Jam manufacturer cuts 20 % of pectin from formulation using the Silverson Flashmix
A jam and marmalade producer has been able to reduce the amount of pectin in their formulation by 20 % and reduce their process times and wastage with the use of a Silverson Flashmix powder / liquid mixer .
The company had previously been using basic agitators to mix the pectin in a 400 litre vessel at temperatures in excess of 55 ° C . They were incorporating around 20 % more pectin than they actually needed for their formulation to account for what they were losing due to agglomerates and partially hydrated pectin sticking to the agitator shaft , blades and the walls of the mixing vessel . After around 40 minutes they were left with a low quality 5 % pectin solution , wasting 20 % of the material they had added as the agitator was unable to break down the agglomerates . This wastage was costing a considerable amount of money and after the mixing process they had to put the mixture through a filtration stage to remove the agglomerates , further lengthening the process time .
Using the FMX50 the consistency and quality of the mix was much better and the process time was dramatically reduced .
Trials were arranged at Silverson using a Flashmix FMX50 production scale powder / liquid mixer to incorporate the pectin . The trials were run at ambient temperature and it took around 10 minutes to incorporate and fully hydrate the 5 % of pectin that had been added . With the FMX50 there were no agglomerates and no partially hydrated powder sticking to the vessel wall , so cleaning was minimised and the mixture no longer needed to be filtered after mixing .
Using the FMX50 the consistency and quality of the mix was much better and the process time was dramatically reduced . The company would be saving a huge amount of money on pectin by being able to use 20 % less pectin for each batch and by not having to heat the water before adding the pectin . The trials were so successful they company purchased the FMX50 for their factory .
And now the advantages of high shear powder / liquid mixing can be achieved at Laboratory scale with the introduction of the FMX5 mixer to the Silverson Product range .
The FMX5 is a laboratory scale version of the Flashmix and provides a simple , effective and hygienic means of powder / liquid mixing suitable for small scale manufacturing and R & D work with a typical batch size of up to 10 litres , depending on viscosity .
If you ’ d like to find out more , visit the Silverson website : www . silverson . co . uk
34 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk