Tempura Nugget Line

Crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside, tempura chicken nuggets are among the favorite convenience food choices around the world. With decades of experience, JBT Marel knows the ins and outs of a consistent and high-quality production of tasty, golden-colored nuggets.

Our Tempura chicken nugget solution covers the entire production process, from preparation and forming to freezing, packaging, and everything in between. This reduces supplier dependency while ensuring seamless integration and optimal machine collaboration throughout the line.

Mixing and grinding

A uniform meat mass is essential for optimal forming and coating acceptance. Our industrial grinding and mixing systems create homogeneous blends with precise moisture and seasoning control, ready for downstream processing.

Regional tastes and consumer preferences vary significantly across markets, which is why we offer expertise in a range of coating styles. Based on your end-product, our experts can advise on the most suitable coating style.

Forming

Chilled meat mass with the correct viscosity can be formed using either our RevoPortioner rotational drum former or alco plate forming machine. Our comprehensive forming portfolio offers solutions for a wide range of production requirements, balancing CAPEX and OPEX considerations to achieve the optimal total cost of ownership.

Classic coating

Regular, or classic coating, for tempura nuggets starts with a thin batter (milk wash) followed by a layer of pre-dust. To finalize the coating it is run through a tempura battering machine for the typical nugget appearance.

Innovative coating

Unlike conventional coating processes, where the coating is fully applied before heat treatment, this innovative approach begins with a pre-dust application followed by heat treatment. After cooking, a second layer of pre-dust is applied and the process is completed by dipping the nuggets in tempura batter.

Our comprehensive coating portfolio offers solutions for every budget and production scale, ensuring the right fit for any application.

Frying, cooking, freezing and packaging

To achieve a golden color, crispy texture, and appealing flavor, the nuggets are first par-fried in one of our industrial fryers before being fully cooked in a linear or spiral oven. 

Downstream, advanced processing solutions ensure the products are rapidly frozen and precisely batched and packed, preserving product quality while maintaining gentle handling throughout the process. The result is a retail and QRS ready product with optimal appearance, texture, and yield.

The dedicated JBT Marel Food Processing Software functionality for convenience lines benefits the Homestyle chicken wings line too. It includes several useful tools for convenience lines. A real differentiator is that product data, equipment data and process data are gathered for use in a process analysis tool. This helps the operator/manager make smart decisions and prevent products from going out of spec.

The JBT Marel Software QC solution automates quality control procedures. This digitalization prevents operators from making mistakes and creates a paperless working environment. The Line Profiler tool is particularly useful for a convenience line. It configures the required line set-up per master recipe and with the single click of a button can send the programmed settings for this specific configuration to the machines.

• Real-time data analysis ensures production to specification
• Continuous OEE insight to improve the production process
• Recipe management ensures product consistency
• Reliable, digitized QC process

Your trusted service partner throughout the equipment lifecycle - maximizing uptime, optimizing performance, controlling costs and delivering lasting peace of mind. The benefit of well-maintained equipment directly impacts your bottom-line. It prevents unexpected breakdowns, enables peak performance and quality output. It also extends the life of your equipment, protecting both your investment and your team with a more reliable and safe working environment.

Whatever your processing needs - from the products you run to the scale you operate in - our broad service capabilities, proactive service agreements, expert know-how and extensive coverage mean you’ve got the support you need – where and when you need it.