Imagine that disaster strikes on the production line just weeks before a candy company’s famous treats flood grocery store shelves. Poor process controlled to crystallized sugar being added during a stage that destroyed the batch. When alarms sounded hours later, thousands of candy boxes had already been filled with grainy goods. With their signature smoothness missing, the brand’s subpar candies became an embarrassing and costly mistake. Lacking control of operational processes can hinder product excellence and negatively affect brand reputation; however, inline, accurate, repeatable process monitoring can prevent quality and safety catastrophes from the earliest stages of transforming raw materials to putting on the finishing touches.
When every sugar crystal, drop of syrup, and piece of candy demands accurate process monitoring, the art of cane and beet sugar processing, syrup production and confectionery production meets the science of measurement accuracy.
Precise Control from End to End
Every process involved in sweet treat production requires careful process control and measurement accuracy. Accurate, repeatable measurement of raw and in-process liquids at multiple processing steps empowers producers and processors to optimize disparate processes for maximum quality and efficiency within facilities.
Creating sugar from raw materials. Processing harvested sugarcane and sugar beets creates edible sugar. After it is extracted, the juice or syrup is purified to remove any contaminants or solid particles. Heating the clarified liquid helps evaporate excess water, leaving behind a concentrated blend of flavors and sugars. From there, sugar crystals form and separate from the remaining liquid after the liquid sugar solution cools through manipulation of temperature, humidity, and movement.
Strict processing parameter adherence prevents process and product quality deviations. Monitoring Brix levels during raw materials processing ensures an accurate seeding point and optimal crystallization. Inline refractometers continuously monitor the liquid concentration to carefully control the cooked solution and crystallization process. Going beyond the target Brix level risks crystal conglomeration, which can result in wasted batches and costly reprocessing.
Syrups preparation. Syrup producers then blend the concentrated sugar solutions with various flavors and other ingredients to create syrups varying in taste, texture, and appearance. Melters utilize elevated temperatures to achieve the desired solubility, viscosity, and chemistry. Accurate, reliable liquid concentration measurements minimize cooking time and ensure even blending. Even better, the ability to precisely control Brix levels supports the uniformity of the syrup mixture, guaranteeing consistency in taste, texture, and appearance. Confectionery manufacturers then buy the ready-made sugar or syrups to develop their products.
Confectionery manufacturing. Sugar confectionery and chocolate filling makers purchase processed sugars or syrups to create their products. These sugary treats include candies, chocolate fillings, chewing gum, marshmallows, and other desserts rich in sugar and carbohydrates. To maintain a specific shape, texture, flavor, consistency, and overall quality, the sugar content in the products must be concentrated at a desired level through cooking and evaporation of water.
Inline process refractometers provide continuous, real-time information throughout the pipeline to help determine the end point and ensure consistent product quality. Ideal for confectionery manufacturing and candy filling manufacturing machinery, these retractable instruments eliminate the need for sampling, prevent process disruptions, and save valuable processing time; however, measuring liquid concentration and Brix during different applications to craft the perfect sweet treat comes with its share of difficulties.
Inline, Continuous Measurement
Temperature, natural variations in the raw material-filled juice concentration and the sugar content of syrups and other confectioneries, and additional factors can impact the final product quality, thereby affecting customer satisfaction.
First, sugar processing involves multiple stages with varying temperature requirements exceeding 150°C. From melting to evaporation to refining, each process involves incredibly high heat, so refractometers must endure temperatures up to 150°C, or 300°F, for accurate functionality.
Sugar syrups, confections, and candy fillings often involve intricate mixtures of various ingredients, each contributing to the end product’s overall flavor profile, appearance, consistency, and more. Measuring the liquid concentration of syrups, sugar confections and chocolate fillings throughout blending and mixing processes can be difficult—and unreliable—with a handheld refractometer and manual sampling dependent on human error.
With inline process refractometers reliably measuring the liquid phase and Brix across each process in real time, from processing to syrup prep to confectionery and filling production, decision makers can realize numerous advantages and produce top-grade products.
Liquid Concentration
While sugar processing, syrup preparation and candy-making processes all pose technical hurdles, the benefits of proper liquid concentration and Brix measurement benefits are substantial.
Improved product quality and consistency. Accurate measurements drive the creation of confections with unparalleled quality and consistency. Confection makers can create products that reliably meet or exceed consumer expectations by ensuring consistency across batches. Preventing under- or overconcentration eliminates flavor disruptions, strange textures, or variable melt points.
Substantial cost savings. Without accurate Brix data, manufacturers might struggle to stay within recommended material levels, quickly running through resources to adjust the sweetness or flavor. Fine-tuning various processes based on accurate liquid concentration and Brix measurements enables manufacturers to reduce waste and extract the maximum value from their materials. Optimized process control translates into sizable cost and ingredient savings.
Fewer labor-intensive tasks. Between manually monitoring the crystallization, evaporation, extraction, blending, mixing and other confectionery production processes, as well as taking samples and making adjustments in the event of deviations, each step from raw material processing to confirming the final product quality can be arduous and time-consuming. Automated inline measurements reduce the need to collect samples, run tests, and control processes manually to account for divergence.
Peace of mind. Overall, Brix gives confectioners a window into multiple process parameters beyond enhancing quality and efficiency. Reliable inline Brix measurement also provides invaluable peace of mind. Avoiding intermittent manual sampling eliminates risks associated with human error and contamination. Tight instrumentation regulation, within limits, ensures that any variations or deviations are caught instantly before they impact the end product. Additionally, by avoiding taking manual samples from product during heating or melting, technicians are no longer exposed to burns. Germs and particles introduced through manual sampling are also avoided.
As sugar mills and refineries, syrup producers, and various confectionery and filling makers depend on the reliability of refractometry for liquid concentration measurements in myriad applications, advanced continuous, inline measurement and monitoring systems maximize production efficiency, product quality, and profits by decreasing discarded ingredients, failed batches, and repetitive manual steps.
Harness Innovation
Countless confectioners face catastrophic quality failures and losses stemming from poor process and quality control. Accuracy, repeatability, and safety unlocked by inline measurements are the keys to perfection in the world of candies and sweets.
Off-target concentration levels critically impact product quality, flavors, melt properties, and more. Inline process refractometers equip sugar processors, syrup preparers, and confection makers with a powerful tool to elevate their products, providing real-time, continuous monitoring of liquid concentration and allowing for instantaneous adjustments.
With inline refractometry, decision makers finally eradicate the crippling product quality issues and profit shortcomings rooted in poor concentration control. Precisely measuring edible sugar, sugar syrups, and confectionery creations at every stage translates directly into improved product quality and safety, reduced costs, and enhanced process control, all of which contributes to consumer delight, bite after bite.
Green is a regional sales manager at Vaisala, a provider of industrial measurement and instrumentation solutions for the food, beverage, and agriculture industries. He has a background in mechanical engineering and brings experience in instrumentation, sales, and product management. At Vaisala, he is primarily focused on measurement applications applied to food and beverage production.
Figure 1. The final Brix of the mixture determines the flavor, consistency, and overall quality of the final product.
Courtesy of Vaisala.
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