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One-Step, Bake and Ship baking trays.
New Bake 'n Ship Trays, Pads, and Discs
Optimize Baking Operations by Streamlining the Delivery of Product from Mixing Bowl to Consumer.A technologically-advanced polyester film protects product from oven to serving table, eliminating labor-intensive steps and expensive equipment
For Immediate Release
One-Step, Bake and Ship Baking Trays-
Do the promises pan out?
By using one tray, from the acceptance of batter to the customers' table, some large baking operations report production efficiencies of 25-50% while improving product quality and marketing edge.
The word is out. Technological innovation has invaded the baking industry in a big way with the millennium's debut of one-step, bake and ship baking trays. Employing an advanced polyester film that protects product from oven to serving table¾eliminating several labor-intensive steps and pieces of expensive equipment in the process¾these new baking trays, pads, and discs promise to revolutionize the industry in terms of operational efficiency. Avoiding the labor to coat a metal pan, depan the baked product, transfer it to a shipping package, then wash and dry the pan for the next batch certainly seems like a quick means to improve productivity. At the same time, side-stepping the expense of parchment or oil, product-handling equipment, panwashers and new metal pans makes the use of bake and ship baking trays sound like a win/win opportunity for anyone involved in baking.
As it turns out, such is the case. Baking professionals and other experts interviewed for this article agreed that these trays truly streamline operations for large baking concerns, as production improvements ranging from 25-50% are being reported from first-hand experience. For some bakers, the improvement in the quality and appearance of the baked goods even outweighed the operational savings. Some even report competitive advantages.
New breakthroughs in laminated coatings make all the difference
Paperbox baking containers that can withstand oven temperatures have been around for at least two decades. However, the old first-generation cardboard boxes were not effective as a food/package barrier for any length of time, not sturdy enough to ship or freeze, and hardly attractive enough for sale.
On the other hand, today's new breed of bake and ship trays allows the baker to bake, freeze, slice, ship and display in one package. How they succeed at this can best be viewed by examining the offering from the innovator and leader in the field of bake and ship baking trays, Laminating Technologies (LTI) of Atlanta, Georgia.
LTI's Bake 'n ShipÒ containers employ a patented polyester film that acts as a non-porous barrier. Carefully laminated onto a heat resistant foil that withstands sustained oven temperatures of 450° F, this film prevents baked products from leaking out of the tray, while halting the leaching of cardboard chemicals and foil dyes into the product. Making up the third layer, a sturdy cardboard structure protects finished products throughout the entire shipping and handling process.
"I spent thirty-plus years in the technical management of large paper mills making coated paperboard for folding cartons, and LTI's trays have the first and only laminated barrier for baking that I've ever seen," says Vann Parker, now president of Applied Paper Technology in Atlanta, Georgia¾an independent laboratory that tests performance, surface quality, printability, and strength of paper and packaging products. "LTI needed some testing and evaluation of their laminated products. I performed the tests and they met all expectations."
Evidently, bake and ship trays stand up to the rigors of testing in an environmental laboratory. But does that success necessarily carry over to the real world of baking? To start, today's bake and ship trays are offered in a variety of shapes and sizes in single or double wall trays, loaf trays, straight and scalloped discs; all in finishes of kraft, white, gold, silver and black.
Given all these options, bakers have all the tools they need to judge these bake and ship containers during actual production operations and then comment on the results. Early returns indicate that these containers really do deliver on their performance promises.
"LTI really has something here with its Bake n Ship containers and pads," says Kathy Gallant, Purchasing Manager for the Alden Merrell Company. Alden Merrell is a leading provider of top-quality cakes, pies, and specialty desserts in custom formulations and packaging to meet the needs of wholesale distributors and food-service customers throughout the United States. "The old products were basically just corrugated cardboard with a sprayed on film. The difference with these new bake and ship containers is the lamination process and the film that they use. It makes everything work."
A step-by-step look at the baking production process illuminates exactly how these containers create efficiencies.
Prepping the pan (not any more!)
As every baker knows, unless foods are very high in shortening, they will stick to untreated metal surfaces. Desserts with excessive grease, fat, and sugar, tend to stick even more so. Avoiding this problem entails the application of grease or parchment to the metal pan, consuming extra materials and man-hours. While non-stick metal pans are available, they are expensive, as the coating adds as much as $18 to $22 to the cost of each pan.
However, modern bake and ship trays do not require preparation before the acceptance of batter or dough, as the polyester film surface is non-stick. This eliminates the use of parchment or grease and the labor to apply it.
"By consistently using a bake and ship tray we're eliminating costs associated with prepping pans (grease/panliners) as well as individual pan cost," says Gallant. Product is deposited in the box, baked, cooled, sliced and packaged for shipment. It's that simple."
Performance when the heat is on
The new class of bake and ship trays also excels where the batter hits the flame: in the oven. LTI's product, for example, employs a heat-resistant foil and a fortified cardboard that withstands high temperatures for sustained periods of time. Some bakers have reported the successful use of such trays for products that need multiple bakes, such as double-fudge brownies. This sturdiness also spells the difference between success and failure when the product is pulled from the oven.
"We make an apple crisp product which is very heavy due to its high moisture content," continues Gallant. "We could bake it in the old corrugated boxes, but then we would experience sagging. But LTI's Bake 'n Ship gives you a much better presentation because it is stronger. The tray maintains its shape throughout the entire process."
Gallant pointed out other benefits of paperboard baking trays over metal pans.
"Once the product comes out of the oven, you can reduce your cooling time because you're not dealing with a metal pan," she says. "Metal conducts the heat much longer. But with cardboard, you can handle the trays much sooner."
"There's no waste, either," continues Gallant. "Often when you have a rigid metal baking pan, the product ends up with edges that are crisp and over-baked. The best thing I can say with the bake and ship tray is that every morsel of the product is usable. The edges are as attractive and moist as the interior."
Completely bypassing the de-panning process
Expensive product-handling technologies like pick-and-place or captilever depanning become a distant memory, since depanning is completely avoided with bake and ship trays. Additionally, avoiding the time-consuming process of depanning helps speed product to market.
"The use of the Bake 'n Ship trays has been really convenient for me," says Mary Ann McPhearson, owner of St. Cloud's Cheesecakes in Nashville, Tenn. "I do a wholesale volume business with a chain of steakhouses. We make the brownies and apple cobblers and send them out by the pallet load. And these trays definitely facilitate being able to get your product out quickly without all the effort of metal trays that you have to go through the fuss of cooking a product in one thing and then taking it out and putting it in something else. That efficiency is the thing that has worked so well for us."
Skip the washing, too
Without the need for reusable metal trays, water, electricity, and manpower are also reduced by completely evading the washing process¾along with the need for expensive tray washers that can cost up to $10,000.
"We bake our brownies and cornbread in the bake and ship tray produced by LTI, and we've been doing this for about a couple of years now," says Diane Krane, president of Titteringtons Olde English Bake Shop, Ltd., based in Woburn, Massachusetts. Titterington's baked over sixteen million units of scones last year and used over five million pounds of scone dough. Because the company specializes in scones, but also produces muffins, cookies, buttermilk biscuits, shortcake, loaf cakes, apple crisp, and blueberry cobbler to accommodate its customers, any product and process that can save time and enhance quality is of the utmost importance. "What we find with LTIs Bake n Ship trays are efficiencies in high volume production. The money we save by not washing trays and re-handling everything is enough to offset the up-front cost of the trays. Plus, there's an up-front cost for purchasing metal pans, too."
No need to store metal pans
Krane pointed out another benefit of utilizing bake and ship containers: No longer does the need exist to warehouse metal pans. "You have to store metal pans, whether clean or dirty," says Krane. "But there's only a limited amount of square footage in most bakeries. Holding onto metal trays limits this further."
Alden Merrells Gallant agrees. We're not storing our metal pans any longer. You dont realize how much space is being used for storage until you walk out onto the floor and see 4,000 pans staring you in the face. Our Production people were quick to point this out as they need all the space they can get."
In fact, the use of metal trays sometimes poses a paradox, as hanging onto them can create a challenge by itself. The American Bakers Association now considers theft a significant problem. For example, baking companies in the Chicago area report loses that range between 15,000 to 100,000 metal trays a year.
Repackaging-forget about it.
The fact that bakers no longer need to remove product from a metal tray and then put it into a shipping box or retail package, sometimes justifies the switch to bake and ship containers alone. This also helps maintain product integrity.
"Before, we did not have the ability to pre-portion the product in the metal pans; we could only score it," notes Gallant. "With the bake and ship trays, now we can do a full cut in the box. If you tried to do that in the metal pans, the brownies would fall apart when you took them out of the pans to repackage them in the display box. Now when our product gets to the customer, it is fully pre-sliced and ready to eat without crumbling upon removal."
When it comes time to relinquish the finished product to delivery carriers, truck drivers, and postal workers, bakers who utilize these bake and ship containers take comfort in the fact that they can stand up to the rigors of shipping. As an example, LTI's Bake n Ship trays are up to 80% stronger than conventional packaging. Nor do the latest generation of bake and ship containers require special attention for freezing during the shipment or storage of product, as some can withstand freezing temperatures down to --90° Fahrenheit.
Yet, another consideration in shipping product has popped up since September 11, 2001. "Products shipped in bake and ship containers pass through metal detection, whereas the metal trays don't," notes Titterington's Diane Krane. "Metal detection is becoming very important in the industry."
The final step: presentation/serving
One-step bake and ship trays yield a better-finished product, if only because the baked product doesn't require as much handling. Upon arrival at the retail destination, the trays fold down completely flat. Product is conserved since there are no corners to make removal difficult.
"Our end users are restaurants and food service accounts," continues Krane, "and the bake and ship trays save steps on the user side when the customer gets the product. The sides fold down and the tray becomes a flat surface, so the cutting of the product is much easier than with a metal tray for the end user."
Additionally, all bake and ship trays feature an FDA-approved film that adheres closely to the product-sealing out oxygen while sealing in odors. Shelf life and freshness is significantly extended.
"LTI's bake and ship containers give you a much better presentation because they have a strong moisture barrier and product does not seep out," says Alden Merrell's Gallant. "We prefer the black laminated tray because we like the look of it. Visually, it is very attractive."
Bottom-line savings
As if the cost savings from avoiding the purchase of metal trays, coatings or parchment, tray washing and depanning equipment, and extra shipping containers weren't enough, the savings in labor definitely tip the economic scales to favor one-step bake and ship containers.
"When you measure in all of the efficiencies and all of the savings, it makes sense," says Gallant. "A ballpark estimate of labor savings alone would be about 25% here at Alden Merrell."
St. Cloud's Cheesecakes' Mary Ann McPhearson, concurs. "I bet it helps me save almost 50% of what I would have to do if I didn't use the Bake 'n Ship trays," says McPhearson.
"Otherwise, I would have to waste time prepping trays, putting the product in there, then wait while it cools, then get it out, then put it in something else, and then I have all those trays and things to clean up. That takes a lot of time. The one-step trays save all that time for better purposes."
"Better purposes" can include spending time on focused marketing to increase sales. As evidenced at Titteringtons Olde English Bake Shop, Ltd., the quality of the bake afforded by bake and ship containers helps yield a better return on their investment.
"Cost might be the only reason why a baking company wouldn't use the Bake N Ship pans," observes Krane. "However, ease of handling and the quality of the bake definitely outweigh the cost in our case. Our market is very high end. Our customers demand a high-quality gourmet product, and people are willing to pay a fair price for it."
Technology delivers on its promise
Advanced film materials and new laminating processes have now ushered in the age of bake and ship containers. It remains up to forward-thinking bakers to take advantage of these improvements. "I don't know why someone wouldn't want to use bake and ship containers, other than they are hindered by some antiquated mentality," says Gallant. "Some people just don't get it. But once you do it, it's amazing, it's wonderful. I can not think of any cons.'"
Pat Haddon, president of LTI, sums up the situation from his perspective as a producer of bake-and-ship pads, disks, and trays. "I think we all would agree that there is a transition happening right now in the baking industry," observes Haddon. "The position is, some younger, more progressive thinkers are coming on board and they're the ones that are looking at this as the new frontier. They're more open minded about it. Larger companies are going to employ those kinds of minds in their business as a means to expand market share and ensure growth."
We believe the Bake 'n Ship trays gives us a marketing edge over competing products because visually, and from the handling standpoint, it looks more attractive," says Alden Merrell Marketing Manager Amy Griffin. "The product sits up, with a nice appearance, because it holds up well during the entire handling process. Certainly, we feel it creates a quality image for us. It's a win/win situation, without exception."
For more information about LTI's one-step Bake 'n Ship trays, or to inquire about a distribution arrangement, contact Laminating Technologies, LLC at 291 North Industrial Way Canton, GA 30115-8218; (866) 704-9992 Toll Free; fax (770) 704-9995.
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For Information Contact:
Petra Carlisle, Power PR
Phone (310) 787-1940
Fax (310) 787-1970
E-mail: petrac@powerpr.com
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