Fleur de Pains is a medium-sized bakery and pastry shop in western Switzerland, focusing on high-quality baked goods, pastry shops and confectionery products.
All goods sold in the 21 Fleur de Pains shops are handmade using traditional methods in Crissier near Lausanne. In addition to this process, modern vacuum cooling makes it possible to consistently high-quality baked goods, quickly cooling the product after baking, ready for further processing or sale.
To ensure quality, General Manager Stéphane Simon repeatedly tested and changed the manufacturing process. The most difficult aspect is making strong crusts and consistent rolls and croissants on wet days.
In 2015, the Swiss company Aston Foods implemented a vacuum cooling system to improve quality and reduce cooling time after baking. The vacuum chamber is connected to a vacuum pump located in a separate room and is designed to accommodate a transport rack for manual loading. The baked goods are placed in the vacuum chamber immediately after baking and cooled to 30-35°C within 1 to 3 minutes.
After cooling, the goods can be taken out for consumption or further processing almost immediately. When introducing the vacuum cooling system, Simon deliberately did not notify customers or employees of the new system in order to test whether it would elicit consumer reactions. All stores quickly received positive feedback. Customers praised the crust for its delicate color and more uniform pore formation and associated greater volume.
The principle of vacuum cooling of baked goods has been known for decades, but it has not been technically implemented in a satisfactory manner. Aston Foods worked closely with Busch to optimize the vacuum cooling process by incorporating Busch’s dry COBRA screw vacuum pump into its cooling system.
Unlike the oil-lubricated rotary vane vacuum pumps that were often used in the initial development of vacuum cooling systems, the operation of COBRA vacuum pumps does not require oil or other working fluids in the compression chamber. This means that the water vapor that can be sucked into the system during the cooling process cannot mix with any working fluid and condense in the vacuum pump during the process. The high pumping speed of the vacuum pump in the low pressure range makes it possible to set the vacuum pump at a distance of 20 m from the actual vacuum chamber in the adjacent room.
Since there is no oil, there is a risk of forming an emulsion with the condensate. All maintenance work required for oil-lubricated vacuum pumps, such as regular oil and filter replacement, becomes unnecessary. Both COBRA vacuum pump screw rotors avoid contact with themselves and the casing, so there are no vulnerable parts. This is an important benefit for Simon, because although the quality has improved, he has no additional costs. The maintenance of the entire vacuum cooling system is only performed by Aston Foods service technicians once a year.
Christian Vetterli, CEO of Aston Foods, confirmed that the annual maintenance of the system only takes two to four hours. Although the Fleur de Pains system operates in two shifts six working days a week, the only maintenance required for the vacuum pump is cleaning. Inlet filter and change gear oil.
For Fleur de Pains, switching to a vacuum cooling system brings more advantages: the cooling time of baked goods is reduced from a few hours to one to two minutes, depending on the product. In the traditional cooling process, baked goods are subject to various environmental influences, such as humidity and ambient temperature, which have an uncontrollable impact on quality. Through vacuum cooling, the baking process is precisely fixed and not affected by any external conditions.
"The process of vacuum cooling is very demanding," Vetterli said, "but thanks to integrated control and reliable vacuum technology, it is completely manageable."
Fleur de Pains installed a total of 150 programs to cool its various products. In doing so, the precise cooling program for each product is individually defined and can be copied. The program was fine-tuned in the initial stage, and now it can be started easily with the push of a button.
The two decisive factors in the cooling process are the time and pressure changes in the vacuum chamber. The cooling process starts at atmospheric pressure, and after a predetermined process, the vacuum degree reaches 30-50 mbar. This process can be repeated during the cooling period, and depending on the product, different vacuum levels can be passed. COBRA screw vacuum pumps can operate reliably at all vacuum levels, from atmospheric pressure to well below 1 mbar. According to Vetterli, "It is very important to accurately maintain a predetermined vacuum and pressure curve. In this process, it is not a matter of achieving the highest possible vacuum. What is more important is to achieve the correct vacuum or accurately maintain a predefined Pressure curve."
With the introduction of the vacuum cooling system, Simon was able to achieve significant and consistent quality improvements in baked goods. The real positive reaction of customers in his store is the best proof.
*Uli Merkle, Busch Dienste GmbH
Image source: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Sergey Ryzhov
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