Food in the spray
Assisted by DANI LASA. Pictures of Mugaritz: When we started working in the research department, it was clear that we always had to have two looks: one for the restaurant and another for products that could have a place in the market or in society. We started working with siphons, aerated foods, and we thought that maybe this system could serve the benefit of the foods people cook. We started working on this idea, we included a lot of topics... We talked to the magicians and they found it interesting. That's how the whole story started.
Assisted by IÑIGO MARTÍNEZ DE MARAÑÓN. More places to stay in Azti-Tecnalia: This collaboration began in 2005. Both partners were looking for complementarity. We come from the scientific-technical field, but we are not cooks, while in Mugaritz they are cooks but they lacked scientific and technical knowledge to develop certain products.
Assisted by DANI LASA. Pictures of Mugaritz: We are cooks, but we don’t physically know what happens in food. They often have to explain to us what happens in a mayonnaise, or in a milk, or when a sugar is burned. Because when we know what's going on there, our chances are wide open. So we need to figure out what's in the base, and that's what Azti gave us. And Azti, on the other hand, needed a certain creative team.
Assisted by IÑIGO MARTÍNEZ DE MARAÑÓN. More places to stay in Azti-Tecnalia: They were making Mugaritz's foams using a siphon. Many of these developments take place at the kitchen level, and their stability and shelf life are often very short. In addition, the churro mass is very difficult to manipulate. Therefore, we have had to design the whole process to be able to manipulate this mass, to treat it, to reach the consumer in the best possible quality, to be safe, and to maintain this quality throughout the storage time.
Assisted by DANI LASA. Pictures of Mugaritz: We initially thought we could include in those siphons or bombs items that would later be expanded or emulsified. On the one hand, because any pasta – a cake, a bread... – needs wind inside. But we realized that this was not the only advantage: in this case, the fact that the can itself is pressurized allows the food to last longer.
Assisted by IÑIGO MARTÍNEZ DE MARAÑÓN. More places to stay in Azti-Tecnalia: We had to reformulate the recipe to give this mass, which was stable for 15 days, an expiration of two months. A dough that is stable in small machines may not be stable in large machines of the food industry. We have been adapting the formulation and in this work, the team that Azti and Mugaritz have shared has been very important. These people are in both institutions; when they are in Aztin they are thinking of Mugaritz, while when they are in Mugaritz they are thinking of Aztin. One of these people is a chemist and the other two are cooks.
This is the experimental kitchen of Azti-Tecnalia. Here we work on new formulations. We also have electrodevices because we want to see how the consumer will use our products. In fact, we design products aimed at the consumer. Then, as we want to bring these products to the industry, we test the formulations in pilot machines, similar to those in the industry, so that we can know the behavior of our formulations in the face of these treatments.
Here we have a kind of Thermomix, but much bigger; instead of a liter it can make 30-50 liters. We produce mass under industrial conditions. Because in order to achieve our goal, we must also influence the process. That is, if we want a aerated product, we must not only introduce air into the aerosol, but also mix the mass well so that it receives as many air molecules as possible.
Assisted by DANI LASA. Pictures of Mugaritz: We at Mugaritz will make a traditional recipe – a tempura, a cake or a churro – and then gradually, in this process of industrialization, in this climbing protocol, many conditions are included: the expiration date, what kind of processes must be done to the dough, how do we want the consumer to know this... What does that mean? That many components change, that many processes change, but that the final must resemble that first.
Assisted by IÑIGO MARTÍNEZ DE MARAÑÓN. More places to stay in Azti-Tecnalia: The process was rather strange. We have visited several companies that fill aerosols, but they worked with deodorants and this type of products; not with food. When we went to these companies, they asked us in surprise not what we wanted to ship. Since we had a patent pending at the time, we couldn’t tell them what we wanted to do. We have traveled from all over the world to get the machines that are currently in use in the factory.
ASSISTED BY FELIX EGUÍA. Pictures of CyL Ibersnacks: There was no precedent. We studied the market and had to find companies that would develop the technology for packaging masses of different viscosities. The key to this project is, on the one hand, the imagination of Andoni Aduriz, on the other hand, the collaboration with Azti, but also an enormous industrial development. In fact, all the technology we have used has never been used for this purpose.
Assisted by IÑIGO AGUINAGALDE. Pictures of New Food Spray: We're in the dry ingredients warehouse. We have a small screen next to the cooking machine to decide what recipe and how much we need to make. From there, the machine sends everything. From the tubes, flour, fiber, milk, etc. he sends them and all this is collected in a hopper.
These machines collect and mix all the ingredients. You can choose the time and the speed. It is then heated and cooled. For people to understand, this is similar to a Themromix.
Once the product comes here, we pick it up in that tank and put it in here. First, we introduce pressure and product. Then, weigh it, mark it, put the cap on, and put it in the boxes.
We have two lines, one for less slimy products and another for making churros. One goes faster than the other, but we produce about 1500-2000 cans/hour. Together with another company, we have had to develop a special technology because the churros can not enter from here.
ASSISTED BY FELIX EGUÍA. Pictures of CyL Ibersnacks: We have two lines. One through Mercadona, where we sell churros, pancakes and pastry cream, and on the other hand, we are about to enter the HORECA channel, that is, in hospitality, kitchen and catering, with tempura, oplitos and a cheese. At the moment, we produce 200,000 pots every week, and we hope to reach five and a half million – six million pots this year.
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