KPM Analytics Introduces New Baking Lab for its Rheology Center of Excellence

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. (May 28, 2026) – For generations of millers and bakers, baking tests have been the gold standard for evaluating flour, dough behavior, ingredient interaction, and finished product performance. However, baking tests can be highly subjective, time-consuming, dependent on operator technique, and can require large quantities of ingredients to produce test samples. Additionally, baking tests can only show the final product, and without a way to test ingredient formulations beforehand, the baker is often left guessing what could have gone wrong if the results are unsatisfactory.

To help members of the baking and milling industry adopt a measure-first approach to flour and product quality control, KPM Analytics has opened a new baking lab within the KPM Rheology Center of Excellence (KPM Center), a dedicated applications and testing facility designed to bridge the gap between traditional baking tests and objective analytical data. The KPM Center, located at the KPM Analytics France Headquarters (36 Avenue Marc Sangnier, Building B3, 92390 Villeneuve-la-Garenne, France), features state-of-the-art baking test equipment, including mixers, a proofing chamber, an industrial oven, and other essential tools to replicate real-world baking conditions.

By combining traditional baking tests with objective analytical data from KPM technologies, the lab will help demonstrate to customers how laboratory tools can enable meaningful connections between ingredient behavior, process conditions, and finished product quality.

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The new Baking Lab at the KPM Rheology Center of Excellence features state-of-the-art mixing equipment, a proofing chamber, an industrial oven, and common tools used in a real-world baking test setting.

Aligning Baking Test Results with Objective, Analytical Data

Baking tests can be highly subjective, dependent on operator technique, and often reveal only the outcome without explaining what happened during mixing, shaping, proofing, or baking that may have influenced the result.

“The baking test has always been a valuable tool, but it does not always tell the complete story,” says Lionel Bernard, General Manager for KPM Analytics France. “With the new Baking Lab at our KPM Center, our goal is to help customers collect data from our many instruments so that they can work from ‘final product to flour’ and gain practical understanding for how to relate their analytical data to the baking test result. By combining baking performance with objective data from our analytical solutions, we can help millers, bakers, and ingredient manufacturers better understand why a product behaves the way it does, and how they can use data from our instruments to be more proactive in their process decision making.”

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Baking Lab visitors have the unique opportunity to combine baking test results with objective analytical data from KPM technologies, helping establish connections between ingredient behavior, process conditions, and finished product quality.

Testing Outcomes with Data Collected from KPM’s Lab Solution Portfolio

The KPM Center includes rheological instruments such as Mixolab®, Alveolab®, Rheo F4, and SDmatic 2, moisture and compositional analysis from the SpectraStar™ XT, and finished product evaluation using TheiaVu® Vision measurement systems, in addition to the baking equipment. Together, these solutions provide insight into flour composition (damaged starch, protein, ash, moisture, and other parameters), dough behavior during mixing, shaping, proofing, baking, visual quality attributes including size, shape, color & structure, and even product shelf life.

By relating these objective measurements to the baking process, KPM aims to help customers begin connecting the dots between raw material characteristics, process behavior, and finished product quality using objective instruments. The improved KPM Center offers several benefits to millers and bakers to help:

• Streamline baking tests by pre-screening raw ingredients with analytical instrumentation, helping the company save time and energy costs performing tests.
• Make the baking test more objective by using data provided by objective instruments.
• Obtain actionable data to adjust their formulations, including additive/enzyme usage, proofing time, and other critical decisions that can affect their efficiency and bottom lines.

“For millers and bakers, the question is not always whether a product passed or failed a baking test, but what caused the results and what they should do to correct any problems efficiently,” says Mr. Bernard. “The Baking Lab gives us a platform to investigate those questions in a practical way. We can demonstrate how analytical data can better support troubleshooting, more consistent specifications, and greater confidence in quality decisions.”

Enhanced Product Training for Customers

An important part of the KPM Center’s mission will be customer education and product training. For new customers, the KPM Center will provide a hands-on environment to gain deeper experience with KPM technologies, understand instrument workflows, and see how analytical results relate to real baking outcomes. Rather than learning a single instrument, customers can work alongside KPM applications experts to explore how measurements from rheology, compositional analysis, and vision inspection come together to support practical quality control decisions.

“Training is most effective when customers can see how the data connects to their day-to-day challenges,” says Mr. Bernard. “The KPM Center complete with the baking lab gives our customers a more immersive learning experience, helping them build confidence with their instruments while also understanding how those tools fit into the broader baking process.”

Designed & Developed with Support from the Synar Group

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KPM France General Manager Lionel Bernard (left) with Rustam Mamirov of Synar (right) finalizing plans for the Baking Lab at the KPM Rheology Center of Excellence.

The KPM Baking Lab would not be possible without funding from the Synar Group and its subsidiary Euro Food Product Company, a Kazakhstan-based distributor partner of KPM Rheological Instruments. “Synar and KPM Analytics share a similar philosophy toward serving the milling and baking industry,” says Rustam Mamirov with the Synar Group. “Our investment is far more than equipment in a lab, but a declaration of our partnership, trust, and shared ambition for the future of cereal and flour analysis.”

“The Baking Lab is something we have wanted for a long time, as it will help our teams connect what they see through analysis with what is happening at their bakery. We are very grateful to Rustam and Synar for making this dream come true,” says Mr. Bernard.

Accepting Customer Visits in the Coming Months

Visit https://www.kpmanalytics.com to stay up to date on news surrounding the Baking Lab at the KPM Rheology Center of Excellence. 

About KPM Analytics

KPM Analytics is a global leader in scientific instrumentation, providing analytical and vision inspection solutions to laboratories and industrial operators in the food, feed, agriculture, industrial and environmental sectors. KPM products have a long history of helping companies secure product quality, optimize production processes, and make confident, data-driven decisions through reliable solutions, supported by dedicated application expertise and local service.  Visit https://www.kpmanalytics.com to learn more.