Fritsch has just launched a new compact bread line, the PROGRESSA bread, dedicated to baking artisan-quality breads in mid-sized operations.
The trend towards breads made from soft doughs with long pre-proofing times of up to 24 hours, and often a high rye content, poses major production challenges. This is especially true in medium-sized retail bakeries. To be able to produce as many different products as possible at consistently high quality, a production line needs, first and foremost, to be uncomplicated to retool, easy to clean, and ready to expand if necessary. To meet this demand, FRITSCH has launched a completely new bread line – the PROGRESSA bread. Depending on product size, the PROGRESSA bread can process between 500 kilograms and 1.8 tons of dough per hour. “The new line combines a sophisticated hygienic design with the highest product quality on a small footprint,” FritSch underlines.
”With our SDS nano and the Soft Dough Roller (SDR) we get a uniform dough sheet which is processed very gently to preserve the structure of the dough. This is the basis for the high-quality products on our line.“
Michael Gier, Manager, FRITSCH World of Bakery
Hygienic design
“The design of a system decides how quickly and easily employees can remove or clean individual elements or parts,” says Michael Gier, the Manager of the FRITSCH World of Bakery. The principle is to achieve as many functions as possible with as few parts as possible. During the development, great importance was therefore given to ensuring that all parts are easily accessible and easy to remove. “There are no motors or other electrical parts, such as sensors, in the drive compartment of the line,” explains Gier. “This means the machine can be dismantled quickly and, for the most part, cleaned quickly and thoroughly with the steam jet.”
Another benefit of the PROGRESSA bread is that the amount of oil needed for processing the dough sheet has been reduced to a minimum. “The advantage of our soft dough sheeter SDS nano is that it flours the dough sheet from all sides. To flour the sides of the dough sheet, we use fold-up belts”, details Gier. This flour-dusting on all sides means there is no need to use oil at all for the sheeting process. This lowers the cost of oil consumption and reduces the effort of cleaning significantly. On top of that, oil inclusions in the dough are prevented in this way, which, in turn, guarantees excellent baking results of the finished breads.
© FRITSCH
Product quality
“With our SDS nano and the Soft Dough Roller (SDR) we get a uniform dough sheet which is processed very gently to preserve the structure of the dough. This is the basis for the high-quality products on our line”, Gier describes.
The fact that FRITSCH had been part of the MULTIVAC Group for two years benefited the developers regarding the weight accuracy management of the products. As a packaging manufacturer, MULTIVAC has extensive experience with precise weighing systems. FRITSCH were able to benefit from this know-how as specialists from both companies worked together closely within this project. The weighing system of the new bread line is equipped with two weighing units. The dough sheet is first weighed before cross-cutting. Once the desired weight is reached, the guillotine is released and the dough sheet is cut into individual pieces for further processing. The second weighing is done behind the guillotine. If the weight of the dough pieces deviates from the target weight, the cutting process is corrected accordingly. This ensures outstanding weight accuracy of the products, Fritsch elaborates.
Once the dough pieces have been cut to precision by the guillotine, different options are available for the next steps. Manual processing is an option, for example, or a baguette molding table, if this is preferred. In addition, FRITSCH offers a feeding system specifically tailored to the line. With this lift tipper, bakers can refill a maximum amount of 250 liters to ensure a fast process.
“With the PROGRESSA bread, bakers can process pre-proofed doughs as well as doughs with a high rye or water content with the same quality results as a large-scale line,” Gier emphasizes. This makes the new system an attractive choice not only for medium-sized businesses but also for industrial customers; being only five meters long, it can be easily integrated into almost any existing production hall.
