Producing convenience foods, such as chicken wings, nuggets and schnitzels, is an excellent way to maximize the value of your proteins—and frying is a crucial step. But not all frying systems are created equal. Delicious products require not only good ingredients, but also a process that can reliably fry them to crispy, golden perfection.
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Fortunately, advances in technology are making it easier to create convenience products that are not only consistently delicious, but also healthier, more visually appealing and more cost-effective and sustainable to produce.
The quality of your products is highly dependent on the quality of the oil they’re fried in. Oil quality degrades irreversibly as it’s exposed to high temperatures and debris that falls off product during frying. This has a significant impact in three main areas:
Frying with degraded oil reduces the quality of your products in numerous ways, including:
A high standard of frying is therefore essential to guarantee product quality and avoid the costs associated with off-spec products.
Legislation increasingly regulates the quality of frying oil. Complicating matters further, in a global market you must comply not only with local laws, but also with the laws of all other regions in your supply chain. An advanced frying system can help ensure that you will easily meet these standards, now and into the future.
We are expecting stricter European legislation regarding the quality of oil, and according to all laboratory tests, this unique concept achieves a score well below any potential new standards,
Mark Boom,
Product Specialist Convenience, Marel
The faster your oil degrades, the faster you need to replace it—and the more money you need to spend! Additionally, a system that overheats your oil will tend to use more energy. A fryer that can operate effectively at lower temperatures is therefore both more cost effective and more sustainable.
A sophisticated frying system can slow down oil degradation, so processors can reap the many benefits of longer-lasting, higher-quality oil. Moderate oil temperatures and effective filtration are key factors in maintaining oil quality. Marel technology is designed with both factors in mind.
Mark Boom, Product Specialist Convenience at Marel explains, “In some industrial fryers, heating elements have to reach 280-300°C (536-572°F) to bring oil to the correct process temperature. However, Marel fryers can achieve this with the heating element at a lower temperature, for example, around just 260°C (500°F).”
This is because Marel fryers have the highest frying oil circulation speed in the industry. Frying oil spends less time in direct contact with the heat exchanger and heats up evenly, so it reaches the right temperature quickly and without overheating.
These more moderate temperatures mean lower energy usage and slower deterioration of your frying oil—which can add up to considerable cost savings.
High oil circulation also enables a very stable frying environment with effective heat transfer and less temperature variation: the ideal frying climate for your products.
Industrial frying systems can be equipped with a variety of filtration systems to keep the oil as clean as possible. Boom explains, “As standard, frying oil in an industrial fryer is filtered by an internal filter to remove larger particles. However, by adding an external filter, smaller and more numerous particles can be removed from the oil.”
A fine example of this is Marel’s unique Full-Flow Filter system. The Full-Flow Filter continuously filters the entire volume of oil in the fryer. “One system is able to process up to 55 cubic meters [14,530 US gallons] of frying oil per hour and filter all the oil up to 15 times per hour,” says Boom.
“We are expecting stricter European legislation regarding the quality of oil, and according to all laboratory tests, this unique concept achieves a score well below any potential new standards,” Boom concludes.
Ultimately, Marel’s frying and filtration technology means that processors can have utmost confidence that their products will be fried to the highest standard and in a more cost-effective and sustainable manner.
Want to learn more about Marel frying solutions?
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