UK-based firm Foster Refrigerator manufactures a wide range of award-winning commercial refrigeration equipment and systems for the bakery, foodservice and retail industries. John Savage, food service director, talked to Annie Launois about the latest trends in the refrigeration sector.   

 

 What are bakers essentially looking for when buying refrigeration equipment?  

 

 Bakers’ main concerns are convenience, food safety and increasingly energy efficiency – being able to store product safely overnight, for example.  

 

 Dough retarders and dough retarder provers are particularly popular as they enable bakers to produce and retard products on one production day for proving and baking on the next. The advantages of this include allowing doughs to be made and processed at convenient off-peak production periods, then proved and baked at times convenient for the sale of the products, which can reduce peaks of labour requirements.  

 

 Foster’s Dough Retarder Provers combine the two operations of retarding and proving in one piece of equipment, thereby saving time, money, equipment, floor space used and product handling. It should be mentioned that simplicity in operation is also an important buying criterion.  

 

 Foster’s bakery equipment is also designed with food safety as a priority, for example using self-closing doors and having removable fittings for ease of cleaning.  

 

 We are also aware of the constant need to innovate and address our customers’ needs. Since the beginning of 2006, our Bakery Cabinets have been available as part of our popular Gastro Pro range, which includes cabinets and counters designed specifically to meet the demands of today’s caterers.  

 

 The Gastro Pro Bakery Cabinet Retarders, Storage Refrigerators and Freezers have been developed as a result of demand from bakers to provide a range offering outstanding reliability and a high specification at a very competitive price.   

 

 Your company focuses on energy efficiency and protecting the environment. Does this give you a competitive advantage over your competitors?   

 

Yes, over the past two years Foster has seen a noticeable increase in the awareness of customers on this issue. The worldwide move over recent years towards energy efficiency, resulting in such policies as the Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) Scheme, the Climate Change Levy and the  

 

  Kyoto Agreement, has made energy efficient bakery equipment even more important, as the refrigerator is one of the few pieces of equipment in a bakery that uses energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  

 

  In addition, recent rises in energy prices have also forced more people in the industry to pay closer attention to energy efficient equipment as they realise the significant savings that they can make.  

 

  Foster recognised the importance of energy efficiency at a very early stage. The company has taken energy efficiency and the environment to its very core, and has a history of being the environmental pioneer in the refrigeration industry.