Category Insight

BY LIZ GOODWIN

Salty snacks have always had a place in the hearts of consumers. But these days, they’re searching for something more to their chips, crisps, crackers and mixes … a snack with impact. Whether it’s new ingredients, climate-conscious production or innovative flavors and shapes, consumers are craving bold savory bites. And bakeries need to keep up as demand soars.

Here’s how some snack bakeries are navigating the challenges of goal setting for baked snack production … and what’s needed to take conscious crunching to the next level.

Breaking down what elevates a consumer’s snack choice goes straight to the basics: the ingredients. As things like major allergens, gluten and carbohydrates wane in popularity, some bakeries find themselves switching up their product formula. Gone are the days when traditional flour was the default, and that’s had serious impact on the baking process.

“When you remove gluten, carbs and other binders, you fundamentally change the nature of the product, in this case our crackers,” said John Gibb, co-founder of Orlando, FL-based HighKey, a low-carbohydrate and low-sugar snack brand. “That adds complexity in the entire commercial production process at almost every step. But, with persistence and care, most challenges can be largely overcome. Anything that slows down a commercial line is unpopular with the engineers, so accommodating their concerns is always at the forefront of our considerations.”

Foods such as chickpeas, potatoes, rice, lentils and even alfalfa are gaining attention on the cracker scene, each one for having its own unique health benefits. They take time to master, but with the right technology, these ingredients have the potential to shine.

Photo courtesy of HighKey

“The recent developments in baking technology are awesome,” Gibb said. “Many new products will emerge from [these technologies].” He noted that these advances present the opportunity to offer different tastes, textures and nutritional attributes to some otherwise very traditional products.

Another snack ingredient powerhouse is oats. Saint Louis-based Airly, a climatefriendly cracker company with a focus on sustainability, uses oats as the dominant ingredient in its “Oat Cloud” crackers. The variety used in the formula physically removes carbon dioxide from the air, giving Airly the brand points with consumers who are passionate about stopping climate change. That said, it also presents challenges when making products with such delicate formulas and intricate shapes on a large scale.

“We’ve had to do a lot of work on getting the right formulation that will mix, sheet and die cut equal to or better than a conventional cracker,” said Kris Corbin, co-founder and chief supply chain officer at Airly. “It’s critically important for us to not create a tremendous amount of scrap and increase our carbon footprint, so the sheeting and die cutting is important to us in the baking process.”

As demand increases for crispstyle crackers often made with more non-traditional ingredients, so does the need for equipment that can handle these new formulas. Finding the sweet spot when it comes to sheeting cracker dough, especially one made with alternative ingredients, often requires special attention to factors such as gauge roll differentials to optimize the process.

“Most all non-wheat-based formulas pose problems for current high-speed cracker equipment,” said Mark Lindsley, director of research and development at Downers Grove, IL-based Hearthside Food Solutions. “That has to be overcome

Mark Lindsley | director of research and development | Hearthside Food Solutions

by either modifications in process or in the equipment or the formula or all three.”

While factors such as dough consistency, piece weight and finished product moisture are always important, crisptype products require a simpler process than traditional crackers because the straight-dough doesn’t require steps such as lamination and fermentation.

“It’s simpler, but that doesn’t make it easier,” said Brandon Heiser, president and COO of Grand Rapids, MI-based Roskam Baking Co. The bakery invested in a Reading Bakery Systems Baked Multi-Crisp line to streamline its process for these types of products .

Before that, though, there’s still the oven. And Airly is also looking for the best way to get its product baked to perfection while keeping the environment in mind. The company is seeking a cutting-edge oven system — one with zero emission — to join the ranks of the operation’s direct gas-fired oven. The technology is still in its infancy, but Corbin noted that as the importance of sustainability grows worldwide, he’s excited to see it come to fruition.

“The zero-emissions oven would be a huge innovation that would match the efforts we’re doing with carbon on the farms,” he said. “It’s the coolest thing I’m working on right now. There are some early prototypes in Europe, but we really want to be the first ones to pioneer that here in North America. I love the idea of bringing it to the states.”

With all these new ingredients and flavor concepts, bakers also have to make sure their formulas can beat the heat during the baking process. Kaitlin Sass, senior R&D manager for Reno, NV-based Mary’s Gone Crackers, said that’s something she and her team have to keep in mind when developing new products.

“The ovens at Mary’s bake at a really high heat, and that can unfortunately cause flavors to flash right off in the oven,” Sass said. “You can add ingredients and flavors all day long, but at the end of day if the heat is too high, the flavor may not come through on the finished crackers. And that makes development tough.”

Photo courtesy of Airly As bakeries become more conscious of how new formulas run on the lines — and what equipment will fit those unique needs — technology has become the name of the game.

Seasoning non-traditional crackers can require automation that must be easy to clean. At Roskam, the operation relies on equipment such as Heat and Control’s vibratory conveyors to keep the process moving smoothly after the oven and through seasoning, where a combination of oils and topicals creates the need for great sanitary design.

And then there’s striking a balance between the workforce shortage and increasingly intricate customer demands. For many, it’s been robots to the rescue.

Lindsley said this is something his company is heavily focusing on … with all its triumphs and challenges. Although machines can’t replace a human touch, they can help with repetitive motion tasks that allow for maximum production turnout.

“What’s driving the need for automation now is the inability to get human beings, and we’re having a hell of a time filling those critical lower-level positions,” he said. “You want to make sure you have the capacity to manufacture the snacks, because people are eating. If demand gets any higher, we’re going to have to bust a wall out and people can eat products right off the line.”

Corbin also noted that rapid demand yielded Airly’s need for large capacity.

“With COVID and the huge spike in demand for snacks and baked goods in general, our big need is bakery capacity,” he said. “We’ve partnered with contract manufacturers for help with our cracker sheeting along with baking and bagging.”

This high demand can put pressure on a bakery’s speed to market, especially from its customers. But if a formula doesn’t hit the mark, that could turn into even more time and money for the bakery. If that happens, some call out an SOS to the big guns: ingredient suppliers.

“We have ended up having to clean up some epic messes because it can be difficult for formulators to understand our limitations,” Lindsley said, recalling formulating challenges that have come with the trial-and-error for new product development, especially with starches that come in several different forms. “We can’t run something with 30% scrap rate because the formula was off. That’s beyond unacceptable. Sometimes we have to tap into experts to help us out.” Even when the formula is right, as long as consumer palates expand as fast as their appetites, operations and speed to market are like an accordion.

“In the old days we had the liberty of testing things for nearly six months,” Lindsley said. ”Those days are gone. Speed to market is enormous, but it’s also collapsed, and something has got to give. We’ve got to know how to make that formula and how to make it function within those high speeds.”

Packaging is another level where salty snack producers are feeling the pressure. As consumer demand spikes for different package styles like singleserve, flexibility is critical to keep things running smoothly.

“We have a few staple carton sizes, but if we want to branch out and explore new capabilities, we have to order additional equipment, which is not easy to do,” Sass noted. “That means a lot of research, a lot of R&D and a lot of material exploration to see if we can even run it.”

More new flavor concepts come with more health and environmental implications, so producers of baked snacks need ingredient and equipment suppliers that can keep those wheels turning. Demand for innovation is still spiking, and bakeries are dreaming of groundbreaking products with new textures and flavor profiles made on flexible, efficient machines.

Conscious consumers are causing bakeries to narrow the focus on what’s next … and to become more conscious about their own production needs. As the baked snack market evolves, rest assured that with the right supplier innovation, bakeries will keep churning out snacks to meet any demand. CB