#Product Trends
Toast flours; deactivate enzymes with amixon® mixers
Flour, milled grains toasting and enzymatic deactivation, sterilization. Batch flour treatment versus continuous flour treatment.
Thermally treated flours, grains act as binders or also as food stabilizers for instant foods, convenience foods or also in dietetic foods. In commercial kitchens, toasted flours are valued as a lump-free and tasteless binder. Thermally treated flours can be easily wetted. They can also serve as a carrier for tablets, spices and flavorings.
Instant flours generally wet well with water, with oil and also with emulsions. They can be used, for example, as a bonding agent or wet panade for vegetables, fish and meat. The properties of the dispersion, such as viscosity and adhesion, are predetermined by heat treatment. In rare cases, the grain is thermally treated, steamed, boiled or roasted prior to comminution.
Flour treatment batchwise
Carrying out germ and enzyme reduction in batches offers a great deal of flexibility. amixon® sterile reactors of the AMT or VMT design are particularly well suited for this purpose. Batch processing makes it possible to adapt the germ and enzyme reduction precisely to the powder characteristics. The process temperatures and the associated residence times can be balanced against each other. Variable rotational frequencies of the mixing tools are used to control the mechanical energy input. In addition, vacuum drying and cooling of the goods can take place.
Water vapor is introduced into the moving mix. The mixing chamber is pressure-resistant and completely temperature-controlled. The flour is heated and mixed. Optionally, the mixing chamber can be vacuumed in advance. As steam is introduced, the pressure in the mixing chamber increases in accordance with the steam quantity and temperature. The sterile reactor allows much higher temperatures than 100°C.
The thermal energy of the steam is released on the surface of the grain/flour particles. At the moment of condensation, the thermal energy is transferred very effectively into the flour particles. The flour is heated, enzymes and germs are effectively deactivated.
Continuous flour treatment
Heated ring-layer mixers/granulators (type: RMG) operate continuously. The residence time of the mixed materials is short. Also, the contact of flour and steam is only for a short time. The heating of the flour results from the condensation of the steam on the flour particles. The mixing chamber of the ring paddle mixer should also be heated. Depending on the frequency of rotation and the type of mixing tools, the flour can also leave the RMG agglomerated.
Continuous wetting processes can only take place at ambient pressure. Mixing and steam treatment cannot take place at positive pressure or vacuum application. After thermal treatment, the flour may have to be dried and cooled. Continuously operating fluidized bed dryers/coolers are used here, among other things.
amixon® is an expert in process equipment. We offer you the mixing systems and expertise you need for flour production.
