Reading Bakery Systems, headquartered in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, is a long-time global leader in the snack food industry, manufacturing technologically advanced pretzel manufacturing equipment and other commercial baking equipment to serve the biscuit, cookie, cracker, baked snack and pet treat industries.
The World’s Oldest Snack Food
Pretzel historians believe that pretzel-making dates back to the 6th or 7th century AD, when monks in southern France or northern Italy hand-shaped and baked long pieces of leftover dough to resemble the crossed arms of a person in prayer. The snacks, called “Pretiola” for “little reward,” were reportedly given to children as a reward for learning their prayers.
In the U.S., pretzels were popularized right here in Pennsylvania. Edwin I. Groff founded Reading Pretzel Machinery Company (the predecessor of Reading Bakery Systems and the first commercial pretzel bakery) in 1850.
Groff is also credited with patenting the first commercially-successful automatic pretzel twisting machine in 1951. It revolutionized the pretzel-making process and enabled bakers to make far more pretzels than was possible to do by hand.
Today, pretzels are made on highly automated production lines that are capable of producing several thousand pounds of pretzels per hour. Decades of innovation have led Reading Bakery Systems to introduce other pretzel machinery, including low pressure extruders, ultrasonic cutters, hot cookers, 2-pass baking systems, variable heat-flux ovens and multi-pass dryers.
Low Pressure Extrusion
With the Reading Pretzel Low Pressure (LP) Extruder, pretzel bakeries can create a wide variety of structural and flat extruded shapes on one production line, including hard pretzel shapes, sticks, braids, and other products. It has been completely redesigned to improve safety, efficiency and ease of cleaning.
Guillotine Cutter
Whether used as a standalone machine or integrated into an existing production frame and control system, the single-blade Reading Pretzel Guillotine Cutter cuts products before or after baking, and can create a pretzel as short as one inch (25 mm) at the press of a button. It can be operated continuously at up to 175 cuts per minute or on a cycle mode at speeds up to 50 cuts per minute.
Hot Cooker
The Reading Pretzel Automatic Hot Pretzel Cooker evenly cooks pretzels and pretzel-type products. It utilizes a bath or waterfall system to apply caustic solution, providing greater control over product texture and color before baking. A pinroll driven, stainless steel conveyor belt ensures consistent product transfer from the proofing conveyor to the tunnel oven.
Tunnel Oven
The Reading Pretzel SPECTRUM OVEN® is an extremely flexible platform for customers who wish to produce high volumes of pretzels and snacks (400-1000 kg/hr). It offers radiation, convection and conduction heat transfer options in a single modular design, making it an excellent choice for extruded pretzels and snacks. The easy-to-use system provides the operator with complete control of oven temperature, humidity, and product bake time.
A kiln or dryer module may be combined with an oven module to create a two-pass baking chamber that maximizes your available space. An optional Multi-Pass Dryer provides faster oven speeds, greater production throughput, and more process control.
As a leader in pretzel manufacturing equipment, Reading Bakery Systems is focused on innovation, reliability, ease-of-use, and worldwide service and customer support. Give us a call at (01) 610-693-5816 for more information, or click here to contact us online.