The PMCA’s 71st Annual Production Conference held April 3-5 in Lancaster, Pa., focuses its Back to Basics program on panning while simultaneously updating attendees on industry developments. Highlights also include a hands-on starch moulding workshop.

Monday Morning, April 3

PMCA Student Outreach Committee Update

Mark Freeman, v.p. of sales, Shank’s Extracts, touches on the Student Outreach Committee’s decade of outreach to students as well as provides a program update. Student awards will be presented during the Tuesday evening dinner while other program highlights will be featured during throughout the conference.

Basics and Beyond Seminar

Panned Confections: Soft, Hard, Hot and Chocolate

Moderator — Rich Salotto, Capol LLC

PMCA’s Program Committee presents a half-day seminar during each production conference focused on the basic information required to cover the core technology of a single topic along with advanced techniques and new technologies. This program offers something for every attendee and is led by a team of industry professionals. Seminars include live demonstrations and audience tasting samples. 

Panning Equipment – Classic, Belt, Automated and Future State of the Art

Panning has been used to apply layers of sweet coatings to products for at least the last 800 years. Jeffrey Bogusz, senior director – food engineering and innovation, Ferrara Candy Co., discusses the progression of equipment and automation that has been used for panning.  The skills possessed by the experienced panner will be contrasted with the types of process controls available to simulate these skills in automated systems.  Automation, however, comes at a cost – both financial and in reduced manufacturing flexibility.  The presentation will discuss the situations where conventional pans make the most sense and when the expense of an automated system will make you happy. Throughout the presentation, there will be videos shown to provide visual experiences of the various types of panning equipment.

Matching Centers with the Proper Panned Coating

Every type of coating brings its own structure, stability, and ingredients, which results in a good or bad combination with a center. Francois Adele, mechanical engineer, general manager, Dumoulin, explores how to create a correct interface between a center having a specific structure, size, fat and humidity content with a chocolate coating or sugar coating in order to maintain a good shelf life. He explains how to use different centers and coating ingredients with intermediate pre-coating, pre-gumming, varnishing, etc.

Panning 101: Best Practices for Soft, Hard, Chocolate and Hot Panning

Gloria Brandes-Kuptz, senior scientist - product development, John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., reviews how all confectionery panning processes have evolved regarding production methodology. She examines how and why certain steps are followed, detailing the history involving a basic set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) or best demonstrated practices (BDP’s). Although there will always be slight variations because of equipment, environment and/or raw materials used, following the BDP’s basic outline with individualized variations should let anyone get a start in confectionery panning. Live or video demonstrations and tasting samples will be provided for all the panning processes discussed.

Tuesday - April 4, 2017

Tuesday Morning Sessions Moderator — Reg Ohlson, retired Mars, Inc.

PMCA Research Committee Update

Eric Schmoyer, r&d project manager, Barry Callebaut, USA, the PMCA’s Research Committee chair, will provide an update on current research projects and webinars.

Chocolate Flavor Considerations

Gary Guittard, Guittard Chocolate Co., takes a look at a historic overview of cocoa and how history informs our understanding of flavor. The future needs to preserve heirloom varietals and the important elements of flavor to create a pallet of profiles to incite creativity in the confectionery space. A chocolate maker’s perspective and a pastry chef’s view, explain the art of pairing or celebrating the inherent notes of cocoa in your confections. 

The Maillard Reaction: A core process in the creation of flavors during cooking and chocolate making
At the core of that flavor creation, is a chemical process that is still being studied 100 years after it discovery by the French scientist Louis-Camille Maillard.  This chemical reaction called “The Maillard Reaction” has been studied over the years in academia but is often forgotten, or undervalued by many food processors.  Abdoulaye Traore, senior technical service manager, Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate North America, takes attendees on a journey of rediscovering the Maillard reaction and how it impacts chocolate making in a more fundamental way than we think.

PMCA Education and Learning Committee Update

The PMCA’s Education and Learning Committee chair, Peter Jamieson, lead food scientist, Atlas Point Technical Services, will provide a report on the association’s short course program including highlights of recent courses and a look at future offerings.

NCA Policy & Regulatory Update 2017

The National Confectioners Association’s Laura Shumow, senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs, looks at what kind of impact the Trump administration will have on food and agricultural regulatory developments as concerns the confectionery sector. The implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act is almost complete and nutrition labeling is set to go into effect in 2018. By the time nutrition labeling is scheduled to go into effect, USDA is mandated to issue regulations on the disclosure of genetically engineered ingredients. NCA is advocating for harmonization of these labeling deadlines as well as many more policy initiatives intended to alleviate pressure on confectioners.

Cocoa Action Program

The World Cocoa Foundation’s CocoaAction strategy brings the world’s leading cocoa and chocolate companies together to accelerate sustainability and improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers. CocoaAction engages producing-country governments, cocoa farmers, and the cocoa industry to boost productivity and strengthen community development in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – the largest cocoa producing countries in the world. Timothy McCoy, senior director, World Cocoa Foundation, will detail CocoaAction’s successes thus far and provide an overview of its key elements, including training in good agricultural practices, delivery of improved planting materials and measurable improvements in cocoa-growing communities through access to quality primary education, child labor monitoring and women’s empowerment.

Tuesday Afternoon Sessions Moderator: Shawn Houser-Fedor, R&D - director snacks product development, The Hershey Co.

The Complexity of Controlling Particle Size in Chocolate

Mark Adriaenssens, v.p. of research and development - Americas, Barry Callebaut, examines the mysteries behind particle size in chocolate. When a piece of chocolate is eaten, the continuous fat phase melts, is mixed with saliva, and releases the solid particles. This combination of in-mouth events generates the typical sensation, specific for every kind of chocolate. The fineness of the solids influences all steps of chocolate perception and is therefore of outstanding importance for the quality of chocolate. Not only is the sensory perception highly influenced by the fineness of the solids, also more technical aspects, such as rheology, influencing workability and fit with chocolate applications, are largely determined by the fineness of the solids. So, how can we best measure fineness and how can we control fineness of chocolate?

Zero to Hero: Concept to Commercialization of a Novel Chocolate Ingredient

It is rare in confectionery application research when a developer has no historical data to start with and the research landscape is completely uncharted, only littered with unanswered questions. In this talk, Melissa Tisoncik, research and development manager – Product Development, Blommer Chocolate Co., rediscovers for the audience the importance of basic scientific principles, essential project management skills and understand the evolution of a project through the lens of an R&D group researching a new ingredient technology at a chocolate company. Together she discusses the key elements to consider when learning how to map out the research space, define initiatives, resources and timelines for a confectionery project. Most importantly, we will look at what it takes to keep moving forward in a R&D project through the challenges learned, successes recognized and building a team that must go through constant evolution. Through excitement and disappointments, we will unveil the scope of a new confectionery ingredient coming to life.

Spicing Things Up in the Confectionery and Snack Industries

Dan Kastor, director of food safety, McCormick

Dinner Speaker Tuesday Evening, April 4, 2017

Vanilla: From Pod to Product

A 12-year veteran of the flavor industry and formally trained as a chemical engineer, with experience in process research, marketing, and biotechnology, Jay Klosterman, global vanilla program manager – Givaudan Flavors, oversees the end-to-end process to source vanilla beans, process into extracts, and create the winning flavors for the largest flavor company in the world, Givaudan. Klosterman will take us into the jungles of Madagascar to explore the process that transforms a simple vanilla planifolia orchid flower into an extract that is recognized globally for its rich, decadent profile.  Each step of the traditional curing process used to convert a tasteless green pod into the dark, complex vanilla bean will be brought to life through picture and video.  We will also explore the processes that are used to make the vanilla extracts that we know, love, and use today.     

Wednesday Morning - April 5, 2017

Session Moderator: Judy Cooley, Global Confection Connections, LLC

Starch & Starchless Moulding Workshop Introduction

Consumption of starch and starchless moulded sugar confections are growing globally. Gummies, jellies, caramels, marshmallows, creams and variations are all made using specifically designed cooking and depositing equipment, moulds and dry rooms or cooling tunnels, and are finished by coating with oil, sugar, chocolate or speciality ingredients. The beauty of this type of process is that limitless product diversity can be achieved using the same equipment by simply changing the moulds, the finish, the formula, or the drying parameters. Judy Cooley, Global Confection Connections, LLC, introduces attendees to these important processes, as well as a “Moulding Technologies” sample area, which will be used to launch this “hands-on” workshop that will include six stations instructed by world-class confectioners to optimize the individual learning experience.

Starch and Starchless Moulding Workshop

After a successful pilot run in 2016, the Program Committee will be offering attendees another hands-on workshop. While rotating through several interactive stations, attendees will experience live demos, try their hand at various processing techniques and enjoy a variety of tasting samples.

Student Outreach Program

PMCA’s Student Outreach Committee, led by Chair Mark Freeman, Shank’s Extracts, will once again host students from educational institutions with food science, business, engineering and related programs, to attend the conference. Students will have the opportunity to interact with industry personnel and enjoy several activities developed specifically for them including a tour of a local manufacturing facility. Students will be introduced by Freeman prior to the start of the Basics and Beyond program Monday, April 3.

Supplier Exhibition

The 2017 production conference will once again feature the highly popular supplier exhibition Monday afternoon from 12:30-5 p.m. in Freedom Hall of the Lancaster County Convention Center.

Supplier Exhibition Registrations as of January 21, 2017

(Companies highlighted in red have exhibited for twenty-five years or more at the PMCA Production Conference:)

• AAK
• American Chocolate Mould Co.
• Austrade, Inc.
• Bainbridge Associates LLC
• Baker Perkins
• Barry Callebaut
• Bell Flavors and Fragrances
• Blommer Chocolate Co.
• Blue Pacific Flavors
• Bosch Packaging Technology
• Bühler Inc.
• Capol LLC
• Cargill
• Centerchem, Inc.
• Ciranda, Inc.
• Clasen Quality Chocolates
• W.A. Cleary Products
• CM-OPM/CMFIMA
• Colorcon
• Concord Foods, Inc.
• Creative Food Ingredients
• Crosio & Associates, Inc.
• Dairy Farmers of America
• David Michael & Co.
• Divis Nutraceuticals
• Domino Specialty Ingredients
• Driam USA Inc.
• Dupont Nutrition and Health
• Emkay Confectionery Machinery
• ERIEZ
• Flavorchem
• FONA International Inc.
• Franz Haas Machinery of America
• Fuji Vegetable Oil Inc.
• Galloway Co.
• Global Confection Connections LLC
• GNT
• Gold Coast Ingredients
• Grain Processing Corporation (GPC)
• Graybill Machines, Inc.
• Hamburg Dresdner Machinenfabriken USA
• Hillard’s Chocolate System
• IFC Solutions
• Industrial Food Ingredients Co.
• Ingredion Inc.
• IOI Loder’s Croklaan
• Kalsec ® Inc.
• Kargher
• KOCO Inc.
• Kocotek
• Loar & Young, Inc.
• Mantrose-Haeuser Co, Inc.
• Manufacturing Confectioner/MC
• Micelli Chocolate Mold Co.
• Molded Fiber Glass Tray Co.
• Multifilm Packaging
• NETZSCH Premier Technologies
• Palsgaard Inc.
• Precision Roll Grinders, Inc.
• Prova, Inc.
• ProXES, Inc. dba Stephan Machinery
• PTL (Production Techniques Ltd.)
• Readco Kurimoto, LLC
• Roquette America, LLC
• Schenck Process
• Sensient Colors, Inc.
• Shick Solutions
• Sollich North America LLC
• Stern Ingredients Inc.
• Tate & Lyle
• Tomric Systems
• Tricor Systems
• Totus Trade LLC
• Turbo Systems
• Union Confectionery Machinery Co.
• Varick Enterprises, Inc.
• Virginia Dare
• The Warrell Corp.
• Webber/Smith Associates, Inc.
• Woody Associates Inc.
• WRH Industries, Ltd.