Bühler's Stefan Scheiber speaks at the Bakery Expert Conference at the company's Bakery Innovation Center. Photo courtesy of Bühler.
UZWIL, SWITZERLAND – Bühler used the opening of its extended and modernized Bakery Innovation Center (BIC) at its headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, to hold the first Bakery Expert Conference in the German-speaking countries July 5-6 with expert speakers and around 80 attendees.

“The industry is changing. This Expert Meeting is a great opportunity to stay up to date with the latest technologies and trends,” said Eva Pfahnl von Pfahnl Backmittel GmbH.

 The agenda included specialist papers by representatives from the bakery industry as well as workshops and demonstrations on clean-label and sponge dough topics.

The list of speakers included: Michael Kleinert, ZHAW: Challenges and opportunities in a digitized society; Michael Gusko, GoodMills Innovation GmbH: “Clean Label” – what does it imply for the supplier industry; Bert Strubbe, DSM Food Specialties: Declaration of enzymes – an issue that matters to us?; Markus Hombach, IREKS: Bakery goods with a strong character and declaration-friendly ingredients; Markus Schirmer, Bühler AG: Modern leadership methods using new technologies; Thomas Becker and Mario Jekle, TUM: Technologies of the future for specific product characteristics; and Nadina Müller, nutrition program manager at Bühler, who completed the two-day expert conference with her paper on “Sustainable solutions. The role that bread plays in food trends.”

On over 1,000 square meters, the BIC features Bühler solutions for the bakery industry, ranging from premix manufacturing to sponge dough production. The BIC enables customers to join forces with Bühler experts in order to develop novel products together and to utilize its state-of-the-art infrastructure for practice-oriented training courses.

The BIC offers Bühler customers a unique test environment equipped with the latest processing and production systems. Its modular structure allows customized technologies and plant concepts to be tested for every conceivable application. They range from raw materials handling to processing and analysis of end products. For this purpose, the Innovation Center has been equipped with cutting-edge technologies and automation systems, while at the same time meeting highest hygienic design standards.

The center provides services like the evaluation of blending qualities, sponge dough and hydration tests, proportioning and weighing trials, the automation of complete processing systems, and a raw materials quality service.

The training offered by the BIC ranges from standard modules to customized, special-purpose training courses. Since the start of its training services for the bakery industry, Bühler has offered continuing education courses to more than 2,000 customers in 250 training courses. For customer tests and continuing education, Bühler can rely on experts who have accumulated decades of experience.