New Processing Equipment: October 2023
Puffed and extruded snacks are an increasing favorite of U.S. consumers. With demand on the rise, interest in better-for-you eating increasing, and shoppers on the hunt for new and exciting flavors, producers have their work cut out for them. Equipment manufacturers are mindful, offering new snack extrusion equipment to consider adding to their production lines.
Vemag systems
Reiser’s Vemag pumping systems enable handling of a wide range of products, and the company also offers a range of production options, from the single-lane RC100 coex systems to high production Servo Crimper and Vemag BC236 ball forming systems, John McIsaac, vice president of strategic business development, says. “We’ve made our systems hygienic so they produce ‘ready to eat’ products,” he says. “We have recently introduced a small Vemag HP1B that can handle small portions and small batches precisely and efficiently.”
Clextral
Clextral has improved its pinching cutter and former called the PF500 Former to make twisted pillows, says Gilles Maller, vice president, sales & international. “Instead of a regular pillows, you twist it into a funny shape, very different from the usual thing, he says. “We have different sets of blades and shaping tools. The idea is to give improved flexibility to the snack manufacturer to make unique shapes and play with the boundaries of creativity.”
The equipment enables other shapes, like the smiley faces seen in texts all the time, Maller says. “Your snacks are happy, or sad,” he says. “It’s a nice, flat product, a disc, with a very well-defined shape of a guy smiling, or not smiling, depending on how you feel. That incremental innovation continues. It allows you to get something quite different, and unique.”
Egan Food Technologies
Egan Food Technologies, has rolled out an entry-level automated extruder for “smaller folks,” called the XtrudeForm250 that can be integrated into Egan’s SlabForm Dou line, says Mike Sherd, managing partner. “It’s a very small, compact extruder that goes on the front end of the line to continuously produce ropes that get cut downstream to the separator,” he says.
The extruder was designed for easy teardown for sanitation and cleaning, Sherd adds. “The change parts are toolless,” he says. “It’s compact, cost-effective, and very easy to maintain, clean, all that stuff. The way we have it designed, with the change parts, weight control is excellent for the product.”
The XtrudeForm250 handles protein doughs, nougats, fruit pastes, and other soft-centered products, Sherd says. “We have a test unit here, so we are able to test potential customers’ products here on site,” he says.