Coating is a key stage in food processing impacting a product’s appearance, texture,
structure and taste features. The visual aspect is particularly important as it is the first thing
the consumer sees when he opens the box : it is possible to give a visual aspect and the
desired taste to the finished product .

Versatile coating technology choices for breakfast cereals sugar coating

Sugar coating consists in applying a sugar syrup on the product either during or after drying.
This syrup can integrate a large variety of ingredients such as sucrose, glucose, dextrose
syrup, maltose, honey, etc.. In order to improve the functionalities and the taste of the
products, other ingredients may be added such as fruit juice concentrates, oils, flavours
(including honey), citric or malic acid, cocoa powder, …

Three types of sugar coatings are proposed to obtain two different aspects expected by the
breakfast or snacks producers :

enrobage shiny frosty dull

Glazed coating gives the product a shiny appearance. Ingredients used are: sucrose,
dextrose,modified starches, chocolate, honey, oil etc.

Frosty coating gives the product a matte or “snowy” appearance and is mainly achieved with
sucrose. Crystallization occurs during drying.

Dull coating gives the product a matte appearance. Ingredients used are: sucrose,
dextrose,modified starches, chocolate, honey, oil etc.

Savory coating for snacks

Snack coating

To give the flavor profile expected by consumers, extruded snacks are subject to a coating
step in which they are covered with liquid and / or powder flavorings.

The coating is carried out in a drum equipped with a spray ramp ; the coating product itself
is prepared in a specific skid (set of tanks and pumps). The coating platform is very flexible
to work with various types of coatings which are sometimes very complex such as cheese
powder coatings for example.

Key points of Clextral food coating technology:

A properly sized equipment for optimum coating (residence time, beginning of coating,
coating ratio…)
Syrup spraying evenly distributed throughout the coating zone with the ability to vary the
number and nature of the nozzles according to the types of products.
Mastering the physical characteristics of the process: viscosity, BRIX, syrup temperature
and temperature conditions of the final product
A partner for the development of new products

Clextral offers its expertise and facilities to enable clients to test new recipes and improve
processing, including coating techniques.

A sweet coating platform is installed in the Research center in France.