Which oven technology—conventional or convection—is best for your food manufacturing process? The answer depends on your production goals, the type of product, and the baking consistency you want. Both ovens have advantages, but the right type of oven can seriously affect your product efficiency, quality, and energy usage.
Ovens in the current highly accurate food industry are not only machines but also strategic assets. Whichever of the missions you wish to achieve, whether producing very high volumes of biscuits or creating specialty baked goods, your baking system needs to show uniformity, reliability, and scalability. With large-scale production technology, manufacturers across the world can find the oven technology that suits their own special needs.
Let’s compare convection and conventional ovens and know which one is the best for your industrial processes.
Convection vs. Conventional Ovens
Conventional Ovens: A Time-Tested Baking Method
Conventional ovens, also called static ovens, operate using radiant heat generated from fixed heating elements typically placed at the top and bottom of the chamber. The heat goes upward on its own, covering the product and cooking it from the edges inwards. For centuries, this preparation technique has been popular for those making recipes that just need gentle, ambient heat.
How do Conventional ovens stand out? They are very simple, requiring less mechanical effort, and are cheaper to set up and maintain. This makes them popular with businesses looking to save money or manufacture classic items. Because the air is consistent in their bakeries, certain types of cookies, pastries, and bread are baked in these ovens without disturbing their shape or finish. For this reason, companies that manufacture specialty or legacy bakery items often go for static ovens.
Still, there are a few issues that may arise with using conventional ovens.
- Lack of circulation of air can cause parts of the oven to be cooler, leading to poor consistency in the finished product, especially when batches are large.
- Furthermore, when companies bake products for longer or use more energy, it makes their production processes less efficient, mainly in large-scale operations.
- When oven doors are opened or the batch is changed in conventional ovens, the temperature may fall and cause a slowdown in the production line.
Thus, for food manufacturers aiming to scale, they turn to modern equipment, including convection ovens, to meet modern production requirements.
Convection Ovens: Precision for Modern Manufacturing
Convection baking ovens provide a more advanced method of baking large volumes of food with exceptional quality. Convection ovens are equipped with fans to circulate heat evenly among all areas of the oven. Evenly circulating air guarantees that every piece of food cooks at the same pace and results in similar qualities each time.
In 2024, the size of the Convection Ovens Market on a global scale was USD 4.12 billion. With more people now choosing healthy and convenient cooking, it is expected that these oven sales will reach USD 5803.163563 million by 2031, rising at a CAGR of 5.00%.
Convection ovens operate efficiently and precisely. The speed at which food cooks helps brands produce more products without negatively affecting the quality of their products. The reason they are regularly employed in mass cooking is that they can deliver consistent results quickly.
| Convection ovens are more economical, as the thermal efficiency allows for less energy to be used during cooking. Studies demonstrate that convection ovens shorten cooking time by 25% and also allow to lower the temperature of the oven at which food is prepared. |
Using convection ovens is advantageous, but there are still a few issues.
- Since the unit contains advanced equipment, it often costs more to purchase the initial system.
- If you raise the airflow too quickly, it can either dry out your baking or result in overbaking unless the temperatures and time settings are correct.
- Baking products that require minimal exposure to air are not always suitable for warehouses using convection technology.
Therefore, introducing top-quality convection ovens in your manufacturing processes can address your needs perfectly. With these ovens, businesses can bake faster, use less energy, and maintain consistency when working on a larger scale.
Choosing the Right Oven for Different Production Needs
Manufacturers in the food industry, including those that make biscuits, crackers, cookies, and various other baked goods, require suitable ovens as per their manufacturing needs. This is how opinions on ovens differ among various fields:
High-Volume Biscuit Manufacturing
For high-volume biscuit manufacturing, from hard crackers and cookies to soft biscuits, convection ovens for baking offer advantages. Strong airflow and set temperature make sure big batches of biscuits develop in the same way, helping to produce less waste and more even products. The money you save on energy can really add up as time goes by.
Niche Baking
If a company relies on special niches of baking, like textures and finishes, it may still need conventional ovens. With these ovens, the items are baked just like they would be baked in hearth baking, made of stone, making sure the items keep their original taste.
Gluten-Free and Specialty Products
Special compositions in dietary products, including those that are gluten-free or high in protein, sometimes make the manufacturers pay closer attention to maintaining their texture and moisture. Convection ovens are precise enough to deliver these results you are looking for time after time.
Energy-Conscious Operations
In today’s world, where energy costs are rising and people are trying to lower their carbon footprint, using convection ovens makes more sense. Less energy is needed to keep up the right temperatures because heat is shared efficiently, supporting ESG principles.
Delicate Pastries and Low-Moisture Items
Products such as meringues, puff pastries, and sponge cakes should be baked in conventional ovens. Due to no forced air, the texture and size of the dessert remain perfect.
Preserving Traditional Recipes
Conventional ovens help in transforming legacy recipes to modern production easily. This is perfect for manufacturers who want to keep their products tasting and structured the same throughout and baking just the way they should, all without having to waste a lot of time and effort trying out different recipes.
The Verdict: A Strategic Decision
There is no universal solution for all. The oven you select can influence the level of quality and productivity your brand achieves. You need to evaluate both convection and conventional ovens based on the food you’re preparing, how much you’ll be cooking at a time, your energy needs, and the uniformity your customers desire.
At New Era, we focus on producing smart and intelligent ways to improve baking. The ovens we build, including hybrid, that use a combination of gas and electricity, can adapt according to market changes. Whatever the product, our experts are here to help you select the best baking technology for your situation. Our team can help your baking operations evolve and support your future growth.
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