New methods for product finishing
As with every other category in the baking industry, consumers are upping the ante when it comes to sweet goods. They want higher quality, better taste and improved eye appeal. One area where bakers can hit all those marks is in finishing them.
“Consumers love icing and glazes,” said Gary Kyle, chief sales and marketing officer, for James Skinner Baking Co., Omaha, NE, which produces the J. Skinner brand of cinnamon rolls, Danish and other sweet goods. So much so, he said, that the company has extended one of its flagship products, J. Skinner Cinnamon Craver’s Rolls, with the new Iced Cinnamon Craver’s Rolls. “Now consumers have the option of purchasing our signature roll with a glaze or thick, sweet icing,” he said.
It seems that the trend is toward the thicker the better these days. “I see a lot of viscosities in glazing; you have everything from thin to very thick,” said Ty Sarajian, owner, Axis Automation. “But I’m also seeing a trend toward the thicker side than I have in the past.”
The higher the quality of the finish, the more value added to the product, according to Stewart Macpherson, vice-president, sales and marketing, Unifiller. “These include things like chocolate coatings, caramel and cream cheese-based icings,” he said. And with these different applications come new challenges bakers must consider when efficiently creating high-end, consistent, finished sweet goods.
Temperature’s sweet spot
When it comes to managing icing and glazing, few will argue that temperature is the most important factor to watch.
“Temperature control is always the key for handling any icing or glaze or compounds,” said Stephen Renaud, vice-president, sales and project development, ABI Ltd. Whatever substance is being applied will have different viscosities based on ingredients such as fat and sugar.
To maintain the proper temperature, jacketing is a common feature for many application systems. “All ABI chocolate compound application systems, and our partner Hacos systems, are fully jacketed with temperature-controlled thermal fluid to keep the recirculated compounds from clogging,” Mr. Renaud said.
If icing gets too cold, chances are it will harden and clog up the nozzle. To address this, E.T. Oakes Corp. designs its system with an isolated bore. “This allows hot water to circulate through the manifold and maintain the proper temperature,” said Bob Peck, vice-president, engineering for E.T. Oakes. “It’s a gun-drilled bore that runs horizontally through the entire manifold.”
On E.T. Oakes’ icing equipment, the icer moves in a circular motion, so to avoid clogging, the icing cannot be too rigid. If certain areas of a piping system don’t have temperature control, icing could harden; the result is something similar to when a human artery clogs. The flow gets backed up, and eventually it’s going to stop. “Our system has a flexible connection, a flexible feed line,” Mr. Peck said. “It’s also heat-traced electrically. Every part of that system is controlled by heat to prevent clogging in the piping network.”
For heated applications, Unifiller offers temperature-controlled hoppers. “In some cases, we have a heated application nozzle, where we incorporate and apply infrared heat to the ‘business end’ of our equipment,” Mr. Macpherson said.
If the temperature is off, it’s not just the equipment that’s affected, such as with clogging, but it will also hurt the consistency of a product. “When icing is too cold, it clogs the nozzle, but when it’s too hot, it thins out and spreads,” Mr. Peck said.
Learn how to maintain the integrity of icings and glazes in the next segment.
Enemy of the glaze
In maintaining integrity of icings and glazes, it’s important to monitor the breakdown of the material. For this, Axis Automation designs its icing pumps to be over-sized for the application. “We find this reduces the amount of shear on the material — and shear is an enemy to glaze,” Mr. Sarajian said.
In some cases, temperature can affect shearing, so he advised bakers to maintain the temperature of an icing or glaze to plus or minus half a degree. “If we don’t take special care to heat and jacket everything in the tank, all the piping, all the heads of the pumps, bakers won’t get as much life out of the icing as they should,” he explained. “We minimize the shear and maintain the temperature, and then we can control the process.”
Rick Hoskins, CEO, Colborne Foodbotics, noted that shear is an issue in high-quality, aerated icings that require more gentle handling and pumping. “With a highly aerated icing, it’s easy to create too much shear such that it loses its aeration or contains air pockets after depositing,” Mr. Hoskins said.
Colborne employs a proprietary pump and nozzle technology that addresses this challenge and actually limits the amount of shear in the process. “These systems are designated to slowly move the product with limited resistance in the system without sacrificing output rates,” he said.
Stay consistent, minimize waste
When finishing a sweet baked good, consistency is key, not only to maintaining a clean, uniform product but also controlling waste or avoiding giving product away. “Even though most bakers like their product to look somewhat hand-made, they still require a very even distribution icing on each piece,” said Lance Aasness, vice-president, Hinds-Bock.
For example, tailing can happen when a system is not perfectly streamlined. “When you dip a donut into a bath of hot icing and tip it over, it’s usually pretty hard to do without a bit of tail dripping down the side,” Mr. Sarajian said. “In an automated process, this is something bakers are struggling with, especially in an automated inline fashion.” To address this, Axis Automation developed a patent-pending technology that creates a smooth edge around the donut.
Unifiller also offers technology to help operators finish a product while avoiding tailing. “We have one machine that can apply a variety of icings at speeds up to 60 eight-packs per minute, and the same machine can spread a thick or thin sheet across a moving target with no drip or tail,” Mr. Macpherson noted.
When using a glazing system, a baker needs to have a consistent spray no matter the width, and that should be addressed up front. “It’s important to know the application rate and the customer’s expectation as to application accuracy,” said Norm Searle, sales and marketing, GOE/Amherst Stainless Fabrication.
According to Mr. Searle, consistency is about the math. “Proper design of a spray system considers application rate, expected accuracy, liquid viscosity, temperature, particulate size if there are any in the solution, debris removal and recovery of non-applied liquid,” he said, adding that these are all important for design of pump(s) size, line size, equipment geometry and heating or cooling components
GOE/Amherst equipment is designed to avoid drips, a high priority for waste reduction and a consistent product. “The last thing you want is a drip on product because it will affect accuracy. A drip is added weight and could affect what the customer’s product labels are stating,” Mr. Searle said.
Accuracy is important across the entire line, no matter how wide, especially in today’s operations where the higher the production, the wider the lines. “If you’re considering accuracy, you have to also consider repeatability, across the full width,” Mr. Searle explained. “And if you have a drip, it adds to the applied weight and throws everything off.” To address this, GOE/Amherst designs its system’s geometry to inhibit drips, channel away from the spray area and reclaim.
Consistency also applies to icing, and it can be controlled by paying attention to the nozzles, according to Mr. Peck. “Filtering affects consistency,” he said. “We have to make sure there are no lumps or particles that might have congealed, so we make sure the filter is a bit smaller than the nozzle orifice to keep the nozzle from clogging.”
Additionally, Mr. Peck suggested that wasted icing on E.T. Oakes’ squiggle icer can be avoided by proper product placement. “We recommend keeping the gaps between products at a minimum or, if possible, eliminating the gaps altogether,” he said. When a cupcake is transferred on a conveyor, the closer they are to one another — perhaps even kissing — there will be little to no wasted icing.
ABI uses 3-D vision to guide its robotic application to further ensure consistency. Vision systems can identify the location of a product. But, according to Mr. Renaud, “When you’re using 3-D vision, you’re getting a topographical image of the product, and you know the boundaries. It gives a much more robust way of looking at a product; instead of, ‘Is it there or is it not?’ The question becomes, ‘It’s here; what’s the position and orientation, how high is it?’ ”
To control residual product, Hinds-Bock designs all its icing/glazing systems with a comprehensive filter and recirculation system to reuse unapplied icing. “Any icing left in the product line can be quickly pumped into a pail or tank to be reused the next day via our quick-release piping system,” Mr. Aasness said.
Read more to learn more about creativity in automation.
Even with a fully automated system, icing some sweet goods such as cupcakes or even decorating a cake requires the ability to get creative now and then.
Mr. Renaud observed that seasonal and limited-time offer (LTO) items are a big piece of ABI customers’ business. “A baker can ‘decommoditize’ standard products and more easily develop a premium-looking product,” he said. “Having the ability to help a customer accomplish that is certainly advantageous.”
To help bakers with customization, ABI recently released a thermal imaging system that allows the operator to upload or draw and image, company name or logo and automatically apply it to the product.
ABI’s robotic system allows bakers to scale up production while having the freedom to intricately decorate cakes. “If you’ve ever watched someone decorate a cake, there are very small gestures and pressure changes, such as when rounding corners,” Mr. Renaud said. “The robot only does what it’s told. Those little things that people do? You have to also program the robot, pump or system to mimic that.”
To perfect this, ABI commissioned a professional cake decorator to work with its programmers to mimic the execution of certain designs such as dollops, waves and piping.
Axis Automation also has a servo drizzler for stringing applications. “It allows operators to program whatever recipes, designs or patterns they want, making it very easy to pull up previous patterns without having to change any parts or move any pieces,” Mr. Sarajian explained. String-ice patterns can have different results depending on the height of the product off the belt. “With the servo drizzler, we don’t have to do that. We can tell what the height is, and it compensates automatically,” he said. Because of this, bakers don’t have to adjust the drizzler for varied product sizes and string designs.
Innovating flexibility
Today’s bakers are trying to do more in less time, in every aspect of the process, and finishing is no exception. Changeovers, maintenance and sanitation all must be done quickly to get the process back online.
“We have created tool-less discharge plates that allow customers to quickly change from product to product,” Mr. Hoskins said. “These plates also have adjustable discharge nozzles that allow users to adjust the weight control across a line based on different consistencies of various icings or batches.”
For Unifiller, a cantilevered design means bakers can wheel the machine up to the conveyor belt at any time, and it takes up very little conveyor length. Spreader and deposit nozzles are built into the equipment and can also be changed out quickly.
Similarly, E.T. Oakes offers quick changes with its nozzles; for icers that run across the conveyor belt, this aids in efficiency should one or two nozzles become clogged at any time. In fact, all the nozzles can easily be changed at once, Mr. Peck noted, to ensure all are applying icing consistently.
Older iterations of E.T. Oakes’ equipment were mounted directly onto the conveyor system. Today, however, its icers are engineered with a cantilevered design. “The icer will roll up to the side of the conveyer and just cantilever over so that it just swings right out,” Mr. Peck said, noting that it can also be rolled out of place for cleaning and sanitation.
Hinds-Bock redesigned its icer/glazer to be a one-piece unit. “The conveyor lock-down feature simply un-clamps and allows it to pivot up and away from the central icing tank assembly for easy access to clean the conveyor and icer,” Mr. Aasness said.
For glazing, Axis Automation uses separate kettles so operators can remove one at a time. “All our kettles are made with quick disconnects,” Mr. Sarajian said. “Because we’re doing one that’s mobile, we’re putting all the heater controls for the jacketed hot water systems on the same cart.” These features come in handy for changing icing flavors, such as from vanilla to chocolate.
The fickle consumer changes his or her mind about what’s hot (and what’s not) quicker and more often than it seems food producers can keep up with. By focusing on things like temperature, consistency, efficiency and waste, makers of sweet goods can finish products with icing glazing to not only craft new and LTO products but also create upgraded line extensions, and that makes for smooth sailing.
Find resources for icing and glazing by visiting www.esourcebaking.com. Browse by category under Equipment, and click on Finish for listings.