This year’s Snackex, the trade fair for savoury snacks and nuts, which recently took place in Hamburg/Germany, was again the destination for numerous representatives of the entire snack industry. In 2021, the event had been postponed due to the pandemic. The exhibitors’ offerings ranged from ingredients to processing systems and packaging solutions.

By Dr. Bernhard Reichenbach

Visitors to Snackex 2022 were able to find out about new technologies and trends from around 150 exhibitors and make contact with suppliers, decision-makers, distributors, retailers and customers. Unfortunately, the “European Snacks Association (ESA)” as organizer was unable to provide any facts and figures on the trade fair afterwards – such as visitor numbers and the like in particular.

The trade show presented the entire product spectrum for the production and packaging of savoury snacks and nuts. Suppliers of snack pellets were represented as well as manufacturers of extrusion lines or suppliers of measuring equipment.

Whether it’s snack coatings and snack items, tortillas or tacos: With a broad portfolio of purely special vegetable flours based on corn and pulses, GoodMills Innovation (www.goodmillsinnovation.com) offered custom-fit solutions for the snack sector. The company has extensive expertise in coatings. “For coated nuts and other snacks, it simply comes down to the crunch factor”, Dr Kerstin Burseg, Head of Research & Product Development, emphasized. “The bite, but also the flavour development, absolutely has to be right – we have reliable solutions that are technologically and sensory convincing.”

Among other things, the supplier presented its Snackmaxx Masa flours made from corn, which are suitable for savoury as well as sweet snack products like tortilla chips, wafers or coatings. They are gluten-free and clean label, and – since they are available in a variety of granulations – can be used in a wide range of snacks. Similarly, the company’s range of legume flours enables protein claims that appeal to nutrition-conscious consumers. “We can also use our legume flours to positively influence the dough properties and thus the product quality, for example of stacked chips,” noted Dr Kerstin Burseg.

Ingredient supplier Ingredion (www.ingredion.com) has expanded its offerings with new dietary fruit fibres – branded Fibertex CF 502 and Fibertex CF 102 in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, with availability in other regions expected later this year. The clean label texturizing ingredients are made from unutilized citrus processing side-streams and can improve nutritional profiles and label appeal in a wide range of applications. They shall deliver a unique texture, enable the replacement of costly ingredients and can help extend and stabilize texture over shelf-life to reduce environmental impact by reducing food waste.

“Fibertex CF citrus fibres contain more than 90 percent dietary fibre, and their inherent functionality can replace ingredients such as fats, hydrocolloids and modified starches, helping to reduce fat, sugar and calories in a range of applications,” Constantin Drapatz, EMEA Senior Marketing Manager for Clean & Simple Ingredients, explained. The fibres enable “source of fibre” or “high in fibre” claims, which present consumer appeal and on-shelf.

At Snackex, Ishida (www.ishidaeurope.com) underlined its role as a leading global supplier of complete snack packaging solutions. On show was iTPS (integrated Total Packaging System), which, according to the manufacturer, is the only fully integrated snack packaging system on the market that combines weighing, bagging and quality control.

The highly competitive snack market demands production systems that are both powerful and flexible. The iTPS combines a high-performance CCW-RV multihead weigher with the Inspira vertical form-fill-seal machine, which is specially designed for snack products and is considered the fastest of its kind in the world. Both machines are well matched to each other and have a central control system. Line speeds of up to 130 bags per minute for crisps and up to 200 bags per minute for extruded snacks are possible. Users also benefit from high weight accuracy and packaging quality.

The integrated Inspira form-fill-seal machine processes a wide variety of film types and packaging formats such as tubular, gusseted, stand-up and chain bags. Automatic centring and clamping functions ensure consistent and reliable production.

BluePrint Automation (BPA) (www.blueprintautomation.com) offers a compact high speed case packing solution for automatic forming, vertical loading and closing of cases or trays with snack bags: “The SnackMaster 200 series is the ultimate compact packaging machine for high speed vertical snack packaging requirements,” explained Key Account Manager Aldrin Saarloos. “Its default configuration, the SnackMaster 200, fully automates snack bag handling and the vertical loading process – on edge and flat or combined – of RSC (regular slotted container) cases and/or trays. The new Snackmaster 200i is also equipped with a fully integrated RSC case erector and tape closer.

Its smart construction significantly simplifies changeovers, as no format parts are required. It is also fully auto adjust, making it even more easy to adapt to future packing needs. With its narrow footprint (width 1,480 mm) this automated solution suits any customer layout. “Its ergonomic and open design provides an easy access and creates optimized process overview”, Aldrin Saarloos noted.