The Rondo Smartline has been added to Campden’s bakery. It is a continuous sheeting process that is said to be suited to automatic processing of very soft, sticky doughs, which result from long bulk fermentations.
What’s in it for Campden?
Gary Tucker, head of baking and cereal processing at Campden, told BakeryAndSnacks.com: “It gives us a different capability of dough processing.”
The Rondo Smartline has been on the market for some time and is used by around 100 companies in the UK. But this will be the first time that Campden has incorporated a continuous sheet process to its research bakery.
Rondo, the manufacturers of the the Smartline, claim the technology gives gentle and tension-free dough sheet production that preserves gas bubbles in the dough , preventing the gluten structure from being destroyed.
“We will use it to work with clients as part of their continuous drive to introduce new products and processes, and to modify and improve existing ones," said Tucker.
Benefits and limitations
He said that the Smartline was suited to bread dough, pastries, scones and some biscuits.
“Where the Smartline scores is its flexibility,” he said.
He said the technology was capable of cutting dough in many different ways to produce the desired edges, which is why it had been favoured by a number of medium-sized businesses.
He added that the sheeting process was known to be a low energy process, using around 25-30% of the energy of a conventional high shear mixer.
However, he said the initial investment cost was high and some doughs, such as short biscuit doughs could not be processed though this method. Another challenge, he said, was getting through put up to desired levels.
Campden/Rondo partnerships
Campden has also partnered with Rondo to develop an alternative to the Chorleywood Bread Process, the Radical Bread Process. As reported by BakeryAndSnacks.com last month. (See HERE)
Tucker said this was simply a coincidence and stressed that the two technologies were unrelated.