Faster cooking for increased capacity
Slow cooking times are a major challenge for food manufacturers trying to increase capacity while preserving product quality. The unique Steam Infusion processing environment means we can put more energy into your products faster; shortening cooking times and eliminating the compromise between speed and product quality.
Increase your cooking capacity
The graphic illustrates the total production time for three 1,000 kg (2204 lb) batches of Bechamel sauce using a traditional steam jacketed kettle vs. Steam Infusion.
Faced with the challenge of increasing cooking capacity, food manufacturers know the high costs and disruption of purchasing and installing a new cooking kettle into their factory.
Upgrading your existing cooking vessels with Steam Infusion is a relatively quick and easy solution that can more than double your cooking capacity (depending on the application).
As illustrated opposite, other benefits of switching to Steam Infusion include:
Cook time reduction: shortened cook times using the Steam Infusion process.
Cleaning time reduction: less intensive cleaning because the Steam Infusion process prevents burn-on and fouling to the vessel.
Avoid over-processing & burn-on contamination
One of the main reasons for the over processing of soups, sauces and ready meals is the extended cook times of a food factory. In a development kitchen a chef may take 20 minutes to cook up a fresh and tasty béchamel sauce, but in the factory, it can take up 40 minutes, degrading the overall quality of the product, in terms of taste, colour and texture.
Steam Infusion prevents this over-processing by dramatically shortening cook times, better replicating a chef's saucepan and allowing you to scale up products developed in the test kitchen much more easily.
Furthermore, there is no fouling or burn-on to the vessel because the annular design of the Vaction™ Pump allows steam to condense within the unit itself. The heating process doesn't rely on contact time between the steam and the product and it has the ability to run at comparatively higher steam pressures without compromising on efficiency.
Why does Steam Infusion cook faster?
Put simply, Steam Infusion cooks faster because it can put more energy efficiently into a product than other technologies.
While increasing pressure in a steam jacket could increase heat transfer into the vessel, the product would be more susceptible to burn-on damaging the product and requiring a more thorough clean. It would also demand a higher pressure rated, more expensive jacket.
Traditional steam injection relies on contact time between the steam and the product to condense into it. If the pressure were to be increased, the contact time would be reduced as flow rates increase and steam could fail to fully condense remaining in a gaseous state and exiting the system as steam.
This inefficiency will increase as the product temperature and temperature difference between the product and steam reduces. Steam injection, therefore, leads to an inversely proportional relationship between efficiency and heat up times as steam pressure is changed leading to compromises.
The disruptive nature of the Steam Infusion process means steam is condensed into the product within the Vaction™ Pump ensuring a highly efficient energy transfer.