Page 24 - AMEFT Journal 2021-4

FOCUS: CONFECTIONERY & SNACKS
Middle East’s first and only cereal factory
Established in 1998, the Lebanese cereal expert - Difco Group (DIFCO) opened its first and only cereal factory in the Middle East to make high-quality cereal accessible to all. With four com- panies, two manufacturing facilities, 500+ employees, DIFCO has two suc- cessful brands – Poppins® breakfast cereals and breakfast bars, and SNIPS® baked salty snacks. Between them, the brands comprise more than 800 SKUs distributed across the Middle East and Africa.
Producing all of those SKUs are two state-of-the-art manufacturing fa- cilities. The first opened in Mansoura, Lebanon in 2006. This 20,000 sq m plant was upgraded in 2018 to produce muesli-and granola-based products, and is today dedicated to manufactur- ing Poppins brand products. The sec- ond facility opened in Ferzol, Lebanon in 2018 to support the launch of the SNIPS snack line, a project that began a few years earlier.
Back to snacks, but baked
Initially, DIFCO had been part of a larger company with expertise in the
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manufacturing and distribution of fried snacks. Following consumer de- mand for more healthy snacking op- tions, in 2016 the long-established ce- real experts decided to draw on their fried snack experience and expand into baked snacks.
In its mission to launch healthy snack production, DIFCO started looking to the world’s leading bakery equipment manufacturers for innovative produc- tion solutions. DIFCO tied up with the U.S.-based Reading Bakery Systems (RBS) to grow its SNIPS line – the Multi- Crisp Baked Snack System.
Packed with features, the modular,
The Lebanese cereal experts, DIFCO builds the first and only cereal factory in the Middle East, with help from Reading Bakery Systems.
fully automated Multi-Crisp Baked Snack System could boost product consistency and efficiency while re- ducing the number of employees needed to operate the line. The sys- tem features an Exact Mixing FX Con- tinuous Mixing System. Unlike more labor-intensive batch mixers, the Continuous Mixing System automati- cally distributes small amounts of moisture evenly into large amounts of powder, a process that is particu- larly well suited to the hydroscopic powders that would be used to make several SNIPS products.
The system also includes the SPEC- TRUM OVEN®, which features sepa- rate modules that enable precise, ‘hands-off’ quality control. Each mod- ule has pre-set, recipe-driven controls, so operators don’t have to spend time manually changing parameters during production.
As its consultations with RBS con- tinued, DIFCO learned that the equip- ment manufacturer could also provide product and recipe development at the company’s Science & Innovation Center. Located at the Reading Bakery
(Source: DIFCO)
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