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[oodrew]

I produce a line of dressings and am required to use a hot-fill-hold process by our scheduled authority where we bring it to 180F in the blender, fill/seal it in glass bottles, then submerge the bottles in boiling water for 10 minutes. We're currently making these in small batches using a commercial Vitamix blender to emulsify our dressing while bringing it to 180F, but we need to scale to larger batches.

 

We're exploring using a Vertical Cutter (VCM) instead of a Vitamix to blend the ingredients and bring it to 180F, however, I'm unfamiliar with this equipment and am not sure if they are designed to heat the ingredients up while blending/emulsifying.

 

Does anyone know if we can use a VCM to blend our dressing and bring it up to heat in larger batches? 

Or does anyone have recommendations for other equipment we should look into using instead?

 

Thanks!

[AltonBrownFanClub]

Maybe something like this? It holds 30 gallons, so it would increase your output quite a bit.

 

https://www.cedarsto...ed-mixing-tank/

 

The jacket is heated, and they say it will take 2hrs to bring 30 gallons to a boil. Not bad since you only have to get to 180°F.

If there is no blender option, maybe you could use a large immersion blender and then use the kettle to heat?

 

Not sure what your production or budget looks like, but this is what I would look in to. Hope it helps!