A communal, custom blending plant is being utilized by local food producers in Victoria, BC, as part of Kitchen Connect, an initiative of the charity the Victoria Community Food Hub Society.
Kitchen Connect - Growing Food Businesses
Kitchen Connect currently hosts over 20 local producers who use the communal kitchen space, from food trucks to catering companies, to bakers and tea blenders to ice cream and hot sauce producers.
The business incubation and processing facility opened its doors in 2023; part of the vision is making high-volume processing equipment in the kitchen available to the local community.
These pieces of equipment would allow small producers and farmers to create large batches of their products, which may otherwise have been out of reach for them financially and in terms of factory/production space.
Ultra Sanitary Equipment for Food Preparation
Kitchen Connect got in touch with Silverson Machines and invested in a custom blending plant to fulfil part of this vision. The blending plant comprises a custom Ultra Sanitary Bottom Entry Mixer and an Ultra Sanitary High Viscosity In-Line Mixer/Homogenizer. The use of the two mixers gives the blending plant the flexibility for food producers to determine the consistency they want for their product. It also allows this one plant to create high-quality batches of different food products, depending on which small producer is utilizing it, making it ideal for the communal kitchen. The Ultra Sanitary specification of the mixers makes them perfect for food preparation and processing and allows for easy cleaning between batches.
The blending plant is often used in conjunction with another piece of processing equipment: a precision dispensing machine. This equipment dispenses the exact amount of product needed into whichever container is being used by a particular producer. As such, the blending plant and dispensing machine are often rented together, allowing producers to quickly and efficiently create large, production-scale batches of their artisan products, while saving them time and money.
Small-scale food producers scale up with the Blending Plant
One producer making use of the Blending Plant has been using it to reduce locally grown tomatoes into tomato puree. The Bottom Entry mixer does the initial disintegration of the tomatoes down into a pulp. Then, the High Viscosity In-Line mixer/homogenizer is started. The product is circulated to reduce the tomatoes down further until the desired consistency and texture has been achieved.
The High Shear mixer is ideal for this application as it can handle higher viscosity products, such as tomato purees or sauces, without the need for additional feed pumps to move the product along. Interchangeable workheads also allow for greater versatility; these are available with Silverson mixers and give manufacturers greater control over the consistency of their mixes and can be changed depending on the desired results. Once the blending plant has discharged the producer’s tomato puree, the product is pasteurized and canned for shelf stability using other equipment in the kitchen.
Another local producer uses the blending plant to manufacture hot sauce. In conjunction with the dispensing machine, the producer can make a very large batch of hot sauce and then discharge it into 600 bottles in only an hour! Saving a considerable amount of time.
An Asset to the Local Community
The Silverson blending plant has helped fulfil the kitchen's vision of supporting local food producers as they scale up their products. Since installing the blending plant Kitchen Connect has been able to offer the community:
- Versatility - mixing plant capable of producing a variety of products
- Flexibility - allowing users of the blending plant to determine the consistency and texture they desire for their products
- Batch-to-batch consistency on a larger scale
- Scale up - production-scale manufacture without having to invest precious small business funds
- Time savings - producing large batches of food products in one go, rather than several preparation and manufacturing processes for smaller batches
- Co-packing - farmers can access services to turn their seasonal produce into value-added, processed products
Along with many other advantages stemming from the other versatile equipment which make up the complete kitchen.
To find out more about Kitchen Connect, please visit their website: kitchenconnectvictoria.com
