Latest Trends and Technology in Coatings & Equipment Seminar

The recently held Coating Inspiration Seminar in Bakel, the Netherlands, was a joint initiative between Griffith Laboratories, a food ingredients producer and GEA Food Solutions, a food equipment manufacturer.

Food processors from all over Europe were given a broader perspective on coated food trends, ingredients, processes and end-products that will help them to make informed decisions in new product development. 140 Food and nutrition specialists, product developers, plant managers and process engineers attended over the two days, representing 76 food processing companies in total.

Four coating families

The seminar was focused on 4 main coating families, in line with European consumer and market trends, explaining in-depth technical information on an ingredients level, coating passes and key process technologies.

1. Home-style flour breaders
   The latest innovation in the fastest growing coating family, the flour breader, is the new Buttermilk style coating. Commonly known as “Buttermilk Fried Chicken”, this trendy flour breader has a rough, artisanal look, delivers a great taste and offers a crispy texture. The Griffith coating application was demonstrated live in the GEATechnologyCenter. GEA has perfected an innovative multidrum breader that overcomes all the drawbacks of automated homestyle breading to efficiently produce authentic looking natural bone-in and boneless products on an industrial scale.
2. Crumb coatings
   Within the crumb coatings family, Griffith showed 2 of their latest innovations. The first of these being the no-added-gluten coating, a newly developed coating system delivering a solution for the growing number of people with a gluten intolerance while keeping the same “texture” experience as a traditional wheat-based coating. The other innovation is the recently launched breadcrumb called “Krystal” crumb, a Japanese-style needle-shaped crumb delivering great appearance and crispiness! Participants also got insights on how to extend the life of their valuable frying oil with the GEA Oberlin Oil Filter system, a high-capacity filter system to filter out sediment particles down to one micron at high volumes.
3. Trendy tempuras
   The popularity of tempuras has led to new product innovations based on modern culinary ideas. The diversity in texture and appearance delivers new and exciting recipes, ranging from a light crispy bite to a crunchy bite, to attract a wider range of consumers. A consistent tempura viscosity is not only essential to preserve the tempura’s crunchiness after frying, but also to optimize pick-up. GEA TempuMixer supports both, by automatically controlling the mixing and dosing quantities of flour and water, the in-line viscosity measurement and temperature control of the tempura.
4. Attractive glazed products
   Glazed chicken wings have regained growing interest from consumers and is in response to the growing street food trend. The great combination of coatings and sauce leads to glossy and trendy glazed products loved by the consumer ! During the fourth and final demonstration, the solution to bulk loading natural products on a line was shown. The GEA MultiDrum can be bulk loaded and thanks to its patented multiple-drum design, the output products are separated and perfectly coated before moving on to the GEA CookStar to cook the wings with the highest possible cooking yield. Pre-made frozen wings were fried in the GEA EasyFry and covered with tasty sauces developed by Griffith in four different taste profiles.

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Taste panels of 14 products in total

In addition to the live demonstrations,ten new and exciting developments within the four coating families were prepared using either the GEA CookStar or GEA EasyFry. Examples of innovative products shown were: The Breakfast Bun (a complete English breakfast in a no-fry bread coating), Southern Style Chicken Tender, BBQ Crumb Chicken Bites and Beer Tempura Chicken Bites. This created lots of food for thought, great excitement and interest amongst the attendees.

‘Out-of-the-box’coating ideas

For more inspiration Chef John Feeney gave a live culinary demonstration. Griffith’s Culinary Director offered great new “out-of-the-box” coating ideas, triggering a lot of attention from the audience. These inspirational dishes included a chocolate box with 6 exciting savory bites.

Coating Inspiration Seminar on tour

The live demonstrations during the seminar were filmed and there are plans to take the program on a global road show to other locations such as USA, Asia and Middle East.