Linde North America, New Providence, N.J., and Shick, Kansas City, Mo., announce a newly renovated test lab for bakeries that want to capitalize on the advantages of in-line dry-ingredient chilling prior to mixing or blending.

Shick offers full-scale testing of the cryogenic chilling system on any dry ingredient at its Kansas City research and development facility. The technical center features a pneumatic conveyor equipped with a CO₂ injection chilling system from Linde North America. The lab requires only a sample amount of the dry ingredient to validate the in-line chilling process. The laboratory can quickly match a conveyor chilling system to any dry-ingredient processing parameters.

“Adding precise temperature control to our pneumatic conveying systems can give bakeries a significant advantage in mixing/blending process control—and that contributes to finished baked goods quality,” says Scott Fischer, Shick’s director of sales and marketing.

Inline chilling with cryogenic gases has been around for a number of years but is growing in importance with increased attention to process quality and repeatability, says Fischer. While generally thought to be solely for chilling flour, these systems can be set up to cool virtually any ingredient, including sugar, spices, dry mixes or other dry baking ingredients. They can be used on pressure or vacuum ingredient-handling systems, and existing systems can be retrofitted with the technology.

“The goal for the baker is to consistently make quality products, and tighter incoming temperature control adds another layer of consistency and reliability,” notes Ed Cordiano, Linde program manager for bakery and prepared foods. “While it is difficult and often impractical to test this cryogenic chilling system in a baking operation without installing the entire system, now processors can simply ship their product to Shick’s lab with flow parameters and temperature targets, and a system can be tested and properly sized before it’s installed.”