Puffed and core-filled snacks

Core-filled snacks need an extra shaper and filling machine. The rope is led from the extruder to the downstream rollers of the shaper at a higher surface speed and cut into pillow shapes. Special shaper machines are available for different shapes, for example fish-shaped snacks, sliced bread, etc.

Cheese puffs / corn snack machines take corn grits or corn flour as raw material. The grits are put into the mixer where water is added, and then conveyed by screw conveyor to the extruder's feeding silo. The extruder quickly delivers the product in the desired shape. The product shape is determined by a combination of the die aperture, expansion and the die-face cutter. Processing temperatures are precisely regulated by individual heating and cooling systems in each section of the extruder barrel.

After extrusion the snacks are conveyed by a pneumatic conveyor into the multi-pass dryer. From the dryer the snacks fall into the continuous coating drum and receive the seasoning (flavours, salt, fat, cheese or other spices). After seasoning, the snack is conveyed to the automatic vertical packing machine and packed into pillow plastic bags of 140 g or more, according to the customer's request. If a sweetened cereal is desired, the product may enter a coating unit for a liquid confectionery application, followed by a final drying step before packaging.