Compared with other snack categories, sanitation in the bar category often takes a higher sense of urgency because of the number of allergens and risk of cross contamination.

“Sanitation and allergen concerns are always important to consider, especially when producing nutrition bars,” said John Giacoio, Rheon USA. “These products can include nuts and other allergens that must be cleaned from the equipment to maintain food safety. With our machines every part of the machine that comes in contact with food products is removable from the body of the machine so it can be sanitized thoroughly. The machine body is also washdown so even though it is not in the food zone it can be cleaned in place.”

Andres Lopez, business development manager, Handtmann, mentioned that a smooth-surfaced, hygienically designed system is vital to food safety, but so is the ability to clean the equipment thoroughly and quickly. He noted Handtmann systems are designed for meat and US Department of Agriculture-regulated facilities and can be broken down and cleaned in 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the staff’s skill set.

 “I’ve learned from firsthand experience that maintenance and sanitation are usually an afterthought in many production facilities,” he said. “That’s bad, not just for allergens, but if you leave dough out in the open air, it gets rock hard. If you don’t clean it, it could break parts of the machine internally.”

The overall proliferation of SKUs complicates the process.

“As a result, there is an intensifying focus on sanitation standards and being able to verify that production machinery conforms to the allergen separations between products,” explained Edward Porter, operations director, PTL Machinery. “Critical to this is the ability to washdown, sanitize, allergen-verify and redeploy production machinery.”

Going modular allows operators to take components off a production line for cleaning while a newly sanitized “spare” unit gets plugged into its place.

“Not only does this preserve maximum available run time, but it also addresses one of the staffing challenges with many traditional third-shift cleaning and sanitation crews,” said Chuck Sena, director of sales and marketing, Axis Automation. “Instead of performing all of the sanitation in a short time window and paying a premium for third-shift work, the modular approach allows our customers to perform these tasks throughout the day.”

Sam Pallottini, director, biscuit, cookie and pet food sales, Reading Bakery Systems, said the head of the company’s WCX Wirecut system for making cookies and bars is built with stainless steel rolls and frames are designed to be removed quickly. The system’s internal belt circuit comes with toolless removal to quickly clean the system to meet allergy requirements. 

“We design our machine so filler blocks, dies and harps can all be removed quickly and are interchangeable,” he said. “This design is easy and efficient to guarantee a consistent product.”

This article is an excerpt from the October 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Bar Processing, click here.