Industrial food mixing usually refers to the process of combining two or more separate components to produce a certain level of homogeneity. Mixing is often an interchangeable term with blending. However, where blending is typically a gentler process, mixing can combine ingredients at more aggressive rates to create a homogenous mixture. Most processed foods start with a mixing process to achieve physiognomies that are imperative to the final product like homogeneity, texture, temperature, and structure.

The key objective of industrial food mixing is to have unvarying distribution (homogeneity) in the product. Typically, the homogenization consists of particle size reduction, which is achieved by the action of shearing forces. Homogenization is most-commonly known in the processing of milk.

Different products have different objectives, such as creating a stable emulsion. An emulsion is a product of mixing two immiscible liquids. Common examples in food processing would be creams, soups, sauces, mayonnaise, and margarines.

Industrial food mixing equipment is offered in various styles. The style that your food-making operation needs will be based on many different factors, such as, but not limited to: what is being mixed, desired viscosity, desired particle reduction, batch size, the facility’s available manufacturing space, energy costs, discharging options, cleaning, and sanitation options.

The most-common styles of industrial mixing equipment are:

• High-Shear Mixers — disperse one ingredient into a main, continuous ingredient (liquid) which typically would be immiscible. A rotor and stator, or an arrangement of rotors and stators, is used either in a tank holding the solution or in a pipe where the solution would pass through to create shear.
  • Batch High-Shear Mixers — ingredients to be mixed are fed from the top into a mixing vessel. These are typically used when larger volume and quicker processing is required.
  • Inline High-Shear Mixers — the rotor-stator arrangement is contained in a housing with an intake at one end and discharge at the other. Ingredients are drawn through a pump array in a continuous stream. They offer a more-controlled mixing atmosphere, require less floor space, and can be part of a continuous process.
• Heavy-Duty Mixers — these mixers are for highly-viscous materials such as dough, peanut butter, confectionary syrups, beverages, sauces, and pastes.
  • Dual- or Multiple-Shaft Mixers — these mixers have an array of two or more independently-driven agitators working together. Typically, one is a slow-paced agitator to continually move the bulk of the material (two-wing or three-wing anchor blades) and high-shear mixers to continually mix the batch to the desired consistency. Often times, it could be the combination of two paddle-style impellers.
  • Planetary And Double-Planetary Mixers — both of these can have helical-finger style blades or rectangular stirrer blades. They are used when a mix requires no air being whipped into the mixture. These mixers rotate and move all around the mix container passing through the entire batch. An example of when a dual-planetary mixer would be used is if you were mixing butter, large blocks of cream cheese, and various viscous ingredients together.