Own business: caramel production

Food industry Confectionery

Among other types of confectionery products that are sold in our country, caramel is one of the first places in terms of sales. The popularity of these sweets is explained by their low price and nostalgia of the older generation of consumers for “taste from childhood”.

Caramel is a confectionery product that is made by boiling a solution of sugar and water with starch syrup or invert syrup until a caramel mass with a moisture content of 1.5-4% is obtained. Invert syrup is used as a substitute for molasses, as it prevents the crystallization of sugar. Invert syrup is obtained by heating an aqueous solution of sugar with acid, resulting in the inversion process. It is a breakdown of sucrose into fructose and glucose. For the inversion, various acids are used - hydrochloric, citric, acetic or lactic. Already from the obtained caramel (or candy, as it is also called) mass, sometimes with the addition of various fillings, caramel is made. Caramel mass, heated to a temperature of over 100 °, looks like a viscous transparent liquid mass.

As the temperature decreases, the viscosity of the caramel mass constantly increases, and when the temperature reaches 70-90 °, the mass becomes plastic. This allows you to give it a different shape. Upon further cooling to a temperature below 50 °, the caramel mass turns into a solid glassy substance.

Types of Caramel

Thus, using one relatively easy-to-use technology, a wide range of caramel products can be produced. All of it can be divided into two main groups: candy caramel, which is made from one caramel mass, and caramel with various fillings, which consists of an upper shell of caramel mass and liquid fillers. Candy caramel, despite the apparent uniformity, can also be produced in a wide assortment both in form and in taste. In particular, such confectionery products are produced in the form of small figures (packed in tin or plastic boxes), in the form of tablets, wrapped in tubes of several pieces in each package, piece by piece in the form of a rectangular or oval-shaped candy wrapped in a paper wrapper. Caramel with fillings is also available in several types. Depending on the filler, it can be fruit, honey, liquor, fondant, milk, butter sugar, marzipan, whipped, chocolate, coffee, nut, etc. Even the number of fillings in one candy and their arrangement can vary. For example, caramel is produced with one filling, with double filling, with several fillings, with filling laid in layers with a caramel mass. Caramel also varies in production methods. It can be produced both with a transparent untreated shell, and with an opaque drawn shell, subjected to special processing, have multi-colored blotches, several layers of different colors, etc. Some types of caramel are made according to special recipes. Among these types of confectionery there are milk, chocolate glazed, fortified and even medicinal sweets.

Caramel can be wrapped in paper wrapper, in foil, packaged in boxes, packs. Also, it is often sold by weight in open form (without special packaging) with a processed surface - glazed with chocolate, sprinkled with sugar, glossy, etc. Sometimes caramel without a wrapper goes on sale without additional surface treatment. However, in this case, it is packaged in a waterproof container (glass or tin boxes), since otherwise the candies will stick together.

Technology for the production of caramel products with filling

So, for the production of caramel products with fillers, the following raw materials will be required: granulated sugar, starch syrup, fruit and berry semi-finished products, dairy products, egg white, fats, cocoa powder and other products containing cocoa, nut kernels, food acids, dyes, essences, flavors, etc. The technology for making caramel, as mentioned above, is quite simple, so you can do this business without even having extensive experience in the confectionery industry, although, of course, without the help of an experienced technologist you can not do. The technological process itself consists of several main stages: preparation of syrup, preparation of caramel mass, its cooling and processing, preparation of caramel fillings, molding of caramel, cooling of caramel, wrapping or surface finishing of caramel, packaging of finished candies. But each of these stages involves the execution of several separate operations. The order of their implementation may vary, depending on the recipes and working conditions of a particular enterprise. Consider the general pattern of caramel production. Most confectionery factories use flow-mechanized lines that allow you to perform all stages of production automatically and with minimal involvement of workers. For example, in the manufacture of wrapped soft caramel with fruit filling, the sugar is first passed through the sifter and dispenser on the equipment, and then fed to the mixer. At the same time, molasses from a separate tank and heated water through a special dispenser are fed into the same mixer using a pump. All components are pumped into the brewing column using a pump. Sugar dissolves in water, and the resulting syrup accumulates in the collection, from where it is then pumped into a vacuum apparatus, where caramel syrup is boiled into a caramel mass. When cooking the mass, secondary steam is formed, which is pumped out of the vacuum chamber through the condenser using a pump. The finished caramel mass from the common tank is occasionally poured in separate portions into the loading column of the cooling apparatus.

As the temperature of the mass decreases, the sugar crystallizes in it, and it is released from the cooling machine in the form of a thin ribbon. This layer is fed through an inclined cooling plate with the simultaneous supply of additional components - dyes, acids and essences. Such cooling is called continuous flow cooling. But also for this, cooling tables can be used, on which caramel is laid out in separate portions. In the latter case, the caramel mass is poured directly onto the table from the cooking apparatus or transferred to it in tanks of 20-25 kg.

At the same time, dyes, crystalline acid and essences are introduced into the mass and left to cool for 1-2 minutes. The advantage of using cooling tables is that caramel return waste without filling can be introduced into the mass during cooling in this way. This can significantly reduce production losses. Waste is introduced into the caramel mass in an amount of not more than 10% of the total weight of the caramel immediately after it is poured onto the table, where they are quickly melted.

Again, along the conveyor, a caramel mass cooled to 95 ° is fed to a pulling machine, where it is gradually pulled over, mixed with various flavoring and aromatic additives and saturated with oxygen. This is a very important stage, because if the technology is violated, the caramel will turn out to be too hard and it will be impossible to eat. At the next stage, the pulled mass is fed on a conveyor to a caramel-wrapping machine equipped with a filling machine. This machine places the filling under high pressure inside the caramel shell.

Stuffings are prepared in advance. To obtain fruit fillings, fruit and berry raw materials are first prepared, which are then dosed, mixed with other components (sugar, molasses) and boiled. The boiled-down recipe mixture from sugar syrup and fruit puree is poured into a tempering machine, and then fed to the caramel molding section. Fondant fillers are obtained by churning sugar syrup while cooling it. Whipped fillings are a mass of foamy structure for which sugar syrup is knocked down with egg white or other blowing agents, aromatic components, flavors, etc., according to the recipe. The sugar-cooked syrup, heated to 80 °, is introduced in small portions in advance prepared mass knocked down on proteins. Then add flavorings, flavors and dyes there, and once again knock down the whole mass.

A long caramel tourniquet with a filling inside is removed from the caramel-rolling machine, which is then fed to the tourniquet-pulling machine, where it is calibrated (stretched) to a specified diameter. This semi-finished product still does not look much like our usual sweets. The pattern on the surface of the hard candy appears in a caramel-forming machine, which under pressure leaves an invisible mark on the smooth surface of the bundle.

The most widely used for forming caramel with or without filling were chain (cutting and stamping) machines. After this procedure, the molded caramel is again sent to the cooling conveyor, where both the products themselves and the jumpers that hold individual pieces of candy with each other are cooled. The conveyor sends the caramel to a cooling cabinet, where, finally, the bundle is broken into individual products and cooled to room temperature. Now the finished caramel collected in the distribution conveyor can be wrapped in paper wrapper using caramel wrapping machines. Ready candies are collected on one conveyor and served on the scales. There they are weighed and packed in cardboard boxes. The last stage of production - packaging in boxes, pasting and marking - is carried out mainly by hand. The productivity of the equipment used in large confectionery factories is about 1000 kg of caramel products per hour. The production volumes of small enterprises are slightly less; they produce no more than 400 kg of sweets per hour.

The technology for the production of hard candy

The manufacturing technology of hard caramel is somewhat different from the production technology of traditional caramel sweets with filling. In the first case, special solid caramel casting lines are used with a high level of automation, with aluminum molds with Teflon coating and with special ejectors on the return spring. The modern line allows you to cast both transparent and two-, three-color caramel, caramel with various flavors, caramels of different colors with filling, various shapes (round, curly candies), even soft, sticky candies and marmalade. Such confectionery products have a smooth surface and attractive appearance, so they are usually packaged in a transparent wrapper.

The process of producing hard caramel is extremely simple: a caramel mass in a liquid state is poured into molds from a composite material at high temperature to prevent caramel from solidifying. Previously, to obtain two- and three-color sweets from a mass painted in various colors, strands or strips were pressed out, which were then compressed. In addition to the complexity, another drawback of this technology was the violation of the transparency of the finished product, since when twisting, squeezing the strips and squeezing them, the candy mass cools and loses transparency. When casting into molds, the mass heats up to a high temperature and does not have time to cool, so the candies produced using this technology are distinguished by transparency and a beautiful appearance.

A big plus of equipment for casting hard caramel is that it can be used for casting chewing and jelly marmalade, fondant and caramel candies, lollipops, multi-layer candies with a small technical changeover. True, in all cases, before serving the confectionery mass for casting it must first be carefully boiled and mixed under vacuum.

Caramel Business

To organize the production of soft caramel sweets with filling, the following equipment will be required: cooling machines, linear cutting machines, filling units, caramel stamping machines, caramel wrapping machines, dispensers for fillers (syrups), calibrating and pulling machines, caramel forming units, temperature universal tables, wrapping automatic machines, cooling conveyors, steam generators, cooking steam boilers, tempering machines, hammer micromills for the manufacture of powder, etc. This depends on the configuration of the line, the range and volume of products that are planned for release, on the manufacturer and other factors. Used equipment in good condition in the basic configuration will cost at least 1.5 million rubles (calculation for equipment with a maximum capacity of 100 kg of caramel per hour).

The total power consumption of the line with a capacity of 500 kg of products per hour is 60 kW, water consumption - up to 2 cubic meters. meters per hour. To accommodate such equipment will need up to 350 square meters. meters plus area for warehouses for storing raw materials and finished products, utility and office premises.

Permits, the design of which is necessary for the organization of food production, includes regulatory and technical documentation (technical specifications, technical instructions, recipes), an expert opinion on compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements, the Declaration of Conformity with GOST R, Voluntary Certificate of Conformity with GOST R, Quality Management Certificate (ISO 9001).

Liliya Sysoeva

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