Dry ingredient chilling was developed to assist processors’ needs to better control final dough temperatures. Accurate and even dough temperatures play a major role in determining the final quality of baked goods. Chilling of powdered and granulated products such as flour or sugar can be handled via batch or continuous systems with chilling systems designed for use with either liquid nitrogen or CO2.
Proper protect chilling systems allow the bakery processor to:
Prevent constant reformulation due to varying temperature ingredients being added to the mixture
Control dough density to eliminate variation of final dough weights after dividing
Eliminate dough waste due to sticky dough (caused by ice usage in mixers)
Batch systems utilize bottom injection or top injection of CO2 and nitrogen in mixers, while continuous systems like the DIC system can be found on pneumatic conveying systems.
Pneumatic conveying systems can be of the vacuum or pressure type and use air to convey the powder from a bulk storage vessel to the processing point, which can be a mixer or hopper. The key benefit of an inline system is the reduction of end product temperature fluctuation at the mixer. Other benefits include reduction in product waste, improved automation, reduction of operator interface and error.
Typical products cooled via inline systems include flour, sugar, and dry mixes.
