Recycling of leftover breadpaste

Surplus bread produced by industrial bakeries can be reused in future production as a flour substitute.

Prozess

An industrial bakery in western Germany is producing bread with "more flavor", reducing baking time and saving about 80 tons of flour per month. With an average price of €150 - 180 per metric ton of flour, this represents a monthly saving of €12,000 - 14,000. In addition, it eliminates the disposal costs for surplus bread.

Surplus bread produced by industrial bakeries can be reused in future production as a flour substitute. The surplus bread is mixed with water and ground in a batching tank. The amount of water required depends on the age of the bread, i.e. the older the bread, the more water it absorbs.

Before it can be used, the leftover bread must be transformed into a homogeneous paste with the optimum concentration. The ViscoScope® viscometer measures the viscosity throughout the process and displays the degree of homogenization and the concentration. The manual addition of water is carefully metered until the optimum value is achieved – this has been empirically determined to be 150 - 170 mPa.s x g/cm3. Once it has been adjusted to the right consistency, the paste is pumped into a reservoir near the baking stations. Depending on the product and recipe, the appropriate amount of paste is then taken from the reservoir and processed. The bread paste is incorporated into the dough – reducing the amount of flour required, shortening the baking time, and adding extra depth to the flavor. Since flour is a natural product, its qualities vary noticeably from field to field. The addition of leftover bread paste reduces the impact of these differences.

The sensor is installed in a measuring bypass. With a centrifugal pump and a 3- way valve, the bread paste is conveyed through the bypass or to the reservoir.