For example, if Turkey specializes in producing ancient sourdough breads, an organized industrial zone working in this field is built, a technopolis is established next to it, the sector is supported to develop technology and branding efforts. Only then can we export bread to the world.
Mine Ataman
Founder of Seed Platform
Every single day technology contributes to the process and produces content for a new field. This being the case, superannuated professions are being replaced by new ones. The students of the departments that cannot provide specialization after the undergraduate education and cannot be equipped with the knowledge and experience of the sector cannot find a job.
For example, the training in food engineering departments consists of only theoretical knowledge. Although there are endless job opportunities in various fields of the sector, most of them fill their working hours by ticking ISO 22000 certification systems.
At this point, we come across fresh and novel areas of expertise. Fresh, new generation, technology-oriented, system-friendly “human-centered” technologists.
These days, while the understanding of Society 5.0 is becoming more and more involved in our lives, it is not enough to be above competition in the world. Although not in the first squadron, we will one day go to space. but we definitely don't want to be left without bread. So it's time to train the alien baker.
Competitive advantage in space comes with specialization. As once on earth. Hittites, Sumerians, Assyrians were all civilizations created by specializing in agriculture and food. Greek bakers invented portable ovens and the Romans invented the dough kneading machine. Thus, they specialized in both bakery and pastry. Their expertise still supports their exports on the global scale.
Anatolia implemented the clustering/expertise model with the Ahi-order model and the Byzantine guild system. Anatolian land and culture were created with professional organization. Coppersmith, leathersmith, agricultural production were all subdivided into regions and fueled by specialized craftsmanship.
Smith, one of the greatest economists and the author of "The Wealth of Nations", considered "specialization and division of labor as sources of productivity". While explaining the issue with the "Theory of Absolute Advantage" in the same book, he said "the real source of wealth is production". He stated that the productivity of labor that will determine the value of production will only be increased through "specialization" and "division of labour".
He explained the way to increase revenues in foreign trade with the "Absolute Superiority Theory", which we think he created by taking inspiration from the Turkish motto "When you trade, you will give life to the economy". In other words, the country that produces a good cheaply specializes in that good and exports it. It buys products from other countries that they specialize in. This increases revenue.
HOW CAN WE EXPORT BREAD TO THE WORLD?
Then, although the reason why we import wheat is partially relevant to the subject, it would be useful to explain the issue at length in another article. Let's get back to our topic. For example, if Turkey specializes in producing ancient sourdough breads, an organized industrial zone working in this field is built, a technopolis is established next to it, the sector is supported to develop technology and branding efforts. Only then can we export bread to the world.
We can also import wheat from Russia with peace of mind - obviously they are on the way to specializing in wheat production - and we can create a value-added brand. In this way, we will achieve productivity and we have the chance to increase our agricultural and food revenues.
Higher production and consumption in foreign trade is achieved with the “Absolute Advantage Theory”, so countries specialize and produce more and sell more.
As for why I made such a long introduction, if Turkey can specialize in Bakery, it can sell products to the world thanks to the ancient bread background. There are all kinds of psychological infrastructure for this.
When local seeds / medicinal aromatics / forest fruits / ancient culinary perception / homeland of wheat / Göbeklitepe combine all these and ferment with expertise, bread can be exported to the world.
So, are all these enough?
No, it's the bakery technologies issue that mainly needs to be worked on. If we adapt the technological developments in bakery to the industry, we can produce bread for the world bread market.
But, what do all these have to do with Technologists? Today, our flours are ground in industry 4.0 dark mills. Brands such as Özmen Un have already created the customized flour market and are exporting. To produce the bread of the future with technology is a duty of the industry now.
Who will do it?
Technologists: they are engineers who provide the technical information and support needed in the field in which they operate, design products, dominate the production process of the product, provide coordination and information flow between production and all relevant units, and develop business. In the new generation bread factories, they have superseded the traditional bread masters. They are dough maker / peel user/ engineer / craftsman / cook / designer / embellisher. I mean, the foreman of the bakery who does everything with a click. Better equipped than the most experienced craftsman. In all processes such as kneading, turning, resting, fermentation, cooking, freezing, storage, and transfer, they have a role to play. In short, to make bread in space, we need technologists and technology.
Doesn't someone who knows all production processes remind you of the Turkish proverb "Buy the bread from the baker's shop, give five cents more"?
What I mean is that the target of Turkish bakery should be the motto "either be a tradesman or a manufacturer". If we, the whole fam damily, are not going to work in a bakery, it would be beneficial to turn the bakery into a factory, hire a promising technologist and specialize. When Elon Musk looks for a baker, Turkish bakers must be unrivaled. Undoubtedly, on top of the heritage of thousands of years of Cappadocian baker's history and the Republican period's Hemşin baker, haven't we already deserved the Space bakery?
Then, the first thing we will do before we get in line is to take a brief look at the bakery technologies and to integrate technology into the industry.
Although there has been great development between the Roman baker and a contemporary baker and there are technological developments in the bakery these days when artificial intelligence came into our lives, I still think that covering a very short distance is not enough.
Although control systems and technological solutions at efficiency points are also important, the system is still not very different from the past in many bakeries.
Changes in the bakery sector are developing with indirect effects such as purchasing habits, developments in retail, urbanization, healthful nutrition, the effects of the pandemic, and grain processing technologies.
Healthful bread triggers sourdough technologies, the perception of craftsmanship triggers shaping, and developments in urban life trigger shelf life. The perception of artisan bread affects the overall course of the bakery. Pore and crust structure and color are the subjects that baked frozen technology works on.
Changes in retail / logistics costs / avoidance of waste... All these push us to baked frozen technology. Baked frozen technology is interested in both preserving nutritional values and preventing drying in bread.
The units that produce brand-specific sourdough give life to tons of yeast and enable hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread to be baked with sourdough. In sourdough cauldrons, some use ready-made sourdough culture, some use their own culture.
Dough kneading and shaping lines are trying to come up to the golden ratio of human hand structure and warmth. We know that the most favorite form of dough is human hands and the bread made in this way is priceless. While the palm of the hand has been giving its own bacteria and flavor to the dough, now the shaping units are on the way to imitate the human palm.
Bread coming out of the oven can be frozen with vacuum cooling units to preserve the structure of the bread. In this way, both nutritional loss is minimized, the exfoliation that occurs on the bread during the last heating is prevented and the shelf life is extended.
Normally, baked goods are cooled by convection in a spiral-shaped cooling tower and then are quick-frozen. Meanwhile, space, pumping and cooling air are required for the movement of cooling air for cooling purposes. In vacuuming, the products are filled into a chamber, and the air inside the products is removed with a vacuum pump. The vacuum cooling system also shortens the baking duration of the products in the oven. Vacuum cooling and cooking processes also contribute positively to the quality characteristics of the product by providing larger volume, better internal structure and porosity.
The latest revolutionary breakthrough in oven technologies was the invention of controllable ovens, which was thousands of years ago. Bakery technologies are currently developing frozen bread technology.
The radio wave frequency heating system has also been used in ovens in recent years. Although logically similar to a microwave oven, the power level and frequency of a radio frequency oven can be regulated for much more precise heating than a microwave oven. This type of ovens are mostly used in the biscuit industry to prevent cracking in the products. Since the evaporation rate is kept at a high level after the product comes out of the oven with radio frequency cooking, it also increases the oven efficiency. We will talk more about the positive and negative effects of its more widespread use in bakery products in the future.
We can understand the bread quality with the 3D X-Ray device. With the online 3D X-Ray technology launched in Italy, quality and safety problems in baked goods have begun to be detected. For example, it has been revealed that liquids such as mayonnaise in the holes in the sandwich breads can cause problems in the sandwich filling belts and hygiene problems may occur. Before the bread comes out of the oven, the bread is x-rayed and faulty products are set aside.
Despite all these technological developments, the integration of such systems into ovens is still delayed. The reason is that each oven is set up with lines and machines of different brands and models. This uniqueness makes technology integration difficult. On the other hand, developments progress slowly as bakery technologies are used in exemplary facilities and their effects on energy, efficiency and quality cannot be measured properly.
Accurate examples and statistical data are needed to develop the final product design by using artificial intelligence in ovens. Unfortunately, the bakery industry is not very successful in keeping statistics about the product and process apart from various quality and food assurance systems, neither in Turkey nor in the world.
New systems in the bakery sector, especially local breads have a crucial function in the production of flatbread, phyllo and gobit in accordance with their characteristic features, and in keeping the tradition of dough types, which is the distinctive feature of the Anatolian cake tradition, alive. It should not be forgotten that the pizza lines brought the Italian pizza and the hamburger lines brought the American hamburger to the whole world. If there were no factories baking croissants, croissants would undoubtedly be limited to only patisseries with small production figures.
SOFTWARE: MOST IMPORTANT TRUMP OF NEW GENERATION FACTORIES
Planning every process in kneading, cooking, cooling and storage, determining critical control points against possible risks, producing solutions with artificial intelligence in faulty situations, and using all data regarding the process for process improvement in future productions are good clues that technology exists for humans.
With the pandemic, the concept of health and hygiene is evolving to different points. It is no longer enough for the food to be delicious; wheat sprouts, barley water, rich and sustainable protein sources, and medicinal aromatics must be put into the bread with the tradition of bakery and brought to the table without losing too much of its nutritional value. The solution is in cooking and frozen technologies.
Although product-centered technology development is the goal, reducing staff/energy expenses is one of the main goals of investor companies.
The baking processes of bread types such as soda/buttermilk/fruity and functional flour bread are somewhat different from conventional wheat flour bread. Every ingredient added to flour and bread requires a different cooking precision and process. These are all work items for cooking technologies.
Purchasing habits and serving size of products are changing. 50-gram breads are now down to 30 g per person. It can be difficult to process such small and liquid doughs. Especially in oily and flavored doughs, breakouts may occur. Forming and oven preparation lines continue to work in this area as well.
During the pandemic, those who baked bread at home not only increased production, but also provided unique experiences and bread meetings. Bread, which had a rich match history with beverages and foods, has passed a different threshold in terms of gaining value and spreading. Bread, which is also used as a base for foods, has already returned to its prestigious periods in its past.
The latest developments in technology are at the disposal of the industry, not only in the production phase, but also in storage, transfer, final cooking and packaging. Nano technology and edible packages are among those that add value to bread.
When saying that the bread of the future would be about food design, of course, we couldn't have predicted that the pandemic would add so much value to bread. However, now, we know that the way to eliminate the negative effects of climate change on agriculture should be technology investments for "less raw materials, abundant health and taste".
To sum up, the future has arrived, the bread of the future is in technology.
Space bakery is entrusted to craftsmanship and technologists improved with thousands of years old Anatolian yeast, not to traditional bakers from Hemşin.