Cold Storage Capacities Inadequate in India

In its recent report on food processing industry ASSOCHAM has highlighted Cold Storage chain s In capability to handle volumes from agri food chain . This has resulted in losses and makes India less competitive in World food processing industry. Facilities of Cold storage at export points are highly inadequate hence loosing out opportunities to export . Assocham has asked govt for more fiscal incentives towards upgrading food processing technology. It also recommends the government introduce fiscal and other incentives to encourage companies to invest in the latest food processing technology and to enchance Cold storage capacities .

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Major Indian Sugar Mills and Refineries

Bakery Industry is one of the major consumer of sugar . Sugar constitutes almost 15 - 20 % of the product value . Bakery raw material procurement deptt has to source sugar from either mills directly or through agents , traders or dealers . Sourcing through Mills helps getting cheaper sugar and bakery manufacturers can avail cenvat( Modvat ) benefits on excise duty .

Here is list of major sugar mills in India

• The Andhra Sugars Ltd
• The Jeypore Sugar Co Ltd
• K.C.P Sugar and Industries Corporation
• Harinagar Sugar
• Shree Kedut Sahakari Khand Ugyog
• Shree Madhi Vibhag Khand Udyog
• The Sarawasti Sugar Mills
• Bajaj Hindustan Ltd
• The Sambhaoli Sugar Mills Ltd
• Triveni Engg & Industries Ltd
• Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd
• FMC Fortuna
• The Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd
• Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Ltd
• Gangeshwar Ltd
• Mawana Sugar works
• Shree Renuka Sugar
• EID Parry

Why Palm oil is favorite shortening in bakery manufacturing

Palm oil has replaced all types of vegetable oils in bakery manufacturing . Palm oil is imported from countries like Malaysia , Indonesia or Philippines . Cost is the biggest factor as palm oil cost is cheaper than HVO ( Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil ) .Palm oil is also good for health as conc. of saturated fat is low in respect to others .
Palm oil is obtained from fleshy layer of palm fruit without solvents or chemical . By treatment with steam followed by pressing . The pressed oil is called crude palm oil . This palm oil is further refined using steam , vacuum and clay to remove color and odour .

Palm oil following charateristics makes it favorite shortening.

• It has got natural anti oxidant s called tocotrienols which helps in protecting body against ill effects of oxidation.


• It desnot have transfat ie zero trans fat . Its composed of palmilic acid and oleic acid .


• Palm oil is naturally semi solid at room temperature ( melting point is 39 deg c ) which makes it an excellent shortening for food application . Palmilic acid imparts creamy texture to the shortening which is important for baked products.


• Many combinations can be made out of fractions of palm oil . These fraction are obtained during the process of fractionation. Fractionation is a process to melt the palm oil and the cool it get crystal of fat along with the liquid , these crystal can then be blended to form different types of shortening .


• Palm oil naturally resists oxidation and hence provide longer shelf life to the baked products . Shelf life and frying stability characteristics of palm oil are comparable to partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Both forms of palm oil RBD ( Refined , bleached and Deodorised )-Palmolein and RPKO ( Refined Palm kernel oil ) are used in baked goods

Gardenia -QAF brand - A Profile

Gardenia is one of the most popular bakery brands in Asean countries . Gardenia brand is owned by Singapore based QAF ltd . Established in 1950 by the name Ben and Company ltd and were in the business of food distributorship . In 1984 name changed to QAF ltd and is listed to Singapore bourse. QAF main businesses are Food Production , Milk and dairy production, Pork processing and distribution ,Logistics and warehousing , Food trading and distribution .There operations are in countries like Malaysia , Philippines , Australia ,Singapore and China .
Few major brands of QAF ltd are Gardenia , Bonjour , Cowhead , Farmland , High Country ,Haton , Family chef ,Opti Milk , Orchard Fresh , Nutrimax , Bakers Maison

We would focus only on its bakery business which is done under brand name Gardenia and Bonjour . Bakery products are packaged loaf bread, pastries and bakery products which are manufactured and distributed in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia. Its has been awarded Super brand status in Singapore , Malaysia and Philippines
Bakery products under Gardenia are sandwich breads, health breads, flavoured loaves, pandesal, buns and snack cakes

HQ - 150 South Bridge Road,No 09-04 Fook Hai Building,Singapore, 058727
Singapore,Phone: 65 6538 2866,Fax: 65 6538 6866http://www.qaf.com.sg/

Sales Turn over( 2008) -USD 582.0 Mn
Chairman- Mr Didi Dawis
Group MD -Mr Tan Kong King

Horizontal flow wrap ( HFW ) packing machine - Basics

Horizontal flow wrap packing machine are most popular packing machine in bakery Industry . It is used in packing of biscuits , cookies , cakes , breads etc .

Popularity of these Horizontal flow wrap packing machine are for the following reason

• It can handle wide varieties of Dimensions from big packets to small


• Excellent ratio of cost per pack


• It offers hermetic packages even at high speed s


• Speed could be as high as 1000packets per minutes


• HFW Packing machine doesn't require much of the space


• HFW are relatively simple machines as compare to the other machine s


• Various combination are available like tray flow wrap .

Horizontal Flow wrap Packing machine s Important parts

• Cross pushers


• Infeed Lugs and chain


• Forming box


• Sealing Rollers


• Upper and Lower Jaws


• Heater ( Cylindrical and round )


• Cutter or Knife and anvil


• Lateral chain and lateral lugs

Accessories attached to this packing machine are Print mark scanner or Photocell and Printer machine .Now days all HFW machines are driven by servomotor through PLC . Multi line Packing machines are available for higher speed packing .

Change over of these machines takes from 30 min - 1hrs as per the product .

Biscuit consumption in UAE - some facts

Biscuit ,Cookies and wafer consumption in UAE is around 6kg/per person and its contributes to 20% of total volume of biscuits sale in GCC . Major Brands of biscuit are Oreo , Mcvities , Tim Tam , Ulker , Americana ,Tiffany , Nabil , Britannia , Parle ,Bisca ,Nutro etc .


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Bakery manufacturers -Arnotts biscuits Ltd - Profile

Arnott s biscuits are among one of the top biscuit , cookies manufacturers of the world .Arnotts are most popular brand of cookies and biscuit in Australia .Established in year 1865 at Hunter Street, Newcastle, north of Sydney, New South Wales. Arnotts has become synonym of Australian best food companies .Its products are sold in more than 40 countries including Japan , China , USA , UK , New Zealand . Employs around 6500 employee in Australia and employs several thousand people across the Asia Pacific region, in countries such as New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. Its owned by Campbell Soup Company of USA .
Popular products of Arnotts brand are cookies , biscuits and crackers in snacks category
Popular brands from Arnotts
in chocolate variety - Tim Tam ,Mint Slice ,Royals , Monte , Wagon Wheels
Sweet biscuits -Monte carlo , Kingston,Farmbake , Premier,Tiny Teddy , Snack Right , Venetian,Yo-Yo
Savoury varriety- Shapes , Vita -weat , Salada , Jatz

Sales turnover- USD 1,152,867,000/-

President Arnott s Asia Pacific - Mark Alexander

HQ -Arnott's Biscuits Limited,Arnott's Biscuits Limited ,24 George StreetNORTH STRATHFIELD, NSW2137 AUSTRALIA website : http://www.arnotts.com/

Various Packing formats for biscuit packaging

Biscuit manufacturers have many formats to pack biscuit for the consumer . Biscuit packs are launched into market taking into the view various factor like pack for which group , family view , promotion or festivals,on the move pack s etc

Following are few popular packing formats for biscuit s

• Jumbo Pack or Family packs-As the name suggest these packs have more grammage eg more than 250 gms to 850 gms. Best suited for house wife who prefers to buy in bulk

• Tikki or mini pack-These are reverse of Family pack . It consists of 3-4 biscuit in a pack .These have been popular with retailers as they can pass on this with other items in lieu of change

• Slug or single pack -Normal pack and popular with 100 gms and 150 gm s of biscuit for a single day stock for an individual.popular with School or College going kids .

• Assorted pack-These mostly offered during festival or with some sales promotion it consists of different varieties biscuit in one pack from a single manufacturer.

• Multipack-Many packs in large pack similar to Family pack

• Display box pack-Biscuits are arranged in open box and the over wrapped were packs are visible to consumers

• Shrink pack -Biscuit packs are placed in normal box and then over wrapped for extra protection

• Vertical pouch packs -Its a New trend among the biscuit manufacturers as this ideas has been taken from snacks and is used by group of people going for long travel , picnics , outings etc

• Pile pack-Generally biscuits are packed as pile pack where the biscuits are flat and face towards the base of the packets

• On the edge pack-Biscuits are packed on the edge ie biscuits are vertical to the base of pack

• Multi layer pack-Two or three layers of biscuit in same pack generally found in cream biscuits

• Tray pack-Biscuit are placed in trays and then packed with wrappers .

Biscuit packing materials

Biscuit packing involves various different packing material .Packaging main objective s are to give product a longer shelf life , mechanical cushion against damage , labelling as per food laws , nutritional and calories , allergen notification , advertisement and promotion .

Packing material are checked for GSM ( grams per sq mtr) , thickness ( micron) and bursting strength apart from physical features like printing , symbols , labels etc .

Following features are required for biscuit packing material

• Water vapour permeability


• Oxygen permeability


• Aroma impermeability of product


• Resistance to seepage of fat and oil


• Protection towards uv lights


• Heat sealability


• Printablity


• Mechanical cushion against shock and vibrations


• Labels for consumer information


• Convenient opening options like tear tape , incision cuts etc

Materials for biscuit packing are

• BOPP Film ( Bi axial oriented polypropylene )
  Bopp monofilm
  Bopp clear film and Bopp printed
  Bopp combination like Bopp pearlised or BOPP/PER
  Bopp metallized or BOPP/MET


• LDPE preformed pouches


• Polypropylene preformed pouches


• LDPE Laminates for pillow packs


• Metallized Polyester for pillow pack


• Thermoformed Pvc Trays


• Thermoformed polysterene


• CBBS


• Tins


• Stickers


• Tear Tapes


• Display boxes


• Plain Boxes


• Shrink wrap Film


• Over wrap Film


• Poly bags
  Wrappers or laminates have to be stored in dry and cool place as high temperatures and humidity can damage the wrapper. Major problems due to humidity and temperatures are curling and cracking .
  
  
  
  
  
  

Wait and watch policy on price increase - Biscuit manufacturers

Biscuit manufacturers of India have adopted a wait and watch policy on spiraling prices of major ingredients like sugar , milk , edible oil etc . Things have been aggravated by poor monsoon this year where majority of states are facing drought like situation . All this has prompted biscuit manufacturers for adopting cost reduction strategies avoiding the last resort of price increase of the product . All of them were of the view to reduce grammage of biscuit then to increase the price .
This has been the strategy for most of the biscuit manufacturer for recent months hence giving less and charging same price from the consumer .

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Wooden Pallets Vs Plastic Pallets

Wooden pallets are being gradually replaced by plastic pallets at most of the bakeries . These pallets are used to stack sugar , wheat flour , ammonia , skimmed milk powders and other raw materials bags . These pallets are also used to palletize finished products carton boxes . These pallets are then lifted by either forklifts or mechanical hand pallets trucks for movement . These pallets are cleaned regularly for hygienic conditions .Could be of various design and must match material handling equipment fork dimensions .

Both Plastic and Wooden pallets have advantages as well as disadvantages .

Wooden Pallets are being phased out as because plastic pallets are more durable , can be cleaned are more hygienic .Wooden Pallets have more chances to be prone to insects infestation and can add on to foreign body complaints in products.

Plastic pallets also have serrations which are breeding ground for insects .Plastic pallets have dangerous chemical coating to make it fire proof ,this chemical can easily get into product.





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Major Metal detector manufacturers for bakeries

Metal Detectors are most critical equipment of all food safety equipment in bakeries as well as any other food industry . These are ccps for most of bakeries for HACCP . All food safety standards has SOP s for metal detector . Basic function of metal detector is to detect metal and other foreign particles in finished as well as wet product like dough . Its rejects the contaminated material through automated rejection systems or stops the production line .

Various brands of metal detector are found in bakeries .Few popular metal detector manufacturers are mentioned below

• Locks Inspection systems Inc - Metal check , Met Series
• Mettler Taledo - Safeline
• Heat & Control Inc - Ishida , FastBack
• Eriez -Ez tec
• Advance Detection sytem - Proscan
• Anritsu Industrial solution USA Inc - KD series
• Fortress Technology Inc - Vector , Contact
• Loma Inspection systems -Loma
• S+S Inspection Inc - Genius
• Thermo Scientific process equipment division - Goring Kerr , Thermo electron,Ramsey
• Gorring Ker  Metal Detectors
  
  In India
  Technofour metal detectors are the most used metal detectors in bakery plants .

Kraft Inc sets an example by reducing water consumption in plants by 21%

Food factories consume huge amount of water in their manufacturing process , cleaning and utilities . Kraft Inc world second largest food producing company has achieved reduction in its water consumption by 21% ( nearly 12 billion litres )in three years , a feat worth emulating . Kraft Inc has made this possible with objective driven projects on water conservation . Major plants are Kraft Australia , Bahrain ,Germany and USA .
These has been possible with following steps

• Recycling and reuse of waste water from effluent treatment plants
• Change in Cleaning and washing methods
• Repair and maintenance of leaky pipelines
• Installation of low water consuming fittments .

Even supplying treated water to road construction companies for their road compaction and dust suppression work.

Great Job ! water is fast becoming scarce we expect all companies to intiate water conservation project and save water.