Meat
Bacon
Bacon offers more than just a savory taste. It has evolved into a versatile product that has been consumers’ favorite for centuries, whether smoked or unsmoked. Bacon’s appeal lies in its balance of flavor, affordability and availability. Perfecting bacon requires expertise throughout the entire process -from marination and curing to slicing and packaging- ensuring quality, taste, and consistency.
How to overcome challenges that demands for healthier alternatives and more natural ingredients raise?
Curing has been used to preserve meat for over five thousand years, and until the invention of refrigeration, curing using salts and spices was one of the most important methods of preserving meat to extend food supply. People grew to appreciate the delectable flavors and aromas associated with these techniques. Today, bacon producers are challenged to make their processes healthier with less salt, less functional ingredients, without nitrate and under green label certificate, while meeting food safety, yield, hygiene and high-quality requirements. With knowledge and understanding of the whole process and how to control and manage each step, GEA can help you get it right first time, every time.
2mm OptiFlex needles
Exceptionally high number of injection points with unique 2mm OptiFlex material improves brine distribution, prevents bent or broken needles, bone or skin damage and needle marks .
In-line smoking
Novel in-line smoking solution based on GEA CookStar spiral ovens to suit both naturally smoked or atomized smoked products, where the first spiral oven serves as a drying chamber and the second smokes and creates the final product.
Examples of bacon applications
GEA smoked bacon products line
Controlled defrosting, consistent brine mixing and storage, optimal injection and protein activation and excess brine return, GEA’s marination and curing line not only provides a smooth process step, it improves brine uptake and delivers the industry benchmark in brine distribution and retention with the dense 2 mm needle injector pattern. The integrated inline smoking solution using the GEA CookStar spiral oven offers an efficient alternative to batch-oven smoke processes. The first spiral oven serves as a drying chamber and the second smokes and creates the final product. After cooling/freezing GEA’s slicing and packaging solutions complete the line.
Discover a typical bacon process
By industrial defrosting in a sealed environment, using steam under a near vacuum, frozen bellies can be defrosted quickly and safely, without compromising product quality and overall yield. This method eliminates the risk of contamination and results in better retention of meat juices, maintaining yield during further processing. GEA's ColdSteam T offers substantial cost-efficiency and financial benefits, often recovering its initial investment within a year.
For premium-quality sliced and packed bacon, precise marination and curing are crucial. GEA's 2mm OptiFlex needles ensure an exact brine injection, delivering exceptional brine distribution and reducing blockages. This process results in an evenly cured product with minimal needle marks, further enhanced by the MultiShaker, which gently massages the product to close needle holes and prevent brine loss.
GEA offers an inline solution for smoking meats, using its CookStar spiral ovens, eliminating the need for traditional smokehouses. This efficient, compact process allows for both natural and atomized smoking, where wood condensates like beech provide healthier, customizable flavors for “clean label” products. Inline smoking ensures uniform color and flavor with reduced labor, energy, and space. Customers report enhanced product consistency, higher capacity, and lower maintenance. GEA's solution supports flexibility for smoked and non-smoked items in a single oven and promises future real-time data tracking for precise production control.
Preserve the product by freezing the bacon.
Slicing bacon products in the most efficient way maximizes product utilization, optimizes output, improves yield, and reduces give-away. Our slicing machines are reliable, flexible, and easy to operate and maintain. Loading of shingle, stack, zig-zag, shaved, interleaved, or any contour portions is also done in the most efficient way. Our efficient loading systems feed the portions fully automatically from the slicer to a thermoformer, traysealer, or horizontal flowpacker. Additionally, we offer semi-automatic loading systems to suit your specific needs.
Packaging plays a key role in ensuring quality and hygiene throughout the food supply chain, from production to the consumer. GEA develops thermoforming packaging machines, labeling, marking and automation equipment to meet the high demands of food manufacturers.
Products & Technologies
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Brine Preparation Equipment
The starting point for successful marinating is a homogeneously, under controlled conditions, mixed and stored brine or marinade.
Cooking, Roasting, Grilling and Smoking Equipment
Know-how to cook a product and understanding the principles of cooking is the basis for the art of cooking. The GEA Ovens help you to serve the food chain with attractive, healthy and innovative food.
Defrosting & Tumbling
Whether you defrost, melt or thaw using a refrigerator, heating your product or add cold water. It is very hard to control the way your product is reacting and you usually need long time frames to do it.
Injecting Equipment
Whether you produce poultry, ham, bacon or other meat products, brine injection can help you add flavor, juiciness and optimize shelf life while increasing yield.
Other applications
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