When the demand for Nordgetreide's breakfast cereal in Western Europe began to overtake the production capacity of its

two existing plants, the company decided to build a third. Nordgetreide, first founded in 1966 and part of the Cremer Group of companies, built a new breakfast cereal production plant near Saarbrucken in Germany. The company specialises in the processing of corn, barley, wheat and rice and previously had only two German facilities for breakfast cereal production and packing one in Lbeck and another in Falkenberg. The new facility incorporates the latest state-of-the-art breakfast cereal production and packaging technology, allowing more efficient production of existing 'cash cow' brands and the production of newer products in development. A variety of products are manufactured, including flaked, directly expanded and puffed cereals. The new facility is able to produce over 250,000 boxes of cereal per day. The equipment installed by APV Baker included flaking rolls, a shredding system, rotary pressure cooking system, twin screw cooker extruders, a thermoglide toaster and three coating systems (low and high solids). The equipment allows the plant to produce a wide range of different breakfast cereals, from corn flakes, puffed rice and maize cereals to shredded wheat-type pillows with a variety of coating options. The plant has started to produce breakfast cereals, but could opt to expand into Granola-type cereal bars in the future for which it would require additional processing equipment from APV Baker. GENTLE BUCKET ELEVATOR SYSTEM The plant contains equipment which was designed and supplied by Robin Engineering Services, the UK representative of Humbert and Pol, in April 2005: 20 conveying systems to handle breakfast cereals. In April 2005 Robin Engineering supplied 20 conveying systems to gently handle breakfast cereals at the plant. The conveyor buckets remain upright at all times and were designed to overlap and operate at very slow speed so that the flakes produced should not be crushed. Humbert and Pol designed the systems' discharge stations to decrease the height from which the delicate breakfast cereal products were dropped into bulk containers prior to packaging. The discharge station was actually placed inside the bulk container, which was itself on a hydraulic lifting device so that the drop for the breakfast cereal could be minimised by precise control settings. The systems were designed to handle between 15 and 35m per hour. While the whole system was designed to transfer the delicate breakfast cereal products without damaging them prior to packaging (soft landing discharge mechanism) the system requires minimum maintenance and has an automatic bucket wash and dry system to prevent cross-contamination between products after each manufacturing run. TWIN SCREW COOKER EXTRUDER

The twin screw cooker extruder textures and cooks the ingredients with a combination of heat, mechanical shear and moisture addition. The system installed at Nordgetreide has a capacity of 1,000kg and fully automatic batch operation. Flavours and colouring can be added directly into the barrel. The process is extremely flexible and enables the gelatinisation of starch in the cereal to be accurately controlled. The product is cooled in the second half of the extruder barrel, forming the pellets at the die face. The dough is discharged through the die where it is cut into pellets. The pellets are then conditioned by a stream of warm air before forming in a flaking roll or shredding roll system, with final moisture removal and toasting achieved in a thermoglide toaster. SYRUP PREPARATION AND COATING SYSTEMS Syrup skids allow breakfast cereals to be coated with glazing syrups, cocoa syrups and frosting syrups. These are used in conjunction with an auto-feed system for weighing and mixing batches of ingredients. Syrup is metered into a coating drum and sprayed onto the cereal product being fed into the drum. The coated product is discharged continuously into the conveyor band of a dryer before being packaged. Low solids coating plants are typically used for frosted and glazed flakes, rice and directly expanded cereals; the solids level of the syrup is generally 70% to 80%. High solids systems are used when the moisture within the coating might migrate into the cereal and collapse the structure; products such as puffed wheat require these coatings, which typically contain 97% solids. FLAKING ROLL SYSTEM A high output unit produces high quality flakes from wheat, corn, and bran-based cereals at rates up to 1,000kg/h. The rolls are made from hardened alloy steel and are mounted in a steel frame capable of exerting enormous pressure. The system has specially designed hydraulic gap control and roll temperature systems to maintain consistent product quality throughout a production run. Hydraulic cylinders mounted at each end of the roll shaft maintain constant pressure on the product as it passes through the roll gap. Roll surface temperature is maintained using cooling water pumped through channels just below roll surface. The system is designed for Clean In Place (CIP) and Steam In Place (SIP) operation. The system can be cleaned and changed over to a different product within 1.5 hours. This is important for Nordgetreide as they operate a Bioland processing plant to make organic wholemeal cornflakes for part of the production at the plant. SHREDDING Shredding is an alternative to flaking, designed to form cooked cereal into layered shredded products or stranded type products such as Shredded Wheat. Cooked cereal is fed to a number of shredding roll mill units via an overhead recirculating and distribution screw. The screw flood feeds individual shredding roll hoppers. The roll assembly has one grooved and one

plain roll. The product is fed through the roll nip to form a web of materials or strands and separated from the roll by a comb scraper onto a conveyor underneath. A number of pairs of rolls are used in series to lay webs on top of one another forming a multi-layered sheet. Up to 20 layers can be combined with the option of introducing fillings between layers. For stranded products, the strands are cut to length before drying. For shredded products, the finished sheet is crimped and cut to length. The crimper and slitter act against a hardened roll. The product is then toasted. The typical output for this system is 150kg/h per pair of rolls. THERMOGLIDE TOASTER This process follows flaking to give a gentle even toasting to flakes and other cereal-based products. The product is carried through the toaster on a fluidised bed of air that suspends the product, so that it is gently rotated and tumbled as it is propelled forward by an oscillating pan conveyor, minimising product breakage. Air flow control allows precise temperature control and gives an even toasting. The system incorporates a Dust Separation Unit (DSU) and explosion relief panels are designed into the combustion chamber.

http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/projects/nordgetreide/ APV baker....

The main contractor for the breakfast cereal production plant at the Nacional facility was APV Baker. APV Baker was awarded the contract since they had successfully upgraded the cornflake production line at the facility with two new cereal cookers as far back as 2002. The company has managed to forge a very good relationship with Nacional and was able to use their research and development 'process innovation centre' in Peterborough, UK, to run and develop Nacional's entire new product range before installing the new production lines and equipment in Portugal.
CEREAL PRODUCTION LINE AND PRODUCTS

APV Baker has supplied and installed a complete process plant for Nacional, which incorporates the entire production process from compounding and mixing of the recipe 'dough' through extrusion and cooking to drying and coating of the final extruded product shapes. The new facility can make a variety of different expanded products, including corn-balls, coco-balls, choco curls, golden squares, stars and rings, as well as co-extruded filled pillow shapes. All of these extruded shapes - except the pillows - will be coated with a honey, sugar or glucose-based glaze.

Expand Image APV Baker coating system (mixing and preparation of coatings).

Expand Image Barrel coating system from APV

Most of the products are cut into individual pieces by the die as they leave the extruder. The die design (custom manufactured by APV Baker) is crucial in controlling shape, expansion and shell structure, and providing end products of differing formulation and shape. A key design feature of the facility is the ability to rapidly changeover between products in response to market demand, including those where different raw materials and syrup are involved. For example, to create filled pillow products, which cannot be cut at the die, a mobile crimping unit is wheeled in and out of the line.
MODULAR CEREAL PRODUCTION LINE

Baker.

The modular design of the production line allows quick changeover, minimum down time during clean-in-place (CIP) processes and a wide product range. New products can be developed and produced easily using this APV Baker production line by setting new die shapes and adjusting the 'dough' recipe accordingly if required. The company has already expanded its cornflake range by making use of the 'Thermoglide' toaster and high solids sugar syrup coating system to produce a 'crunchy nut' coated cornflake type product.
THERMOGLIDE CEREAL TOASTER

Expand Image Computer rendering of the APV Baker Thermoglide Toaster.

The 'Thermoglide Toaster' is an extremely versatile unit for toasting, drying, roasting and expanding a wide range of cereals. The extruded dough shapes or flakes are carried through the toaster on a fluidised bed of air to minimise product breakage. Air is blown down onto the conveyor creating a pillow of air which suspends the product; so that it is gently rotated and tumbled as it is propelled forward by an oscillating pan conveyor. The degree of toasting can be precisely and instantly controlled by air temperature adjustment. Conveyor speed and air velocity control allow the operator to give the product an even toasting and colour, and this system also allows precise moisture control. The unit incorporates its own dust separation unit (DSU), which is important from a health and safety perspective. In a traditional whole-grain cereal process, the combination of grain, malt and sugar creates a desirable golden colour in the finished product. In formulated, extruded cereals, however, the more extensive mixing stress may result in a dull, sometimes greyish, colour. The addition of a colouring ingredient can help to overcome this. However the lighter hues of caramel colour are a common solution because they are produced by caramelising sugars. These processes can be achieved by using the 'Thermoglide Toaster' after a light coating / glazing process.
EXTRUDER

Expand Image Barrel extrusion system.

Expand Image Cereal extruded shapes.

Expand Image Barrel extruder.

An extruder consists of one or two screws that rotate in an enclosed barrel. The turning of the screw serves many functions: it mixes and shears the raw materials; it pressurises the product mass; and it moves the product along the length of the barrel to be extruded through a die of the desired shape. Along the way, different zones of the barrel may be heated to cook the product mass, or cooled to temper it. Water and/or solutions of flavourings and colours also may be metered into the product as it passes through various zones of the barrel. The APV Baker solid barrel extruder is a multi-purpose extruder suitable for a wide variety of snack, cereal and other extruded products. The extruder has modular barrel design for simple removal of heating and cooling sections (for different product configuration) with a segmented agitator for a wide variety of screw configurations and flexible die design allowing a wide range of products to be made with only a few parts to change.
CEREAL COATING SYSTEM

The APV Baker syrup preparation and coating system has an autofeed weighing and mixing system. This system feeds a skidbased syrup preparation system that dissolves the sugar granules (invert syrup or corn syrup) and incorporates cocoa or other flavouring and colorant additives into the dissolved syrup before metering the syrup to a coating drum where it is sprayed onto the product that is being continuously fed into the drum. The coated product is discharged continuously onto the next piece of process equipment, typically the conveyor band of a dryer.

Taken at http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/projects/nacional/ Technical issue...

PROBLEMS MILITATING CEREALS PRODUCTION y Cereals production area y Rain amount and characteristics y Climatic potential and constraints to cereals production y Temperature / solar radiation y Poor cereal crops varieties limit yield
U. Ismaila, A. S. Gana, N. M. Tswanya and D. Dogara. (25 May, 2010). PROBLEMS MILITATING CEREALS PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA. Cereals production in Nigeria: Problems, constraints , 13421348.