Par Baked and Frozen Goods
Convenience, Trends & Innovations in par-baked and frozen goods
Convenience is the holy grail of the modern food industry. This trend, as well as rapid advances in frozen food technology, offers both opportunities for bakers, in terms of the range of baked and frozen goods they can offer their customers, and solutions to their own production constraints.
There is a strong and growing worldwide trend towards increased convenience in everything from shopping and packaging to meals and entertainment. And nothing offers more convenience to the consumer or the baker than par baked and frozen goods.
For the consumer, frozen foods, including baked products, offer a myriad of benefits. It is cost-effective, has a longer shelf life and can be prepared in minutes. And, with the rapid advances in technology, frozen food not only tastes great, but offers good nutritional value.
However, even as consumers face ever more hectic schedules and constantly look for more convenient options, they are not willing to compromise on quality or health. Fortunately for these consumers, their options are vast and growing continuously as food producers respond to the demand. And this demand is growing despite the economic conditions.
The range of frozen food options is staggering and growing all the time: from ready-made sauces, dough mixes, frozen pastries, frozen vegetables, desserts and cakes, pre-portioned and packed meats, to complete meals ready to heat-and-eat.
While customers expect to have access to their favourite baked goods, freshly baked 24 hours a day, they are also looking for interesting new options. As a result, a wide variety of sweet and savoury frozen baked products are becoming available in retail and grocery stores. These convenient frozen products are baked for a few minutes and become freshly baked goods.
In particular, artisan bread is becoming a lucrative market in the par baking segment of the industry. Artisan bread making has never meshed well with commercial baking. These breads are typically made by skilled, independent bakers who have honed their baking skills through years of experience and training so they can develop unique breads for customers.
While this style of artistry is probably most closely associated with French bakers, artisan bakers are found all over the world.
Until par baking brought artisan bread to the masses, it was not always an option for consumers. Because of the amount of time and skill required for the process of making ciabatta, foccacia, or French bread, the costs per loaf are higher. Additionally, artisan skills are in short supply considering the critical skills shortage in the country and in the baking industry. The par baked and frozen goods offer solutions to all these issues.
As the demand for artisan, speciality and sweet and savoury frozen baked products grows, it creates opportunities for bakers to provide these products to their customers. Fortunately, rapid advances in technology and solutions from various ingredient suppliers make it easier for bakers who want to tap into this market. Frozen products ensure bakers can reach markets even in remote destinations, and can ensure availability of a wider range of products.
Hi-tech processes such as blast freezing and cryogenic freezing are now used to freeze products at a fast rate, preventing large ice crystals from forming from the water molecules in the food, which can damage the cell membranes and tissue. Fast freezing means that the frozen product does not lose its form and structure and retains vitamins, nutrients and flavourings.
In addition, technologies such as cryogenic freezing have extended the range of products that can be frozen. Cryogenic freezing has an extremely fast freezing rate of five centimetres per hour, if not faster, compared to 0.1 centimeters per hour in a normal household freezer. Due to the extremely fast loss of temperature, up to 95% of micro-organisms survive the freezing process. This means that essential micro-organisms, such as yeast in baked goods, can be frozen, easily stored and transported and are activated again once thawed.
The introduction of new freezing techniques, combining formulation and processing, make it possible to progress even further in reducing this last stage, while at the same time, offering excellent dough stability, tolerance and oven spring in the finished product. Freezer-to-oven is a new concept developing predominantly for pastries. Fermentation occurs during baking, immediately after removal from the freezer, without cooling.
The benefits include a frozen product that takes up minimal space during storage and transport, and a steam-free baking technique, involving direct baking without a thawing stage. This method improves the taste and visual appeal of the finished product.
But it is not only consumers that benefit from the convenience of frozen goods supplied by bakers and retailers. Bakers can significantly extend their baked product offerings, reduce costs and inventory, and ensure consistency through the use of frozen and par-baked products made available by some of the leading suppliers.
Par baked and frozen goods are becoming more popular in bakeries facing increasingly tight production schedules, ingredient shortages and cost increases, as well as a critical skills shortage. What could be more convenient in a bakery than simply loading a tray of frozen goods into a preheated oven, and presenting your customers with an array of delicious, freshly baked goods a few minutes later?
One of the most important benefits is the ability to bake to just the right amount at various times of the day to ensure customers on their way to work, at lunch time and on their way home can buy just-out-the-oven hot and fresh baked goods of the same excellent quality.
Pies remain a stalwart in the frozen and ready-to-bake industry, and in addition to the simply bewildering range of pies available, there are also several pie manufacturers to choose from. RCL Foods, Just Pies, Rhodes Food Group and Iqlaas Foods to name but a few.
There are a number of Par Baked and Frozen Goods suppliers in South Africa –
Bake it Easy produce a wide range of tasty frozen products including frozen dough, confectionery products and bakery products. Frozen Dough Products offers frozen rolls and Artisan breads, Ciabatta and Panini, croissants, doughnuts, sponges, Danish pastries and tart bases.
Deeghuys – Deeghuys was the first company in South Africa to sell prepared frozen dough products, previously only accessible to bakeries, to the Retail Market for Home-use. The Deeghuys products are cost-effective, time efficient and these easy-to-use products allow users to be creative in the preparation of the products and to enjoy it.
With more than 500 delicious supreme quality products in our extensive range, food lovers can find the perfect treat for every occasion. Notwithstanding such an extensive selection, Deeghuys will continue to grow their product range through ongoing food innovations.
The Deeghuys’s product offerings are categorized as follows:
Product categories: Frozen, Chilled, Baked, Ready-to-eat, Ready-made-meals, Gluten Free Range, Banting Friendly Range and goods Freshly Baked on the day.
Goosebumps – Traditional frozen bakery products such as bread, rolls, bagels, pastry, doughnuts and tarts available from Goosebumps. Goosebumps supplies a wide variety of delicious frozen products that can be ready for sale in an hour. Our cost-effective range – offering both convenience and superior quality – makes perfect business sense for in-store bakers wishing to optimise efficiencies, minimise wastage and empower their team.
Hot Bake – For 33 years we have been mastering our art and serving customers delicious and authentic bakery products. We have a wide variety of freshly baked and ready-to-bake frozen bakery products.
Either visit one of our two Johannesburg stores or place an order online for delivery or collection. Products purchased are frozen unless stated otherwise.
All frozen products sold by Hotbake® have been manufactured under the highest food safety standards in the world.
Our product range includes Artisan Breads, Baked Cupcakes, Biscuit Dough, Celebration Cakes, Cookies, croissants, Danish Pastries, Doughnuts, Eclairs, Muffins, Muffin Batters, Parbaked Pizza Bases, Puff Pastry and Tart Bases to name but a few. A packaging range will be available soon.
With the rising costs of petrol, electricity and commodity costs, more and more HotBake customers are choosing to buy convenience products, freshly baked and fully iced cakes, then re-selling them. It makes perfect sense. Purchasing fully finished products means the hard work is done. Products are delivered packaged and ready to go. The only thing left to do is add a markup.
Having orders delivered also reduce petrol consumption and wear and tear on cars. Deliveries are possible up to 60km from either branch.
Iqlaas Foods – Iqlaas Foods is the house of the Penny Wise, Pastry Pride, McBean and Florida brands of frozen foods. Each brand has it’s own niche` in the frozen food market with Penny Wise & Pastry Pride in the, pastry and snack market.
Iqlaas Foods also has an exciting range of Halaal pies including Chicken Tikka, Chicken Tandoori, Cottage Pie and Chicken Sausage Roll, they also supply mini pies.
Just Pies – Our pies are not only tasty, they also represent a sensible choice as we use no meat substitutes and no trans fatty acid pastry, thereby supplying the consumer with a great quality and wholesome pie. We offer 24 flavours and varieties to choose from to satisfy a wide range of pallets.
We are also certified halaal by SANHA.
Having grown consistently each year, we now produce thousands of pies every day for delivery to customers across KwaZulu-Natal, together with excellent service and consistency.
QUANTITIES IN BOXES
Premier Frozen X 30 per box
Puff Frozen X 40 per box
Cornish Pasty Frozen X 36 per box
Sausage Rolls Frozen X 35 per box
Cheese Grillers Frozen X 35 per box
Cocktail Sausage Rolls Frozen X 200 per box
Burger Pies Frozen X 30 per box
2 kg Pastry Rolls X 5 per box
Baked pies X 20 per box
RCL Foods – From our early days in chicken, we offer an extensive range of product solutions including chicken, pies, mayonnaise, sugar, flour, peanut butter, rusks and, more recently, spreads and dairy cream alternatives.
Piemans – With delightfully authentic pastry, generous fillings and satisfying flavours.
RFG Foods has a growing portfolio of strong and resilient brands which include Rhodes Quality, Bull Brand, Squish, Pakco, Hinds, Southern Coating and Bisto as well as their Bakery brands; Magpie, Today, Mama’s, Big Jack and Man’s Meal.
The product range includes canned fruit, jam, vegetable and meat products, bottled salads, fruit juices, fruit purees and concentrates, dry packed foods, fresh and frozen ready meals, pastry-based products and dairy products.
When it comes to RFG Bakery products, quality and innovation is a given. With a delicious and versatile frozen range, they provide homemade goodness for all occasions with different formats such as pies, sausage rolls, puffs and raw pastry. Each product is designed with you in mind, making sure you can get a quality product at the right time, every time.
Rich Products Corporation remains a world leader in the frozen bakery market.
Making a meal and baking from scratch will always have its place but in the modern world it is increasingly complemented by convenience food products that take some of the ‘hard work’ out of baking whilst adding variety, consistency and speed of preparation.
Speak to your ingredient suppliers to ensure you have explored all the exciting options, both in creating frozen baked products for your customers and in maximising your product offering and easing your production process by using some of the innovative frozen and par baked options available to the baking trade.
Wheatfield offers a range of frozen and par-baked products. We are specialist in our field and are entrenched in the supply of FROZEN PRODUCTS, PAR BAKED BAKERY PRODUCTS and SPECIALITY dry products. Their range includes Breads, Artisan Breads, Croissants, Bagels, Ciabatta, Panini, Rolls, Focaccia, Pizza Bases, Puff Pastry, Danish Pastries, Baguettes and Muffins .
