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Hygienic pastry and cooling technologies for efficient bakery production
New MULTIVAC Group solutions improve pastry handling and in-line cooling for industrial bakeries.
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Industrial bakeries increasingly seek equipment that improves hygiene, reduces manual handling and optimises throughput. At the 2025 International Bakery Awards in London (10 December 2025), two solutions from the MULTIVAC Group were recognised for combining hygiene-oriented design with process efficiency: the PROGRESSA pastry machine from FRITSCH and the Cooling@Packing system for in-line product cooling.
These technologies respond to a common question among bakery professionals: how to improve pastry production and cooling efficiency without compromising product quality or hygiene?
Hygiene-oriented design for premium pastry processing
The PROGRESSA pastry system is designed for semi-automatic production of laminated and filled pastries in medium-scale industrial environments. It follows the design philosophy established with FRITSCH’s IMPRESSA bread line (introduced in 2023), but adapted for delicate pastry work where residue buildup, belt accessibility and fast sanitation cycles are operational priorities.
The machine includes several engineering features relevant to hygienic processing:
- Smooth, easy-to-clean surfaces and rounded corners to reduce accumulation of dough residues.
- Watertight threads and protected components to limit ingress during washdowns.
- A linear quick-release mechanism that reduces belt tension within seconds, improving access to areas such as the infeed conveyor to the satellite head.
- Removable “Omega drive” belts, which can be detached rapidly for cleaning, allowing thorough sanitation of otherwise hard-to-reach points.
These design elements support applications where hygiene and cleaning time strongly affect operating efficiency, such as laminated pastry production, filled dough items and premium bakery goods that require precise handling.
Integrating cooling directly into thermoforming packaging
The MULTIVAC Cooling@Packing system enables bakery products to be cooled inside the vacuum chambers of a thermoforming packaging machine. By relocating the cooling stage to the packaging line, producers can load products directly after baking, which addresses a frequent workflow challenge in high-output facilities: how to package hot bakery goods without waiting for lengthy cooling cycles?
Key technical aspects include:
Integrating cooling directly into thermoforming packaging
The MULTIVAC Cooling@Packing system enables bakery products to be cooled inside the vacuum chambers of a thermoforming packaging machine. By relocating the cooling stage to the packaging line, producers can load products directly after baking, which addresses a frequent workflow challenge in high-output facilities: how to package hot bakery goods without waiting for lengthy cooling cycles?
Key technical aspects include:
- Hot items such as baguettes, bread loaves or biscuits can be transferred directly from the oven to the packaging machine using robotic loading systems.
- During vacuum evacuation, product temperature drops from approximately 95 °C to around 30 °C in a few seconds.
- Faster cooling reduces the need for dedicated cooling space, lowers energy use compared to ambient or forced-air cooling, and increases overall throughput by shortening the time between baking cycles.
The system can be integrated into MULTIVAC thermoforming packaging machines designed for high-capacity bakery operations, where reduced cooling times contribute to higher line efficiency and improved product shelf life.
Positioning within the bakery equipment market
The PROGRESSA pastry machine competes in the segment of semi-automatic pastry production lines designed for industrial hygiene compliance and reduced cleaning times. Comparable systems with hygiene-focused construction are offered, for example, by RONDO in its mid-capacity pastry lines, which also feature removable belts and accessible modules. Differences between such systems typically concern belt removal mechanisms, surface geometry and the number of manual steps required during sanitation.
Cooling@Packing, by contrast, addresses a niche where few directly comparable solutions exist, since vacuum-assisted in-line cooling is less common in bakery production. Traditional cooling relies on ambient or forced-air tunnels, which require more space and longer cycle times. In this context, Cooling@Packing provides an alternative workflow for producers seeking compact, integrated high-throughput cooling.
www.multivac.com
Positioning within the bakery equipment market
The PROGRESSA pastry machine competes in the segment of semi-automatic pastry production lines designed for industrial hygiene compliance and reduced cleaning times. Comparable systems with hygiene-focused construction are offered, for example, by RONDO in its mid-capacity pastry lines, which also feature removable belts and accessible modules. Differences between such systems typically concern belt removal mechanisms, surface geometry and the number of manual steps required during sanitation.
Cooling@Packing, by contrast, addresses a niche where few directly comparable solutions exist, since vacuum-assisted in-line cooling is less common in bakery production. Traditional cooling relies on ambient or forced-air tunnels, which require more space and longer cycle times. In this context, Cooling@Packing provides an alternative workflow for producers seeking compact, integrated high-throughput cooling.
www.multivac.com
