Technology for the instore bakery

Market trends for bakery products tend to fluctuate over time. Bagels are popular, then cupcakes, then artisan breads. The cycle is always continuous. What doesn’t fluctuate is the consistent growth of technology and its implementation in the bakery department.

In order to maintain quality products to customers, gain a competitive edge and manage profit and efficiency, investment into equipment and updating production methods is key.

Mark Uncao, chief executive officer of EM Bakery Equipment, says the only way for bakeries to grow, beyond adding a second shift or increased labor time, is through technology. The whole baking industry is based on equipment…. technology is the backbone of the industry. For a bakery to grow, it has to invest.

Challenges for an instore bakery includes focus on staff, operating footprint, working with older methods and outdated equipment. In order to combine solutions for these challenges, adopting technology is the way to go. The concept of full scratch baking has given way to advancements in par bake product and its quality has increased tremendously. Of course nothing will beat the fresh offering of scratch baking, but the challenges along with this continue to grow as training and retaining staff and having a large production footprint make less and less sense.

Modern ovens include full recipe programing, balanced air circulation, a smaller footprint per production capacity, increased heat efficiency and the focus towards all electric and green energy. Longterm reliability, ease of operator use, and bake quality is what sets the different brands apart. Smaller instore bakeries can utilize reach in convection ovens, sometimes stacked on each other. These maximize at 10 trays and 6 trays respectively. As production grows, new design roll in rack ovens have taken the spotlight as increased baking efficiency and a large reduction in labor are incorporated into the format. Operators can roll racks of product out of the proofer or cooler and into the oven without having to hand load each tray vs the reach in format. With some operators, reported labor saving of 30% have been achieved in moving to roll in ovens vs reach in.

Now on the scene is increased attention to retarder proofing. This method once the corner stone of French and European production has crossed over to mainstream in store bakeries. These units act as a two in one machine, part time refrigerator, part time proofer. Product is loaded into the unit in the afternoon, before production day ends, the unit maintains a fridge temperature overnight to minimize rising of the dough, during early morning hours it automatically moves over to proofing mode based on the operator’s schedule and settings. When staff arrive, the product is ready for the oven. This eliminates early morning labor of moving carts out of a cooler, floor resting and then proofing and then into the oven.

Product is introduced onto the sales floor at an earlier time, or staff do not have to arrive to the bakery as early in the morning.

Retarder proofers can be offered as roll in or reach in formats, depending on the production size and floor space of the existing bakery.

The challenges facing many instore bakeries will always exist however with interpretation and inclusion of technology and investing in new methods of operation – sizable gains can be immediately achieved and are well worth investment geared towards long term growth.