The 2022 Best in Baking recipients pioneering the bakery of the future

30-Aug-2022 - Last updated on 30-Aug-2022 at 10:08 GMT

The raft of recipients of IBIE's 2022 Best in Baking Awards will be showcasing their innovations at the non-profit bakery trade show in Las Vegas in September. Pic: GettyImages/doomu

Grupo Bimbo’s sustainably baked Supán & OroWeat 100% Whole Grain Organic Bread, Dawn Foods’ Women’s Leadership Development Programme and Apex Motion Control’s Baker-Bot are among the raft of recipients to receive the coveted Best in Baking Awards at IBIE 2022.

The International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) – to be held in Las Vegas, US from 17-21 September – introduced the Best in Baking awards in 2010 to recognise stakeholders that are pioneering the bakery of the future.

“What started as an initiative towards sustainability has grown to encompass so much more,” said Dennis Gunnell, chair of IBIE 2022.

“We’re proud of the progress our industry is making and we’re thrilled we can recognise their efforts on the global stage of IBIE.”

The largest event for the grain-based foods sector in the Western Hemisphere is jointly owned and produced by the American Bakers Association and Bakery Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA), with support from the Retail Bakers of America (RBA). Known as a ‘working show’ where millions of dollars of business are conducted daily, IBIE connects the global baking ecosystem to fuel the next gen of bakers, educate and promote economic growth and showcase the complete range of tech, supply and ingredient solutions. All proceeds from this non-profit event are invested back into the industry.

The leading lights

Best in Baking is divided into six main categories, with two additional categories added to the 2022 lineup, making it the largest programme to date:

Product Innovation
Sustainability
Workforce Development
Sanitation
Automation & Robotics (new category)
Plant Efficiency (new category)

Entrants were evaluated on a number of criteria, including impact on the environment, community and workforce by an elite panel of judges, including Douglas J. Peckenpaugh, group publisher of BNP Media, Jeff Dearduff of JED Coaching & Consulting, Josh Skow, CEO of Roaring Fork Capital and Mike Pierce, president of The Austin Group.

“We are honoured to partner with IBIE on this important programme spotlighting innovation across key areas of baking, including sustainability, efficiency, safety and more,” said Peckenpaugh.

“The 2022 response to the Best in Baking Programme has been phenomenal, which is a testament to the good work underway across our industry.”

Winners will be presented with their awards during IBIE at the RBA Bakers Center’s Presentation Stage. All winners are also showcasing their innovations on the IBIE floor.

Product Innovation

Bakeries that have implemented notable improvements related to ingredient sourcing, product development, packaging, and/or distribution to drive growth of a specific bakery product or product line and the bakery’s overall business.

Wholesale/High-volume bakery:

Top Honours: Grupo Bimbo – sustainably baked Supán & OroWeat 100% Whole Grain Organic Bread, including net zero carbon mobility and regenerative agriculture

Wholesale/Intermediate-volume bakery:

Top Honours: Lenny & Larry’s – The Complete KickStart Breakfast Bars
Flax4Life – Industrial compostable plant-based packaging for its retail muffins, brownies and cookies

Retail bakery:

Top Honours: Nick Vina Artisan Bakery – Healthier Choice Bread
Sweet Life Specialty Foods – Heart Cakes
Victoria’s Sugar Shack – Vintage Traveling Bakery Truck

Sustainability

Equipment, ingredients, packaging, technology or another process that improves efficiency, reduces energy use, reduces environmental impact, and/or otherwise brings notable sustainability to the baking industry.

Ingredients:

Avena Foods Ltd – Oat and pulse regenerative agriculture innovation project
Cargill – PalmWise
Ciranda Inc – Organic, non-GMO and fair trade
Corbion – Ultra Fresh portfolio
Dragsbæk – Naturli’ Foods vegan block
IFF – Enovera 3001 bakery enzyme
Sugaright (CSC Sugar) – Clean label, natural, non-GMO

Equipment:

Top Honours: AMF Bakery Systems – Sustainable oven service
Air Management Technologies Inc – EPI-Vision System
AMF Bakery Systems – MB-VITA tunnel oven by AMF Den Boer
Babb Group – The BABBCO CleanBake tunnel ovens
Bakon USA Food Equipment – Multiwasher by Somengil
Bundy Baking Solutions – American Pan ePan bread pans
Heuft Thermo-Oel GmbH & Co. KG – Hybrid heat exchanger
Middleby Bakery Group, Auto-Bake Serpentine – F3 fossil fuel-free convection oven, Baker Thermal Solutions rapid bake oven, Stewart Systems Viper ‘oil-free; oven chain and Sveba Dahlen Artista Deli modular stone tunnel oven
Middleby Food Processing – Continuous vacuum cooling
Sugden Ltd – Line efficiencies
T&T Consulting & Engineering – New Generation indirect fired tunnel oven

Packaging:

IMA Ilapak – Delta VacMap
Inline Plastics – Reborn
LeMatic – Airless ban seals for bulk packing, AutoiNet portal and motorised cut knife

Logistics:

FlexiBake – ERP, MetriX DSD, MetriX OOP, MetriX Lite

Workforce development

This category honours bakers and suppliers who are developing programmes that foster sustainable development and ongoing growth of the baking industry workforce.

Supplier:

Top Honours: Puratos, Puratos Bakery School – Pennsauken NJ School District
Burford Corp, a Middleby Company – Creative recruiting
IFF, Training Industry – Customers and Academia

Retail bakery:

Top Honours: Dawn Foods – Women’s Leadership Development Programme

Sanitation

Bakers and suppliers that are developing or utilising innovative sanitation equipment, infrastructure materials like floors and walls, products, tech or software that improve sanitation procedures, streamline facility maintenance, improve food safety, reduce environmental impact, or otherwise brings a notable level of innovation to the baking industry.

Supplier:

Top Honours: Middleby Food Processing – Vyv antimicrobial LED lighting
AMF Bakery Systems – ADD-S Bread Make-up System by AMF Flex and SFA Artisan Bread Line by AMF Tromp
Babb Group – The BABBCO CleanBake IR oven
Burford Corp – Flush-In-Place system
CFS, an Intralox Company – Sesame allergen management and FoodSafe conveyor programme
ChemxWorks – Decarbonator
Dough Tech – AM315 sanitary bread moulder
Eaglestone, Inc – Sanitary conveyors
Flexco – FGP food grade primary cleaner with external spring and Novitool Amigo splice press
FPS Food Process Solutions Corp – Ambient spiral
Goodway Technologies – Dry steam cleaning & sanitation accessories
HaF Equipment – Moovinator
Nexcor Food Safety Technologies – KLEANZ swab connect

Automation & Robotics

Equipment or other tech that automates a manual process, improving throughput and reducing labour requirements.

Supplier:

Top Honours: Apex Motion Control – Baker-Bot
ABI – Vision system platform
AMF Bakery Systems – Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) and Smart Topping Applicator by AMF Tromp
AMF Bakery Systems and Intralox – EZ Diverter by AMF Convay
AXIS Automation LLC – AXIS Platinum Series LD Depositor
BeeHex – Cake writer
Benchmark – InFlight AC
Cimcorp Automation – MultiPick Gantry Robot Solution and AGV Delivery
Hayon Manufacturing Corp – Model 6700 and 6400 Series Select-A-Spray
Haystack Data Solutions – Data science for food
KPM Analytics – In-Line & over-line vision inspection technologies
LeMatic – Pattern former
Print on Foods – Flexprint IL 500
Rexfab – Pan Stacker-Unstacker
Stäubli Robotics – TX2 six-axis robots