Tanis & Aasted win the Best Processing Innovation Award

We are proud to announce that the Tanis x Aasted Integrated Candy Bar Line has won the Best Processing Innovation Award at the Gulfood Manufacturing Industry Excellence Awards 2026. The award recognizes innovations that are setting new standards in food processing technology.

The recognition marks an important milestone in the collaboration between Tanis and Aasted and confirms the strength of our shared philosophy: Two Experts, One Bar Solution.

Two areas of expertise, one integrated solution

The award-winning production line brings together two complementary areas of confectionery expertise. Tanis provides the process technology for ingredient preparation, cooking, aeration and blending, while Aasted adds its expertise in forming, cooling, cutting and enrobing. Together, these technologies create an integrated end-to-end solution for candy bars, protein bars and layered confectionery products.

At the heart of the solution is a different approach to conventional bar manufacturing. Instead of creating a large slab that subsequently needs to be slit into individual product ropes, the line uses the Aasted Alice™ Extruder to form the mass directly into individual ropes.

This approach reduces the number of processing steps, minimizes trim losses and product rework, and creates a more compact production setup. At the same time, manufacturers gain greater flexibility for different recipes, textures and bar formats.

Designed for flexibility and efficiency

The integrated line can process a broad variety of confectionery masses, including nougat, caramel, aerated products, protein-based formulations and products containing inclusions such as nuts. Its flexible setup enables manufacturers to switch between recipes and product concepts while maintaining accurate process control and consistent product quality.

Sustainability and operational efficiency have also played an important role in the development of the line. Eliminating traditional slab forming and reducing product losses helps manufacturers use ingredients more efficiently, while the compact design can reduce the amount of production floor space required.

Turning new bar ideas into reality

The Tanis x Aasted collaboration goes beyond equipment. Customers can also develop, test and validate new concepts at the Tanis Innovation Center in the Netherlands, where a fully operational bar production environment is available. This allows manufacturers to optimize recipes and production parameters before moving toward commercial-scale production, helping reduce development risks and accelerate time-to-market.

Winning the Best Processing Innovation Award is an important recognition of this combined approach to bar manufacturing and, above all, of the teams at Tanis and Aasted who turned two areas of expertise into one integrated solution.

Two Experts. One Bar Solution. And now, one award-winning innovation.

Photo Credits: Gulfood Manufacturing