To BLAST or not to BLAST?

Bakers and foodservice professionals alike often wonder, what's the difference between Blast Freezing, (often referred to as Deep Freezing), and more conventional freezing methods? The question we most commonly hear is:

Why should I invest the extra money in BLAST FREEZING?

The short answer is quality.

The distinction between freezing (or hardening) and blast freezing is in the difference in the speed of the cooling process and the subsequent improvement in the quality of the final product. The quicker and more well-balanced the system is, the faster the center of your product is frozen. The result is minimal product damage due to the process or the passage of time.

Faster treatment means that the chemical transformations which cause loss of nutritional value and organoleptic variations, (i.e. taste, color, odor and texture), are stopped - even right in the heart of the product, which is the last to be frozen. The faster the treatment, the faster the microbiological activity which causes considerable alterations is halted.

Traditional freezing methods result in the formation of ice crystals that can expand so greatly that they rupture the very cell walls of your product. The speed of the blast freezing process leads to the formation of significantly smaller micro-crystals. The volume of these micro-crystals is only slightly greater than the aqueous substance from which they are formed, which leaves the tissue in your product in near-perfect condition. This prevents loss of consistency, collapse and "sweating" that is normally experienced with more traditional freezing methods.

When a successfully blast frozen and properly stored product is brought back to temperature, it will have virtually the same characteristics as that food product would have in its natural state. The four primary aspects to keep in mind when considering the blast freezing process are:

1. Use of Low Temperature
   A temperature of -18° C* (approx 0° F) must be reached in the heart of product within a certain time limit. This time limit depends on several factors, including the type of product, size, thickness, weight and penetration factor.
   (*NOTE: -18° C for raw dough, -14° C for pre-baked product)
   
   
2. Appropriate Deep-freezing Speed
   This is of vital importance in maintaining the nutritional and physical characteristics of the product.
   
   
3. Uninterrupted Continuity of the "Cold Chain"
   Throughout the marketing cycle, up to the time of retail sale, deep-frozen products must be kept at a temperature of not less than -18°C / - 22°C.
   
   
4. Proper Packing
   Packaging needs to be done with care to ensure ease-of-use and safeguard the consumer.

To attain the extremely low final temperatures that blast freezing requires at the speed it needs to be reached calls for the use of specialized equipment with greater refrigerating power. As a result, the equipment involved does necessitate a greater initial investment. However, by utilizing the blast freezing process, you can experience significant savings through better time management, increased productivity and an overall decrease in waste and overages. You'll quickly find that these savings will easily outweigh your initial investment.

As a baker, product freshness is the key to your success. With blast freezing, you can all but stop the aging process, saving you valuable time and money - all while preserving your product freshness!

Empire Bakery Equipment has been helping bakers succeed for over 30 years. Let's continue this conversation on Twitter! Follow us at twitter.com/empirebake!

Visit us at http://www.empirebake.com/ for product information, or give us a call at 1-800-878-4070.

Turning Your Family Recipe into a Food Business

I meet many people who have a dream of taking that cherished family recipe for a baked dessert or food item and creating business out of it. Often, they have no idea of how to go about doing that – sometimes even after they've already started the business and find themselves floundering.

Earlier this Spring, Joe Connolly, business writer for the Wall Street Journal and creator of the Small Business Report on WCBS880 radio, asked me what advice I would give to people who dream of starting a business, since "so very few people seem to ever make a real business out of a personal interest."

I’ve done it twice. Here’s what happened with the more successful venture, a specialty baked goods company called The Well-Bred Loaf:

• We had tested the market by (A) initially selling at an outdoor market and (B) by developing some wholesale accounts (E.A.T., Balducci's) before having to invest in a commercial space & equipment. So by the time we made the financial investment, we knew we had a business.
• The timing of all this – catching the upswing of what I call the "gourmet food boom" – enabled us to accelerate the growth of the business.
• But what differentiated Well-Bred Loaf from other home bakers of that era was that:
  
  • We were well-organized in the business details as well as the sales, production and delivery of the products.
  • We quickly developed low-cost but effective "guerilla marketing" methods and provided good service to the store owners – as well as consistently-excellent products to the ultimate consumers.
  • We identified and targeted those types of stores that offered strong "point-of-purchase" opportunities for our products.
  • We made "no-compromise," delicious versions of all-American classics (choc. chip cookies, brownies), and invented "Blondies", which fit in nicely with the other products we made.

The problem I often see is that while someone may have a dream, and even a good product, they haven't looked for evidence to indicate whether there is a market for it.

• Find a way to TEST your product's acceptance– to try it out before you risk everything you've got.
• Are there people who want to buy it? What’s their "profile"? Where do they buy similar products?
• Can you make and deliver the product at a price where you will make a profit and people will buy it?

And a final caution: if you've got a dollar and a dream – find out as much as possible what it's like to run a business. A business is comprised of both the dream and the details of how to make the dream come true. And the details take up most of your time. DEFINITELY speak with others, try to get a realistic picture of what your life will be like (it's not all fun), and get coaching from people who can advise you on the business side– as well as equipment dealers who can educate you regarding labor-saving equipment and minimizing operating expenses such as energy costs. Reinventing the wheel – trying to "go it alone" – can cost you more when you think you're saving money.

 

Steve Caccavo, President of Constructive Business Solutions™, is the founder and former owner of The Well-Bred Loaf, Inc., a specialty wholesale bakery that invented "blondies." He draws on his years of entrepreneurial experience to help owners strengthen and grow their small and mid-size businesses. ©2010 by Constructive Business Solutions™, a division of Positive Employment Practices, Inc. You can e-mail Steve at: Steve@ConstructiveBusiness.info.

Learn From the Mistakes of Others

“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” -Sam Levenson

As a kid, I loved to collect things: superhero comic books, baseball cards, and…acorns. Huge oak trees showered the schoolyard each fall with fat, brown, irresistible acorns. One day during recess, I followed an impulse and filled the pockets of my jeans. What was I thinking? Back in the classroom I sat down, and the acorns burst out of my bulging pockets, rattling across the wood floor. My face burned with embarrassment as the other kids laughed and the fearsome Miss Sampsel scowled.

Years later, as a business owner and employer, I realized that impulsive actions or decisions could have serious consequences. The “acorns” were now decisions like:

• We’ve landed a big account, and we really need the boost in sales. But the credit terms they want could put us in a cash squeeze. What do I do?
• A valued employee is lobbying for that new management position – but I think we need someone who already has a track record elsewhere. How do I handle this?
• Our Sales Manager is pushing for a distribution center in Chicago – over 700 miles away -- to service a chain of convenience stores. What questions do I need to ask -- and answer -- to make a good decision?

Sound familiar? Do you have “acorns” ready to burst out of your pockets?

If I’d had an Advisory Board -- a trusted group of business owners facing similar challenges, for instance – I could have gotten “real-world” advice that might have saved me a lot of time, money and trouble. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to make the same mistakes that others had already made and learned from !

Such groups – sometimes called “peer advisory” or “Mastermind” groups -- have been around for quite some time. But with cash being tight, the cost of membership was out of my reach -- so I relied on my own judgment even when I was on unfamiliar turf.

Today, as a business advisor to entrepreneurial companies, I often meet owners who need that real-world perspective. Yet the franchised advisory groups require a substantial financial commitment that can easily exceed $10,000 a year. And so the smaller companies – including yours? – don’t get the support they need.

Until now.

I started my first business in my home and grew it to a 120-employee manufacturing, marketing and distribution company. On selling that company in 1996, I started my consulting practice, Constructive Business Solutions™, specializing in owners of small and midsize companies who wanted to get to the next level.

Now, for that underserved small-business market, I’m organizing Constructive Business Mastermind Groups™ in the New York Metro area. Members provide feedback and business advice to each other in a confidential setting, aided by a trained facilitator with “been there, done that” experience.

Interested in learning from the mistakes – and successes – of other business owners? Tired of “going it alone” all the time?

The investment you make in your business through use of either professional advisors or peer advisory (Mastermind) groups will pay back through accelerated problem-solving and achievement of business goals.

Have some difficult situations to handle and want to see how others have done it?

Get in touch for more information about Constructive Business Mastermind Groups™ -- see if it’s a good fit for you.

On the web at: http://www.constructivebusiness.info/MastermindGroups.aspx
By e-mail: MastermindInfo@ConstructiveBusiness.info
By phone: (845) 634-0076

 

Steve Caccavo, President of Constructive Business Solutions™, is the founder and former owner of The Well-Bred Loaf, Inc., a specialty wholesale bakery that invented “blondies.” He draws on his years of entrepreneurial experience to help owners strengthen and grow their small and mid-size businesses. Steve is the author of “What is Your Break-Even Sales Point,” published in the Spring, 2010 edition of Baker’s Rack. © 2010 by Constructive Business Solutions™, a division of Positive Employment Practices, Inc.

This Job Has No Dignity!

A Lesson Learned in Growing a Bakery Business

Many years – and several lifetimes ago, it seems...

I must have been looking over his shoulder a little too closely – inspecting how well he had cleaned the 60-quart bowl for the bakery’s vertical mixer. Gary turned around, glared at me, and in a voice strained with frustration, started jumping up and down, arms extended upward, yelling, “This job has no dignity! This job has no dignity! This job has no dignity!” he said, over and over.

Gary had a way of voicing his opinions very directly: he didn’t round off the sharp corners to soften his biting analysis of a situation. But it wasn’t hostile or personal, either, so we were able to laugh about it later.

And I "got" it. I learned a valuable lesson which has served me well ever since that day: that every person needs to feel a sense of dignity in their job, whether they are sweeping the floors or working with customers. That a business has to give each employee some “space” in which they can come up with new ideas, learn from their mistakes, and succeed in their job. That as a business owner, I needed to accept that my employees would probably not do everything exactly the way I did, but that this was OK. so long as they maintained reasonable standards of workmanship.

How does this translate to you, as a business owner? The reason for hiring people is that you can’t do all the work yourself, if you want to grow your business. The more you grow the sales, the more you need to hire others to perform the day-to-day work necessary to providing products or services to your company’s customers. You literally won’t have the time to continue to "micro-manage" your people. Learn from my mistake before you de-motivate your people – why go through the same learning curve? You’ll be plenty busy reinventing your own job as the business grows. And you’ll need to hire good people and learn how to help them maximize their contributions to the business.

Steve Caccavo, President of Constructive Business Solutions™, is the founder and former owner of The Well-Bred Loaf, Inc., a specialty wholesale bakery that invented “blondies.” He draws on his years of entrepreneurial experience to help owners strengthen and grow their small and mid-size businesses. © 2010 by Constructive Business Solutions™, a division of Positive Employment Practices, Inc.