The International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) – to be held in Las Vegas, US from 17-21 September – introduced the Best in Baking awards in 2010 to recognise stakeholders that are pioneering the bakery of the future.
“What started as an initiative towards sustainability has grown to encompass so much more,” said Dennis Gunnell, chair of IBIE 2022.
“We’re proud of the progress our industry is making and we’re thrilled we can recognise their efforts on the global stage of IBIE.”
The largest event for the grain-based foods sector in the Western Hemisphere is jointly owned and produced by the American Bakers Association and Bakery Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA), with support from the Retail Bakers of America (RBA). Known as a ‘working show’ where millions of dollars of business are conducted daily, IBIE connects the global baking ecosystem to fuel the next gen of bakers, educate and promote economic growth and showcase the complete range of tech, supply and ingredient solutions. All proceeds from this non-profit event are invested back into the industry.
The leading lights
Best in Baking is divided into six main categories, with two additional categories added to the 2022 lineup, making it the largest programme to date:
- Product Innovation
- Sustainability
- Workforce Development
- Sanitation
- Automation & Robotics (new category)
- Plant Efficiency (new category)
Entrants were evaluated on a number of criteria, including impact on the environment, community and workforce by an elite panel of judges, including Douglas J. Peckenpaugh, group publisher of BNP Media, Jeff Dearduff of JED Coaching & Consulting, Josh Skow, CEO of Roaring Fork Capital and Mike Pierce, president of The Austin Group.
“We are honoured to partner with IBIE on this important programme spotlighting innovation across key areas of baking, including sustainability, efficiency, safety and more,” said Peckenpaugh.
“The 2022 response to the Best in Baking Programme has been phenomenal, which is a testament to the good work underway across our industry.”
Winners will be presented with their awards during IBIE at the RBA Bakers Center’s Presentation Stage. All winners are also showcasing their innovations on the IBIE floor.
Product Innovation
Bakeries that have implemented notable improvements related to ingredient sourcing, product development, packaging, and/or distribution to drive growth of a specific bakery product or product line and the bakery’s overall business.
Wholesale/High-volume bakery:
- Top Honours: Grupo Bimbo – sustainably baked Supán & OroWeat 100% Whole Grain Organic Bread, including net zero carbon mobility and regenerative agriculture
Wholesale/Intermediate-volume bakery:
- Top Honours: Lenny & Larry’s – The Complete KickStart Breakfast Bars
- Flax4Life – Industrial compostable plant-based packaging for its retail muffins, brownies and cookies
Retail bakery:
- Top Honours: Nick Vina Artisan Bakery – Healthier Choice Bread
- Sweet Life Specialty Foods – Heart Cakes
- Victoria’s Sugar Shack – Vintage Traveling Bakery Truck
Sustainability
Equipment, ingredients, packaging, technology or another process that improves efficiency, reduces energy use, reduces environmental impact, and/or otherwise brings notable sustainability to the baking industry.
Ingredients:
- Avena Foods Ltd – Oat and pulse regenerative agriculture innovation project
- Cargill – PalmWise
- Ciranda Inc – Organic, non-GMO and fair trade
- Corbion – Ultra Fresh portfolio
- Dragsbæk – Naturli’ Foods vegan block
- IFF – Enovera 3001 bakery enzyme
- Sugaright (CSC Sugar) – Clean label, natural, non-GMO
Equipment:
- Top Honours: AMF Bakery Systems – Sustainable oven service
- Air Management Technologies Inc – EPI-Vision System
- AMF Bakery Systems – MB-VITA tunnel oven by AMF Den Boer
- Babb Group – The BABBCO CleanBake tunnel ovens
- Bakon USA Food Equipment – Multiwasher by Somengil
- Bundy Baking Solutions – American Pan ePan bread pans
- Heuft Thermo-Oel GmbH & Co. KG – Hybrid heat exchanger
- Middleby Bakery Group, Auto-Bake Serpentine – F3 fossil fuel-free convection oven, Baker Thermal Solutions rapid bake oven, Stewart Systems Viper ‘oil-free; oven chain and Sveba Dahlen Artista Deli modular stone tunnel oven
- Middleby Food Processing – Continuous vacuum cooling
- Sugden Ltd – Line efficiencies
- T&T Consulting & Engineering – New Generation indirect fired tunnel oven
Packaging:
- IMA Ilapak – Delta VacMap
- Inline Plastics – Reborn
- LeMatic – Airless ban seals for bulk packing, AutoiNet portal and motorised cut knife
Logistics:
- FlexiBake – ERP, MetriX DSD, MetriX OOP, MetriX Lite
Workforce development
This category honours bakers and suppliers who are developing programmes that foster sustainable development and ongoing growth of the baking industry workforce.
Supplier:
- Top Honours: Puratos, Puratos Bakery School – Pennsauken NJ School District
- Burford Corp, a Middleby Company – Creative recruiting
- IFF, Training Industry – Customers and Academia
Retail bakery:
- Top Honours: Dawn Foods – Women’s Leadership Development Programme
Sanitation
Bakers and suppliers that are developing or utilising innovative sanitation equipment, infrastructure materials like floors and walls, products, tech or software that improve sanitation procedures, streamline facility maintenance, improve food safety, reduce environmental impact, or otherwise brings a notable level of innovation to the baking industry.
Supplier:
- Top Honours: Middleby Food Processing – Vyv antimicrobial LED lighting
- AMF Bakery Systems – ADD-S Bread Make-up System by AMF Flex and SFA Artisan Bread Line by AMF Tromp
- Babb Group – The BABBCO CleanBake IR oven
- Burford Corp – Flush-In-Place system
- CFS, an Intralox Company – Sesame allergen management and FoodSafe conveyor programme
- ChemxWorks – Decarbonator
- Dough Tech – AM315 sanitary bread moulder
- Eaglestone, Inc – Sanitary conveyors
- Flexco – FGP food grade primary cleaner with external spring and Novitool Amigo splice press
- FPS Food Process Solutions Corp – Ambient spiral
- Goodway Technologies – Dry steam cleaning & sanitation accessories
- HaF Equipment – Moovinator
- Nexcor Food Safety Technologies – KLEANZ swab connect
Automation & Robotics
Equipment or other tech that automates a manual process, improving throughput and reducing labour requirements.
Supplier:
- Top Honours: Apex Motion Control – Baker-Bot
- ABI – Vision system platform
- AMF Bakery Systems – Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) and Smart Topping Applicator by AMF Tromp
- AMF Bakery Systems and Intralox – EZ Diverter by AMF Convay
- AXIS Automation LLC – AXIS Platinum Series LD Depositor
- BeeHex – Cake writer
- Benchmark – InFlight AC
- Cimcorp Automation – MultiPick Gantry Robot Solution and AGV Delivery
- Hayon Manufacturing Corp – Model 6700 and 6400 Series Select-A-Spray
- Haystack Data Solutions – Data science for food
- KPM Analytics – In-Line & over-line vision inspection technologies
- LeMatic – Pattern former
- Print on Foods – Flexprint IL 500
- Rexfab – Pan Stacker-Unstacker
- Stäubli Robotics – TX2 six-axis robots
Plant Efficiency
Equipment, ingredients, packaging, tech or another process not related to automation or robotics that improves operational efficiency.
Supplier:
- Top Honours: Bundy Baking Solutions – Synova AccuTech pan greaser
- Intralox – S560 Tight Transfer
- Harvest Food Solutions – Business central for bakeries
- Magnetic Products, Inc – Intell-I-Mag
- Mecatherm – M-Care digital solutions
- Nexcor Food Safety Technologies – CAMS-PM maintenance management
- Orbis Corp – XpressBulk merchandising tray
- Wherefour Inc – Wherefour ERP/MRP
Wholesale/high-volume bakery:
- Top Honours: Grupo Bimbo – GBConnected Monitoring System
- Grupo Bimbo – Renewable energy storage system