Helping Bakeries Keep Up with Demand

Commercial bakeries may sometimes rely on time-tested recipes that set their products apart from their competitors, right down to branding featuring a picture of grandma pulling a single, steaming loaf of bread from a wood-fired oven. But make no mistake, these are businesses with skilled craftsman using sophisticated machines to turn out loaf after loaf, day and night, to meet production targets and delivery quotas.

Bakeries need to keep their ovens in good working order to maintain their output of high-quality products, and, as with any food-handling enterprise, that means keeping them clean and free of residue as the production cycle continues shift after shift.

Every baking facility has a sanitation standard operating procedure they follow built around the specific needs of their equipment, as well as recommendations from suppliers of their cleaning chemicals, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or the US Department of Agriculture.

And anyone who has ever reviewed the OSHA standard 1910.263 for bakery equipment knows the regular and proper cleaning and maintenance of equipment is a key factor for keeping the crew safe, the first and most important job of any bakery shift manager.

At Fuller Custom Brush, we know the bakery business backwards and forward. That’s because we’ve been working with commercial bakeries and baking equipment manufacturers for more than seven decades to design and supply the brushes needed to keep the production line rolling.

We custom-make conveyor cleaning brushes to meet any bakery’s needs. Our systems are designed for any system any baker can imagine. If you can bake with it, we can make a brush system to keep it clean and operational, by eliminating buildup and carry-over.

We’ve developed countless bakery-brush setups for clients, using our knowledge of sizing, fill material and density, and bakery operations to find the best solution for the job. Sanitation crews often spend their time scraping off the buildup that hardens while the conveyor is in use, stretching downtime. Our system removes much of the buildup more quickly, because it is in action before the buildup can solidify.

Our experience shows that many conveyors can benefit from a two-brush installation with one brush on the top and one on the bottom. We can make brushes to keep cleated plastic conveyor bands free of buildup. Urethane belts, heavy plastic belts with the grid, oil-tempered wire, and woven-mesh belts are all using our bakery brushes to stay clean and operational.

“We’re helping to solve the problems our clients bring to us,” says Lisa Moeder, director of the custom products sales division, who heads the Fuller Custom Brush team. “Our brushes do the job and keep the operation up and running.”

It’s not just the conveyor systems. Many bakeries have found our brushes are the best way to keep loaf pans and bun pans clean in between batches. They need to be specifically designed for each bakery, but that’s all part of producing custom brushes. Removing baked-on sesame seeds from a bun pan can be a real chore that takes manpower and increases costs. Eliminate that added expense with a purpose-built bun pan brush and increase margin. And trade secrets are safe with us.

Once a bakery discovers our capabilities they start thinking about several other jobs where our brushes can excel, including product handling, where our brushes guide finished goods from oven to cooling rack to packaging with minimal contact.

Our Sentinel Series brushes may be a great starting point for any bakery using a conveyor system. We’ve got this system dialed in and, because we know the capabilities up and down, we can dial it in for any system. The Guardsman Conveyor Cleaning Kit is another brush installation that’s just what many bakeries need to increase productivity. But we can also customize the design to suit any bakery’s specific needs.

We can build other brushes to your exact specification for use in the makeup area or for cleaning the tools of the trade. Spreading flour over work surfaces, applying egg washes, distributing seeds, or cleaning up, we can create the tools your skilled craftsman can use to bring out the best in your operation.

Bakeries that keep their equipment cleaner and running better, see dividends in increased production, reduced labor cost, better margins, and greater worker satisfaction. Talk to us today and learn how we can help develop a full line of brushes to make your bakery run more smoothly.

Contact Fuller Custom Brush today.