News

Aug 22, 2023

ANKO Participating in America’s Largest NRA Show to Explore New Business Opportunities in the Food Industry

The EMP-900 Empanada Making Machine. Image courtesy of ANKO After the global

The EMP-900 Empanada Making Machine. Image courtesy of ANKO

After the global pandemic, there have been significant changes in consumer patterns worldwide. Experts estimate that the global frozen food market will reach $250 billion by 2030. With a strong and ever-increasing market demand, businesses around the world are eager to seize these opportunities. However, they also face challenges such as labor shortages and high production costs, making it difficult to expand production lines. To be involved in the vast frozen food market, companies are seeking new technologies which include utilizing fully automated machines to meet the surging demand.

The NRA exhibition will take place from May 20th to May 23rd in Chicago, this year. The event is expected to bring together more than 2,000 top food ingredient and equipment suppliers from around the world.

According to statistics, the empanada, a popular Latin American dish, ranked eighth on the list of popular street foods in 2021. As nutrition and health awareness gradually become mainstream, 6% of vegan food vendors prioritize purchasing empanadas made with nutritious grains such as corn and quinoa.

Currently, there are two types of empanada machines on the market; one uses an extrusion-type filling mechanism and the other utilizes a clamping mechanism. ANKO researched and developed its EMP-900 Empanada Making Machine, combining the advantages of the two existing mechanisms, creating a machine that can make empanadas with a high oil content dough, up to 75% water and oil mixture. It is designed to be adaptable to a wide variety of pastry dough, and the unique filling system can process minced beef, whole green peas, and corn kernels without the ingredients being crushed or smashed, the company says. These empanadas are then deep-fried into a golden and crispy product with a light and airy texture just as they were handmade.

There are variety of finger foods that are commonly served at parties, such as spring rolls and egg rolls—both of are easy to pick up and eat without using utensils. Spring rolls are a popular snack food and a street food among customers because of their shape, and the fact that they can be made either sweet or savory. Experts estimate that the global frozen spring roll market size will reach $834.3 million in 2030.

The ANKO Spring Roll Machine is the first automated food machine that can process 100% vegetable fillings without texture enhancers, the company says. The types of filling it can handle include mixed vegetables filling, ground meat filling, viscous apple jam filling, and mixtures of meat and vegetable filling. The machine has various folding and rolling mechanism to produce spring rolls that are made to be consumed fresh, deep-fried, or frozen, all with perfect texture and appearances. ANKO's ER-24 Egg Roll Production Line uses a repeated dough sheeting process to produce pastries that are 0.8-1.2mm thin, and the unique filling system ensures the final products are made perfectly without compromising the original texture of the filling ingredients.

Using manual or semi-automatic food production lines to produce frozen food faces many problems including inconsistency in the raw material and the quality, increasing labor costs, and it involves staff training that can be very time-consuming, all of which all add up to the food costs. ANKO's fully automated food production lines provide the most comprehensive production solutions that begin with the pastry sheeting process, cutting, filling, and forming into final products. Additionally, ANKO's Food Lab offers recipe optimization services, which can ensure products such as Empanadas, Spring Rolls and Egg Rolls are shelf-stable when frozen without freezer-burns and can be reheated to their original taste and textures.

At the NRA Show in Chicago this year, ANKO will be displaying its EMP-900 Empanada Making Machine at booth #9107.