In 2019 when Burger King launched the Impossible Whopper, it was clear to the world that plant-based meat alternatives are clearly not a fad and have true long-term sustainability in the market. With futurists like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos investing in this market, current projections have this market’s growth rates at 14% for the next several years. There are several contributing factors to this explosion. One of the biggest is directly tied to a focus on greener living with studies showing that meat-based diets can contribute to factors like global warming. Although people are willing to try these alternatives, modern consumers will not change to these meat substitutes without the food tasting good and like meat. For this reason, spice blending is going to be critical for companies in the meat alternative market.
Plow mixing technology has been a part of the seasoning blending market for a long time. This is because plow mixing offers many competitive advantages over standard mixing technologies. One of the biggest advantages is speed. They have been found to have turnover rates upwards of 600% more than ribbon blenders depending on the application. Additionally, they create a more uniform mix in the product. One previous client found plow mills able to blend cheese powders into their product’s seasonings and the blend was found to be more uniformly distributed in the material than any other mixer they worked with at the time. The mixer is also gentle enough to not damage materials as fine as dry oats.
Processall’s plow mixing technology gives food and spice mixing manufacturers a leg up on the competition. Listed below are some of the benefits of moving toward plow mixing technologies for food and spice manufacturers.
- Although it is a medium intensity mix, Processall mixers have been proven to be gentle enough to mix materials as fine as dried oat grains without damaging the oats themselves
- Customers can potentially observe upward of a 600% increase in production by moving to a plow mixer from a ribbon blend
- The fluidized bed created by the mix creates greater uniformity in the mixes
- Even with the high horsepower, Processall was able to verify a reduced energy consumption at a constant production rate vs a ribbon blender
- Being thermally insulated the unit did not cause any temperature spikes in mixing the material together
- Ease of clean and ability to transition from one blend to another
- Reduced safety concerns over other mixing technologies
- Ability to sterilize and pasteurize foods
Processall maintains a fully equipped testing facility in Cincinnati, Ohio designed to provide customers with the data they need to develop their process, evaluate equipment, scale up, and identify the necessary equipment to maintain desired production volumes. We extend an open invitation to all potential customers to bring their product to our test center and get a “hands-on” experience with our technology and capabilities.
We also maintain a rental fleet that customers can utilize to do further testing at their facility or employ to minimize their startup costs for a new process.
Please feel free to contact us with all your material processing questions and our experienced industry professionals will help you find the right mixing solutions for your application.