Bakers and suppliers work together to minimize as much scrap as possible. But, inevitably, it happens, be it unused dough or damaged or rejected finished product.
Typically that waste is sent out for animal feed, which often adds another layer of time and labor. But are there ways to simplify the disposal of wasted food?
Enagon L.L.C. recently developed a food-grade pressure wave interface mill that uses a combination of centrifugal action, grinding action and sound waves to dry and mill almost any solid waste into a fine powder.
“A baker could drop in a type of waste such as cookies, and the machine would dry it and grind it down into a fine powder,” said Jonathan Arkin, regional sales manager, Arkin Sales, Inc., which represents Enagon.
Mr. Arkin noted that the energy cost is the biggest investment in breaking down product waste, and the Enagon mill can mitigate much of that.
“If you eliminate the cost of gas or electricity to heat it, then it opens up more ability to reuse that material,” he said.
For bread products, Bühler, Inc. also helps bakers return discarded finished product back into the process as an ingredient through dry rework. Bühler’s technology shreds, dries and grinds rejected product, enabling bakers to add it back into the formula with other dry ingredients, according to a paper recently published by the company.
As technology advances, bakers have new options for reworking food before turning it over for feed.
