In the baking industry, where ingredient and labor costs continue to escalate, bakers are constantly looking for new technology that will lower their overall operating costs to increase their competitiveness in the marketplace. And Vineland, N.J., based Omni Baking Company proved no exception when it turned to Linde North America, the U.S. affiliate of The Linde Group, for a solution.
Omni Baking Company recently installed a Linde CRYOLINE® XF (Cross Flow) cryogenic spiral freezer that increases its production, reduces its use of liquid nitrogen and lowers its maintenance and sanitation costs, while maintaining the highest quality product that its customers insist on.
Omni Baking Company is a contract bakery that supplies fresh, frozen baked and par-baked products to bakers who serve the retail and foodservice markets. The company produces a variety of hearth baked rolls and French breads, as well as prespreaded sliced breads, which was the reason for installing the CRYOLINE XF spiral freezer.
With decades of successful wholesale baking experience and one of the region's most advanced facilities, Omni Baking Company is no stranger to spiral freezers, having a half dozen at its plant before installing the CRYOLINE XF spiral freezer. “The [freezer] allows us to freeze more product per hour and utilizes one-third less of our precious floor space, compared with conventional cryogenic spiral freezers,” says Daniel Mulloy, general manager for Omni Baking Company.
That’s because of the product’s design which uses proprietary, patent-pending cross-flow technology to substantially reduce freezing time and improve cryogen efficiency, while reducing overall freezer size. It provides twice the heat transfer rate of conventional spiral freezers by covering nearly 100 percent of the belt freezing surface area with a high-velocity gas flow. Mulloy says, “The CRYOLINE XF spiral freezer allows us to quick freeze our products at reduced operating costs while positively impacting downstream conveyor and packaging capabilities, which helps increase our production rate.
“In addition to substantial saving on cryogen and our enhancing production capabilities, we’ve found that the hygienic design features of the CRYOLINE XF spiral freezer reduces the amount of time needed for sanitation. This is critically important in a production facility that operates 24/7.”
The spiral freezer is designed with sloped floors and a clean in-place system. Because of its compact size, the unit has half the amount of stainless steel and half the belting of conventional spirals. “That translates into much less area to clean between production runs,” Mulloy said.
The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 50,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, visit Linde North America online at http://www.lindeus.com.
