Popping/puffing technology is an expansion technology for the production of healthy snacks. By means of temperature and pressure we can expand and form starchy grains and micropellets into healthy snack products for direct consumption.

We need starchy grains or micropellets. We cannot process powders and flours, we always need a sort of granulation. Inclusions like pulses, seeds and non-starchy grains can be added into the product mix. All ingredient mixes are subject to testing and there can occur differences between different varieties and harvests.

The Cerex processor is designed to produce puffed cakes. This is a flat (hockey puck) type of product with a styrofoamy structure. These products are often stacked in its packaging. The Pellex C+ processor is derived from the Cerex processor but modified to produce popped chips and snacks with a crunchy structure. These products are in most case wavy to create a good bag fill. Both machines make use of puffing/popping technology but the compression mechanisms and features are different in order to obtain different end products.

The weight of the end product can be influenced by changing the volume of ingredients that is inserted per die cavity. By playing with the feedplate bushing diameters, we can influence the weight of the final product.

The Incomec food processors are equipped with an in-house designed software that is the result of our long experience in this niche technology. All machine compressions can be precisely influenced to produce the final product you want to market. By influencing the machine compressions, the final texture can be influenced. The weight of the final product will also have an influence on the final texture. By playing with the parametrization and final product weight a food producer can decide what specific texture he brings to market.

We only have 1 size machines for industrial production build using a modular concept. If you want to reach higher capacities you just have to add machines in your line to grow your capacity. This makes our concept suitable for small as well as large food producers. Our lines are easily extendable once your market demand grows.

Popping/puffing is a dry production process. Main cleaning takes place using compressed air. For cleaning the dies and removing eventual carbonization, we deliver specific tools with the machines.