From nuclear reactors to jet propulsion for boats, the food industry is capable of coming up with some remarkably advanced technology for mixing and blending its products. But for the majority of firms, mixing and blending technology has changed little over the years, and it is all the better for that. Except for the fish eyes.

VMI has launched the first spiral dough mixer equipped with a triple-jacketed rotary bowl cooled by circulating glycol water. Known as the Frostmix, it incorporates VMI's exclusive cooling system. It can keep dough between 16°C and 20°C during mixing - some 7°C to 10°C cooler than if a coolant wasn't being used. It is ideal for puff pastry, croissants, pizza dough and bread doughs for partly-baked production.

A Lindor L1500 mixer has helped French breakfast cereals company Favrichon to meet high throughput needs with flexibility. It will produce a mix of ingredients of varied densities and grain sizes in three minutes or less when used at just 10% capacity. The mixer is also guaranteeing energy savings of up to 97%.

A rotary continuous mixer from New York based Munson Machinery blends ingredients in ratios down to one part per million, regardless of bulk densities, particle sizes or the flow characteristics of ingredients. Capacity of the 16-4SS mixer ranges from 2.45m³/h at 1 minute residence time, to 1.19m³/h at 2 minutes residence time.

A stainless-steel magnetic mixer/motor package for the food industries has been introduced by Advanced Engineering. The mixer is magnetically coupled to the motor so there is no mechanical seal, making the mixer leak free.