Nature's Mix

位于安大略省剑桥市的Nature’s Mix是一家生产健康格兰诺拉麦片的公司。该公司目前生产17种不同的格兰诺拉麦片混合物，供应给安大略省的健康食品市场。Nature’s Mix有兴趣扩大和自动化生产线，以增加产品供应，以满足不断增长的客户需求。格兰诺拉麦片混合物中独特的成分组合需要优化烹饪参数，包括温度和时间，混合方法和顶空气流。因此，为这种混合物选择合适的烹饪技术是一项挑战。为了获得最佳的煮熟的格兰诺拉麦片混合质量，烹饪设备应该能够控制温度，以给定的速度连续混合材料，并从系统中去除潮湿的空气。现有的技术不能满足所有这些要求。因此，该研究项目有两个目标：1)开发一种烹饪格兰诺拉麦片混合物的原型，并符合公司的规格；2)评估这项新技术对产品质量的影响。康内斯托加学院食品加工技术研究所（IFPT）的研究小组将进行实验，制作一种新技术设备的原型，该公司可以利用这种新技术在不改变产品质量的情况下大规模烹饪格兰诺拉麦片。自然组合将受益于健康食品市场的销售增长、生产规模扩大和创造新的就业机会。

Nature's Mix, located in Cambridge Ontario, is a producer of healthy granola mixes. The company currently produces 17 different granola mixes to supply to the health food market in Ontario. Nature's Mix is interested in expanding and automating their production line to increase product supply to meet growing customer demand.The unique combination of ingredients in the granola mix requires optimization of cooking parameters including temperature and time, mixing method, and air flow in the headspace. Therefore, choosing a suitable cooking technology for this kind of a mixture is challenging. To achieve optimum quality of the cooked granola mix, the cooking equipment should be capable of controlling temperature, continuously mixing the material at a given speed, and removing the moist air from the system. The existing technology does not meet all these requirements. Thus, the research project holds two objectives: 1) development of a prototype for cooking granola mix and that meets company specifications, and 2) evaluation of the effects of this new technology on product quality.The research team at Conestoga College's Institute for Food Processing Technology (IFPT) will conduct experiments to prototype an equipment with novel technology that the company can utilize in cooking granola at an elevated scale, but without altering the product quality. Nature's Mix will benefit through increased sales growth in the healthy food product market, scaled up production, and creation of new employment opportunities.