Baking & Snack - September 2020 - 100

featured technical expert

AMF BAKERY SYSTEMS: VINCENT VAN DER HULST
Sometimes a bakery needs a scientific approach to take it to the
next level.
That's where Vincent van der Hulst comes in. He's a certified master
baker who has the art of baking down pat. But he's also a food technologist, so he appreciates the scientific and educational aspect of
baking as well. In his role as food and bakery technologist for AMF
Bakery Systems, he helps elevate bakeries to their full potential.
Increasing productivity is just one goal but so is improving quality and consistency. Finding a balance between these considerations
takes experience and scientific know-how.
Mr. van der Hulst found baking through studying food process
technology. He earned a degree in food and bakery technology from
HAS University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. From the beginning, his main interest has been in food processing equipment and
how it impacts the quality of baked goods.
"After completion of my study, it was a logical step to look for a
company that produced equipment for the bakery industry," he said.
"At that time, AMF had recently opened its Innovation Center, so my
application hit the bullseye."
Since then, he's been based at AMF's Gorinchem facility in The
Netherlands. One thing he's learned is that the success of a customer
is always a combination of the right ingredients, the right equipment
and a well-thought-out production process. Mr. van der Hulst assists
customers by carefully reviewing their entire production process before dividing it into specific steps.
"After naming each process step, it's possible to determine the re-

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quirements within each step," he said. "By handling it this way, it's possible to optimize every single step of the process while selecting the
most ideal equipment in order to bring the whole production process
to a higher level."
Beyond that, he explained, this analysis offers the possibility to discover the root cause of any problems occurring on a line.
In his role, Mr. van der Hulst performs this thorough evaluation
inside a bakery plant. He knows that if a flour duster at the beginning
of the line doesn't work properly - either because it was not properly
adjusted or the wrong flour was used - it can negatively impact the
rest of the process.
"By solving these problems, the performance of the entire production line increases," he said. "This puts a smile on the face of
our customers."
Knowing the value of multidisciplinary work, he also takes this approach when working with the AMF's R&D teams.
"When the topic is viewed from different perspectives, both technical and technological, the craftmanship of an artisan baker is translated into the industrial bakery process," he said.
As a master baker, Mr. van der Hulst can merge artisan baking
styles with industrial machines. Every baking company is different,
and every line within a bakery is different. Adapting to new surroundings is essential to success. One way to do this is through factory acceptance tests (FATs).
"During an FAT, the new production line of the customer is controlled by one of our master bakers," he explained. "Prior to this, the

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