Cost effective coating and breading

Flexibility is secret ingredient to costefficient coating systems POULTRY products are always popular throughout the year in the region, but even more so during the Ramadan. Chicken is often the meat of choice for the iftar meal since it is considered lighter and more digestible than other meats. The region largely relies on imports to satisfy an aggregate demand estimated at 1.5 million tonnes, according to IIR Middle East1. For example, UAE's domestic production satisfies only 20% of the total UAE poultry demand, thus demonstrating a huge market potential. Larger imports of broiler meat are also forecast² to be led by non-traditional developing markets in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, which are slowly accounting for a greater portion of world trade. Demand in these markets is spurred by population growth, rising incomes, and budding meat consumption. Poultry performs particularly well in these markets as it is a lower cost animal protein (compared to beef and lamb). To cater to demand for ready-to-cook as well as ready-to-eat poultry, which are much in demand in the region's hospitality industry and among middle class households, processors are turning to cost-effective technology that increases output and reduces waste owing to, for example, imperfect cutting or portioning and uneven coating or frying. No more drum breaders In the past decade, fryers, ovens and freezers have undergone significant technological upgrades. However, coating and breading equipment has remained relatively unchanged. Now, two coating systems designed for processors that need greater versatility without extended downtime buck that trend. The Ultra V Coating System is part of a versatile family of coating machines that was launched in January 2009, which includes the Ultra V Breader, Ultra V Batter Applicator and Ultra V Mixer. The Ultra V Coating System, in particular, can handle different types of dry coating materials with simple changeover. 'Less downtime to change coating materials results in higher throughput' The 5-STAR Home Style Breader was introduced last year as a separate solution to the product damage that can occur in a rotary drum breader. The linear breading application system features full-belt-width product loading, which eliminates the need to correct problems such as product orientation on a drum breader. These coating solutions from JBT FoodTech were developed to address specific processor needs - from improving product condition to increasing efficiency - to meet the increasing demand for breaded products in the foodservice and retail markets. Less is more Processors running multiple products typically use machines dedicated to flour or more free-flowing coatings, such as breadcrumbs. Flour is difficult to move through the coating process because it is heavy, dense and sticks to the machine surface. Alternatively, coarse breading is dry and light, allowing it to flow more easily through a coating application. Converting the coating line to run a different type of coating requires the processor to switch many parts of the breader (if not the entire breader), which causes a minimum of an hour for the changeover, depending on the resources available. The Ultra V Coating System offers processors versatility in coating options with the ability to run breadcrumbs and flour with a simple changeover. With this system, conversion can be completed in 5 to 10 minutes, mainly because there are very few parts to be changed. The hopper stays in place and other components that are smaller and easier to move are changed instead. This development gives processors the versatility to use the same coating machine for pre-dusting and the final coat, or to run different recipes on the same line. In the past, processors would achieve this by running one recipe per day, but the Ultra V can run Japanese breadcAir Jordan IX High