Paper No. 09
Paper Title: Bakery and Confectionery Products
Module No. 11
Module Title: Biscuits: Classification and general aspects of manufacture
Biscuit
The term ‘Biscuit’ refers to the small round bread leavened with baking powder or soda and
covers a large variety of sweet, salted, filled and coated biscuits. Biscuits are eaten by all
sections of people across the board round the year. They are, thus, mass consumption items
with number of varieties and shapes. The market is scattered. There are some dominant
national and regional brands. Biscuits can be manufactured at a location which is close to the
market. The basic ingredients of biscuit are flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar,
shortening and milk solids.
1.1 Definition of biscuit
As per Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2009 - Regulation 5.7.15: Bakery
products, Biscuits including wafer biscuits shall be made from maida, vanaspati or refined
edible oil or table butter or desi butter or margarine or ghee or their mixture containing any
one or more of the following ingredients, namely:- Edible common salt, butter, milk powder,
cereals and their products, cheese cocoa, coffee extract, edible desiccated coconut, dextrose,
fruit and fruits products, dry fruit and nuts, egg, edible vegetable products, ginger, gluten
groundnut flour, milk and milk products, honey liquid glucose, malt products, edible oilseeds,
flour and meals, spices and condiments, edible starches such as potato starch and edible
flours, sugar and sugar products, invert sugar, jaggery, protein concentrates, vinegar and
other nutrients and vitamins: Provided that it may contain food additives specified in these
rules and in Appendix A: Provided further that it may contain artificial sweetener as provided
in rule 47 under label declaration as provided in Article 2 of Regulation 4.2.1 Provided also
that it shall conform to following standards, namely:(a) ash insoluble in dilute hydrochloric acid (on dry basis) shall not be more than 0.1 per cent.
(b) acidity of extracted fat (as oleic acid) not exceeding 1.5 per cent.]
It may contain Oligofructose (dietary fibres) upto 15% maximum subject to label declaration
under Article 2 of Regulation 4.2.1.
1.2 Types of biscuit
Classification of biscuits on the basis of chemical composition and processing methodology
is difficult due to overlap. These are manufactured in varieties covering sweet, salted, filled
and coated biscuits.
a) BIS Classification (IS 1011:2002)
The varietal differences of biscuits can be easily distinguished based on sensory attributes.
This standard broadly classified the biscuits on the sensory basis into the following five
types:
Type I
Sweet
Type II
Semi-sweet
Type III
Crackers
Type IV
Cookies
Type V
Speciality Biscuits
Biscuit has nowadays become a food item of mass consumption and has got wide acceptance
among all the levels and class of consumers.
b) UK Classification: Biscuits are classified based on the formulation as follows:
S.N.
1
Type of biscuit
Hard dough biscuit
2
Short dough biscuit
Description
Dough used is similar to bread dough
Mixing of flour is more to maximize gluten
development
 Dough is elastic and extensible due to well
developed gluten network during mixing
 Very low fat and sugar content relative to flour
 Example: Crackers, sweet and semisweet biscuits
 Dough more closely related to cake dough
however water used is lesser than cake dough
 Mixing of flour is very little to minimize gluten
development
 Higher fat or shortening than hard dough
resulting into lower extensibility of gluten and
hence easy breaking of biscuits
 Higher sugar in the formulation
Soft dough biscuit: A subgroup of short dough biscuit
with a more soft consistency which can be attributed to
its higher sugar and fat content.


c) USA Classification: This classification of biscuits is based on the method of processing
and, in particular on the basis of the way biscuits are shaped.
1) Sheeting or cutting type: Here the dough is passed through laminators to produce
sheets. These multilayer sheets are then fused into single sheet of desired thickness.
This sheet is then passed onto cutter of various shape and sizes of cups/dies. The
examples are creamcrackers, puff crackers, marie gold, salt n sugar cracker, fiftyfifty, krackjack, monaco etc.
2) Rotary molding type: The dough is in short crumb form and is directly fed in to
rotator moulder with dies of various shape and size. The examples are Good day,
Glucose chocochips biscuit etc.
3) Wire cutting type: Here soft short dough is passed through holes in extruders and
these doughs are then wire cut in pieces which are directly dropped into oven band.
Two three types of dough can be co-extruded from the die where the central dough
could be jelly or jam .These ropes can be cut after or before baking. Examples are
butter cookies, chocolate cookies.
4) Depositing type: Here the soft pourable short dough is passed out from extruder and
directly laid on baking bands. The depositor may rotate to make swirls and twists on
to the products. Cream treat biscuits are made by this method.
1.3 Biscuit manufacture process
There are various established processes commercially available and being practiced by
different manufacturers. The process of manufacturing of biscuits mainly involves the
following three steps:
a) Mixing
b) Shaping or forming
c) Baking
As the mixing and baking steps are common to manufacture of all types of biscuits the
differences in the finished product arises due to the different shaping and forming methods.
Mixing
Mixing is commonly defined as a process designed to blend different ingredients into a
uniform, homogenous mixture. The major ingredients are flour, fat, sugar and others as per
the desired final one would like to have. For this step, all ingredients are put together in right
proportion for dough formation. These are then fed into mixers where mixing is done and
dough is prepared for moulding/cutting. There are three types of mixers being used for
mixing of ingredientsa) Vertical spindle mixer
b) Horizontal mixer
c) Continuous mixer
S.
Mixer
Features
Image
N
.
1 Vertical
 Portable dough trough
spindle
 Spindle with horizontal
mixer
paddle or arms

Dough is mixed by upward
and downward movement

Mixer blades for cutting
action rather than kneading

Advantageous
being
suitable for any product

Disadvantage is the slow
operating speed (max. 20
rpm)
2
3
Horizontal
mixer

Horizontal bowl mounted
on a
rigid frame that
encloses the drive motor

Mixer bowl designed to tilt
so as to eject the dough
from the tilted position

Blades of variable shapes to
perform cutting, scraping or
kneading action

Advantage - high speed,
continuous dough supply to
processing line, complete
automation, uniform mixing

A rotor or screw operates within a barrel jacketed for temperature
control

Continuous feeding of ingredients

Mixing is variable from gentle blending and dispersing to vigorous
or high intensity kneading by varying the arrangements of different
mixing arms along the length of the barrel

Constant supply of dough to processing line

Small in size relative to horizontal type
Continuous
mixer
Disadvantage- suitable for single purpose or similar type of products only,
high cost.
Shaping or forming
The forming process is specific for each biscuit, cookie type. There are three processes by
which shaping or forming of biscuits is achieved1) Sheeting and cutting
2) Rotary molding
3) Extrusion
Sheeting and cutting method: This method of forming is used for the production of crackers,
semisweet biscuits and selected soft doughs.
Mixing (Previous step)
Dough
Making thick sheet
Reincorporation
Even reduction of sheet
thickness
Scrap dough
Cutting out the shape
Formed dough pieces
Fig 1. Process flow chart for Sheeting and cutting method of forming biscuits
Rotary molding: The rotary molding process offers advantages over sheeting and cutting that
there is no scrap to recycle and very less labour requirement. This process is used for dry and
crumbly doughs only.
Dough hopper
Pulling of dough down by feed roller
Forcing of dough into cavity of the
engraved roller
Scrap dough
Scraping of excess dough
Dropping of dough pieces on a
conveyor belt
Dough pieces for baking
Fig 2. Process flow chart for Rotary molding method of forming biscuits
Extrusion method: In this method of dough forming, the dough is extruded through a row of
dies which is cut by a wire or blade mounted on a frame that moves through the dough just
below the die nozzle outlet.
Dough hopper
Forcing of dough into pressure chamber
Extrusion of dough through die
Cutting of extruded dough by wire
mounted on a frame
Dropping of dough pieces on a
conveyor belt
Dough pieces for baking
Fig 3. Process flow chart for Extrusion method of forming biscuits
Baking
This is the area where we pass these moulded/ formed wet biscuit into baking oven .The
biscuits are baked on desired temperatures. Various type of heating are available now-a-days
as per the convenience and cost. Different types of oven are available for baking products.
Cooling
The hot product obtained from baking must be cooled to room temperature prior to packaging
for several reasons Being warm, reduced firmness of the baked product so as to withstand packaging
process
 Packaging material shrinkage due to contact to hot product
 Hot packed product may continue release some steam causing condensation inside the
packaging.
Cooling can be achieved either by placing the baked product at ambient conditions or by
forced air cooling.
Whitley method of biscuit making
For the simplest biscuit preparation Whitely P.R. (1970) method is used. According to this
method the following recipe is used for biscuit manufacture–
S. No. Ingredient
1
White flour (maida)
Quantity (g)
64
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Sugar (powdered)
Shortening
Skim milk powder
Glucose
Ammonium bicarbonate
Baking powder
Sodium bicarbonate
Common salt
Vanilla
Water
18
16
1
1
0.5
0.3
0.2
0.4
0.02 (ml)
as required for proper
consistency (ml)
The various steps of biscuit manufacture like ingredient mixing, cutting, baking and cooling
are described as follows.
Creaming of fat and sugar in a mixer
Addition of well mixed blend of flour,
baking powder and skimmed milk powder
Addition and mixing of water containing sugar, salt,
ammonium biacarbonate, sodium bicarbonate and flavour
Preparation of dough
Sheeting
Cutting
Baking at 200oC for 8-9
min
Cooling
Machineries used in biscuit manufacturing process
For the manufacture of biscuits the following machines are primarily used by the baking
industry:
 Flour Shifter
 Stainless Steel Mixer
 GMS Churner







Fat Churner
Cotton Conveyor
Laminator
Teflon coated cutting, stamping & punching machine
Electrically/ Diesel operated baking oven
Cooling conveyor
Packing & sealing machine