Posted on 01/13/2003 8:45:23 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
The world of precooked, mass-produced, shipped-in food is coming to Canada´s classic little snack, the doughnut. Are you ready for an Old Fashioned fried 1,800 kilometres away?
The technology is available, Tim Hortons´s longtime machinery supplier says it will happen, and Tim Hortons will not deny it. Get ready for doughnuts made in a factory outside Toronto, and shipped everywhere else.
At company headquarters in Oakville, Ont., vice-president of corporate communications Patty Jameson avoided my question three times. Instead of answering whether Tim Hortons plans to freeze and ship doughnuts to Atlantic Canada, she persistently praised the company´s croissants.
When I said she was avoiding the question, and it deserves an answer, she said, “I´m not confirming or denying. We´ve been testing technologies for years. Our R&D people come up with all kinds of weird and wonderful ideas, and most don´t get past the test stage.”
Does that mean you are testing this?
“We have not made any plans that are open for public knowledge. We are looking at all kinds of products, as we have in the past.”
There are 74 Tim Hortons outlets in metro, and more than 2,000 across the country. Most have bakers who stay up all night making doughnuts. But the doughnut industry is quickly closing down local kitchens, in favour of centralized mega-bakeries that freeze and ship to everyone else. In upstate New York, one Granny´s Kitchens factory makes more than 1.5 million doughnuts a day.
Belshaw, based in Seattle, Washington, is the worldwide leader in doughnut-production equipment. Its Canadian region manager, Dan Maritvold, says Tim Hortons is already freezing and shipping doughnuts, breads, bagels and cookies from a new factory in Brantford, Ont. — but, for now, only in the Toronto area.
“They´re feverishly working to get rid of their Belshaw doughnut fryers — which they have been using for 20 years — and getting in freezers,” Maritvold said. “Instead of baking a batch in the morning and have them become more stale through the day, you only prepare as many doughnuts as are needed.”
If someone is choosing between opening a KFC or a Tim Hortons franchise, Maritvold said, the hassle of keeping and paying overnight bakers could make them opt for chicken.
“This is also a sore point with franchisee owners: if a (baker) doesn´t show up, the franchisee is in there doing it ... Let´s face it,” Maritvold said. “(Doughnut chains) are in the business of selling franchises, and people want the easiest way of making a buck ... With this, they can hire an entry-level person at minimum wage.”
Not just doughnuts are being produced in mega-factories, Maritvold said. “Loblaws and others have been buying frozen doughnuts from central commissaries for some time. The majority of grocery stores are using what they call ‘par-baked´ bread. It´s 80 per cent made, then frozen and shipped, and baked just a little at the end.”
Tim Hortons manager for Atlantic Canada, Andrea Hughes, did not return phone calls. Neither did Audrey Norman, spokeswoman for Loblaws-owned Atlantic Superstores.
Doughnuts cooked, frozen and shipped are a bad deal. They will put doughnut cooks out of work, require more trucks polluting the environment, and insult everyone who loves a good doughnut.
But it will be interesting to see what new spin can be given the word “fresh.”
That's why doughnuts are so popular - you don't need teeth to eat them!..............FRegards
(And yes I am a hypocrite - I mainline Hostess Ding Dongs when nothing better is available).
I praise the day that I quit my Twinkie habit cold turkey.
Twinkie withdrawel isn't too difficult if you increase the proportion of beer in your diet.
A reasonable tradeoff, IMHO.
Krispy Kreme rules.
Time to load up on Krispy Kreme stock. Tarheel BUMP!
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