Five equipment firms have picked up awards for international innovation in technology as part of the iba exhibition in Munich, Germany.

Representatives from Rondo, Fritsch, GHD Hartmann, Mecatherm and Daub were presented with an iba innovation award, organised by specialist publication Backtechnik Europe, on Tuesday (18 September) by Peter Becker, president of the German Baker’s Confederation.

The award was given to equipment manufacturers who have achieved significant progress in the production of bakery goods within the industrial baking industry.

Rondo was crowned with one of the iba innovation awards for its Twist & Place machine, which uses a new principle to allow the creation of twisted products without side scrap and with high process reliability. Once twisted, dough strings are automatically panned onto trays, they are then cut to length on a separate cutting module.

Richard Tearle, general manager at Rondo, told British Baker: “We are delighted to have won this award as it is a new development that we have recently launched and we believed there wasn’t a piece of machinery available in the market that worked as well as this. There has been serious interest in this type of kit in the UK bakery market, as well as internationally, as it allows users to adjust the twist of their bakery goods as much or as little as they want.”

Also taking home an innovation award was Fritsch, which developed a vacuum coiling system, allowing perfect coiling of products, such as croissants, regardless of the surface properties of the dough piece.

Dieter Wolf, head of marketing at Fritsch, said: “We are very proud to have been awarded this title; so many companies applied for the innovation category and knowing it was an independent judging panel who made the decision makes it more worthwhile.”

He added that Fritsch has seen an increasing amount of interest from UK bakers for its vacuum coiling system, which can create both filled and unfilled croissants, with a vacuum fixing the triangle-shaped dough into place on the production line.

Other winners of the award included GHD Hartmann for its all-in-one solution, which includes weight-precise slicing, portioning and packaging of French breads by density measurements, as well as Mecatherm’s Bloc Combi, which can produce a multitude of bakery products, such as bread rolls, baguettes and tin breads.

Daub also scooped an innovation award for its Stone Motion multi-deck oven, which enables stone baking with a short cycle time.

More than 50 firms submitted entries for this year’s iba innovation awards, which was judged by an independent panel of experts including:

  • Dirk Waclawek, chief editor of Backtechnik Europe
  • Professor Michael Kleinert from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW Wädenswill)
  • Professor Dr Thomas Becker from the Technical University Munich (TUM)
  • Willy Weiler from bakery manufacturer Wback Leipheim
  • Gregor Vogelpohl, deputy chief editor of Backtechnik Europe

Read the full iba review in British Baker’s 5 October issue.

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