athletes to office workers seeking to avoid the dreaded 3 p.m. crash at their jobs.

This next generation of bars contains everything from the latest in antioxidants, upcycled grains and plant-based proteins that pack a powerful punch to chocolate, peanuts, salted caramel and other indulgent ingredients that blur the lines between medicinal goodness and a better-for-you treat.

“It’s convenience that really sells them,” noted Andres Lopez, business development manager, Handtmann. “They’re for people who want a quick fix of health. People who are willing to splurge for that convenience will say, ‘Hey, I’ll pay $5 for a protein bar that is essentially a meal versus $10 for McDonald’s.’ That’s the mentality in that industry.”

Spurring the latest resurgence is the return of entrepreneurial makers to a category that’s recovering from a sales slump and a lack of innovation during the pandemic. For many of them, the mojo is back.

“When working with a lot of the small to medium-sized producers, they have a story on why that bar was made, and it’s very unique,” said Sergio Caballero, regional sales director, FoodTools. “That’s one of the coolest things about the bar category.”

However, using honey, molasses and natural syrups to hold inclusions together can be a sticky situation, especially for copackers and other manufacturers who rely on multiple changeovers to cater to a diverse clientele.

“You have nut bars, fig bars, protein bars, energy bars and candy bars. It’s really about understanding what type of products a producer wants to focus on,” Lopez observed. “When you talk about bars that are very viscous, usually the machines that produce these are not going to give you the accuracy you need when it comes to dimensions and weight. There’s a lot more manual handling than full automation, but that’s just the nature of that bar dough.”

John Price, sales director, Spooner Vicars, a Middleby Bakery company, offered a few tips to simplify the start of the bar production process.

“Snack and nutritional bars are changing constantly and adapting to new and improved nutrients and regional inclusions,” he observed. “Keeping the process time-constant, if possible, and size- and weight-relative will ensure fewer changeovers down the line in packaging.”

Price added Middleby Bakery provides a full line of equipment from mixing and forming to baking, cooling and coating under its various brands. Spooner Vicars’ high-speed mixers, for instance, offer recipe-driven control ability and accurate inclusion displacement to assist with product consistency. 

“Like any recipe-driven product, these stages can be adapted to certain ingredients and recipes to suit a customer’s needs, such as adding different fruits and other inclusions during the dough-mixing process but keeping the same basic recipe,” he said.

Consistently mixed batches then enable extruders to maintain the product pressure that ensures more accurate volume, noted Chuck Sena, director of sales and marketing, Axis Automation.

Monitoring systems can track the pressure, temperature and product viscosity as the ingredients travel through the extrusion process. That allows servo controls to take that data and then adjust to further ensure consistency.

Rheon relies on coextrusion to create niche and other customized bars and react to emerging trends in the marketplace. 

“Because they are co-extruders, a filling can be added to the center of the bar offering a unique product,” said John Giacoio, Rheon USA. “The design of these co-extruders also allows for large particulates as inclusions without damaging them. This gives the product a value-added, quality appearance. In terms of versatility, a quick hopper swap can allow for a 5-minute changeover to a completely different product.”

While baked bars share production similarities to cookies, it’s critical to understand their differences, besides the obvious that one is round and the other rectangular in shape.

“Understanding the baking curve for each bar and cookie is important to ensure the correct oven system is specified to develop, set and achieve the desired moisture and color,” said Sam Pallottini, director, biscuit, cookie and pet food sales, Reading Bakery Systems (RBS). “It is important to use an oven design that is flexible enough to cover the products you bake today, as well as the products in the future.”

This article is an excerpt from the October 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Bar Processing, click here.