The #1 Reason Food Processors Choose Industrial Mixers for Food Production

We hate to give away the answer so quickly, but when it comes to figuring out the main reason why food processors choose industrial mixers for food production, it’s the nitty-gritty behind the answer that is most important; and we can’t wait to get to that part!

The top reason why food manufacturers choose industrial mixers for their process applications is because the mixer solution they select allows them to achieve their desired product specifications more consistently than other technologies at an agreeable cost. 

For some products like nut butters and pastes, the ideal mixer selection leans towards high performance under significant viscosity load. For other products like dairy beverages, the ideal mixer choice leans towards protecting that all-too-important smooth, creamy mouth feel. 

No matter what food product we imagine, each will favor critical factors specific to that market, product and brand. In all cases, so long as the mixer chosen protects these critical factors and doesn’t break the bank, it’s the right mixer for the job. 

Key Decision Criteria in Selecting Industrial Food Process Mixers

Next, let’s look further into the key decision criteria that food manufacturers need to consider when searching for their top mixer selection:

• CapEx cost: Naturally, the first decision point in any capital purchase is upfront cost. While there’s no getting around capital spending limits, we always suggest that you evaluate and compare mixer costs in terms of design factors below, as well as expected operational lifespan and manufacturer support. 
• Capacity: Industrial mixers for food production measure capacity in three ways: batch size (or continuous run rate), ingredient proportions, and end product physical properties. For example, a given mixer may support a capacity of 10,000 gallons of water-like density, but only 2,000 gallons of thick paste, based on its horsepower, mix head style and shaft design.   
• Performance: Mixing performance involves many details, including mix speed (RPM), shear rate, pumping rate, particle reduction rate, effectiveness (such as “99.999% elimination of powder fisheyes”), uniformity (such as +/-3 micron max end particle size), and repeatability of all factors across multiple batches. 
• Mixing method: Especially with food products, selecting a mixing method (such as high shear, colloid milling or granulation) requires careful review of product compatibility, both physical and analytical. Some mixing technologies may achieve desirable physical properties but destroy nutritional or experiential factors, such as altering mouth feel, enzyme integrity or color.     
• Hygienic design: Industrial mixers used for food products must offer the highest levels of hygienic design, meaning that they are cleanable, drainable, free of harborage areas and made of inert materials that will not contaminate foods. True hygienic design is more than selecting stainless steel materials and applying a high polish: Every tiny construction detail must ensure complete food safety. 
• Sanitation ease: The typical cleaning sequence of food-grade equipment involves water rinsing, chemical washing, high-temperature sterilizing and final disinfecting, altogether referred to as the sanitation process. Food-grade mixers must be intentionally designed for sanitation, with materials and features able to take aggressive chemicals and temperatures without degradation. 
• OpEx cost: Food-grade mix systems have many operational costs that should be compared, specifically looking at energy, maintenance, repair, sanitation and labor costs. Some mixers may perform wonderfully but require twice the energy and sanitation effort than alternatives available at a higher initial price, making this long-range comparison useful to balance out CapEx costs.   

The Most Common Forms of Food-Grade Industrial Mixing Technologies

Here we’ll share the most common styles of industrial mixers for food production, along with examples of their ideal applications: 

• High-shear mixers: The workhorse of the food and beverage industry, these mixers utilize high-RPM blades or rotor/stator sets to generate extreme friction to forcefully disperse, pulverize and mix products. Example products include nutritional drinks, salad dressings and dairy emulsions.
• Low-shear mixers: Products that only need gentle, minimal-force mixing of highly compatible ingredients utilize low-shear mixers to simply agitate and churn product volumes. Example products include distilled spirits, water-based dissolves and broths. 
• Colloid mills: These mixers use rotor/stator sets and operate in a continuous-feed fashion, installed either at the bottom of a batch hopper or inline like a fluid pump. As products pass through the mill, they are ground into extremely fine emulsions, such as with thick dressings, nut butters and dairy creams.   
• Ploughshare mixers: These mixers use powerful plow-shaped shovels that create a mechanically fluidized mix bed to combine powders and similar dry ingredients. Lodige Hygienic Ploughshare Mixers are used across the globe to mix premium foods, including spice mixes, coffee extracts, ready-mix flours and much more. 
• Ribbon blenders: These horizontal mix systems use multiple, counter-rotating helical (or ribbon) shaped mix blades to gently commingle dry powders and granules, handling products such as cake mixes, beverage powders and confectionery toppings.
• Mixing granulators: Lodige’s own Food-Grade Mixing Granulators combine dry powders into homogenous blends and then fuse those powders around binding agents to create larger particles. Example products include bakery batters, encapsulated flavors, food-grade dyes and thickening starch mixes.  
• Wet mills: These mixers are designed to reduce powder, granule and solid particle sizes down to very consistent, micron-scale dimensions while suspended in a recirculating wet media. Product examples include sauces, tomato pastes, starches, vegetable slurries and flavorings.   
• Inline powder induction: Finally, inline powder induction is a mixing technology that utilizes the venturi effect to physically pull (or induct) dry powders into a recirculating fluid stream. Powder induction is great for easily wetted powders as used for beverages, nutritional drinks and soups. 

Expert Consulting Backed by Lab Testing

Food mixing and blending can be complex and highly specialized, but that doesn’t make it impossible to select the hygienic mixer that will best enhance your products’ quality, flavor and nutritional appeal. To help, Lodige offers expert mix system consulting and product test laboratories in both the U.S. and Germany. Contact us today to find your next mix process solution.