The company told ConfectioneryNews at PackExpo 2014 that it was seeing more requests from functional confectioners looking to move to starchless depositing.
Baker Perkins said that depositing was preferred to die forming – whereby ingredients are formed into a rope shape and the final candy shape is pushed out – because every piece could be a precise weight.
Unsanitary?
Ian Purvis, senior account manager at the company, said: “People are coming to us and saying frankly: ‘I need to get out of starch, how do I get out of starch?’”
“It’s mostly because you can’t clean it, you can only replace it, and realistically it’s not replaced, it’s topped up and dried and you can’t sanitize it.”
Baker Perkins said the growing requests for starchless depositing were coming mainly from manufacturers fortifying jellies or hard candy with vitamins, minerals, fibre and protein or those making cough and cold drops with antiseptics, menthol and eucalyptus oil – all of which need to keep a precise weight.
BP questions starch molding’s hygiene credentials
Purvis said that the confectionery industry had developed a growing interest in the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA’s) 10 Principles of Sanitary Equipment Design. He added that North American regulators had become increasingly concerned with jellies manufactured on old starch systems.
“The legislation caters for meeting certain standards, but the manufacturing systems that are used, it’s very questionable if they actually do meet those standards, whether a line can be sanitized for example.”
He said that while starch moguls were probably compatible with current legislation, future standards could be more demanding.
Precise weights
Sticking with starch
LHT Consultancy and Eagle Vision recently developed a DTV system that uses a camera to take images of the starch molding tray and compares the images to one of a properly filled tray. If a tray is not filled correctly, depositing does not take place and the tray can be removed manually or with a tray eject system. The developers claimed the system the problem the dirty tray problem.
Purvis claimed that depositing into a starchless metal mold was far more sanitary and could be the way forward.
“That method also can be very attractive for incorporating functional elements because we are dealing with very precise piece weights and an image of a high quality piece,” said Purvis.
He accepted that a product made this way would be noticeably different in texture and elasticity to a starch molded product, but claimed it could be an advantage.
“We’re making a piece that is visibly and texturally altogether superior – it’s smooth, it’s precise, it’s glossy and with bright colors and clear. It conveys an image of a high quality product,” he said.
“So it’s not about trying to match an existing product so much as to say here’s an alternative method are you open to some changes in the product in a manufacturing process that is inherently clean.”