Millba makes muffins

Millennium Bakery (Millba) has increased its production capacity after adopting Serpentine continuous baking technology from Auto-Bake.

Located in the town of Skien in southern Norway, Millba has been producing a range of premium muffins, biscuits and donuts since 1999. As the company expanded its range of products to meet increasing demand, with muffins and biscuits in multiple flavours, it became apparent that the implementation of a flexible baking solution was paramount. A fully integrated continuous baking system featuring Auto-Bake's Serpentine technology offered a solution, allowing the baker to take the 'next step' in its production capabilities.

"We now have an annual production capacity of 100 million 'cakes', thanks to the efficiency and throughput capabilities of the Auto-Bake system," said Millba managing director, Bernt ove Søvik. "The flexibility offered by the Serpentine baking system enables us to meet the escalating market demand for product diversity and consistency."

Comprising a Serpentine oven, ambient cooler and refrigeration system, along with infeed and outfeed apparatus, the new muffin and biscuit line provided Millba with a seamless baking system that delivers the company's full range of products.

An important feature of all Auto-Bake Serpentine ovens is the vertical 'S-shaped' configuration transport system, which allows the product to be conveyed horizontally through numerous precision-controlled thermal zones. This results in an oven that occupies approximately one-tenth of the footprint of legacy tunnel oven technology. Moreover, the compact Serpentine transport path has also been incorporated into the ambient cooler and refrigeration system.

Millba's new muffin and biscuit line incorporates Auto-Bake's clipless tray system that allows simple and easy drop in/lift out tray changeover. With eight different sized products being baked on four different tray types at Millba, efficient tray changeover is crucial. Auto-Bake's clipless tray system means that different product recipes can be selected with minimal interruption to the production schedule.

Taking just six months from conception to installation, Millba's new baking system was commissioned in only two weeks.