Step by step to a Global Player

“Separating agents are designed to keep adjacent materials separable.” It sounds so simple when Wikipedia is asked to define the term. On closer inspection, it turns out to be a complex business area.

+A global player based in Bad Salzuflen has now specialized in this field – DÜBÖR Groneweg GmbH & Co. KG. Describing itself, the company says it supplies “to suit your mold”, i.e. it makes both the separating agents and machines to match. It has two production sites: Bad Salzuflen (Germany) and Ottmarsheim (France). Marketing takes place via seven sales departments of its own and 65 dealers worldwide. Sales manager Richard Jülicher stresses that “DÜBÖR is a growing company. We have become bigger little by little, i.e. in a healthy way.” It all began in 1961 – as a one-man business.

Horst Groneweg brought the company into being and established a business that also produced baking agents alongside separating agents in the early days. The company’s founder says “I used a conching machine to make enrobing chocolate; the product range also included crème powder and baking powder, but in the late nineteen-seventies I focused entirely on release agents.” Automated bread manufacture was emerging at that time, and Horst Groneweg accompanied it by automating the separation process.

Separation agents

DÜBÖR began by using emulsions as separation agents, and with an optimized recipe they are still in the product range today. For example, they are appropriate for large-volume bread production and to manufacture cake bases. Products in the second group, oil-wax mixtures, contain no water and are suitable as universal separation agents for bread and baked goods. Product group Number 3 comprises liquid separation waxes for high-performance applications, e.g. in steel belt ovens and to oil flat trays. Cutting oils for all types of bread slicing machines and dough dividers, and an organic range, complete the separation agent portfolio. They are joined by Group 5: spraycans, virtually the company’s “smallest machines”, filled with baking separation agent or cutting and lubrication oils. The company markets all its separation agents worldwide under the Trennaktiv brand.

By definition, baking separation agents are substances that facilitate the release of baked products from molds and trays, and keep baked goods separate when they are pushed together. They are processing aids, i.e. need not be declared on the label. They are safe for food contact nonetheless, and DÜBÖR complies with the IFS Food Standard. The products are kosher, halal and plant-based. The range of organic products carries the Bio-Green Seal certificate, and if palm oil is used, it is RSPO-certified. According to Groneweg: “Palm oil is an oil that has very good separating properties, and withstands thermal stress as well as the best, but it is being criticized. That’s why, for sustainability reasons, we are developing palm-oil-free alternatives for our customers.”

Soya and soya lecithin were already banned from products approx. 15 years ago.

Raw materials

Separation agents consist of non-hydrogenated vegetable oils, vegetable oil fractions, vegetable wax, lecithin, a natural antioxidant, a natural emulsifier and water (in the case of emulsions). They differ in their:

+ appearance, color and odor

+ viscosity and density

+ oxidation stability: a measure of their resistance to becoming rancid; the greater the oxidation stability, the more suitable they are for long-life baked products and confectionery (a minimum shelf life of up to 36 months is achievable)

+ smoke point: a measure of heat resistance

+ saponification number: a measure of combined and free fatty acids; it indicates the freshness of the oil, and should be less than 1

+ acid number: characterization of acidic components

+ iodine number*: a measure of the content of unsaturated compounds; the iodine number indicates the amount of iodine in grams that can theoretically be added to 100 g of fat. The more unsaturated bonds there are, the more iodine can theoretically be added, and thus the bigger the iodine number.

On the other hand, “resin-free” is not a criterion. Richard Jülicher explains that “Resinification just means drying up.” He says any oil will be “resin-free” as long as it is in the container, i.e. does not come into contact with air and light. Resin-free is purely an advertising statement. He says that in relation to oil, the description is wrong in any case. “Oil does not form resin when it dries up.”

DÜBÖR uses its own tanker trucks to collect the most important raw materials from the manufacturers. Organic oils are a particularly scarce commodity, and in fact they originate mainly from Austria. That’s why, as Horst Groneweg says: “We hold reserve stocks of our raw materials for months in advance, and for safety reasons we procure them from various different oil mills.”

Security is a keyword in another respect as well, and is one reason why the production operation doesn’t rest solely on one basis. According to Groneweg: “Although the main purpose of the Ottmarsheim works in France is to supply southern European countries, it would be able to take over the entire Bad Salzuflen production in an emergency, and

DÜBÖR in figures

Founded: 1961

Managing Directors: Horst Groneweg (owner), Holger Groneweg

Employees in Germany: 86

Employees worldwide: 130

Production sites: Bad Salzuflen/Germany (separation agents and plant construction); Ottmarsheim/France (separation agents)

Sales Departments: 7

Distributors worldwide: 65

Sales region: Europa, Asia, South and North America, Australia

Export ratio: 40%

Sectors supplied: the baking and confectionery industry, meat industry; the pharmaceutical sector vice versa. That allows us to give our customers such a high level of supply reliability.”

Effect on the result of baking

The separation agent also affects the result of baking. Groneweg says “It can produce a fine or coarse pore structure, and even influences the color of the baked goods. If an emulsion is used for a cake base, the surface will show rather large vacuoles, whereas an oil-wax mixture will create a smooth, fine surface. Producers of long-life baked goods need rather high-quality oils with a long shelf life. After all an ice cream cone, for example, should have a 30-month shelf life. The separation agent must be able to equal that. Steel belt ovens need the highest possible quality of fat.” The challenge in this case is the enormously high release of heat.

“Our trucks are the packaging”

DÜBÖR uses its own supply fleet, including eleven truck trailers, to deliver separation agents within Central Europe. Groneweg says: “Our trucks are the packaging. The fact that we drive them to customers ourselves is part of our service. We not only supply, we also take back empty containers at the same time. No haulage company in the world can offer that. We don’t achieve it as far as Japan, of course, but we are on the road in the neighboring territories, i.e. as far as the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Sweden etc.”

The machines

As Richard Jülicher explains, “We build ‘custom-made’ spray plants. When considering which is the best plant for a customer, of course we take into account data such as the product to be separated, the baking pan, belt speed, physical dimensions, the spray pattern, the separation agent being used, and many other individual customer requirements.”

Separation agent spray plants in the TSA series are built in all the various sizes and for all imaginable hourly capacities. Entirely individual, to match the customer’s need. The TSA 800 are fabricated with their own transport system, or as an attachment or bolt-on device for the customer’s existing conveyor plant and lines.

On the subject of spray nozzles, DÜBÖR showed its latest generation of nozzles at the iba 2018 trade fair – with a hygienic design, free from dead spaces and with smooth surfaces, which enables the spray nozzle heads to be cleaned more easily. And something else was on the serving tray in Munich: the PSU – the Precision Spray Unit – that sprays the minimum amounts of separation agent, works more precisely and faster, and provides a noticeable hygiene advantage because less separation agent is sprayed. (on this topic, see also our article in Issue 1/2019, Page 30.)