Baking & Snack - April 2024 - 26

MUFFIN TOWN
wheat bread. Anderson said that process prevents the
jelly from migrating into the bread when the sandwich is
stamped and crimped.
" The difference between the new and older depositors
is night and day, " Anderson observed. " The quality
is better. The weights don't vary. They're very accurate.
That's especially important because the SunButter and
jelly are more costly ingredients. "
For muffin production, bulk flour and sugar come
in rail cars that feed three 110,000-lb Contemar silos
and a Shick Esteve ingredient handling system in a
26,000-square-foot warehouse built about five years ago.
That warehouse also includes a dry mix operation. The
flour is pneumatically conveyed from the rail spur to
the main bakery and its three 85,000-lb Gemini Bakery
Equipment/KB System silos.
On the new line, Anderson said, a Topos Mondial
730-qt double planetary gently creates smaller, individual
batches that allow for quicker changeovers.
On the makeup line, operators manually load smaller
Stampers and crimpers remove the crust from whole wheat bread
and seal in the SunButter and jelly to create the peanut-free
sandwiches.
which is appealing, especially to our school foodservice
accounts. "
Muffin Town also took lessons learned from the GEA/
Comas operation and used them to revamp the older
Raque line.
For instance, to reduce waste and improve quality, a
new Reiser depositor encloses the jelly in SunButter in
a way that looks like a Hershey's Kiss atop the whole
MUFFIN TOWN searches for
more smart options
Muffin Town is exploring new
ways to streamline efficiency,
reduce waste and continuously enhance
the overall operation of its
Lawrence, Mass., bakery.
Later this year, the company,
also known as JSB Industries,
plans to roll out Redzone, a connected
workforce system that
will eliminate paperwork and
automate its quality control. No
longer do supervisors have to
wait until the end of the day to see
how the operation performed and
fix potential issues, noted Scott
26 Baking & Snack April 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
12-cup pans onto a conveyor that feeds a Hinds-Bock
depositor with servo controls for greater accuracy and
on-the-fly adjustments.
Although it's extra work, Andrade said, manual panhandling
enables quicker changeovers. The depositor
also has a wider, shorter pump that better handles delicate
inclusions, such as blueberries or chocolate chips.
The pans travel on BMI conveyors to a CBF Bakery
oven loader that places 10 pans across - or 120 muffins
- in a 90-foot Babbco oven with convection heat.
" The new oven has better controls that give you a
more consistent bake, " Gomes explained. " The quality is
Anderson, vice president of operations.
The
system monitors uptime,
downtime and other variables for
gauging efficiency and throughput
with display panels located
throughout the bakery showing
hourly performance in real time.
" It allows employees to see
how other lines are operating
compared with theirs, " Anderson
explained. " It will create more
friendly competition with people
on the floor. I know we all see
throughput and downtime and the
costs associated with that, but the
people on the floor don't, and we
hope that it gets them to buy more
into being part of something than
just packaging muffins. "
Moreover, Muffin Town discovered
a way to take the scrap from
its crustless SunButter and jelly
sandwich lines and turn it into a
snack.
Normally, about 20% of the
sliced whole wheat bread is
removed during the process, then
sent to an animal farm for feed.
The bakery is testing a new product
where the crusts are dried,
coated with cinnamon and sugar
and positioned as crunchy " bites "
in 1- and 2-oz bags. Anderson
said the product is not only more
sustainable, but it also provides a
better-for-you alternative to potato
chips, especially in schools.
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Baking & Snack - April 2024

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