Ed Finkel

When it comes to equipment like ovens and proofers, internet connectivity, wider and larger machines, artisanal production methods, shorter bake times, reversible belts, energy efficiency and improved cleaning and sanitation are all top considerations in today’s market.

Effective and forward-thinking approaches toward water management can help snack and bakery processors save money, produce more efficiently and draw on less energy, resulting in reduced environmental impact.

Snack and bakery manufacturers have a range of parameters in mind when they're in the market for new or improved dough mixers.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) popcorn continues to find a willing audience at both ends of the dietary spectrum, with both health-forward and indulgent options seeing growth.

How to infuse healthier ingredients like whole grains and protein while maintaining the taste and texture that breakfast consumers want is a driving force in the frozen breakfast products market, consisting of core morning toaster options like pancakes, waffles and French toast.

Sanitation, automation, efficiency, speed, ease of cleaning, the ability to handle larger capacities, and the ability to produce clean label-foods are among the top priorities for snack food and baked goods makers seeking to purchase dividers, depositors and rounders.

Customers of machines that handle puffing and extruding of snack and bakery products are focused on accommodating protein- and plant-based inclusions, hygienic design and rapid cleaning, speed and quick changeovers, better integrated controls, easy data extraction, and smaller machines that can produce specialized batches.

To address ever-present and continuously growing sanitation-related concerns across the snack and bakery industry, equipment manufacturers are working to provide machinery that's easy to wipe down, doesn’t provide harborage for moisture or stray ingredients, and is simple, ideally tool-less, to disassemble and reassemble as needed.

Quick changeovers, smaller products, sanitation needs, oil quality and temperature control are all top-of-mind for customers of griddle and fryer equipment used for key snack and bakery applications, including doughnuts and frozen breakfast products like waffles and pancakes, as well as fried snack items, like chips.

Ingredient-handling equipment used by snack producers and bakeries ranges from automated batching and dosing machines to pneumatic conveyors, as well as equipment like sifters to prepare ingredients for addition to batches of dough.