Elea Smoothcut With Tayto On The BBC

Tayto, the third largest snack producer in the UK, has installed Elea Pulsed Electric Field SmoothCut™ systems in their factory in Scunthorpe. They reported smoother cutting, more consistent frying, lower oil uptake, increased yield and less starch release leading to extra crunchiness.

In April 2019 the British television channel BBC One published a feature about PEF assisted crisp manufacturing at Tayto in the British documentary television series Supermarket Secrets (Supermarket Secrets Series 3 p3 ‘Loyalty’).

With special thanks to Brian Meyer, Tayto’s Process Improvement Manager, they shared a lot of interesting facts about how PEF enhances their snack production with the world.

The SmoothCut systems installed at Tayto produces 100 tonnes of crisps per day, providing many process enhancements including massive energy and water savings.

Crunchier chips

An additional benefit of using PEF is to produce crunchier crisps.

Brian Meyer, Tayto’s Process Improvement Manager:

“What the PEF unit does is it provides an electric current, which makes the potato slightly softer, and because it’s slightly softer, you can slice it in a more efficient, more reproducible way – much more consistency. And that then leads to better consistent frying, and ultimately a crispier, crunchier, better-quality chip.”

“smoothness and the potato’s punctured cells have a huge effect on the amount of starch in the slice. One of the advantages through PEF treating is you leave some of the starch in, and that’s what creates the extra crunchiness.”

“So, one of the advantages through PEF treating is they’re also slightly lower in oil content, as well.”