Increasing productivity and reducing energy consumption in the pizza industry by the synergetic combination of cooking technologies

Abstract

Currently, there is a growing interest in increasing productivity while reducing energy consumption and emissions of air pollutants in the restaurant industry. In this regard, we studied the use of hot air, microwaves, superheated steam, infrared, and magnetic induction, and their combinations for the case of the pizza industry. Pizzas cook in hot air impingement ovens were selected as a base case scenario. The quality properties of the pizzas produced by each technology were determined using instrumental techniques. Energy consumption and CO2 emissions were measured as well. Then, we explored the combination of technologies that minimize cooking time and found that it can be reduced by 50% when using infrared in the last stage of the cooking process in hot air impingement ovens. This combination of cooking methods reduces the 27% energy consumption and 27.1% of the CO2 emissions while retaining the desired quality properties of the pizza. Practical applications This work was developed in collaboration with a well-known international manufacturer of cooking equipment. This company, like several other communities, is aware that due to environmental and economic problems, the development of cleaner and more efficient technologies is urgent. However, most of the time, changes in any cooking equipment are related to changes in the quality of the final product. Thus, beyond the need for guiding principles to measure energy efficiency, there is a need for guidelines to measure product quality. Our work addresses those needs for the case of pizza, which is an international bakery product.