Andy Thornley, Author at Machinery World

New ROKK RBR1400 Butter Reworking Homogeniser machine launched

New ROKK RBR1400 Butter Reworking Homogeniser machine launched

ROKK Processing has launched a brand new butter reworking/homogeniser this week.

Based on the design of the Benhil Microfix, the ROKK RBR1400 Butter Reworker Homogeniser rationalises the processing and packaging of cold-store butter. With a capacity up to 1400 kg/hr, the machine reduces the time it takes to defrost butter and improves the quality of the butter by creating the finest water dispersion also improving the spreadability of the butter.

See full details here

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How ice cream is helping people discuss difficult topics

How ice cream is helping people discuss difficult topics

Artist Annie Nicholson believes a good place to start a conversation about loss is over a scoop of ice cream. Her work has centred around grief since losing members of her family in a tragic accident 11 years ago.

Mini milks, choc ices, a 99 with a flake – and a chat about loss.

The sweet, soft, sugary taste of ice cream does not usually sit alongside the pain and devastation of grief. Yet Annie Nicholson’s ice cream van was designed to break a taboo.

Annie, 38, from London, had the idea for the van when the Covid pandemic struck. She wanted to encourage conversations about grief – something she already had experience of.

On 4 October 2011, Annie woke up in the night. She’d had a bad dream and turned on her phone.

“I had so many missed calls,” she says. “This had already been on the news. All these people telling me that they were sorry. I didn’t know what they were sorry for.

“It was just unreal. Someone tells you your whole life as you know it is over and you can’t compute that.”

Four members of Annie’s immediate family had been involved in a tragic accident in New York.

Her parents, Harriet and Paul, had travelled there to celebrate her sister Sonia’s 40th birthday. Sonia was in the city with her partner, Helen.

“It was a surprise for Sonia that my parents were going,” says Annie – who had also been due to fly out, along with her sister Amanda. But, because of work commitments, both had to cancel at the last minute.

Harriet, Paul, Sonia and Helen had boarded a helicopter to take a sightseeing trip around the city – but just after take off, the aircraft crashed into the East River.

Paul had been sitting in the front. After freeing himself from the wreckage, he tried to search for his family in the blackness of the river.

“They had to pull him out of the water in the end because he just wouldn’t leave them,” says Annie.

Sonia had died instantly, while Helen and Harriet were taken to hospital. A week later, Helen died. Harriet died four weeks after that.

Paul had been diagnosed with terminal cancer several years before the New York trip. He survived the accident, but died in 2016.

Read the full story here

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‘Turning off our blast freezer until summer’: how UK firms are cutting energy costs

‘Turning off our blast freezer until summer’: how UK firms are cutting energy costs

From an ice cream factory weighing up closing for three weeks over Christmas to a bistro now only open for bookings

David Equi can’t seem to catch a break. He opened a gleaming new factory in Glasgow for his eponymous luxury ice cream business on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic and has now missed out on the cutoff for government energy support by a single day.

Faced with a sharp rise in energy costs, he plans to shut down his blast freezer – a container that rapidly cools 40 pallets of ice cream – this winter. “We’re turning that off and using our existing freezers just to save money, and will switch it back on in the summer. We’re just looking at the tiniest wee things where we can save.”

Equi is also considering closing the factory entirely for up to three weeks over Christmas to save on bills, rather than operating on a skeleton staff as usual at the business, which supplies customers from Aldi to the Gleneagles hotel.

Many businesses will have invested in long-term sustainability measures to become more energy efficient but now, faced with rising prices, firms of all sizes across the country are examining every available measure to cut their bills.

David Equi of Equi’s Ice Cream
David Equi runs an ice-cream business but missed out on the cutoff for government energy support by a day. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

David Equi says: ‘We’re just looking at the tiniest wee things where we can save.’ Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

The electrical retailer Currys plans to turn down the brightness of its TVs; Vivendi, the owner of the Havas advertising agency, is turning down the temperature in its offices by 1C; and 300,000 LED lights will illuminate Oxford Street this Christmas – cheaper and more efficient than standard lightbulbs.

The incentive is clear: the restaurant and pub group Mitchells & Butlers said at the end of last month that its energy bill had almost doubled to £150m on pre-pandemic costs. Alston Wholefoods, a village shop in Cumbria, has switched off its freezer and is instead using laminated pictures of products for customers to order, saving an estimated £3,000 on its annual bill.

Some small businesses fear they will be asked by the government to shut down this winter to conserve energy supplies. Others say the sudden increase in costs has left them fighting for survival.

Article from The Guardian, read the full story here.

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Visit us on Stand D54 at the PPMA Show 27-29 Sept 2022

Visit us on Stand D54 at the PPMA Show 27-29 Sept 2022

The leading UK event for process and packaging machinery, robots, and industrial vision.

See the efficiency and competitive advantage you can achieve with the biggest and most comprehensive line-up of processing and packaging solutions. Sectors covered include food, beverages, baking, pharmaceuticals, building supplies, pet care, and FMCG.

PPMA Show exhibitors showcase the latest in machinery and ancillary products. Browse products supplied by our exhibitors on our dedicated page to identify solutions to drive efficiency within your workplace.

We look forward to welcoming you to our stand at PPMA to see the latest machinery we have available and to discuss any new machinery requirements you may have.

PPMA 2022 Banner

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The best ice cream parlour in the UK

The best ice cream parlour in the UK

A Welsh ice cream company has once again been voted the UK’s best ice cream.

Minoli’s of Machen, near Caerphilly, has taken the coveted ‘Champion of Champions’ at the National Ice Cream Awards four times.

Minoli’s has had a parlour under the grandstand at the Royal Welsh Show since the 1990s, and the company has become famous for its cornet and tub sundaes with a Welsh flag.

Read the full story here on the ITV website

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Discover the magic inside Tetra Pak® Ingredient Dosers

Discover the magic inside Tetra Pak® Ingredient Dosers

Exceptional dosing accuracy and gentle handing of inclusions.

Find out how Tetra Pak refined the art of dosing with the perfect balance between the ice cream your customers will love, and the inclusions that will thrill them.

Tetra Pak® Ingredient Doser series for continuous dosing of fruit pieces, nuts, candies, and other ingredients – even sticky ingredients such as jam, cookie dough and the likes into ice cream.

With a redesigned lamella pump we greatly extended the lifetime on the wear parts.

With smart automation, we’ve made the ingredient dosers more intelligent to enable greater control and accuracy. You get more uniform product quality, less giveaway, less waste and lower costs.

Our new design assures gentle handling, enabling use of fragile ingredients and even distribution of sticky ingredients while preventing lumping and assuring consistent quality.

Further, the new design ensures safe, easy operation and maintenance – and secures food safety!

The series handles a wide capacity range, enabling ingredient flow rates from 10 – 1200 litres per/hour and units are available both in automatic and manual versions.

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Cattabriga PSK 185 wins Best New Product at ICA 2022

Cattabriga PSK 185 wins Best New Product at ICA 2022

The Cattabriga PSK 185 Pro won Best New Product at the ICA Ice Cream & Artisan Food Show at Harrogate in February 2022

Psk 185 pro is the new big-size pasteurizer by Cattabriga, equipped with high technology and ease of use. It allows treating both minimum and maximum charges with high flexibility and in an extremely short time.

Thanks to the three-level double heating system, consumption is reduced.

Phil Darvell with the Award Winning Cattabriga PSK 185 Pro

Highlights

  • High flexibility
  • Floating sensor and precision-cast pro spinner
  • Pro tap: removable and easy to clean even with a full hopper
  • Pro grid, to add powders during the heating phase
  • New lid
  • New emulsifier, easy to disassemble and clean
  • Dialog: remote assistance and monitoring system
  • App M2M Dialog

Ideal for

  • Extremely short time (both minimum and maximum charges) pasteurization
  • Special mixes treatment

See the complete Cattabriga range of Ice Cream machines here:
https://www.machineryworld.com/product-category/new-machines/product-tag/cattabriga/

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Why ice cream makes the perfect dessert for Valentines Day

Why ice cream makes the perfect dessert for Valentines Day

The dessert of love we all love

Saying that the USA is besotted with ice cream is an understatement considering that the average person consumes in the region of 44 pints of ice cream in a single year. While it’s common knowledge that ice cream makes you feel better, not everyone knows that it is also a rather potent aphrodisiac.

While eating a regular bowl of ice cream is undoubtedly a sensual experience that will put you in a good mood, nothing can compare indulging in a scoop or two of delectable gelato ice cream made with only the best ingredients you can find. If you want to turn ice cream into the most romantic dessert, you can even add a number of other in-the-mood-foods to your ice cream to boost its aphrodisiacal properties even more.

Carnal Chocolate

Chocolate is an aphrodisiac of ancient repute. Which is precisely why it is so popular on Valentine’s Day. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine. This stimulates dopamine production in the pleasure centers of the brain. It also contains a nice amount of anandamide which triggers a sense of well-being and exhilaration.

Chocolate inspiration for your next date night dessert

There are countless ways in which you can turn a serving of rich, dark, chocolate ice cream into a desirable summer dessert. A scoop of ice cream on a decadent chocolate brownie can become a romantic dessert, especially if you and your partner take turns feeding it to each other!
You can even just have your ice cream on its own. Especially if you experiment with mouth-watering flavor combinations such as orange and dark chocolate, double choc chip, chocolate and walnut, and chocolate caramel.

Gelato ice cream with the season’s sexiest fruit

Apart from looking downright luscious when eaten, figs are also known to contain strong libido-boosting properties. Want to end your evening on a high-note? Why not serve up a bowl or two of fabulous fig ice cream to get you and your partner in the mood. Serve your sultry ice cream in a sleek bowl, drizzle with honey. Then decorate the bowls with fresh fig slices for an unapologetic, erotic touch.

Why bananas are for lovers

Some people have the ability to eat a banana in such a way that you end up feeling dirty just watching them do it. Bananas contain a lesser-known group of enzymes called bromelain. And Bromelain is believed to increase a man’s sex drive. Women can benefit from eating bananas too since these super fruits are rich in potassium and Vitamin B2. And don’t forget the riboflavin that can give you a nifty energy boost between the sheets.

A sundae for your sweetie

A simple banana ice cream is sure to get the blood flowing to all the right places. Although you can step up your game a notch and put a modern, sexy spin on a traditional split by using banana ice cream, grilled banana halves and a generous drizzle of banana-rum sauce. Top it off with a few chunks of caramel fudge and a few red cherries and you have a summer dessert fit for a king.

Ice cream flavours you could be serving this Valentine’s Day

Ice cream is a classic treat year-round. Every season brings new ways to enjoy it. Whether it’s Christmas or Mother’s Day, it’s always a good way to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Ice Cream is Perfect for Valentine’s Day Because it’s a dessert-fueled holiday, ice cream is the perfect treat to gear towards customers in the Valentine’s Day Spirit. You can dress it up in a fancy sundae or shake, or let the flavours speak for themselves. Here’s a list of a few more flavours that are a must-serve this year:

Rose Petal

Nothing beats a dozen roses on Valentine’s Day – except maybe rose petal ice cream. This less-common flavour is perfect for you and your sweetheart. It’s sophisticated, light, and unexpected. A good way to make this is to blend together sugar and rose petals, simmer this with heavy cream, until the sugar is dissolved, and mix it into vanilla or sweet cream ice cream.

Salted Caramel

Salted caramel ice cream is popular for a reason: it’s perfect for anyone who wants something sweet, but not too sweet. The saltiness cuts through the flavour of the caramel. This makes it a unique option for anyone without a huge sweet-tooth.

Raspberry Sorbet

This is a different take on regular ice cream and it’s safe for vegans! Because raspberries have a tart taste, they’re perfect for sorbet. They don’t weigh down the flavour, making this a great option for people who don’t love traditionally sweet things.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

This classic ice cream flavour is a good choice for Valentine’s Day. It’s not too decadent or rich, while still being sweet and chocolatey. This option also works well for sundae bars because it’s simple enough to complement other toppings but it isn’t boring on its own.

9. Cherry Vanilla

This pretty pink ice cream will add some fun to your holiday. The cherries add a wash of colour to an otherwise plain treat. It’s sweet and light, perfect for a Valentine’s party or a night in with your significant other.

Classic Chocolate

There’s nothing more romantic than classic chocolate ice cream. It’s a major crowd-pleaser that’s simple enough to work well with other toppings or even a cone.
Whether they’re eating it at a party or on a date, in a cup or a cone, ice cream is always a good choice. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to enjoy it. These flavours will be a fun addition to your Valentine’s Day menu.

 

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Greg Jenner and Richard Osman discuss the history of ice cream on BBC Radio 4

Greg Jenner and Richard Osman discuss the history of ice cream on BBC Radio 4

Listen to Greg Jenner and his guests Dr Annie Gray and Richard Osman on BBC Radio 4 to get the inside scoop on the history of ice cream.

Listen to the discussion on BBC Radio 4 here

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Michael Portillo’s coast path adventure in Cornwall visits MW customer, Roskilly’s Ice Cream.

Michael Portillo’s coast path adventure in Cornwall visits MW customer, Roskilly’s Ice Cream.

On 15 September Channel 5 broadcast Michael Portillo’s south west coast path adventure – his final stretch in Cornwall, and takes in a coastline of coves, sub-tropical garden and smugglers’ creeks.

He also visited Roskilly’s Ice Cream a Machinery World customer who has a ROKK RFE 1200/2 twin barrel continuous freezer and ROKK RIF 1500 ingredient feeder which Michael is filmed using to fill some ice cream tubs.

Michael Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys. A former member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate from 1984 to 1997 and Kensington and Chelsea from 1999 to 2005.

ROKK’s RFE continuous freezer range comprises of 13 machines, each varying in size and power, but all being ideal for use in small laboratories all the way up to large factories. Equipped with self-contained Bitzer freon ‘refrigeration’ compressors, each machine in the RFE continuous freezer series has been designed for easy installation and increased mobility in the factory.

The ROKK RIF 1500 ice cream fruit feeder is a durable and highly flexible machine which allows for flavour enhancing clusters to be uniformly and consistently added to a continual flow of ice cream without risk of causing time consuming blockages.

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