Since ancient times, the work of a baker in Western Europe has been considered hard physical work, and therefore, for a long time, men mostly worked in this field. And although with the development of production technologies, currently all processes from the reception of raw materials to the arrival of finished products in the warehouse can be automated, and manual work is increasingly replaced by the latest technologies, in the food production industry, as in other branches, there are still “eternal installations”. It does not change the fact that robots will not soon replace humans in production.

According to technologist Darius Anelauskas, if we evaluate the ancient production of bread with the modern one, we would find more similarities than differences. Of course, the quality of flour and other ingredients and recipes have changed, but bread is still mixed, raised and baked at high temperatures, just as it was a thousand years ago.

“If we evaluate the changes in the equipment used for the production of bread and puff products, the biggest breakthrough in this area took place around the 1970s. At that time, Japanese manufacturers invented and patented “satellite calibrators” that could gradually change the thickness of the dough, from very thick to very thin. Using additional calibration equipment and stretching the dough, it is possible to achieve a dough thickness of 0.2-0.3 mm, through which even a newspaper can be read”, – says Darius Anelauskas, Chief Technologist of “Mantinga”, the largest producer of bread, snacks and frozen products in the Baltic States.

According to him, the principle of “satellite calibrators” still operates on the dough forming lines of all major manufacturers, only their types differ according to the type of product. The installation of weighing the dough passing through the production line is also considered a great achievement – with its help, the dough can be “cut” into pieces of the desired length, and “calibrators” can thin or thicken the dough depending on its weight.

Changes in production are inevitable

Over the past 30 years, the capabilities and characteristics of the devices used in the production of bread products have also changed: line control systems based on the analog operating principle have been switched to digital PLCs, the current equipment has much fewer manual–mechanical control units, they have been replaced by electromechanical, servo drives, automation, sensors. Modern equipment takes up much less space, it operates with precise accuracy and at any moment it can precisely perform the technological function programmed by the technologist and operate and perform corrective actions in an automatic mode.

Also, in the last decade, equipment manufacturers have been paying great attention to solving hygiene and food safety problems. The equipment is designed in such a way that its cleaning is as simple and fast as possible, hard-to-reach or “closed” spaces are avoided, most of the equipment is adapted for “wet” cleaning using cleaning detergents.

Technology makes manual labor easier

When it comes to modernizing production, the inevitable question is whether technology and robots will displace human work. The interlocutor assures that although there are fewer and fewer handmade bread products, production is impossible without people.

“When at the beginning of the 21^st century, a German company introduced bread braids woven by a machine, it seemed incredible – until then this work was done only by hand. The further, the more the production is improved – the equipment forms not only dough products, but also products with filling, which is technologically complex, because it complicates the process of forming the product. The human role in production becomes more creative – to invent new products, flavors, but at the same time it is necessary to maintain and manage all equipment”, – says Chief Technologist of “Mantinga”.

For this reason, the knowledge and skills required by employees are also changing – modern production equipment is maintained by qualified technical and automation engineers.