During candy manufacturing processes, especially with continuous processes, start-up, shut-down and production stops need to be dealt with economically and efficiently. This means generation the least amount of product wastage or scrap as possible.
Reclaim is a process which utilizes an inline return loop of the cooked mass back to the batch weigher, buffer or reclaim tank. The cooked mass is diluted and blended with a controlled flow of hot process water which reduces the dry solids level down from the final cooked solids level to the infeed pre-cooked solids level. During this process some of the utility required for cooking, such as steam are turned off.
Rework, during this process edge trim, enrobed or non-enrobed bars are plasticized and diluted with hot process water and fed as an ingredient into the batch weigher at the beginning of the process. Similar processes are used for hard candy, jelly and fondant etc.