Pizza is an ever-popular mainstay, everywhere around the world, at any time of the day. Its reign over eating and snacking times is bolstered by continuous innovation. Exciting, new assortments and flavor combinations are backed by innovation in the pizza production area.
Ever-growing consumer interest, pizza chain going global, customization becoming more popular than ever, as well as technology advances, particularly in automation and AI, and labor shortages in in industry: these are all factors shaping the pizza market. Opportunity awaits, as long as the manufacturing process is at its most efficient, which has a unique meaning for each production facility.
Dedicated lines for industrial production take all these trends into consideration in their design and upgrades, along with flexibility for new and upcoming shifts in materials, flavors and styles. AMF Bakery Systems also invests significant time into gaining a comprehensive understanding of each bakery and their operation setup, product portfolio, their goals and estimated volumes. Their current and future plans also play an important role in determining their exact needs and how they should be reflected in the design of a pizza line. AMF’s pizza production systems can process either cut, molded, or pressed pizza, in any shape and size, according to this extensive, case-by-case research. Custom parameters will include the width of the system, the mixing and sheeting capacity, proofing times and the pressing speed, the types of toppings required, baking times, and more. The product diversity it supports is endless, for pizza and pizza crusts: “Anything is possible, thin or thick crust, ‘airy’ textures, more solid high rims, or docked for a plain low budget pizza. We see trending demand in high rim, Neapolitan pizza style products with an artisan look, baked on a stone floor tunnel oven,” AMF reveals.
‘It’s all in the dough’
The common denominator in all pizzas, regardless of segment, assortment, or part of the world, is the dough ball. No two dough types are created equal, but consistent quality in each case is a must. It largely contributes to the outcome of the final product, so every step in obtaining the exact pizza dough ball intended is carefully fine-tuned.
“Anything is possible, thin or thick crust, ‘airy’ textures, more solid high rims, or docked for a plain low budget pizza. We see trending demand in high rim, Neapolitan pizza style products with an artisan look, baked on a stone floor tunnel oven.”
AMF Bakery Systems specialists
We hear the saying, ‘It’s all in the dough’ a lot in the industry. This is especially true for pizza production. Everything plays a role in achieving the desired dough texture and final product, respectively – from mixing the right ingredients, including the use of water, yeast, oil, or sourdough; then the resting and proofing variables, up to the gentle sheeting and shaping of the dough. “Adding sourdough works great as a relaxer for sheeting pizza dough,” points out Jeroen Mulder, Master Baker at the AMF Innovation Center in the Netherlands.
‘Automation’ is the keyword in dough making and handling. AMF dough dividers and rounders can be used to process dough balls automatically by mid-size and industrial bakeries, with a throughput ranging from 10 to 800 pieces per minute.
The latest AMF Flex extrusion dividing and rounding systems for pizza dough balls can offer one of three different standard makeup configurations, to match different production setups. The dough is divided into individual portions and rounded by a sanitary belt rounder into balls of dough with identical shape, consistency and weight. AMF Flex also supports direct deposit/dividing of the dough, so that pieces of dough are portioned, divided and delivered directly into trays for automated pressed pizza processing.
For a complete pizza system, AMF Fusion technology covers mixing and dough handling, with equipment including sanitary batch mixers, fermentation rooms, and dough handling systems, all set up to maximize dough control over each processing step. For sheeting, the AMF Tromp low-stress sheeting lines offer gentle dough handling, which is essential to produce artisan pizza quality.
When making pizza with doughs that have up to 55 % water absorption, the Extruded (EX) Sheeting Line by AMF Tromp handles high-volume production, with the flexibility to produce a wide range of products, with consistent dough sheet characteristics. For recipes that require strictly low-stress handling, the Stress-free (SF) Sheeting Line can be used for the high-speed production of products with up to 65 % water absorption. For pizza bases, this means the crusts obtained have a light, open-grain structure.
This can be achieved without the use of oil, which is a distinct advantage of Tromp systems, AMF highlights. Costs and time spent cleaning are also saved by saving any excess flour when the sheet has reached the appropriate thickness; it is brushed off and collected. “Excess flour can even be reused,” AMF’s specialists underline how they design sustainable pizza systems that also focus on hygiene.
Pressing pizza
Depending on the product lineup required, AMF Tromp and AMF Flex lines are suitable solutions for pressed pizza. Pizza pressing not only determines its shape, but also the crust and bite of the base.
AMF’s automated pressing systems and adjust all process parameters, from the amount of dough to the size and thickness of the pizza base. There are several pressing techniques to choose from, and AMF technology can offer all of them. Each brings distinct results in look, taste, texture and mouthfeel, providing the flexibility for a very wide variety in pizza production.
Depending on the pizza styles to be made and their intended crust characteristics, dough pressing can be automated as follows:
+ Cold pressing
Lighter, airy types of pizza crusts can be achieved with this method, in a wide range of diameters and thickness levels.
•Dough balls can be pressed cold, in a pan, or on a belt
•Dough sheets are cold-pressed directly on the belt
(Neapolitan-style pizza is made in this way).
+ Hot pressing
This technique replicates hand-crafting pizza, with similar results.
•Dough balls can be hot-pressed in a pan; deep-dish
pizza pies with a rim, such as Chicago-style specialties,
are made in this way, for example.
•Dough pieces/balls, or dough sheets can be hot-pressed
directly on the conveyor belt.
From recent installations made throughout the world, AMF observes some trending pizza specialties: “Our recent success stories are for pizza lines pressed on a belt, cold, creating a high rim. The Neapolitan pizza is a trending product all over Europe and the US,” the specialist highlights.
Pizza pressing has been improved, in methods and automated technology, so that higher speeds and output volumes can now be reached. “Pressing multiple products at once in a baking tray is more popular, as it has a higher output. Our conveying systems provide complete handling of trays, depanning, tray storage, cleaning and re-entering them on a line using robot or gantry stackers,” AMF
explains.
New upgrades
Trending new products like Neapolitan pizza have been the focus for the latest technology improvements designed by AMF, as well as latest-generation developments, including AI. The smart applicator and quality control vision systems, for example, already incorporate AI-driven mechanisms. “At iba, we launched our cooperation with QING, which has a lot of traction in pizza applications. Our vision-driven AI systems will be able to analyze products for spots, defects, size irregularities, or whether toppings are uniformly applied,” AMF illustrates. QING‘s STAQ Quality Control System can now be included in AMF production lines. This Vision AI-powered inspection system analyzes every bakery product in real time, checking for shape, size, and surface characteristics. Products falling out of the acceptable parameters can be rejected from the line, before wasting valuable toppings like cheese, or the energy that goes into baking them when they are to be discarded. “Sustainable solutions and new AI technology are used to improve pizza quality and minimize waste on the line,” AMF adds.
The systems are developed with the needed degree of flexibility, having in mind variables for all processing steps. Anything can be accommodated with dedicated settings, from the size and thickness of the product to the speed of the line, the toppings and topping combinations, through to baking times. Once a recipe is established, it is stored to automatically set up each optimized process
The Dutch specialists conclude: “Pizza production is an art, but it is also a science, which we master very well at AMF Bakery Systems.” The company can offer pizza lines, from mixing through to baking and freezing. Including sauce and cheese topping systems by AMF Tromp, complete pizza production systems can achieve production capacities of up to 10,000 pieces per hour (depending on the size of the product). Given the vastness of the types of end products, perfecting production with all possible settings along the line is an entire process of its own. Testing can be carried out at AMF’s Innovation Center, where recipes can be developed and scaling up production can be fine-tuned. Different kinds of baking technologies can also be trialed there for each product, including direct- or indirect-fired tunnel ovens, electric or hybrid ovens, or stone floor ovens. The expansive, exciting diversity of pizza options is met with a corresponding range of flexible, smart solutions for optimized processing.