We could have spent another week at the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) show at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, as there were so many new developments. Even if we had, we wouldn’t have been able to see them all, with more than 20,000 baking professionals from every segment of the grain-based market gathering for North America’s largest, most comprehensive baking trade event of the year. The Baking Expo certainly brought “it all together,” as there were 815 exhibitors—up 13% from IBIE 2010—and a record international attendance, number of industry buyers and sellers and more than 50,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.

Thus, there were plenty of new technology, resources and opportunities available at the show. Based on our IBIE poll results on www.snackandbakery.com about what things you wanted to see and do at IBIE 2013, 38% of the online voters said new equipment and technology peaked their interest the most, with 19% stating new food ingredients. We, the editors of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, are sharing just some of the new things we found at the show, ranging from new takes on better-for-you ingredients to servo technology, computerization throughout the baking facility, data management and flexible, high-performing equipment.

Of course, it’s impossible for us to list everything we saw; space simply won’t permit it. But other things will be featured in our Equipment Briefs and Ingredient Briefs sections in upcoming issues.

Equipment

The Vemag Single-Outlet Dough Divider (VDD) with Servo Cutter 807 provides versatility and portioning accuracy on dough production lines. Made by Reiser, the divider can be used for all types of sandwich breads, buns and rolls. It’s easily adjustable to produce a range of exact-weight dough portions from 20 kg. to 5 g. The system also affords a wide variety of crumb structures, from open-crumb to uniform tight-crumb and anything in between. The Vemag can handle a wide range of absorption rates, from 45 to 95% and from stiff bagel doughs to soft English muffins. Fast and accurate, the VDD with Servo Cutter 807 ensures clean cuts, accurate portions and high production rates.

The compact Breezy Bagger from WeighPack Systems has a tilting function that allows users to pack, wrap and bag many products both vertically and horizontally. It’s designed to pack shaped products into either a laminated or polyethylene material.

The unit has no forming shoulder or tube. A hand-crank adjustment for pack width can adjust from 2 in. to almost 12 in. wide, and bag length varies from 2 in. to 36 in. It also has a length-sensing detector and operational logic available in three choices, including one that adjusts to the length of product each and every cycle.

New Klüberfood NH1 CH2-220 lubricating oil from Kluber Lubrication is a food-grade, synthetic, high-temperature oil specifically designed to withstand the extreme applications parameters of pin-chains in metal decorating ovens. The lubricant withstands the challenges of temperature extremes, speeds and potential contamination as it protects against increased equipment wear. Designed to replace graphite or polyglycol-based lubricants on pin-chains, NH1 CH 2-220 can be used in lesser amounts while improving the work environment.

Doran Scales’ QC Weigh system allows users to observe plant-wide, quality-control data from a single PC in real time. Using unique operator IDs, scheduled sample intervals with alarms and data collection ensure that employees are performing quality control tasks. The software offers color coding of control limits to quickly identify issues in production processes. The data is digital and stored in a database for retrieval.

The onscreen display is one way to see production data, but the software generates a PDF-formatted report organized by product line and sample number. The report can be sent via email to a desktop computer or a smart phone.

Doran says its FC6300 Formula Control scale system can help manufacturers save on ingredients and production downtime, as it offers high-tech employee accountability and consistent scaling features. With ingredient savings of 1.8% or more, the system displays each step of a formula on a bright LCD display. A color-coded Accu-Track bar ensures that ingredients stay within tolerance. Each ingredient is weighed within a defined tolerance. Each step is clearly labeled with a batch ID, a name, the step number, an ingredient name, the target weight and actual weight. Accurate scaling can be handled by employees with or without experience.

The V4 artisan bread line from Rheon U.S.A. uses the stress-free method of forming bread without damaging the dough. There’s no dough-recovering process by an overhead proofer, and it applies no mechanical force to the dough, so it can produce quality breads without chemical additives. The line forms different bread sizes and shapes before automatically panning them onto trays. Its V4 Sheet Maker 2000 operates continuously, feeding a consistent, stress-free dough sheet using a new sheeting section designed to provide three functions in one compact unit. Models can output 1,000 to 2,000 kg. (or 2,200 to 4,400 lb.) per hr.

Among the many systems at the Bosch Packaging Technology Inc. exhibit, the new Pack 101 horizontal flowrapper features the broadest format range available on an entry-level wrapping machine, according to the company. Outfitted with an all-servo motor design that enables quick and easy setup and changeovers, the wrapper also maximizes product and film usage during production, thus keeping maintenance costs low.

The wrapper’s fully adjustable former and multiple cutting-head sizes work with a variety of products, reducing the need for future investment as well as quickly adapting to changing market demands. The compact frame can be integrated into most production environments, notes Craig Collett, director of HFFS and secondary systems at Bosch Packaging Technology. “It equips them with state-of-the-art technology and with the flexibility to rapidly adapt to changes in the marketplace,” he says.

WP Bakery Group USA again partnered with King Arthur Flour in one booth to display the latest production technologies this year, including the North American debut of the WP Kemper Pane line and demonstrations on the WP Kemper Softstar machine. WP Winkler brought the Admiral bagel divider and WP Riehle joined the WP Bakery Group for the first time in the U.S. market with its RMBB and Allround machines.

The group’s live demonstrations included the new Winkler Admiral volumetric roll divider, with a welded steel-plate construction that allows it to generate frozen and bagel dough, among other products, 24/7.

The Kemper Softstar is a high-performance dough divider paired with model CT (with newly developed features). CT, which stands for CleanTec, WP’s hygiene concept strictly follows the principle that contamination should not be allowed to occur in the first place. If contamination cannot be avoided, it must be easy to spot and remove. All parts of the dough-dividing chamber that have food contact can be easily accessed and cleaned. The chamber itself is made from stainless steel and plastic materials and has smooth surfaces that resist contamination.

The dough pieces only require a comparably short relaxation time to show a volume increase between 20 and 25% after baking. WP Bakery says the Accurator operates by a completely new principle; using a simple switch, the baker can decide whether the products should be divided into a precise shape or by a precise weight. The Pane line also offers a large product variety and can be used to make rustic and round products, which can be transported through the line on different lanes.

The Riehle Allround 2005 causted soda applicator divides the traditional manual causted soda application process into electronically controlled steps. The causted shower has two additional curtains to ensure intense soda application and thus a longer causted soda exposure time. The system processes up to 400 trays per hour.

Technologies highlighted by Reading Bakery Systems include the MULTI-CRISP Baked Snack system, which creates snack crips from potato, wheat or corn masa flour doughs. With finished-product outputs from 250 to 1,000 kg. per hour, depending on the number of oven zones after the dough-sheeting equipment (throughput capacity increases as oven zones are added), the system’s dough-handling station has a transport conveyor that ensures the dough makes it from the mixer to a two-roll sheeter/hopper on a first-in, first-out basis. An optional metal detector can be provided to the dough feeder to protect the dough-sheeting rolls. Post-bake metal detectors monitor the final product before packaging.

The Exact FX conintuous mixing station evenly distributes moisture throughout the potato, wheat and corn masa flour doughs via a specialized liquid-injection system and a specially designed mixer shaft. The streamlined process minimizes the time between mixing and two-roll sheeting, eliminating batch-cycle variations and creating consistent and appealing product textures, says Reading’s Dulcinea Freymoyer, manager of marketing services.

The single-reduction sheeter produces a continuous sheet, discharged directly onto a rotary cutter infeed conveyor. The rolls are provided with unions for chilled water supply to maintain roll surface temperatures during production. A two-pass convection Spectrum oven Over Dryer system has a separate drying kiln beneath that provides an independently-controlled, lower temperature environment without further coloring of the baked crisp.

The HDX continuous mixer for buns and rolls, streamlines batch processing and makes the dough uniform and consistent. And the Scorpion 2 LITE Data Logger is intended for customers who want to measure temperature only. With 32 input channels and regulated 3.3-v. output for Smart Sensor memory, The Scorpion 2 LITE a low-cost alternative to the original Scorpion 2 Data Logger. It’s compatible with a limited number of temperature-measurement devices and functions exactly like the Scorpion 2 when connected to these devices. All connections, charging, user interface and software are identical to the original Scorpion 2.

Unifiller Systems launched its Deco-Bot robotic decorating and finishing system at IBIE. Deco-Bot automatically applies buttercream roses onto cupcakes and the tops of celebration cakes. It also writes, drizzles and finishes cakes.

“We developed this machine to produce beautiful intricate roses onto the top of cupcakes,” says to Stewart Macpherson, owner and vice president of sales and marketing. “The final result is truly an industry first. We can even apply multiple roses in one or two colors in less than three seconds. Then, we realized that this could also be quickly and automatically applied the top of fully decorated celebration cakes.”

The Deco-Bot is easy to disassemble and clean, yet the same unit can apply multiple designs onto various products with a quick nozzle changeover.

Hinds-Bock introduced a new multi-piston, orbital, all-servo-driven industrial depositor with positive shutoff spouts for muffin, cupcake and cake batters. Designed to handle continuously moving pans at high speeds, the unit runs faster and quieter than conventional depositors, according to the company, and doesn’t require compressed air for power. It features the latest electronic controls and achieves high-speed, accurate depositing of batters with or without particulates. Speeds are up to and more than 1,000 units per minute, depending on pan configuration, deposit size and batter viscosity.

Mettler Toledo Safeline’s Gravity FlowHD metal detection systems are design specifically for inspecting free-falling products in vertical packaging applications. All of the systems are available in a wide range of internal tube diameter configurations, from 50 mm to 400 mm and with detection sensitivity ranges from .3 mm to 1.0 mm steel contaminates; .3 mm to 1.2 mm aluminum, brass, copper and bronze contaminants; and .4 mm to 1.3 mm stainless-steel contaminates.

A fully-automatic, high-speed reject device diverts contaminated product and isolates it from the main product flow. The combination of highly sensitive detection capability and a swift and effective rejection system result in compliance with both internal and external quality and food-safety standards, while maintaining optimal operation efficiency and profitability.

The HD systems incorporate the company’s Zero Metal Free Zone (ZMFZ) technology, which eliminates the need to allow space between the metal detector head and the metal components of the production line where it will be installed.

At the heart of the HD systems is Safeline’s PowerPhase PRO electronics platform, which is available in fixed or multi-frequency configurations. The advanced detection coil system and detector head geometry deliver high levels of sensitivity. Applications include the inspection of snack foods, cereals, confectionery, individual quick frozen (IQF) products and any products packed in a v/f/f/s bag-making operations.

First virtual baker

WP Bakery Group’s booth also featured the world’s first virtual baker from PreciBake. This system was developed to prevent common errors during baking and always meets the previously defined quality specifications of the respective bakery.

Products that are baked too long or not long enough, both of which don’t meet customer/consumer expectations, are common in many bakeries. The PreciBake Instore now provides an additional operating feature for oven control that’s based on artificial intelligence and ensures consistent top quality. After the push of a start button, the PreciBake takes over and controls the entire baking process safely, efficiently and without errors.

Suitable for bread rolls, pretzels or croissants (depending on the type of product to be baked), the virtual baker automatically selects the right baking program. If the dough pieces are off-standard, for example, due to overproofing, the system recognizes this and automatically adjusts its baking program parameters. The products are then made according to specifications, without the need of personnel interference.

PreciBake’s self-learning data processing enables bakers to define individual customer demands and quality specifications. After each baking process, the virtual baker receives feedback by the human baker until the desired results have been achieved. From this point, the data can be reproduced and process parameters can be viewed at any time and from any place—on a smart phone or a computer via BakeIT Cloud. PreciBake is located in the U.S. (New York) and Germany.

Ingredients

Turning to the ingredients side of the show, for the time since acquiring Danisco in 2011, and full ownership of Solae in 2012, DuPont Nutrition & Health presented health and wellness solutions, such as Litesse polydextrose, a recognized probiotic fiber, that contributes one calorie per g. and mediates a low glycemic impact. Combined with its ability to boost satiety, these factors can be used to create baked goods that are satisfying and “better for you,” says Janelle Crawford, strategic marketing lead at DuPont Nutrition and Health. Supro soy protein from DuPont is a protein source tha tads nutritional fortification to baked goods by increasing the protein content. This can ofer bakers functional benefits shown to help promote heart health, she says.

Fibrim nondigestible polysaccharide soy fiber provides a blend of insoluble and soluble fiber (between 62 to 70% insoluble and 5 to 9% soluble) and as such, demonstrates benefits associated with both types of fiber.

PreGel America showcased a variety of fall and winter toppings at IBIE. The U.S. subsidiary of PreGel s.p.a., one of the largest specialty dessert ingredients manufacturers in the world, showcased a fall and winter lineup of products, such as a new variety of fillings and sauces. 12802 Apple Pie Arabeschi is a topping/filling reminiscent of warm, cinnamon-spiced apples, baked into a flaky, golden crust of an apple pie. 38602 Pomegranate Arabeschi (pomegranate with seeds) is a refreshingly tart topping and filling, packed with real pomegranate seeds. 16272 Pino Pinguino Graham Cracker Arabeshi is a creamy, versatile topping/filling that offers the flavor of sweet graham crackers with tiny graham cracker pieces. Pino Pinguino is characterized by its ability to stay soft while in a frozen environment, making it suitable for many applications, states Jillian Hillard, marketing manager at PreGel America.

Demand for purple corn from Suntava is growing. Startlingly bright purple from kernel to stalk, the corn has double the antioxidant level of blueberries, ounce for ounce. The secret to its unusual color is that the entire plant is filled with disease-fighting anthocyanins. Cultivated over years from ancient strains of maize, the purple corn also free of genetically modified organism (GMO) and gluten.

In addition to its current cornmeal/flour offering, Suntava launched a whole-grain snack meal ingredient for use in items such as extruded cheese puffs, snack curls and other corn-based, extruded snacks. Suntava also unveiled a grits product, which is suited for snacks such as popped tortilla-shaped chips or other whole grain-based popped snacks. “We’re seeing excitement coming from all levels of industry—from the billion-dollar international companies to the smaller independents,” says Terry Howell, Suntava’s business development director. “And as they realize the opportunities from the many applications available, they’re lining up.”

The company believes that the purple corn may be a potential game-changer for food marketers. “Including this highly nutritional, unique-yet-familiar ingredient creates the opportunity to add a product benefit message that connects with health-conscious consumers,” says Howell.

AB Mauri North America’s Supremo Tortilla System gives manufacturers the flexibility critical for today’s tortilla market. Comprising ingredient solutions for leavening, conditioning, preservation and extensibility, the system can be tailored to deliver specific tortilla types based on individual requirements, says the company.

“To keep up with demand, some tortilla manufacturers purchase multiple ingredients, which adds complexity to operations,” says Michael Tamayo, senior business development manager of tortillas at AB Mauri. “Other purchase batch packs, which ‘lock’ them into producing one type of tortilla. The Supremo Tortilla System puts flexibility and simplicity back into the hands of the manufacturer with high-performance ingredients that can be easily dialed up or down, enabling them to produce a variety of tortilla types to meet market requirements.”

AB Mauri developed a formula builder tool that allows manufacturers to select dosage and ingredients specific to their desired tortilla type. The Supremo Tortilla System ingredients work in synergy with one another, resulting in enhanced quality.

The company also introduced a new standard in frozen dough and pastry technology called Arctic Frozen Dough Solutions. It’s a complete range of high-performance function ingredients designed to deliver superior quality, while addressing more product issues that affect artisan and industrial frozen dough and pastry production, including volume, tolerance, consistency, crust crispiness and color and crumb texture.

The Arctic product portfolio comprises Arctic 75 C, a frozen dough conditioner with an advanced enzyme oxidant system designed specifically for frozen bread and bun dough; Arctic CL, a clean label frozen dough conditioner with an advanced enzyme oxidant system designed specifically for frozen dough produced without additives such as emulsifiers or chemical oxidizers; and Arctic Pastry,  a clean label frozen dough conditioner with an advanced enzyme oxidant system designed specifically for clean label frozen laminate dough, such as croissants or Danishes, produced without additives such as emulsifiers or chemical oxidizers.

Visitors to Palsgaard’s booth could sample microwave cakes made from special cake mixes developed by using a special combination of its activated cake emulsifiers: Emulpals 110 all-vegetable cake emulsifier and Palsgaard DMG 5611 distilled mono- and diglycerides based on vegetable fatty acids. The mixes require just two pieces of equipment: A fork for stirring; and a mug for molding the final product.

According to Palsgaard, with a simple adjustment of baking time, the microwave mixes can be used for different types of cake, including a soft cake with decoration (a baking time of 60 seconds), a soft cake without decoration (a baking time of 70 seconds) and a firm cake (a baking time of 80 seconds).

Emulpals 110 emulsifier can be applied in a variety of cake products where all the ingredients can be added at once. It helps provide stable performance, an exceptionally long shelf life and a high tolerance to other ingredients in the batter. In addition, it will provide the aeration required in a lighter-textured cake.

Also helping increase the softness, as well elasticity of the microwave cake mixes is Palsgaard DMG 5611, a spray-cooled product with a medium-fine particle size. The particle size, combined with the composition of its mixture of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, gives Palsgaard DMG 5611 excellent cold-dispersible properties that help ensure optimal cake softness and elasticity.

The Nutrilac Natural Improvers range from Arla Food Ingredients is a portfolio of multifunctional ingredients designed to simultaneously offer bakers of a comprehensive range of bakery products, greater productivity, improved efficiency, more consistent quality and cleaner labels.

Nutrilac IM-5566 provides softness in bread without reducing crumb resilience or elasticity, increased strength in cakes for better slicing quality and stabilizes aerated batter systems for higher volume and stability. Nutrilac IM-7042 offers improved mixing tolerance, produces a more stable batter and provides superb emulsification properties in a whole range of wheat-baked goods, including bread. Nutrilac IM-8027 is a high-gelling protein designed to create excellent structure and strength in baked goods, providing optimum viscosity in most batter systems, greater water retention and excellent emulsification.

ConAgra Mills unveiled NuFiber, a nutrient-dense, stabilized bran and germ flour milled from specially selected white wheat, at IBIE. According to the company, the new flour offers bakers a variety of benefits that apply to a range of applications, from refrigerated and frozen doughs, pasta and dry mixes to nutritional products, snacks, bars and beverages.

The right amount of NuFiber blended with compatible white flour delivers the same nutrients and proportions of bran, endosperm and germ as in traditionally milled whole wheat flour, says the company. It also has a mild taste, smooth texture and light appearance for mainstream appeal. It offers bakers a flexible way to add natural, plant-based fiber and whole-grain nutrition to formulations. Stabilized, it maximizes the freshness and quality of finished products. It allows for reduced bitterness in a range of whole-wheat applications. It has lower enzyme activity, increased shelf life and increased product development flexibility compared to traditional coarse bran and germ. Its insoluble fiber is high, and its water absorption is higher than that of whole-wheat and white flours. It comes in bags and bulk.

Buddy Valastro, a fourth-generation baker and star of TLC’s hit TV series Cake Boss, Next Great Baker and Bakery Boss, seemed to be everywhere during IBIE, in person and on product packaging. Visitors to Dawn Food Products Inc.’s IBIE booth were able to check out Valastro’s new line of Cake Boss cake mixes and frostings, developed in partnership with the Michigan-based company.

“Not everyone has the time to whip up a Cake Boss-approved dessert from scratch,” says Valastro. “I want to arm home bakers and baking novices alike with the supplies to produce a mouth-watering cake, and my new mixes and frostings provide that bakery quality taste.”

Available at retailers across the country, the line features six cake flavors: Va Va Velvet, a red velvet cake; It’s Your Party, a confetti cake; Decadent Devil’s Food; Chocolate Trifecta, a triple chocolate cake made with chocolate liquor; Primo Yellow; and Divine White. Each cake mix comes with a pouch of bakery crème, Valastro’s secret to making velvety moist cakes.

Penford Food Ingredients’ newest potato-based soluble fiber, PenFibe RO, has no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and contains a minimum of 56% dietary fiber. Food producers can use it to reduce calories in a wide variety of food products—from beverages and nutrition bars to baked goods and snacks—by partially replacing higher caloric ingredients, such as flour and sugar, in their formulations.

“We are excited to introduce PenFibe RO because of its vast applications and dual benefit of fiber enrichment and calorie reduction,” says John Randall, president of Penford Food Ingredients. “The demand for healthy snacks and beverages continues to grow. And with a focus on childhood obesity in America, healthier options for children are especially important.”

PenFibe RO is nonallergenic, nonGMO, kosher and halal. Other functional benefits include bland taste, cook-up and instant versions, ease of use, excellent cold stability, freeze/thaw stability, good gut tolerance, heat and pH stability and resistance to enzymatic breakdown.

IOI Loders Croklaan debuted its new FuseRite line of colored and flavored palm oil shortenings at IBIE. Created to help product developers turn their ideas into realities, the shortenings are creamy, consistent, easy to use and trans-fat-free. According to the company, the line also will enhance the color, flavor and texture of applications.

American Key Food Products introduced two new cassava, or tapioca-based, gluten-free, clean-label ingredients intended to improve the quality of a variety of baked goods. Derived from cassava roots, Tapioca Fiber contains both soluble and insoluble fiber, as well as a significant proportion of tapioca starch, says AKFP. The combination offers high water/oil binding properties for moisture based goods, such as breads and muffins. Produced through a mechanical, non-chemical process, the product can be used in extruded snacks, breakfast cereals and fruit fillings.

Horizon Milling launched two new flours and a defatted wheat germ at IBIE. The company created Primo Mulino Italian-style flour to help foodservice providers make great-tasting, crisp-yet-tender pizza crust, flatbreads, Italian-style breads and crackers.

Primo Mulino flour offers characteristics similar to 00 flour. Italian 00 flour is finely milled and typically has 10 to 12.5% protein. “00” refers to the fineness of the flour and coarseness, along with reference to the amount of bran and germ removed. It is unbleached and contains no additives.

Mixed with hard, spring and soft wheat, Primo Mulino’s high protein content produces a soft, supple dough that’s easy to work with. The flour has excellent water absorption and works well with long fermentation. The flour is suitable for creating pizza crusts, flatbreads, Italian breads like ciabatta and focaccia, Artisan and European-style hearth breads, pan breads and crackers.

Horizon Milling’s new sprouted white spring whole wheat flour can help bakers meet growing consumer interest in alternative whole-grain products, while also achieving better bake performance. According to the company, the flour performed better than its non-sprouted counterpart on several important baking measurements: It produced 10-12% greater loaf volumes.

In addition, bread baked using Horizon Milling’s sprouted whole wheat flour exhibited an elevated level of sweetness and a significantly decreased level of bitterness, two characteristics that typically drive consumer like and dislike of whole wheat breads.