Spiral Ovens from Heat and Control are engineered for high volume and can be used to cook a multitude of foods from meat, poultry, prepared foods, bakery items, breakfast cereal to even dehydrated fruit and vegetables.
This versatile oven can partially or fully cook a product and even facilitates dehydration before further downstream processing. They can develop and enhance product colour and are suitable for products requiring a long residence time. An alternative solution to tunnel ovens, the spiral oven provides maximum baking capacity with a small footprint.
Spiral ovens are suitable for medium to large scale producers, and the following are further illustrations on its use, applications and features available for food processors:
Single Drum vs Twin Drum options
A single drum has one heating zone. All the product inside this oven is exposed to the same cooking environment. This can result in lower yields compared to the same product cooked in a twin drum. The twin drum has the advantage of setting 2 very different cooking environments within the one system. The ‘up-drum’ can be set with high humidity to cook but not dry out a product, while the down drum can be set with a drier environment, often used to develop product colour. This results in less moisture loss from the product and reduced loss of yield. Available factory space often determines which oven is chosen.
Spiral Oven – its location in the processing line
The spiral oven is typically placed down-stream from a frying system and up-stream from a freezer. The fryer sets up the coatings and then the spiral oven is used to further cook the product and develop its colour.
Spiral Oven versatility to use dry heat, steam only or a combination
Dry heat is used to develop and enhance product colour. The downside of this method is that moisture evaporates from the product resulting in smaller yields. Moisture loss from the product also affects texture and palatability. By reducing moisture loss, a producer ensures higher product weights and a better tasting product, which leads to increased profitability.
A food processor may use the steam option for a 100% steamed product that doesn’t require any colour development. This method transfers energy to the product with little or no moisture loss.
Meanwhile, by using a combination of both steam and dry heat, a processor gets the best of both worlds. Steam helps to reduce moisture loss and combines with dry heat to create a premium finish with high product yields.
Heat and Control Spiral Oven and its Features:
- Patented Moisture Control System
Developed over 40 years ago, this system was originally used in Heat and Control’s MPO oven. It is easy to use and maintain with proven reliability and doesn’t use expensive sensors requiring frequent calibration.
- Continuous Belt Washing/Drying system
Water spray and belt brushes ensure that the oven’s belt is kept clean during operation. A soak tank prior to the belt wash softens and loosens baked on grime making the job of the belt brushes much easier.
- Automated CIP System
The structure of this oven doubles as pipework for a CIP system. CIP spray balls are placed to ensure all internal surfaces are sprayed during CIP. Nozzles on the cantilevers spray directly onto the belt to assist with cleaning. The CIP system has a continuous filter that reduces the risk of spray balls and nozzles being blocked and this reusable filter element is easily removed for cleaning.
Settings can be saved for every recipe and there is no need to change the settings every time. Options for automatic dosage of cleaning chemicals are also available.
- Full Use of Belt Cooking Area
The spiral oven allows processors to use the entire width of the oven belt allowing for higher capacity outputs.
- Uniform Temperature distribution
Uniform cooking temperature distribution ensures product is cooked evenly, irrespective of placement on the conveyor belt. This benefits processors by delivering consistent results every time. The HMI/PLC provides the ability to create recipes for different products and eliminates the need for machine operators to record settings.
- Space Saving Spiral Design
The ability to ship the spiral as a module makes it easy/quicker to install.
The round shape of this oven removes any dead space from the process environment inside the oven. The round enclosure combined with a centrally located fan means products are exposed to 360° airflow during cooking.
Heat source used by the Spiral Oven
Heat source is chosen based on the product mix. Thermal oil, indirect gas, direct gas steam, and electric are all options. Thermal oil, indirect gas and steam heating are usually used for meat products and are chosen so that the HX can be cleaned via the CIP system. The HX is hygienically designed to eliminate trap points for build-up. Indirect gas heated spirals are used when processing chicken products where the by-products of combustion cannot impinge on the chicken meat.
NOX in the combustion gases do not allow the chicken protein in the chicken meat to set. The chicken meat can look pink and raw when in fact its cooked. In the industry this is known as pinking and is not desirable.
Electrical heating can be used for dehydrators where temperatures are low or if the customer has access to cheap electricity.
Last but not least, Heat and Control Spiral Oven is the only twin spiral oven providing True Two Zone uniform cooking control. This is important to a food processor as the two-zone oven has been proven to be able to cook meat products with low yield loses. The first zone can be used to get maximum heat transfer with a high moisture environment to gain high core temperature and ensure pathogen kill has started. The second zone can be used to complete the pathogen kill and gain surface colour and texture without impacting on yield loss.
For more information on the Spiral Oven, contact info@heatandcontrol.com or visit www.heatandcontrol.com
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