The Army needs a field bakery system that can produce bread of consistent quality with less labor and with less skill than is required by the present M-1945 Mobile Bakery Plant system. This report describes the testing of a continuous, automated bakery system based on commercial practice but designed for operations under field conditions. The basic automated elements of the system are; continuous dough making and panning; continuous proofing and baking; depanning; cooling; slicing; and bagging. All elements are interconnected so that the only labor in the process is that required to keep the ingredient hoppers filled and to handle the individual bagged loaves of bread at the end of the process. Results demonstrated the feasibility of this concept and, indicated a substantial reduction in labor over the current system. The cost per pound of bread based on equipment, vehicles, personnel, and fuel is almost six cents per pound less than the current system.
