The wide range of processes used in the agri-food industry are designed to meet two objectives: firstly, to produce food that is edible and safe to eat, and secondly, to improve its stability and preservation over time.

In particular, heat treatment plays a key role in the food industry. They are used in a wide variety of applications to modify the appearance, texture, taste, digestibility and hygiene of products. In this way, raw materials that may be unfit for consumption or unappetising in their primary forms can be made digestible, tasty and healthy.

For dry and powdered products such as grains, herbs, spices or flours, the range of possible heat treatments goes from cooking to steaming/bleaching, including drying, sterilisation, toasting or roasting. These different applications are distinguished from one another by the intensity of the time and temperature scales applied, as well as by the control of product humidity and the atmosphere in the heat treatment reactor.

Our Spirajoule heated screw conveyor provides optimum control of these different process parameters. On the one hand, it ensures good control of residence time thanks to dispersion-free conveying, and on the other, it transmits thermal energy by regulating its screw temperature to the nearest degree. Steam can also be injected through a set of nozzles distributed along the length of the machine, to accelerate heat transfer and control the humidity of the product and the reactor’s internal environment. These features make it a versatile tool, applicable to a huge variety of products and applications