DESOTO, KS — During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers started taking stock of their health in new ways, including stocking up on nutritious foods, finding better-for-you alternatives to indulgent treats and prizing free-from or clean-label products. These demands have posed challenges for commercial bakers.
Cookie producers were hit especially hard. While meeting these consumer trends and producing high volumes of diversified products, many saw automation and their processing equipment as some of their greatest allies.
At De Soto, KS-based Custom Foods, the bakery’s cookie production increased exponentially in the later stages of the pandemic, and that spike in business led to several automated production needs. So, when Ethan Hart, Custom Foods president, saw an opportunity to purchase a new double-arm sigma mixer, he jumped on it. “I know how hard it is to get new equipment because everything’s backed up right now,” Hart said. “I knew our cookie production was going to need it, so when I found out the mixer was available, I said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
Precision is key for cookie dough portioning, and makeup equipment manufacturers have made advances for streamlining production, especially for those shorter runs required for producers making several different types of cookies. More Than A Bakery, the Versailles, KY-based contract manufacturer, experienced this firsthand.
“Repeatable rotary moulding and forming has allowed us to dial in quality quickly after startup, and that is key on shorter runs,” said Bill Quigg, president of More Than A Bakery.
When Custom Foods first began producing cookie dough for the fundraising industry, the bakery was creating small portions with a Vemag and water wheel portioner from Reiser. Now that its cookie business has exploded, Hart invested in another Vemag — an HP30 from Reiser — and has plans to invest in another water wheel divider as the business grows.
And no matter what the variety, accuracy in cookie production is nothing without accuracy in the bake.
When Ridgefield, NJ-based Toufayan Bakeries entered the cookie space, president Greg Toufayan applied his bread baking knowledge to understand his oven needs for cookie production.
“We make a wide variety of cookies, and we end up doing several different packaging formats, so equipment that could automate but at the same time be versatile enough to handle all our different products would be at the top of our wish list.” —Greg Toufayan
“What I found when we entered the cookie business was a very similar oven to an indirect-fired bread oven,” Toufayan said. “There are much more options in terms of mixing direct fire with zones of indirect fire.” Combining those methods and applying heat from a different chamber with high speed and accuracy allows a baker to dial in the bake for each specific cookie type.
Toufayan noted that oven technology from Reading Bakery Systems has advanced to deliver that level of precision for his bakery’s cookie production. “The delivery of heat to the product is much more precise than it would have been 20 or even 10 years ago,” he said.
Dialing in the automation doesn’t stop when cookies leave the oven, especially in a high changeover environment and in areas like packaging, where automation, versatility and labor availability don’t always jive.
“We’ve seen a real uptick in the difficulty to source proper labor, so there’s a need for packaging equipment that can automate more and, at the same time, is versatile enough to handle several different products,” Toufayan said. “We make a wide variety of cookies, and we end up doing several different packaging formats, so equipment that could automate but at the same time be versatile enough to handle all our different products would be at the top of our wish list.”
Considering the speed of innovation over the past five to 10 years, it’s not impossible to imagine robotics technology that could finally marry automation and versatility in the labor-intensive packaging area, especially when the age of social distancing is driving the industry to reconfigure that space.
“If technology can develop self-driving trucks, why can’t there be something that can pick up a whole cookie and a round cookie in the same shift and not take more than 10 minutes to do the changeover?” Toufayan pondered.
For Custom Foods, a Bosch Doboy Stratus flowwrapper was key to taking on so many new projects … and it actually led to even more business.
“I had a lead on a nearly new flowwrapper that allowed us to take on a specific job for a customer,” Hart recalled. Then other customers found out that Custom Foods had the packaging technology and a tunnel oven, and the new orders came calling, especially for products that are individually wrapped to ease food safety concerns around COVID-19.
To Hart, it’s about having the courage to take risks, especially with equipment purchases. “It better positions our company to take on more business,” he said. “We have to do several different things but do them all well.”
When cookie producers are willing and able to automate, suppliers must be there to support the effort — even after the deal is closed.
“To truly understand how to make their equipment better, equipment designers and engineers need to be on the bakery floor, talking to operators and the people who work hard every day to operate and clean their equipment,” Quigg said.
Some innovation may be a vision for the future, but it’s on the horizon. “If we get there, I think it will keep driving equipment suppliers to have good business, and that’s great because we like them to be busy too,” Toufayan said.
And Hart doesn’t believe in looking back. “If we don’t innovate or automate, we’re destined to fail,” he said.