Sharon Nowak, Global Business Development Manager, Food and Pharmaceutical, K-Tron
The Basic Pasta Quality & Extrusion Technology Seminar will be held Feb. 9-11, in San Antonio, Texas. Food Manufacturing spoke with Sharon Nowak of K-Tron about the seminar and some of the up and coming developments in the pasta industry.
Q: What are the goals for the seminar?
A: The goals are to expose the attendee to current manufacturing technologies available for pasta processing with an emphasis on improving end product pasta quality and maximizing process yields and profits.
Q: Have there been any interesting or new developments in the pasta market?
A: An increased number of pasta manufacturers are looking for tighter control on ingredients used in pasta manufacture. The use of high accuracy loss in weight feeders, such as those provided by K-Tron, allows the end user to monitor the exact percentage of component to the blend and control their ingredient costs as well as the pasta composition.
Q: How does equipment impact the quality of the pasta?
A: Loss in weight feeders used for extrusion or mixing processes will ensure that the flow of the pasta dry ingredients is consistent and accurate. In addition, easy clean raw ingredient and final product material handling systems are used to improve the delivery of the ingredients to the mixing stages and to also improve end product quality prior to packaging.
Q: Is automation growing in the pasta sector? How is this affecting the industry?
A: Yes, automation is growing. A rising number of integrated systems and automated controls is becoming popular, as is the trend for the manufacturer to procure the complete system from an experienced systems supplier, such as K-Tron and DeFrancisci Machine Company. The requirement to monitor exact composition of the blend by utilizing the data obtained by high accuracy Loss in Weight feeding systems is also being utilized for recipe control as well as ingredient cost control.