Equipment Spotlight: Bühler SnackFix™

The demand for new food options both nutritious and convenient continues to rise. With new equipment from the Swiss manufacturer Bühler, the NC Food Innovation Lab’s state-of-the-art pilot plant is helping small manufacturers explore ways to meet that growing demand.

Pilot Plant Manager Joe Hildebrand says the versatile SnackFix system that NCFIL acquired last year is ideal for creating an array of nutrition bars, cereal bars, candy bars and more, at a relatively small scale – approximately 1,000 bars every three hours.

Hildebrand explains that the machine contains two parts: The first part includes a choice between two forming heads, where cereals, nuts and other ingredients can be mixed with a binder. The Slab head allows the machine to produce a single flat mass, like Nature’s Valley™ crunchy granola bars, while the DDP head allows the SnackFix™ to make two-layered or filled products like Nutri-Grain™ bars.

The second part of the SnackFix™ unit is the cutting line, where the operator can adjust the thickness, width and length of the bars.

In addition to making a wide variety of bars, the SnackFix can be adapted for many other out-of-the-box applications, Hildebrand says. For example, it could be used to produce fish stick masses as well as crackers from thin doughs. For fish sticks, the mass would need to be battered and fried in a separate unit operation.

In early 2024, NCFIL used the SnackFix system with about six clients, most of whom are developing granola bars. Clients are making healthier options, fortifying their products with protein – “not just protein powder, but protein crisps: extruded little spheres that add a nice textural element in contrast to the soft bar,” Hildebrand adds. 

While working with clients to help them turn their ideas for tasty, nutritious bars into commercial successes, NCFIL sometimes helps them find sources for ingredients, Hildebrand says. The lab also can provide advice for making products sugar-free or low sugar. For example, one client is producing a high-protein peanut butter bar that’s low sugar.

Hildebrand says most clients come to NCFIL already having formulations for their bars. They’ve been hand-forming their bars or using molds, but they need the lab’s help to ensure their recipes will yield the same texture, size and shape when produced in an industrial setting.

“It’s really important for clients to manufacture a small test batch to conduct small consumer tests and get feedback, then adjust and retry based on the feedback,” Hildebrand says. “Once they run their product on our machine and know the cut speeds, dimensions and thickness, we provide them with a scale-up document  they can use with their co-manufacturers.”

NCFIL Bar Line Capabilities

With the Bühler SnackFix™ system, the NCFIL can make a wide variety of bars and other products, including ones like these commercially available products, with just one caveat: Coatings, toppings and drizzles must be added by hand. 

Slab Style
Granola/Snack Type: Nature Valley™, KIND™, Quaker Chewy™, RXBAR™, Perfect Bar™
Nutrition/Meal Replacement Type: MET-Rx™, AmBari™, Clif Bar™, SANS™ Meal Bar
Dessert/Candy Type: Cosmic™ Brownies, Rice Krispies Treats™ Bars
Non-Bar Type: Fish sticks, Crackers

DDP Style (Filled/Two-Layered)
Granola/Snack Type: Nutri-Grain™, Bobo’s Stuff’d™, Kashi™ Layered Granola Bars
Dessert/Candy Type: Snickers™, Mars™, Payday™, 100 Grand™