Dive Brief:
- Continuous cooking, chilling, and freezing systems could offer manufacturers opportunities for higher productivity, boosted yields, and increased efficiency in addition to improvements in food safety and quality, according to Power PR in Food Manufacturing.
- Continuous cooking equipment can alleviate inefficiencies manufacturers experience with batch cooking, including manual loading, inconsistent results, double handling, and extended cooking times.
- Manufacturers have used continuous cooking equipment, such as spiral ovens, to expand production while preserving the traditional "homemade" authenticity of foods.
Dive Insight:
Continuous cooking equipment can be as flexible as batch equipment but also provide the scale manufacturers need to meet increased consumer demands. Sous-vide cookers, small footprint spiral ovens, and continuous grilling systems for searing and barmarking are just a few of the many types of continuous cooking equipment. These machines can enable manufacturers to grow businesses without losing authenticity due to certain processing methods (and any ingredients needed to preserve food during that processing).
Major manufacturers that adopt this type of equipment could adopt some of the production practices of the startups they compete against while still keeping costs down and yields and efficiency high. By maintaining a strong bottom line and increasing top line value with more sales of "authentic" products, major manufacturers could find a solution to offset lagging sales of other brands.
Major manufacturers could also consider implementing continuous cooking equipment within the operations of the startups they acquire or invest in. By supplying the startup with this type of equipment, the larger manufacturer could enable the startup to scale and reach a larger customer base. But at the same time, the startup can also retain the authentic qualities of its products that make them desirable to consumers in the first place.