Fluid handling system tested
reduce cooking times for sauces by up to 95 per cent and clean-down
time between batches by 80 per cent, writes Anthony
Fletcher.
The system, called PDX, was installed by UK-based sauce manufacturer Welcome Food Ingredients to assess the efficiency of the technology and to see whether taste and texture would be compromised as a result.
As an example of the results from the pilot plant, a 60kg batch of sauce was mixed and cooked in just over three minutes, which compares with around one hour for conventional plant. Over 20 other products have been processed so far, including soups, sauces, stocks, and chutneys.
"We are very impressed by the speed of the process and with the resulting product," said Welcome Food Ingredients operations director Alex Sutton. "This may enable us to create new sauces, pastes and other products that cannot be manufactured commercially using conventional processes. The faster cooking and mixing, together with shorter changeover times, will make a significant difference to our business."
Aside from the faster mixing, heating and cooking, clean-down is also quicker and simpler because the PDX system has no moving parts, only steam injection via a series of nozzles. Cleaning is achieved in around five minutes by passing a cleaning solution through the system and injecting steam, thereby cleaning and sterilising the system and eliminating any risk of product cross-contamination.
Pursuit Dynamics claims that this thorough cleaning method also means that plant managers need not be concerned with the order in which recipes are prepared.
A further benefit of the PDX system, says the developer, is that all of the ingredients can be placed in the vessel together at the start of the process, eliminating the requirement to adhere to carefully timed recipe sheets. Nonetheless, if the recipe should call for it, powders and liquids can be sequentially entrained into the flow through the PDX device.
With no moving parts, the PDX system is highly reliable and requires virtually no maintenance. Thanks to the significantly improved cooking and mixing process, energy consumption is substantially lower than processes relying on conventional technologies. Another advantage of the PDX system is that its small footprint makes it simple to retrofit to existing plant.
While the assessment was performed using a single PDX device with a 25mm bore, recirculating a batch at a rate in the order of 15,000l/hr, the system can readily be scaled up and down and/or converted to a continuous process where volumes demand it.
"These results demonstrate the processing efficiency of the system as well as its versatility," said Stephen Mahon, Pursuit Dynamics commercial director. "PDX is ideal for manufacturers of prepared foods who have to meet ever-tighter turnaround times, and who want a reliable system that is easy to clean."
