Ready meals have come a long way and modern consumers are spoilt for choice. The tasteless TV dinner is a thing of the past and today’s options cater to almost every taste and nutritional consideration. The global ready meals market size is currently estimated at USD $143.86 Billion and is expected to grow annually by 6.20%.
The extreme convenience of pre-cooked meals and relentless consumer demand has driven many processors to focus on creating more nutritious and healthier versions of traditional favorites. High protein, gluten free, organic and plant-based options are all trending and there is growing demand for natural products with few or no additives.
Advanced processing methods and industry changing equipment is helping processors of ready meals achieve greater yield, efficiency and safety than ever before, to create all the products consumers love.
As a single source supplier, Heat and Control has a complete range of industrial processing equipment which can help you keep up with consumer trends — respond to demand — and bring your best ready meals to market.
AirForce® Impingement Oven
A genuine impingement oven is the industry standard for processors of par and fully cooked ready-to-eat meats. A true impingement oven uses high velocity airflow (above and below the belt) which is distributed evenly across the width of the belt, and along the length of the oven.
The AirForce Impingement Oven from Heat and Control has been proven to deliver faster cooking and greater uniformity than any other impingement oven. Meat, poultry, seafood, and baked products can be cooked precisely to your specifications — and each product is cooked equally, regardless of its location on the pan.
It cooks dramatically faster than comparable ovens through its use of technology to quickly and evenly transfer heat across the full width of the product conveyor. This unique process preserves the flavour and moisture of your products, and produces higher finished yields. This industry workhorse has many ideal applications including meat, poultry, seafood, prepared foods, breaded/battered foods, baked foods, plant based products and even pet food.
SureCoat® Breading Applicator
With over 121 million gluten-free consumers in the world, processors are investing heavily in equipment which will assist them to produce (or expand their range) to include gluten-free versions of traditional favorites. The biggest trends in breadings right now are gluten-free and clean label and working with an experienced, food industry supplier is recommended to ensure the quality of your new recipe, and achieve the same crispiness and flavour development as traditional breadings.
Heat and Control’s SureCoat Breading Applicator delivers ultimate coverage — with the industry’s hardest working applicator — on all product surfaces. It has the industry’s fastest changeover and cleaning times and is suitable for products like meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, prepared foods and plant-based products.
SureCoat applicators have a unique design which allows it to uniformly apply flour or batter pre-dust, granular, and non free-flowing breadings and even delicate Japanese-crumb or flake coatings. The breading is quickly transferred using large diameter, adjustable-speed augers, and top and bottom coatings can be adjusted independently; for superior coverage of all product surfaces.
Breaded Products Fryer
Widespread restaurant shutdowns caused by the pandemic has contributed to the huge increase in demand for ready meals. Improved and updated recipes allowed consumers to enjoy their fried food fix at home and the undeniable convenience and year round availability of these meals will see the popularity of these meals continue.
Clean, efficient, high-capacity frying is the key to processing the highest quality breaded products for these meals and the fryer used to cook these products has a dramatic impact on the quality of the finished product.
The Heat and Control Breaded Products Fryer provides clean, efficient and high-capacity frying for products like chicken nuggets, bone-in chicken, meat patties, tempura shrimp, breast fillets, meatballs, egg rolls, coated vegetables and plant-based products.
This industry favourite for prepared foods significantly reduces system oil volume by eliminating heating elements from the fryer pan — and every minute 100% of the system oil volume circulates between the fryer, filter, and external heat exchanger — providing superior oil quality which creates the highest quality product possible.
Incoming oil and product velocities are carefully matched to preserve the product’s coatings and orientation. Gentle-flow oil inlets eliminate high velocity currents and maintain uniform oil flow and temperature, across the width of the pan. This fryer uses just enough oil to cover your products, so that the total system oil volume is 25-40% less than comparable direct heated fryers. This allows for faster oil turnover and achieves a longer shelf life for your product.
Food Processing is a fiercely competitive market and consumer demand for new and different products will continue to grow. Improving your recipe or expanding your product range can present challenges and the right equipment is needed to bring your best products to market. Heat and Control offers testing and trials on a range of equipment and can help you optimise your ready meal operation.
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