Coperion Anugafoodtec 2024

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July 2024

Food in Focus Edition 2/2024

Co-Extrusion Adds Value to Extruded Cereals, Snacks and Pet Treats

Part of Coperion since September 2023, Baker Perkins offers a smart system known as Co-Ex Master, which enhances the value of extruded breakfast cereals, snacks, and pet treats.

Baker Perkins Twinfilled bars
Twin Filled Tubes

A crisp outer shell with a tasty cream or paste filling adds value and variety to extruded food and pet food products. Attaching a co-extrusion system to a twin-screw extruder is a low-cost way for manufacturers to add high-value creations to their range of breakfast cereals, snacks or pet treats while retaining the flexibility to make a full range of standard products. 

The latest end-product innovation is the twin-filled tube. This tube has two separate fillings of the same or different creams or pastes. It can be used for classic combinations such as strawberries and cream or cheese and tomato, or taste sensations such as spicy curry and cooling yoghurt. 

Baker Perkins Cream Feed & Crimper
Baker Perkins Cream-Feed & Crimper

The equipment required is a Baker Perkins Co-Ex Master system. This may be supplied with a new extruder or retrofitted to any existing Baker Perkins, Coperion or other twin-screw extruder. The Co-Ex Master system includes a co-extrusion die, cream feed and pillow crimper. 

The extruder feeds a cooked mass to the co-extrusion die which splits it into several equal strands which are formed into tubes around continuous streams of filling. The tubes are transferred to the infeed of the pillow crimper where they are crimped into squares, shapes, sticks or wafers by a pair of profiled anvil and crimping rolls.

The systems are available to handle up to 12 separate streams of single-filled products, producing up to 1,850 kg/hr of product with a standard 60:40 cereal to filling ratio.

Flow rates of cereal and filling to each stream are individually adjustable to ensure tight weight control and uniform appearance. In addition, the position of the seam created as the cereal tube is formed can be adjusted for optimum appearance.

Baker Perkins Co Extrusion Line Schematic
Baker Perkins Co-Extrusion Line

Through feedback from customers featured in a recent project, we were able the improve the pillow crimper. The system now uses servo drives for the crimping rolls and gap adjustment, giving faster set up and consistent performance through automatic, accurate and repeatable synchronisation. 

A full test system is available in the Baker Perkins Innovation Centre in Peterborough, UK where customers can work with our experienced process technologists to develop on new product ideas. The Innovation Centre features a SBX Master 45mm extruder that is fully scalable to production outputs on any size of extruder.

Learn more about the capabilities of Baker Perkins for Cereal Production: https://www.bakerperkins.com/cereal/

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