Baking&Snack - March 2012 - 84

CAKE PROCESSING

Safety in simplicity

Sanitation and food safety have become a top-of-mind issue, and cake bakers want to know their batters make it to the oven without contamination. One way to gain peace of mind is enclosing the entire process so the batter is not exposed to the plant’s atmosphere until it is in the pan. E.T. Oakes Corp., Hauppauge, NY, uses Closed piping throughout cake production closed piping to transfer batter throughout can keep the process and product sanitary. E.T. Oakes Corp. production. The hopper is also closed so that nothing can drop into the batter as it enters the depositor. Simple equipment designs can make cleaning easier. To meet that need, Hinds-Bock Corp., Bothell, WA, and Unifiller Systems, Inc., Delta, BC, have manufactured their pistons to be easily taken apart and cleaned. Hinds-Bock designed its hopper to tilt back for easy access in cleaning. “All the pistons are quickly removed as one unit so you don’t have to handle individual parts, said Lance Aasness, vice-president, sales and ” marketing, Hinds-Bock. “The spouts come apart for cleaning without any tools, so even though the machine is quite large, it can be disassembled in just a few minutes without any tools for sanitizing. ”

Touch screens provide operators with more control and accuracy at the depositing stage of cake processing.
E.T. Oakes Corp.

Gentle pumps and sensors in the hopper can help a cake batter maintain its specific gravity during transfer from the mixer or holding tank into the depositor.
Unifiller Systems, Inc.

pumps to send the batter directly from mixer to depositor in a closed environment. However, some pumps force the batter through small apertures, which stretch and break down the batter. The batter loses some of the air that the mixer precisely incorporated, resulting in lost product volume. This becomes especially critical when dealing with delicate cake batters that incorporate a lot of air such as angel food cake. “Historically, moving batter mechanically has been quite a challenge for bakers,” said Stewart MacPherson, vice-president, sales and marketing, Unifiller Systems, Inc., Delta, BC. To address this challenge, Unifiller offers the Hopper Topper Max, which pulls batter from the bottom of the bowl up through the center of the pipe. “In effect, it’s scooping the product up from the bottom of the bowl — almost like a hand scooping.” To prevent batter stretching, this transfer system doesn’t use gears or rollers. The Hopper Topper Max

also ensures accuracy by using an infrared sensor in the hopper to alert the suction pump when the hopper above the depositor is full. That sensor helps retain the level in the hopper to maintain the batter’s specific gravity. To meet customers’ product transfer needs, Hinds-Bock Corp., Bothell, WA, not only has gentle pumps to move batter without injury but also tailors the transfer path to minimize opportunities for the batter to change. “If batters are very light in specific gravity, then we take care to make certain that the flow path is very short,” said Lance Aasness, vicepresident, sales and marketing.

Hitting the mark
Bakers can take specific steps to ensure that accuracy and product consistency extends to depositing as well. “If batter consistency is very light in viscosity, [the depositor] uses positive shutoff spouts so [it] doesn’t drip or trail the batter from deposit to deposit,” Mr. Aasness said. “If the batter is quite viscous, then we will use diving spouts that deposit from the bottom up to help spread the product and prevent it from mounding up.” With high ingredient costs, bakeries can’t afford to lose product to equipment errors as simple as a

/ Baking & Snack / March 2012

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Baking&Snack - March 2012

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