Sanitation and food safety have become a top-of-mind issue, and cake bakers want to know their batters make it to the oven without contamination. One way to gain peace of mind is enclosing the entire process so the batter is not exposed to the plant’s atmosphere until it is in the pan.

E.T. Oakes Corp., Hauppauge, NY, uses closed piping to transfer batter throughout production. The hopper is also closed so that nothing can drop into the batter as it enters the depositor.

Simple equipment designs can make cleaning easier. To meet that need, Hinds-Bock Corp., Bothell, WA, and Unifiller Systems, Inc., Delta, BC, have manufactured their pistons to be easily taken apart and cleaned. Hinds-Bock designed its hopper to tilt back for easy access in cleaning.

“All the pistons are quickly removed as one unit so you don’t have to handle individual parts,” said Lance Aasness, vice-president, sales and marketing, Hinds-Bock. “The spouts come apart for cleaning without any tools, so even though the machine is quite large, it can be disassembled in just a few minutes without any tools for sanitizing.”