Machine of the month: Engineering better snacks

Known for its expertise and engineering innovation in wafer processing lines, Hebenstreit is now offering manufacturers another option: extruded snacks.

Known for its expertise and engineering innovation in wafer processing lines, Hebenstreit is now offering manufacturers another option: extruded snacks. A producer of snack extrusion lines in the 1980s, the company recently saw a need in the marketplace and decided to offer customers a new solution.

Using its past know-how as well as emerging technologies, Hebenstreit developed a series of complete state-of-the-art extrusion lines for the manufacturing of savory and sweet snacks.

The SE 70 single-screw cooking extruder has a capacity of 100-300 kg of raw snacks per hour while the SE 110 has a capacity of 200-500 kg per hour. Both feature an innovative design that ensures uniform product quality without any compromise.

Depending on the recipe, the extruders can be used to produce between 120 and 800 kg of finished products per hour while delivering the required sensory characteristics and quality requirements involving shape, texture and taste.

A large selection of nozzle tools makes it possible to make products with both simple shapes, such as, puffs, balls, wheels, sticks, rings or rice crispies, and also 3-D shapes or even filled snacks or breakfast cereal components.

Hebenstreit snack production plants are comprised of the following components:

Raw material mixer with automatic water dosing according to the specific recipe
SE single-screw cooking extruder
Conveyor belt or pneumatic conveyor system for conveying the extruded products to the downstream drier
Drum-type drier with hot air or infrared drying system
Conveyor belt or pneumatic conveyor system for conveying the dried products to the downstream spice drum
Spice drum and spice system comprised of seasoning preparation and dosing units for covering the dried products with a liquid mixture composed of mixed spices and vegetable oil
A system for the continuous temporary storage of the seasoned finished products prior to packing

In addition, Hebenstreit also supplies the required accessory components for the production of extruded potato sticks, filled spicy or sweet snacks and breakfast cereals:

Cutting device for sticks
Dosing, moulding and cutting devices for filled snacks

For more information, visit www.hebenstreit.de.

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With more than 30 years experience in B-to-B reporting, writing and editing — the bulk of which was dedicated to covering the bakery, confectionery and snack industries — Pacyniak has chronicled changes within the food industry since the early 1980s. A Boston University journalism degree graduate, he worked for a variety of publications before joining BNP Media in 1994 as editor of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine. In 2001, he took over as editor-in-chief of Candy Industry until 2018.