Tetra Pak launches extrusion wheel for stick ice cream production

Global food processing and packaging solutions provider Tetra Pak has launched its new extrusion wheel, which has been designed to produce stick ice cream products with large inclusions such as whole nuts, real fruit segments or cookie dough chunks.

Tetra Pak’s new extrusion wheel features a vertical rotating design that moves at a synchronised rate to the packaging line, allowing the system to generate up to 12,000 products per hour per lane, which is twice the existing available production capacity.

Tetra Pak Product and Concept manager Elsebeth Baungaard said: “The ice cream market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.8% in value, and 2.2% in volume between 2017 and 2022, mainly driven by premium single-serve ice cream products with new flavours and recipes.

“We look forward to seeing how our new extrusion wheel helps customers create novel and exciting products on their existing lines with flexible capacity and the highest quality, all at the lowest cost-per-product in the industry.”​​

Contrary to existing stick ice cream production mechanisms that insert the stick into the ice cream at the end of production, the new technology moves the stick into position during the initial production phase and the ice cream with large inclusions is subsequently filled around it.

The company notes that the new method is able to maintain both the position of the stick and the integrity of the inclusions, which can scale up to 25mm in diameter.

The wheel is also equipped with moulding cavities that ensure consistently uniform product shapes and smooth surfaces.

Ice cream producer Hennig Olsen Iskrem official Paal Otto Hennig-Olsen said: “As an ice cream producer focused on innovation, the Tetra Pak Extrusion Wheel allows us to be more responsive to fast-growing consumer trends for novel and high-quality products.

“The flexibility to adjust production capacity and adapt recipes to meet tastes and flavour preferences in different markets has also helped give us a competitive advantage.”