Reform on the front line⑥丨AI egg wash, new technology helps traditional food "break the circle"
2024-08-19
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
Lift the lid of the pot, and the steaming elephant-shaped walnut buns will appear before your eyes. The elephant-shaped walnut buns imitate walnuts in appearance, and the fillings are a blend of walnuts and frankincense. Every bite is soft and crispy. Once upon a time, you had to go to a Cantonese restaurant to eat it. In recent years, Fang Jiaqin, deputy manager of the R&D Management Department of Guangzhou Restaurant Group Likoufu Food Science and Technology Innovation Research Institute, and his team have successfully achieved industrialized production of walnut buns, making them available in people's homes and a delicacy on the family table.
Behind the small walnut bun is Fang Jiaqin and her team's practice of overcoming difficulties, and their spirit of inheriting and innovating Cantonese food culture.
Innovation: Introducing the "sugar-oil system" and updating the filling formula
"There is no reference for the industrialization of traditional food such as pictographic snacks, so we need to explore and innovate on our own," said Fang Jiaqin. To achieve efficient production of walnut buns with surface textures, there is no reference experience, so we have to create a new path. Through repeated observations of existing equipment, Fang Jiaqin led the R&D team to find an improvement plan for the entire set of equipment for rolling and forming bun skins, and promoted the equipment team to respond quickly and promote the transformation. The equipment transformation not only obtained a patent, but also realized the industrial production of textured walnut buns. When they saw the walnut-textured dough skins coming out of the equipment, they knew that the first step to overcome the difficulties had been taken.
Fang Jiaqin's notes are marked with the idea of "sugar-oil system", and countless market research records are scattered aside. Unlike freshly made and eaten, packaged products have to go through a shelf life. If "packaged products" are operated according to the logic of "ready-to-eat food", the crispness of walnuts will be difficult to maintain. Faced with the problem, Fang Jiaqin drew inspiration from Western nut foods and introduced the innovative idea of "sugar-oil system". Milk powder is used instead of condensed milk, and walnuts are wrapped with sugar and oil to reduce direct contact with water. In this way, the dry filling system maintains the crispness of walnuts.
The bigger challenge is yet to come: achieving a semi-fluid state for the filling. Inside the R&D center, the air is filled with the aroma of walnuts and dairy products, where a new filling ratio for walnut buns is being "bred." Next to the raw materials and equipment, Fang Jiaqin spent most of her time every day researching the formula after more than 60 days of experiments. According to her understanding of the characteristics of the raw materials, milk powder is prone to caking, and different oils have different solidification points. The selection and ratio of raw materials determine the texture of the filling, so it cannot be easily finalized. After dozens or hundreds of experiments, she finally found a suitable solution, customized exclusive raw materials, locked in the filling formula for walnut buns, and solved the taste problem of walnut buns.
Now, walnut buns bring over 100 million yuan in sales to Guangzhou Restaurant Group every year. With the experience gained from the development of walnut buns, the R&D team has developed more pictographic snacks with regional characteristics, such as watermelon buns, red date buns, and mushroom buns, which have enriched the dining tables of consumers.
Intelligence: AI robot brushes egg liquid to ensure quality and quantity, freeing your hands
The Mid-Autumn Festival is getting closer and closer, and Cantonese mooncakes are quietly on the market. The mooncake crust has delicate patterns and attractive luster, and such exquisiteness comes from the thin "egg liquid" on the pattern. There is a key process in the production of mooncakes: brushing with egg liquid. The seemingly simple process contains the craftsmen's persistence in traditional craftsmanship. Behind the luster is the hardship of workers enduring high temperatures: the traditional egg liquid brushing process must be carried out in a hot oven, and six workers on a line must endure a heat wave of 40°C. In order to liberate labor and allow workers to get rid of the high-temperature working environment, Fang Jiaqin and his team plunged into the research and development of "fully automatic egg liquid brushing intelligent manufacturing".
At first, they tried to use a mechanical egg brush. The mechanical egg brush was too rigid, and the egg coating, gloss, and natural texture of the finished product were far from the ultimate pursuit of quality by the mooncake master. Later, she switched to spraying the egg liquid. Although the egg liquid on the surface of the mooncake was even, it was impossible to control the egg liquid on the yin and yang sides of the mooncake pattern.
After countless investigations, countless experiments, and countless setbacks, the AI egg-brushing "robot" came into being. From decomposition action simulation, laser vision automatic recognition, three-dimensional displacement capture, high-frequency tremor infusion, one scientific research breakthrough after another, one technological innovation after another, through continuous AI intelligent training, the robot is becoming more and more mature, realizing egg liquid storage temperature control, liquid level detection, automatic brush replacement, precise positioning and other technologies.
At this point, AI egg-brushing technology has approached the manual level of masters and has formed more than 20 core patents. It has now entered the stage of large-scale production line production, greatly liberating labor while ensuring food safety.
Health: Breaking the "shackles" of high oil and high sugar, introducing the concept of low GI
As health awareness grows, low GI (low glycemic index) foods are gaining attention from consumers. After understanding consumer needs, Fang Jiaqin and her team developed and launched the first certified low GI mooncake, which undoubtedly set a benchmark for the integration and innovation of traditional cuisine and modern health concepts.
If you want to enjoy traditional food and keep your blood sugar healthy, low-GI mooncakes are a good choice. "The public's impression of mooncakes is that they are high in sugar and oil and unhealthy. We have upgraded traditional food to be healthy, and the process focuses more on the product itself, exploring the 'four reductions and three additions' food research and development strategy." Fang Jiaqin told reporters. It is understood that the "four reductions" refer to reducing oil, sugar, salt, and additives, and the "three additions" refer to adding nutrition, functions, and fun.
Fang Jiaqin and his team used the technology of the National International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Healthy Food of South China University of Technology to jointly develop "low GI" active sucrose and overcome the raw material barrier. Fang Jiaqin introduced that "low GI" active sucrose can effectively inhibit the activity of amylase in the intestines and lower blood sugar levels, thereby reducing insulin secretion and reducing fat synthesis. It not only retains the flavor and taste of sucrose, but also achieves slow blood sugar rise and less burden on the body, achieving a perfect combination of low GI active sucrose and traditional mooncake flavor, and finally developed a mooncake product that takes into account taste, appearance, and texture.
Fang Jiaqin introduced that this year, low-GI mooncakes have been renewed and upgraded again, and low-glycemic diglyceride mooncakes have been developed and put on the market. At present, they are also upgrading the packaging, using green materials and green design to carry out green transformation and upgrading of packaging.
Text/Guangzhou Daily New Flower City reporter: Zeng Fanying Intern Gao HuiyingPhoto/Guangzhou Daily New Flower City reporter: Zhuang XiaolongGuangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Ma Junxian
