FDBusiness.com

Burn-On is a term used in the food industry when a product sticks and subsequently starts to burn onto the side of the vessel. This is a constant issue for food manufacturers as it can affect the product taste, quality and appearance.

Steam Infusion from OAL can make burn-on a thing of the past, as it is designed to sit inside the vessel and cook by injecting high pressure food grade steam into the product. The solution has no moving parts or direct heat therefore burn-on is eliminated from the process.

Unlike most cooking vessels, which have large heated surface areas, Steam Infusion can ensure that the product is not tainted or contaminated. With the conventional method, surfaces that are usually scraped with an agitator can blend in the burnt area, producing contamination of brown specs. This can affecting the product taste and quality causing costly production wastage.

The OAL Steam Infusion unit produces high turbulence within the product which also acts as an agitator, homogeniser, heater, hydrator and pump. Heating speeds up the cooking process without the need to increase the heat.

The images shown represent the same cheese sauce, one made with Steam Infusion and the other without and it is clear to see the difference. The image to the left was made using a convention steam jacketed vessel and a scrape surface agitator which took 60 minutes to cook. The image on the right was made using Steam Infusion from OAL and took 20 minutes to cook with the agitator turned off. Both sauces were emptied from the vessel and an image immediately captured to show the variations between the methods.

It is not only the cooking that is positively affected by Steam Infusion but also the clean down after the product has left the vessel. The conventional steam jacketed vessel took 2 hours to clean with harsh chemicals whereas the Steam Infusion method was washed down with water in 15 minutes.