Vacuum: vacuum cooling and baking for industrial bakery
The technology that drastically reduces production time and increases your line's capacity. From the test unit to the continuous system. Part of the Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family. Exclusive representative in Brazil: Codipar.
What is vacuum cooling and baking?
What it is
Under vacuum, water boils at lower temperatures. That is the principle behind vacuum cooling. The freshly baked product, still near 95–100 °C at the core, enters a sealed chamber where pressure is rapidly reduced. Moisture inside the dough starts to evaporate well below 100 °C, and every gram of water that evaporates carries heat outward. Cooling — and part of the baking finish — happens from the inside out, in minutes instead of hours.
Why it matters
Dropping cooling time from 60–120 minutes to the 2–3 minute range frees up line capacity that was previously trapped in cooling. It eliminates or drastically reduces cooling tunnels, giving back plant floor space. And by controlling moisture release, it improves the structure, volume and durability of the final product.
Strategic gain
Integrating vacuum into production is a strategic decision, not the purchase of a standalone machine. That is why Verhoeven lets you test the real impact on your product and process before any implementation, with the Vactorr A R&D unit.
Reliability
The construction is validated by test software developed by NASA, under a safety first approach, with a safety sensor that prevents operation while people are inside the chamber and exclusive use of components from recognized brands.
Want to see the effect on your own product? Codipar can arrange a test with the Vactorr A unit.
Talk to CodiparWhat changes in your product
Everyone reaches 60 to 70% quality. It is the last 10 to 15% that separates a correct product from an excellent one. That is where vacuum cooling acts.
Volume and texture
Fast, controlled evaporation increases volume and produces a more stable, uniform crumb. Products that tend to shrink or collapse when air-cooled gain stability.
Appearance and crust
More intense coloring, balanced surface and locked-in crispy crust, without moisture migration from the crumb that normally softens the product on the conveyor.
Composition and flavor
Lower moisture loss, higher degree of starch gelatinization, possible reduction of preservatives, reduced acrylamide and better flavor.
Shelf life and safety
Right after baking, the product spends time in the temperature range favorable to microbial growth — the contamination phase — where cell division occurs every few minutes. Vacuum cooling shortens this window from about one hour to around 3 minutes, reducing contamination risk and extending shelf life.
Croissant without and with vacuum cooling
From test to full production
Three steps in adopting vacuum in your plant:
Vactorr A: test before you invest
- Compact all-in-one vacuum cooling and baking unit for R&D
- Single tray system (600 x 800 mm) for piece-by-piece tests
- Mobile, for tests at Verhoeven or at the customer's site
- Integrated chamber and pump, energy recovery system
- Touch-screen operation, pulse mode for product control
- Dimensions: 1240 x 1140 x 1970 mm
Vactorr A exists to take the decision out of guesswork. It is the unit where you validate, on your own product, the real gain in time, volume and quality before committing capital to a production system. Mobile and compact, it runs tests at Verhoeven or in your plant, and the recipes validated here scale directly to the Vactorr B and C.
Vactorr B: batch production
- All-in-one solution for batch production
- Capacity of up to 20 batches/h, depending on product and rack load
- Available in four sizes (B1 to B4), chamber from 715 to 1115 mm wide
- Integrated chamber and pump, energy recovery
- Industry 4.0 ready, touch-screen operation
Vactorr B brings vacuum cooling into real batch production, without requiring a continuous line. Four sizes cover medium operations through higher volumes, with the same round pressure chamber and same safety standard as the rest of the line. It is the natural next step after validating the product on Vactorr A.
Vactorr C: continuous production integrated to the line
- Custom continuous production system, integrated into the full line
- Multi-deck operation, from 2 to 6 decks
- Fully automatic operation with automatic doors
- Proven capacity of up to 45,000 cakes, 54,000 croissants or 12,000 pan breads per hour, depending on prior line, recipe and process
- Air filtration down to 0.5 μ, configurable vacuum parameters
- Custom dimensions according to the customer's plant
Vactorr C is the high-volume continuous system, integrated into the full line and operating in a fully automatic way. The modular 2–6 deck configuration is sized to your capacity, and the system serves both new and existing lines. This is the scale at which capacity gains and space savings translate directly into return on investment.
I adopted vacuum cooling with enthusiasm. The difference observed in the product was remarkable and, by applying the technology correctly, I get a higher return on the same investment — the effect varies by product group.
Technology, not just equipment
A helicopter does not make anyone a pilot, and a new kitchen does not make anyone a good chef. Vacuum cooling is not just plugging in a machine.
The result depends on tuning the process: recipes, oven times, vacuum parameters and the depressurization curve are calibrated for each product. The same equipment delivers a mediocre or excellent result depending on the process engineering behind it.
That is why the evaluation starts with tests on the real product, together with the specialized team, and not with a capacity spreadsheet. Patrick Duss, the “Mr Vacuum”, is the world pioneer of vacuum cooling and leads this process work with the V-Team. In Brazil, Codipar is the one who bridges this with you.
Frequently asked questions about vacuum cooling
Vacuum Cooling & Baking Solutions is one of the specialized brands of the Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family, based in the Netherlands, which also includes BVT Dough Process Solutions, Newcap Industrial Handling Solutions and Bakepack End of Line Solutions. The group provides custom equipment architecture and turn-key solutions for modern industrial bakery.
Technical materials
Curious about the impact of vacuum on your product? Start with a test.
Codipar represents Vacuum Cooling & Baking in Brazil and can arrange a test with the Vactorr A unit before any investment decision.