News archive

Here you will find our older news items (>1 year old):

25 April 2022 - Most common release agent issues and challenges in industrial confectionary bakeries (Product News)

Industrial confectionary bakeries use release agents to release their baked goods, such as cakes, sponge cakes and muffins, in a flawless and easy manner. Release agents creates a thin film between your batter and your baking materials which enables you to release your baked goods perfectly. Using the right release agent and application method prevents your confectionary products become damaged, contributes to reducing waste and reduces your cost-in-use.

But releasing your confectionary products from tins, moulds, trays or steel belts without any issues can be quite challenging. Your confectionary products may stick to the baking materials and get damaged, the dosing might be too high, the spraying pattern might be wrong, the coatings can get dirty and so on. This can lead to a higher cost-in-use, damaged products, more waste, dirty working environments, a lower lifespan of baking materials and even downtime in production. In this blog, we share the most common issues that we have experienced at production sites of industrial confectionary bakeries worldwide. We will explain you how you can recognise these problems. Do you need advice from our release specialist? Get in touch with them via our contact form.

The most common issues when releasing confectionary products

When using release agents in your industrial confectionary bakery, you might run into the following issues:

Sticky, damaged or dirty confectionary products
Using the wrong release agent for your baked goods
Incorrect dosing or excessive dosing
The spraying pattern of your spraying system is wrong
Contamination and clogging of filters, hoses and (spray) nozzles

Most of these problems are related to the release agent and spraying system that you are using or the spraying pattern of your (air-mix) machine when the release agent is being applied on your baking materials. Continue reading to find out more about the possible problems that might occur in your bakery or watch the video in which our release agent specialist shares his knowledge about common problems & challenges.

Sticky, damaged or dirty confectionary products

It could happen that your confectionary products are not being released perfectly from the baking tins, trays, moulds or steel belts in your industrial bakery. Your products may stick to the baking materials. Product residues may stay behind in the baking form which causes damaged or dirty products, because they will get attached to your bakery products in the next production round. All of this happens often in the production process of cakes, sponge cakes and bundt cakes. When products are sticky, we usually see that bakeries increase the dosage levels to ensure that the products are being released. For example, an increase of the dosage level to 10 grams instead of 3 grams of the release agent per cake. This kind of overdosing might cause that residues of the release agent stay in or on your baking material which makes your products and materials dirty. All of this will lead to a higher cost-in-use, a decrease in product quality, extra waste, more cleaning and profit reduction.

Using the wrong release agent for your baked goods

If you’re experiencing problems with the release of your baked products, it might be the case that the release agent is not the best fit for your baked product, your baking materials and the spraying system that you are using. Your release agent could have insufficient release power to release your products. Or it could have incorrect hanging properties which causes that your release agent doesn’t stick to the side of your baking tin and sinks to the bottom. This results in the baked goods to have difficulty in rising on the sides, to be too greasy on the bottom, and have issues in releasing from the baking tin. It could also have to do with the thickness of your release agent. When your release agent is too thick, your spraying system might have trouble to spray the release agent onto your baking materials. This all may lead to sticky products, overdosing, a sub-optimal spraying pattern, extra maintenance and more cleaning. Are you uncertain if you are using the right release agent and spraying system? Read our blog about how to choose the best release agent and application method.

Incorrect dosing or excessive dosing

Another issue which happens in many industrial bakeries, is that the dosage level of the release agent is too high. Often a machine is set to use an excessive amount of release agent. The spraying guns spray too much of the release agent on the baking materials and on the bottom of the mould, causing the spraying pattern to be wrong. Especially with cake and sponge cake products, it is important to mainly spray the sides of the mould with release agent, rather than the bottom of the mould.

The spraying pattern of your spraying system is wrong

When your spraying pattern of your spraying system is not optimal, it means that your release agent is not sprayed in or on the mould correctly. Consequences of a wrong spraying pattern are that the release agent is only covering a part of the mould, too much on the bottom or even sprayed over/around the baking mould.

The spraying pattern is determined by the dosage level, the spray angle of the spray nozzles, the height of the spray gun above the baking form and the air pressure. If the settings of one of these factors are not right, your release agent will not be applied correctly.

Overspray

Your spraying pattern could not be right because of the height of the spraying gun and the spray angle of the spraying gun and its nozzles. When the distance between the spraying gun and the baking mould is too big, the release agent will not only be sprayed in the mould, but also over it. This is called overspray.

Air dust or mist of oil

If the combination of the dosage level and the air mix pressure is wrong, it can lead to air dust. Air dust occurs when the air mix pressure of the (air-mix) spraying system and (air atomizing) nozzles is too high and the release agent is being sprayed under too high pressure which causes repercussion. In this case, the release agent is not only applied on the baking tins, but also spread in the air around the spraying system. This mist of oil (air dust) will end up on the equipment, creating a dirty working environment and causing air pollution. This requires more cleaning of the equipment which is quite time-intensive and may lead to maintenance downtime in production.

Contamination and clogging of filters, hoses and (spray) nozzles

When using release agents, your bakery equipment and working environment might become dirty. Frequently cleaning your equipment and environment is essential. Especially when you are dealing with issues like a suboptimal spraying pattern, overdosing, overspray or misting. The filters, hoses and nozzles of your spraying system can also get clogged because of an excessive fluid pressure. When they get clogged, less of the release agent will come through which impacts the dosing level. A too low dosage of the release agent will cause issues with the release of your products from the baking materials and product residues might stay behind. Dirty baking materials and working environments can seriously impact the quality of your baked goods and your production process. More frequent cleaning and earlier replacement of baking materials and spraying systems will be the consequence. This will increase your production costs as well as maintenance costs.

What does your release situation look like?

Do you recognise one of the release agent issues we discussed in this blog? Maybe you do. You’re probably looking for improvements, but you might not yet know how to solve the issue you’re dealing with in your industrial confectionary bakery. If you want to know which release agent, slicing- or dividing oil and application method you should use in your industrial confectionary bakery, then you should read our blog about how to choose the right release agents and application method for your standard or tailor made situation.

Get in touch with our release agent experts

Do you require help from our release agent specialists to identify your problem and solve your release agent challenges? We are more than happy to assist you and advice you to overcome the challenges you’re facing. Get in touch with our release agent specialists to ensure you use the release agent that meets all your requirements.