Electrostatics enables the creation of healthier foods

With the Food Standards Agency setting salt and fat reduction targets and rumours circulating that sugar is next on the hit list, it's hardly surprising that manufacturers are racing to make their products healthier.

Removing salt, fat and sugar from certain foods simply isn't an option if they are to remain appealing to consumers. However, there is a way to reduce all of these, while maintaining taste, by using an electrostatics-based food coating system.

This involves a charging electrode located at the tip of an electrostatic spray head or atomiser. The powder or oil is atomised as it moves past the electrode and its particles become ionised - negatively charged. An electrostatic field is created between the charging electrode and the food product, and the spray is drawn to it.

There are a number of benefits to adopting this technology. For example, particles can be spread over a wider surface area, so less salt and sugar is needed to create optimum taste.

In addition, fat is often used to help flavourings stick to a product, but electrostatically charged ingredients stick more easily to foods, so less fat is needed.

Traditional coating methods involve using drums, which act like cement mixers to combine the products and their coatings. But equipment supplier Spice Application Systems (SAS) md Peter King claims that his newly upgraded Cloud Cover electrostatics system is "the death of the drum"

He says that cleaning the electrostatics system requires a much shorter downtime, and that Cloud Cover provides products with 100% coating coverage. This is achieved by the introduction of a vibrating conveyor belt, which enables products to bounce around, allowing the coating spray to access the entire surface area.

Already popular with cereal, snack and confectionery processors - SAS counts Cadbury, Mars, and Kellogg among its customers - the firm is now developing an electrostatics coating for breaded meats.