What’s your favorite cookie?

The word “COOKIE” brings a smile to your face.  How can it not?  Nothing can be more comforting than a warm cookie and glass of cold milk; or a cup of tea and a Bourbon biscuit.  We make mixers and cookie/biscuit sandwiching machines for manufactures of sweets all around the world.  It’s fascinating to discover what cookies or biscuits (depending on where you are located) are popular in South Africa, China or Brazil.

In the United Sates, nothing says America like chocolate chip cookies.  Peanut Butter and Sugar Cookies round out the top of the list for the US.  And don’t forget Girl Scout Cookies! 

 

 

In Japan, finished squares of Yokan (which look very much like our American chocolate fudge), are wrapped in cherry leaves and served as a sweet indulgence with a cup of tea.

 

In Spain they prefer Panellets which are a traditional dessert made with marzipan (almonds and sugar) usually covered in pine nuts.

 

 

The macaroon is a cookie filled with a variety of fillings and flavors. Paris, France is the place to visit for  these!

 

 

 

Sweden loves their Pepparkakors.  Paper-thin and spicy, these cookies are a beloved Swedish Christmas tradition.

 

 

No matter where you are in the world, cookies and biscuits are an important part of our culture.  It could be Boortsog in China, Pryanik in Russia or Stroopwaffels in Belgium, nothing is more delicious!

We all have our favorites———–What’s yours?

 

 

Peerless Mixer Bowl – The Heart Of It All

The definition of the word heart means the central or innermost part of something.  We’ve all heard the sayings “right in the heart of the city”, “home is where the heart is” and “the heart of a house is the kitchen”. Here at Peerless, we think  jacketed mixing bowls are the heart of our mixers.  So, Peerless developed a jacketed bowl with industry-leading features and benefits, all backed by a 5-year warranty.

Our jacketed bowl with the Patented  channels offers superior cooling efficiency,  significant bowl sheet support and end to end strengthening members.

 

 

 

The benefits of Peerless bowls include: 

1. Improved cooling capacity
2. Stronger bowl = longer life
3. Superior heat exchange resulting in cooler dough
4. Jacketed bowls come standard with a 5 Year Bowl Warranty

5 YEAR WARRANTY ON MIXER BOWL We provide a five (5) year warranty on the original jacketed mixer bowl for a Single Sigma, Double Sigma Mixer or High Speed Roller Bar Mixer. This will cover defects in material or workmanship for the bowl sheet, wrapper sheet and bowl jacket. This does not include customer misuse failures or ordinary wear items such as roller bar bushings, seals, bearings, o-rings, carrier chains, drive chain or belt, etc.

Contact Peerless today to find out how we can help your business –  with mixing.

3 Ways Peerless Is Keeping Up With Market Demands

Peerless is making changes to meet the market demand.  Change is good and keeps things progressing.  So with that said, we changed our product offering and lead the way with innovation, sanitation and durability with three new advanced ideas the market is needing.

1.) Peters Sandwiching machines have been simplified with the addition of a servo driven system. This system allows for easy integration with many packaging systems.  The servos are positioned on the non-operator side of the machine which allows for easier maintenance access, too.

 

 

2.) KleanVue Mixers, the “New Kid On The Block” is making waves in the market for its innovative tubular frame design allowing for the ultimate in sanitation for open frame mixers.  The inter-locking tubular design increases frame strength and the placing all the drive and tilt mechanisms on the same side reduces the need for safety guarding on both sides of the mixer.

 

 

 

 

3.) Hallmark is back on the floor and is perfect for the baker with small batches but demand high performance.

 

 

 

 

 

These new changes will help the baker and manufacturing plant with the demands of todays market.  Peerless is dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers with superior service and unmatched reliability.  See our website or call us for more information.

Safety Awareness Is Everyone’s Responsibility

We take safety here at Peerless very seriously.  We want all our employees to go home the same way they came in!

Safety – it’s every employees’ responsibility.

Peerless has 13 Safety Teams ranging from Personal Protection Equipment, Job Hazard Analysis, Electrical, ER Response, to Travel Safety and Lifting Safety,  just to name a few.  All employees are active participants and meet as a team weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.  Each team has a team leader and facilitator who is in charge of organizing and leading the meetings and each team has goals and tasks that they accomplish throughout the year.

Do you have a safety program similar to ours? We would like to hear about it!

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Cool Down Your Dough with our Cold Bar & Cold BarPlus System Options

The modern bakery has a variety of different doughs working for them today.  Some doughs work better chilled and others work better at a warmer temperature. The normal final dough temperature for breads and bun dough ranges between 75°F. to 80°F. 

High Speed, Roller Bar Horizontal Mixer made by Peerless Food Equipment

 

Products such as pizza or frozen dough have exit temperatures in the lower 70’s or cooler.  For cookies and pies; it’s even lower.  Cool down dough temperature with our Cold Bar & Cold BarPlus System.  It is the solution to your temperature problems without adding ice, chilled water, flour and other ingredients to the mixer.  

 

Cold Bar Features

Our Cold Bar & Cold BarPlus System includes a refrigerated jacket, bowl ends and breaker bar.  It also comes with our exclusive refrigerated agitator bars.  When you combine the two systems, you have the largest refrigerated area in the industry where the dough is always in contact with a refrigerated surface, and you can lower the dough temperature up to 8-10 degrees compared with the standard jacket cooling. Glycol system is designed so that there are no jointed, moving elements in the product zone which is ideal for the production of English muffins, hamburger buns, bread and frozen doughs.

Cold Bar Maintenance

Maintenance is important to ensure your mixer is working properly and to safeguard the long life of your equipment.  Monthly inspections are necessary to check for leaks in the agitator and proper lubrication assessments should be scheduled daily or monthly depending on the use of the machine.  See your Peerless Service Technician for any questions.

Don’t desert desserts!

Who doesn’t love something a little sweet after dinner?  Maybe it’s a scoop of ice cream, cheesecake or apple pie. Could it be tiramisu, chocolate souffles or creme brule?  Sounds good, right!  In this new era of the “mini” dessert, consumers are enjoying their desserts,  just in smaller portions.  It’s easier to count calories and enables the consumer to try more than just one and still feel like they are not going overboard. Little portions complement the ‘everything in moderation’ approach to eating.

The food market can change like the clothing industry.  You have to “think outside of the cake box”.  The mini dessert is an example.  Other examples are seen in manufacturers who are developing new flavor pairings like bacon flavored donuts, spicy and fruity chocolate, puddings and Greek Yogurt.  We’ve seen “cronuts” (croissant and donut cross)  and a new creation of a croissant and a bagel called a “cragel”.  These are all new and exciting developments for the Cake and Snack Industry.  With all these creative and delicious concoctions its hard to “desert dessert!”

Could all this mean a new extension to your line? Can you add a new product? What equipment do you need? Can you customize the machine you have? Fedco Slurry Mixers, Depositors, Cream Injectors and Cooling Tunnels could be your answer. The breadth of the Fedco product line virtually ensures that we have a technical solution to meet your changing needs.  Fedco has an exemplary reputation for reliable performance and responsive service with top baking companies worldwide.  Call us today at   937-494-2870 or check us out  at  http://www.peerlessfood.com/brands/fedco.html for more information.

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Gluten Free seems to be the buzz word of the past 2 years.  Every magazine, newspaper and TV show is talking about gluten.  Restaurants are now offering menu items that are gluten-free.  Since when did eating a sandwich, pizza or a delectable dessert become so harmful?  Well, if you look at the surge in diabetes, celiac disease and over-all trend in healthy eating you can see why the everyday typical consumer demands such a product.

Gluten is the gluey protein that is in a lot of the things we eat on a daily basis.  Staples such as breads, pastas and cereals contain gluten which gives the baked goods their “full”,  “fluffy”  or “stretched” appearance.  Gluten is different from an animal protein, a protein in rice (a grain that doesn’t have gluten), or even a dairy protein because it is really hard for the human stomach to completely digest.  And just because you don’t have celiac disease doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be more conscious.  We as Americans tend to eat a lot of processed food. Everything is processed and uses wheat fillers, so basically, our stomachs are facing a very unnatural gluten over load.

Manufacturers are seeing the trend and responding to the needs with new products to offer the consumer. The grocery stores now have isles with gluten-free pancake mix, brownie mix, cereals, flour; the list goes on.   However, not all dough is the same.  There are a few obstacles to over-come such as its very labor intensive, the existing equipment may not be able to adapt to producing the product and it may require custom pieces or attachments.

The global gluten-free product market is projected to increase in growth according to this report found on NASDAQ.com. Add the growth to the increased labeling requirement issued by the FDA and you have a great market segment to watch!  With demand like this as well as healthier, better tasting products, the growth is unlimited.  Bakers are creating baked goods that have a great taste, texture and visual appeal of wheat based products by incorporating specialty starches, flour blends and other functional ingredients.  It can only get better!

With all these changes and focus on ingredients, it is a good thing that Peerless still provides the best mixers in the industry!  Please visit our website and contact your sales executive with your new Gluten Free recipes.  We would be happy to design a mixer to meet your exact ingredient mixing needs.

 

 

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Several years ago, Peerless created its own “Green Team” in an effort to “Go Green” and improve our sustainability.  Through this process of recycling, conservation and foot print awareness, we discovered The University of Dayton Industrial Assessment Center right in our own back yard.   This program conducts free assessments for mid-sized industries and provides valuable feedback regarding energy-saving recommendations.

On January 27, 2014 The University of Dayton Industrial Assessment Center (US-IAC) came to Peerless to identify and evaluate opportunities for energy efficiency improvements. During the one day visit, the team gathered data, met with plant management and identified several substantial cost saving methods.  HVAC, Lighting, Compressed Air and CO2 emissions were all evaluated.  The results were amazing!!!  Our results showed we could decrease our current plant utility costs by about 35% and CO2 emissions by about 26% per year with a 4 month simple payback.

Sustainability and being responsible for our foot print is something we all need to think about and this audit by The University of Dayton certainly was a valuable tool for Peerless.

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Time is precious, especially to bakers.  The smallest problem can cause valuable lost time in production and that equals = MONEY.  Plan a strategy that will help prevent breakdowns and ensure your productivity will keep going.   Here is a list of monthly preventative measures for high-speed mixers you can do to help maintain production and prevent costly repairs in the future.

1. Agitator-High Speed Roller Bars–Re-torque bolts. Replace as needed.
2. Agitator-High Speed Roller Bars  –Check for side-to-side motion.
3. Agitator Shaft Bearings Check for undue noise, vibration, excessive heat.
4. Bowl Mounting  Re-torque all bolts.
5. Canopy–Check flour gate system.
6. Canopy–Inspect all seals for damage or wear. Replace as needed.
7. Gear Reducer–Check oil level, quality.    Monthly
8. Gear Reducer–Drain, flush, refill reservoir. (Six Months)
9. Hydraulic Tilt System–Change fluid. (Six Months)
10. Hydraulic Tilt Cylinders–Manually grease rod ends.
11. Motor Coupling–Check rubber element. Check set screws.
12. Refrigeration System–Check for refrigerant leaks.
13. Refrigeration System Replace refrigeration hose (DX only).(Yearly)
14. Bowl Side Seals–Check for adjustment and wear.

High Speed, Roller Bar Horizontal Mixer made by Peerless Food Equipment

Here at Peerless, we highly recommend a PMP or Production Maintenance Program.  This program offers inspections to your machine in a 6, 12, 24 and 36 month interval.  Our technicians will inspect, repair, calibrate and document machinery performance, as well as provide technical training to operations and maintenance personnel.    To learn more about this program visit us today at http://www.peerlessfood.com/parts-and-service/

Sanitary Shaft Seals – Are they worth the added expense?

Over the years, how many times have seal leaks affected your production?  How many times have you had to stop a line because of contamination caused by leaks.  How much money did that cost in lost production and downtime?  If you stopped to think about it, I bet you would be amazed.  Bakers have accepted this nuisance as common industry standards.  

Our customers have said they want seals that do not leak.  Quick and easy sanitation.  Quick and easy maintenance and field retrofitable. 

The NEW Peerless Shaft Seals are designed to withstand the most stringent applications in mixing.  The Rotary Shaft Seals (available for both Horizontal and  Vertical Mixers) are reliable and easily maintained.

Here is the value added to your productions bottom line:

• Seals do NOT leak
• Does not wear shaft
• Field retrofitable
• Long life, low maintenance
• Available for Slurry Mixers
• Available for Horizontal Mixers
• Custom design available for competitive product
• Seal consumable

With these new seals, you eliminate the daily tasks of disassembly, cleaning and reinstalling of shaft seals.  They provide almost zero maintenance for thousands of hours and prevents bearing and shaft failure.

Sanitation is a key word in todays industry and on the mind of bakers around the world.  Wtih the Sanitary Shaft Seals with Air Purge, you can see how this is invaluable.