Monitoring and controlling the temperature in your industrial bakery ovens can improve your baking to a whole new level. The SCORPION® 2 profiling systems from Reading Thermal can help you make the necessary adjustments to achieve superior products.
Headquartered in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, Reading Thermal has been studying, measuring, and understanding the commercial baking process for more than 25 years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System which has become a standard in the baking industry and is relied upon by customers around the globe.
Importance of Measuring Oven Temperature
Oven temperature is responsible for physical and chemical reactions in dough/batter, and temperatures that are too low or too high during baking can lead to changes in fermentation and humidity levels and undesirable changes in surface coloring, texture and flavor.
If you produce bread, artisan bread, rolls, hamburger buns, cakes, biscuits, or other bread products, you know that several stages of the process are temperature-dependent, such as oven-spring, drying/dehydration, and color formation.
Too much heat coming from one direction in the oven can cause the bottoms of the loaves to burn before the crusts brown properly. An oven that is too cool usually produces a heavy and unappealing loaf with a pale or soft crust.
Measuring and controlling internal food temperature is also key to achieving food safety. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires commercial bakeries to provide validation of process controls, or thermal kill steps, in an effort to reduce food borne pathogens, such as Salmonella spp, in ingredients and finished products.
How to Measure Oven Temperature
Reading Thermal designed the SCORPION® 2 Temperature Sensor Array to measure temperature at product level, in fixed positions across the conveyor, and deliver a true representation of what your product is experiencing over time. Different types of pluggable sensors are available, including one designed for solid or tight mesh conveyors and one for open mesh conveyors.
The sensor array is connected to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and then travels through the oven with the product, yielding a precise picture of temperature from side-to-side and end-to-end.
After gathering the data, the SCORPION® Software (SV8) Food Safety Module makes it easy to calculate lethality and then generates a comprehensive report displaying cumulative log reduction. By combining this ease of measurement with robust data capture, the SCORPION® 2 System makes it simple to optimize your process and products while meeting food safety standards.
Reading Thermal SCORPION® Profiling Service
If you are experiencing inconsistent product quality, moisture retention, uneven bakes, or low production capacity, Reading Thermal offers the SCORPION® Profiling Service to assist customers at their own locations with problem-solving.
We use the state-of-the-art SCORPION® Data Logger to collect thermal profiles of temperature (air, band, product), air velocity, heat flux, and humidity. We can analyze a single line or perform multi line comparison studies to determine what is causing problematic processing conditions and produce solutions.
Call the Reading Thermal headquarters in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online to learn more about our state-of-the-art temperature monitoring systems for your industrial bakery ovens.