Ice buildup in refrigeration systems absorb energy and cost money. While these layers of ice can be removed, this is typically only done at set intervals. Removing them in as needed—sooner or later—would be an innovative solution.
Such a solution has been available for some time now. This could be of interest to both small-scale and industrial bakeries alike. By Dieter Mailänder, Redaktionsbüro Dieter Mailänder
How many bakery businesses in Europe might be interested in this solution? Due to the atomistic structures in most European countries, it is not easy to get a clear picture of the market, especially in the bakery sector.
The European Confederation of National Bakery and Confectionary Organizations have provided a clue on their website. There it states that it represents 190,000 small and medium-sized businesses from Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, France, Germany, Southern Europe (including Albania but excluding Portugal) with a total workforce of just over two million people.
On average, each of these companies has about 11 employees. Many of them employ only two to five people; by contrast, the leading group, which is likely to be relatively small, is expected to employ well over 50, and perhaps even over 100 people. These small businesses are known for their baked goods, which are made fresh every day. If they have multiple retail locations, they typically supply them either with fresh, ready-to-bake products or with pre-baked items that employees finish baking on site.
The more these companies expand their chain of stores, the more the focus shifts to frozen baked goods. These products also play a key role in bakery shops or baking ovens in the food retail sector, as well as in certain segments of the eating-away-from-home market. In Germany, for example, six times more frozen bread and rolls are sold in restaurants and institutional catering than in the retail sector; hospitals and nursing homes are particularly high-volume segments.
In terms of requirements, products for these segments differ from those intended for end consumers. For example, they must be mechanically and, in some cases, thermally durable enough to withstand long transport on the wards of a spacious hospital complex, and they must remain stable until they are ready to eat. Ideally, the baked goods on the patient’s tray should have a crisp crust, a light, soft, and springy crumb, their fresh characteristic aroma, and their original weight—just like at the breakfast table at home.
Modern (Refrigeration) Technology Reduces Night Work
To meet the diverse requirements of different sales channels, product development and production staff must consider a complex set of different parameters. High-performance equipment and systems offer extensive capabilities for precisely handling different types of dough in terms of their consistency, moisture content, resting times, options for intermediate storage, or their fermentation behavior (delays, interruptions, etc.).
The same applies to the processes of baking, (flash) freezing and rapid cooling. Climate control is a highly demanding task in all stages of the process, one that is made easier by the devices’ extensive software libraries. A key parameter of production is its energy efficiency, which has significant impact on the company’s profitability.
The central questions here are: Which energy sources does a business use today? Which ones can a business use in the future? Can it recover energy, for example, in the form of waste heat, or generate itself—for instance, via a photovoltaic system or a combined heat and power plant? Can it take advantage of day-ahead prices (see below)?
Alongside the issue of energy, topics of working hours and job satisfaction have been gaining increasing prominence in recent years. This is particularly noticeable in regions where labor is in short supply. Bakers can significantly reduce one of the key challenges they face once faced the widespread practice of working at night.
Modern dough management and equipment technology make it possible to shift production to the early morning hours. Businesses with such state-of-the-art production find it much easier to recruit qualified employees than their competitors. Conclusion: The more flexibly and versatile a bake shop owner can use his/her equipment and facilities, the more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and employee-friendly its operations will be.
To read the entire article, please access your complimentary e-copy of Frozen Food Europe May-June, 2026 issue here.