In industries that produce and supply food, quality control processes are absolutely critical. It isn’t enough to use good ingredients and and sophisticated processes; the quality of the products themselves must be measured and made repeatable.
For quality control in the baking industry, this means analysing the structure and appearance of baked goods with as much detail as possible. To gain such a granular view of your products takes a highly specialised piece of equipment like C-Cell.
Why is quality control important in the baking industry?
Baked goods fulfil various needs in our diets. Some are commonplace dietary staples like bread products and tortilla wraps. Others are treats and luxury goods, like cakes, biscuits, and pastries.
Regardless of the purpose baked goods serve, the need for quality control remains the same. With products like bread, it could be that one loaf constitutes several meals or 1-2 weeks worth of sandwiches for work or school lunches.
Therefore, the quality of that bread must stand up for a reasonable amount of time and it should represent good value for money, lest the customer choose one of numerous other brands available to them.
In the case of baked goods like cakes, these non-essential treats are often more costly than normal dietary staples. This coupled with their status as luxury goods means there’s more focus on value for money, and inadequate but costly goods are not likely to be bought again.
This is especially true in the case of baked goods for children. Lacking quality will be even harder to forgive for parents who need to trust that the food they purchase for their children is high-quality and fit for consumption.
Aside from customer value, there is also the moral and legal duty of a bakery to maintain the quality of their goods to ensure that they have been made with due care and in an environment conducive to good hygiene and sensible working practices.
A baking quality analyser will quickly reveal the tell-tale signs of incorrect methodology or insufficient ingredients. Pastries that should show the use of laminated dough may be missing the necessary layers, and cakes that should be light and fluffy need lots of cells left behind by activated baking powder.
Ultimately, quality control in the baking industry allows product innovations to take place, ensures that brands are maintaining the quality they strive for, and upholds quality across the board in a competitive market.
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C-Cell is a quality analyser that takes an incredibly close look at any sample of baked goods loaded into it. Its analysis is powered and supported by versatile lighting and a high-fidelity colour imager, allowing C-Cell to measure the minute details of a sample.
C-Cell is capable of:
Analysing markers of quality such as cell elongation patterns, tunnelling in cakes, uncooked dough, surface cracking, and more.
Accurately measuring the dimensions of the loaded sample, such as height, width, and diameter, as well as the numbers and dimensions of inclusions like chocolate chips and berries.
Batch analysis and consistent scoring using set parameters.
C-Cell is used globally for the objective analysis of baked goods (and other foods), becoming an integral part of various quality assurances. It provides a scientific, unbiased method of testing quality and measuring the various impacts of changes to the production process.
C-Cell only needs an attached computer to operate, and its modest size makes it suitable even in busy labs with only a spare tabletop
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C-Cell measures over 50 different quality results and can be used to analyse the features of any baked goods sample. C-Cell is designed to improve quality control in the baking industry as a whole, and accordingly it can measure bread, tortillas, cakes, biscuits, and much more.
Cells
Cells are created when baking powder reacts in the dough of bakes like cakes and bread, aerating the mixture and giving it the necessary lightness when baked. These air pockets aid the bake in many subtle but vital ways, and measuring them can reveal key details concerning the performance of the dough.
In some bakes, not enough cells will result in a flat creation lacking in texture or taste. Conversely, too many can create thin cell walls and reduce the overall volume of bread or cake.
Inclusions
Many types of bakes have inclusions such as berries, chocolate chips, or seeds. These inclusions can aid the texture or enhance the flavour of the food, and are often critical to the recipe.
However, these should ideally be evenly spaced wherever possible, and not be too high or too low in number.
C-Cell can count the inclusions in a sample and produce a graphically overlaid image that highlights their locations, shapes, and sizes.
Dimensions
C-Cell can quickly ascertain the specific measurements of a sample, from length and width to concavity, cell diameters, and cell wall thicknesses.
These measurements can be batch measured to calculate averages and feed valuable data back into quality assurance, helping to establish tolerances and any lapses in overall quality.
Inconsistency in baked goods looks sloppy, particularly for goods sold in multiples per pack or products like pre-sliced bread.
External features
C-Cell can measure even the most minute details of samples, like the number and concentration of[MA1] seeds on burger buns and the cracks that naturally occur in biscuit dough as it bakes and hardens.
These external features are often the first thing that a customer will notice when browsing baked goods, and though seemingly superficial, could be the first and only deciding factor in what they choose to buy.
Therefore, they cannot be ruled out as an important marker of quality, and should be measured accordingly.
Crust analysis
Analysis of crumb is important for quantifying bread quality. Though the internal crumb constitutes much of the texture and taste, crust is important for appearance and the ‘finish’ of a loaf.
C-Cell measures the thickness of bread crust to ensure the right level of quality is communicated through the external appearance of loaves.
Seasonal harvest variations
When suppliers move from a previous year’s crop to the current year’s crop, this can cause some variation in ingredients and baking performance in products like flour.
These variations can cause minor changes in the outcome of baked goods, such as colour and cells.
Keeping track of the in-depth effects of these variations is essential for maintaining quality.
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C-Cell is perfectly suited for maintaining quality control in the baking industry using a combination of high-resolution images, powerful analysis, and accurate data consolidation for quantifying and reporting.
C-Cell’s operation can be thus distilled into a simple, three-step process: image, analyse, quantify.
Using this easy process, bakeries can concentrate their quality control into a short and repeatable process with accurate results, needing only one point of analysis to unlock a wide range of data.
C-Cell can be used not only for the real-time monitoring of baked goods going to market, but can also be utilised for thorough research and development (R&D) processes.
This allows reformulation of old and existing products, or the fine-tuning of new concepts and ideas to test their ingredient make ups and make them feasible for market.
Similarly, various ingredient qualities can be tested using C-Cell and their effects on bakes can be objectively measured to ascertain best practice moving forward. This can help to form concrete processes for bakeries, reducing errors and translating high-quality into repeatable processes.
From measuring the size and shape, down to cell dimensions, C-Cell can analyse every facet of baked goods to inform bakeries on the most intricate level.
To find out more about C-Cell and how it drives quality control in the baking industry, contact our team today.