KPM Analytics opens advanced baking lab for data-driven quality control

USA – KPM Analytics has opened a new baking lab within the KPM Rheology Center of Excellence, a dedicated applications and testing facility designed to bridge the gap between traditional baking tests and objective analytical data.

The move aims to help members of the baking and milling industry adopt a measure-first approach to flour and product quality control.

For generations of millers and bakers, baking tests have been the gold standard for evaluating flour, dough behaviour, ingredient interaction, and finished product performance.

However, baking tests can be highly subjective, time-consuming, dependent on operator technique, and can require large quantities of ingredients to produce test samples.

Additionally, baking tests can only show the final product, and without a way to test ingredient formulations beforehand, the baker is often left guessing what could have gone wrong if the results are unsatisfactory.

The state-of-the-art baking lab, designed and developed with investment from the Synar Group and its subsidiary Euro Food Product Company, integrates industrial-grade baking equipment with KPM’s rheological and quality assurance technologies to link baking results with objective analysis.

“Synar and KPM Analytics share a similar philosophy toward serving the milling and baking industry,” said Rustam Mamirov of the Synar Group.

“Our investment is far more than equipment in a lab, but a declaration of our partnership, trust, and shared ambition for the future of cereal and flour analysis.”

“The Baking Lab is something we have wanted for a long time, as it will help our teams connect what they see through analysis with what is happening at their bakery. We are very grateful to Rustam and Synar for making this dream come true,” added Mr. Lionel Bernard, KPM France General Manager.

The KPM Centre, located at KPM Analytics’ France Headquarters in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, features mixers, a proofing chamber, an industrial oven, and other essential tools to replicate real-world baking conditions.

The KPM Center includes rheological instruments such as Mixolab®, Alveolab®, Rheo F4, and SDmatic 2, moisture and compositional analysis from the SpectraStar™ XT, and finished product evaluation using TheiaVu® Vision measurement systems, in addition to the baking equipment.

Together, these solutions provide insight into flour composition (damaged starch, protein, ash, moisture, and other parameters), dough behaviour during mixing, shaping, proofing, and baking, as well as visual quality attributes (size, shape, colour, and structure), and even product shelf life.

The improved facility offers several key benefits to millers and bakers, including the ability to streamline baking tests by pre-screening raw ingredients with analytical instrumentation, helping companies save time and energy costs.

It also enables them to make baking tests more objective by using instrument data and to obtain actionable insights to adjust formulations, including additive and enzyme usage, proofing time, and other critical decisions that can affect their efficiency and bottom lines.

By relating these objective measurements to the baking process, KPM aims to help customers connect the dots between raw material characteristics, process behaviour, and finished product quality using objective instruments.

KPM Analytics is a global leader in scientific instrumentation, providing analytical and vision inspection solutions to laboratories and industrial operators in the food, feed, agriculture, industrial, and environmental sectors.

KPM products have a long history of helping companies secure product quality, optimize production processes, and make confident, data-driven decisions through reliable solutions supported by dedicated application expertise and local service.

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