KI Pavilion at the NRA Show Showcases “Green” and High Tech Products
By Amelia Levin, Sr. Associate Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 5/18/2009 4:35:00 PM
This year’s Kitchen Innovations pavilion featured 18 new products, many with a “green” focus, from energy-saving pots water treatment to composting equipment, water saving devices and more.
Read the complete listing of this year’s KI Award Winners.
The panel of judges included Dan Bendall, Foodstrategy Inc.; Martin Cowley, Disneyland Resort; William Eaton, Cini-Little International; Robert Forrester, Restaurant Industry Solutions; Foster Frable, Clevenger, Frable, LaVallee consultants; Rick Gentry, Aramark; Robert Mashall, McDonald’s; George McNeill, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company; and Kathleen Seelye, Ricca Newmark Design. The National Restaurant Association did an interesting interview with William (Bill) Eaton, who talked about how the judges pick their winners.
Green Machines
At the Eneron station, CFSP Dennis DeMatos demonstrated
the company’s Turbo Pot, essentially a standard aluminum pot, but with a grate-like bottom, rather than a smooth one. The grates help channel the heat more directly to the pot.
“It’s similar to induction cooking equipment in that the heat is more directly transferred to the pot and its contents, rather than traveling along the sides of the pot on a traditional range and then escaping,” DeMatos said as he stood by a range set up with two pots of boiling water. At the same lower temperature, the turbo pot’s water had already begun to boil, while the traditional pot’s water barely reached a simmer.
The turbo pots, which can be used for cooking pasta, soups, and other foods, essentially cuts the cooking time in half, saving both labor and energy. Seemingly so simple, the technology, developed by Eneron in conjunction with Fisher Nickel and the Food Technology Center in San Ramon, Calif., nevertheless has far-reaching capabilities if used in a broader capacity with different-sized, multiple pots. Just one pot alone saves the operator an extra 30 to 60 percent on energy usage and costs, according to DeMatos. That means one turbo pot on a 30,000 BTU burner can save the owner up to $250 a year.
Read the Food Service Technology Center’s full report on the turbo pots.
“They’ve basically attached a heat sink to the pots,” said Eric Norman, project manager with MVP Services Group in Dubuque, Iowa and an FE&S Blogger on Norman's Notes. “I think it’s really smart.” Heat sinks, which are found in refrigerators and also act as cooling devices for computers, dissipate heat from other objects by first soaking it up and then transferring it to other places.
Norman said he could envision the pots used in a variety of applications, certainly independent restaurants, but also schools and universities trying to save on energy costs.
And, DeMatos said the company is working on applying the technology to other cooking equipment, such as griddles, sauté pans, and more to broaden the energy-saving cooking capabilities. Stay tuned; Eneron has also been working with different organizations to offer rebates for operators buying the environmentally-friendly product.
Typical concerns about the product, though, could center on cleaning and maintenance. Because of the grates along the pot bottoms, residue could potentially build up quicker. Eneron had printouts at the booth, though, outlining step-by-step cleaning and maintenance, which is pretty similar to traditional pot cleaning, except they recommend using cookware brushes for scraping out any food that gets stuck in between the fins on the pot.
Tech Talk
Some of the Kitchen Innovations award winners demonstrated advanced technologies. Hobart’s newest combi oven is one of them, featuring Bluetooth-enabled barcode scanning technology where operators can scan bar-coded recipes and food products, press start on the combi, and see their product essentially cooked for them using preset guidelines for steaming, convection cooking, or a combination of both. The user can even scan barcodes on a sheet of paper that are assigned to different pictures of dishes.
Then, the scanner software allows the user to manage all the operation’s reci
pes in one place, with folders and how-to guides on how to create, store, and transfer recipes to the combi. The software also allows the user to select, in addition to cooking mode, the temperature, length of cooking time, humidity level, and fan speed. Programmed recipes can also be linked to existing barcodes on a food package or box aside from just the sheet of paper with the dishes names and photos.
Hobart’s goal with the product, they say is to make it easier for the user to operate a large piece of equipment such as a combi, especially in cases where operators’ staffs include younger, more cooking-inexperienced workers. The technology has a labor-saving quality in that regard as well because there is no need for them to scroll through hundreds of recipes on a control panel, push multiple buttons, or require extensive training to operate.
A restaurant owner standing at the booth and watching Product Line Manager David Sager’s demonstration asked about the rack used in the equipment. Sager showed how the user can roll the cart out, even roll the cart into a blast chiller at that point if need be, and then roll the cart back in. “Now I’m impressed,” the restaurant owner said with a laugh.
Composting Control
FE&S also stopped by Somat’s station at the KI Pavilion to check out the company’s composting equipment they call the eCorect Compostable Waste Decomposer for waste reduction. The machine essentially transforms and condenses food waste into a dry, odor-free material that’s just a third or less of the original waste in volume through a pulping, heating, and drying process. And it is pretty odor-free having smelled the dry and flaky, dirt-like substance at the booth. That’s not necessarily an appetizing thought, but appropriate for this conversation.
The machines really w
ork best for operators who want to be able to compost some or all of their waste, but don’t have a commercial composter nearby and/or they want to handle waste on-site. This according to Rod Collins, principal of the consulting firm Rod Collins Associates, who was at the booth to help demonstrate and talk about the product. “Bon Appetite Management Company has been using it for their accounts, and the University of Texas installed it,” Collins said. “If you figure a half-pound of waste per person, you can get about an 80 percent reduction on total waste with this equipment.”
Ed Norman, Eric Norman’s father and principal of MVP Services Group, said he installed the composting equipment in a recent project at the Des Moines, Iowa, offices of Wellmark, a division Blue Cross Blue Shield. “They have two machines that they cycle through at different times to compost their food waste,” Norman said. It’s too soon to tell the stats on cost savings there, but, he said, the company has been pleased with the results and the control they’ve been able to have on their own composting and waste reduction efforts as a result of the machines.
Though the eCorect waste decomposer “box” can do some pulping of food, for high-volume applications, attaching a pulping system to the box manages the waste more efficiently. Somat’s pulping system, which essentially is a kettle hooked up on one side with the pulping motor and on the other with a spout that releases the pulped food waste into the waste decomposer where it can then be dried out and reduced into a pile of dirt, essentially.
From there, that dirt can be used as fertilizer too, explains Pete Michailo, who demonstrated the product at the booth. That’s because the waste decomposer kills all pathogens that may have existed in the food waste without requiring any water, enzymes or bacteria-based additives that can contaminate sewer systems. “If you put cucumbers in here,” Michailo said, pointing to the box’s opening at the top, “you can basically put the dirt in your rosebed and you won’t grow cucumbers.” That’s a good thing, by the way, because it means the dirt substance can be used like straight up fertilizer without any other effects.
Collins had talked a lot about this product for waste reduction at FCSI’s Super Regional conference on waste management in Seattle last year. Read Collins' waste management presentation and those of the other speakers at the conference. Also, check out FE&S’ brief article for The Specifier e-newsletter and subsequent FE&S E&S Extra blog post.
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