International FoodTec Award in Gold for High Moisture Extrusion Solution

Coperion has already been working closely with the German Institute for Food Technology (DIL) in Quakenbrueck/Germany for some time. The spotlight at this year's Anuga FoodTec 2015, the trade fair for the international food and beverage industry, also focused on our ZSK twin-screw extruder, which is fitted with a cooling nozzle from the DIL for producing meat analogues. This equipment concept developed at the German Institute for Food Technology (DIL e.V.) for producing meat analogues products for the DLG (German Agricultural Society e.V.) has now been presented with the International FoodTec Award in Gold.

Just nine innovations obtained the International FoodTec Award in Gold. The award ceremony took place in Cologne/Germany on 24 March 2015 a festive setting at Anuga FoodTec.

The concept is based on the combination of the feeder, extruder, cooling nozzle, and cutting device units. This is a very sensitive process, for which the equipment configuration and process parameters must be precisely aligned to the feed stocks and the targeted end products. The challenge lay in the development of a concept that facilitated this alignment and permitted the production of different textures, which correspond to beef, pork, poultry, or meat structures. At the same time, it had to be possible to process different raw materials (soy, pea, and lupine protein), as the production equipment available so far has its limits precisely in this area, and can only be used for the production of an individual product.

The International FoodTec Gold Award was triggering new interesting and forward-looking projects in the field of textured vegetable proteins, which is the base for more diverse vegan and vegetarian products. In collaboration between Coperion and the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) corresponding concepts will be developed for the customer currently.