Oven temperature can have a marked effect on the oven-spring, structure, appearance and texture of your baked goods. The SCORPION® 2 Profiling System from Reading Thermal will give you a precise picture of the temperatures in your commercial bakery ovens.
Reading Thermal, a Reading Bakery Systems brand located in Sinking Spring, PA, has been focused on measuring and understanding the commercial baking process for over 25 years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System which measures and maps the key baking parameters of temperature, air velocity, heat flux and humidity.
Why Measure Oven Temperature?
If you produce bread, artisan bread, biscuits, rolls, hamburger buns, cakes, or other bread products, you know oven temperature is responsible for physical and chemical reactions in dough/batter, and that temperatures that are too low or too high during baking can lead to changes in fermentation and humidity levels.
Too little heat can result in color that is too light. It can also cause the product structure to be too compact because few air bubbles developed in the baking process. This can produce a heavy and unappealing loaf with a pale or soft crust.
Too much heat coming from one direction in the oven can cause the bottoms of the loaves to burn before the crusts brown properly. The surface color will typically be too dark and the product may rise unevenly, resulting in a lot of surface cracks.
Measuring and controlling internal food temperature is also key to achieving food safety. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires commercial bakeries to validate and document process controls, or thermal kill steps, in an effort to reduce food borne pathogens, such as Salmonella spp, in ingredients and finished products.
How to Measure Oven Temperature
The Reading Thermal SCORPION® 2 Temperature Sensor Array is designed to measure temperature at product level, in fixed positions across the conveyor, and delivers a true representation of what your product is experiencing over time. Different types of pluggable sensors are available, including one designed for solid or tight mesh conveyors and one for open mesh conveyors.
The sensor array is connected to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and travels through the oven with your product(s), yielding a precise picture of temperature from side-to-side and end-to-end.
After gathering the data, the SCORPION® Software (SV8) Food Safety Module simplifies the lethality calculation and then generates a comprehensive report displaying cumulative log reduction. By combining this ease of measurement with robust data capture, the SCORPION® 2 System makes it simple to optimize your process and products while meeting food safety standards.
If you are experiencing inconsistent product quality, temperature profiling of your commercial bakery ovens may be the solution you’re looking for. You can count on the state-of-the-art Reading Thermal SCORPION® 2 Data Logger and our various sensors and sensor arrays. Call our headquarters in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online to learn more about our innovative products.