Solutions · Food Industry
From flour and sugar to milk powder, nuts, and spices: food ingredients bridge, cake, dust, and must stay clean. PW Silo Systems designs aluminum and stainless steel silos for the food industry with you – with mass-flow discharge, clear product separation, and dust collection.
Food Storage at a Glance
A food silo stores flour, sugar, starch, grains, seeds, dairy powders, or other food ingredients close to production – for bakeries, mills, confectionery, dairy, snack and cereal production, or ingredient processing. It keeps the product clean and contained and feeds it in a controlled way to weighing, mixing, and the process.
Every food product behaves differently. Flours bridge, sugar and milk powder cake, nuts and seeds must be kept separate for allergen reasons, and many fine powders are combustible. That is why the silo material, the design, the discharge, and the safety concept are defined together with you for your product and your site.
Food Silos by Product
Each page explains the typical challenges of a product group and how we solve them – with the products on our tested list.
Flour & Starch
Wheat, rye, spelt, and specialty flours.
View pageFlour & Starch
Corn, tapioca, and rice starch.
View pageFlour & Starch
Wheat, rice, spelt, and corn semolina.
View pageFlour & Starch
Premixes and baking ingredients.
View pageSugar & Sweeteners
Granulated, brown, and specialty sugars.
View pageSugar & Sweeteners
Dextrose, glucose, and polyols.
View pageGrains
Corn, oats, spelt, and other grains.
View pageGrains
Basmati, jasmine, long and short grain rice.
View pageGrains
Golden and brown millet.
View pageGrains
Oat, wheat, rice, and spelt bran.
View pageGrains
Rolled oats, corn flakes, and potato flakes.
View pageGrains
Barley, wheat, rye, and spelt malt.
View pageSeeds & Pulses
Soybean, canola, and flaxseed meal.
View pageSeeds & Pulses
Sunflower, flax, sesame, chia, and more.
View pageSeeds & Pulses
Kidney, white, mung, and other dried beans.
View pageSeeds & Pulses
Red, brown, green, and black lentils.
View pageSeeds & Pulses
Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, and cashews.
View pageDairy
Whole milk, skim milk, and cream powder.
View pageDairy
Whey powder, permeate, and lactose.
View pageIngredients
Pea, soy, whey protein, casein, and gluten.
View pageIngredients
Wheat fiber, oat fiber, and beta-glucan.
View pageIngredients
Fruit powders and dried fruit.
View pageIngredients
Cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and garlic.
View pageIngredients
Beta-carotene, curcumin, and beet powder.
View pageIngredients
Seaweed meal, agar, and carrageenan.
View pageIngredients
Gelatin, collagen, and gelling agents.
View pageIngredients
Dry yeast and yeast extract.
View pageIngredients
Table salt, sea salt, and mineral salts.
View pageIngredients
Citric, malic, lactic, and acetic acid.
View pageBeverages & Cocoa
Coffee beans, ground and instant coffee.
View pageBeverages & Cocoa
Loose leaf tea and tea powder.
View pageBeverages & Cocoa
Cocoa powder, cocoa beans, and cocoa butter.
View pageBeverages & Cocoa
Chocolate chips, drops, and callets.
View pageFeed
Soybean meal, fish meal, and feed grains.
View pageLiquids
PW TankLine tanks for edible oils.
View pageWhy Food Products Are Demanding
Flow behavior, moisture, hygiene, allergens, and dust decide whether a food silo runs reliably.
Fine flours and powders bridge above the outlet, and sugar or milk powder cake when they take up moisture.
In coated carbon steel silos, flaking coating and rust can end up in the food product.
Nuts, seeds, gluten-containing grains, and other allergens must not be mixed by accident.
Food plants often handle many ingredients side by side – each with its own flow behavior.
In funnel flow, product can stay in the silo for a long time while fresh product passes through the center.
Many fine food powders are combustible. Filling, venting, and filtration must be part of a safety concept.
Silo Materials
Aluminum and stainless steel silos are widely used for flour, sugar, starch, and other food ingredients. Both materials offer high corrosion resistance, good hygiene, and a long service life.
Carbon steel is not an option for us: its coating is the only protection against corrosion. Once it wears, paint particles and steel can get into the product. Which of our two materials fits your food silo depends on your product, your process, your cleaning requirements, and your site – we review it with you.
Your Food Silo System
Silo, discharge, blending, filtration, and tanks are engineered as one system. That means fewer interfaces for your team and components that are designed to work together.
Storage
Concentric mass-flow discharge without asymmetric flow zones – as standard, site-assembled, indoor, or multi-compartment silos.
Learn moreBlending
Gravity blending and homogenizing with four technologies, including PW ConeBlend with a hopper that is quick to clean.
Learn moreDischarge
Air fluidization for uniform discharge of poorly flowing products – prevents bridging and can be retrofitted to existing silos.
Learn moreDischarge
Vibration from unbalanced motors breaks up cohesive forces, resolves caking, and keeps the outlet clear.
Learn moreFiltration
Dust separation during pneumatic filling and conveying – sized for fine powders.
Learn moreLiquids
Tanks in aluminum and stainless steel for liquid products and suspensions.
Learn moreTested Food Products
Products marked “Tested in our lab” are on our list of bulk materials. The others we review with you based on your material data before designing the silo.
Tested in our lab
Wheat flour, all-purpose flour
Wheat flour is on our list of bulk materials tested in our lab.
Tested in our lab
Sugar, granulated sugar
Sugar is on our tested list.
Tested in our lab
Cornstarch, corn starch
Cornstarch is on our tested list.
Tested in our lab
Skim milk powder, nonfat dry milk
Skim milk powder is on our tested list.
Tested in our lab
Rolled oats, oat flakes
Rolled oats are on our tested list.
Review with us
Specialty ingredients and blends
Not on the list? We review your product data with you before designing the silo.
Also tested in our lab:
Send us your material data and we will review the right solution with you:
Product Check
Type in your food product or any other bulk material to see whether it has already been tested in our lab. The list covers 287 bulk materials.
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Service in the U.S.
With more than 40 years of experience in silo engineering, we support your food silo project from the first design discussion to commissioning. We deliver to every U.S. state and install with our own qualified personnel.
FAQ
Answers to the questions plant managers, engineers, and buyers ask most often about storing food products in silos.
Dry food powders, granules, grains, and pieces can be stored in a properly designed silo. These are some of the products on our list of bulk materials tested in our lab:
Our list covers 287 bulk materials. Products that are not on it we review with you based on your material data.
We build silos exclusively in aluminum and stainless steel – never in coated carbon steel. Both materials offer high corrosion resistance, good hygiene, and a long service life. Which one fits depends on your product, your process, your cleaning requirements, and your site. We review it with you.
We recommend a dedicated silo per allergen-relevant product – or PW StoreLine multi-compartment silos that keep several products separate in one silo.
A mass-flow hopper geometry keeps the entire silo content moving. Discharge aids such as PW SpeedBlow air fluidization and bin activators break up bridges and caking and keep the outlet clear.
In mass flow, the entire silo content moves downward when material is discharged – not just a channel in the center. Your food products leaves the silo in the order it came in (first in, first out), and no product is left behind in dead zones. Our PW StoreLine silos are designed for concentric mass-flow discharge without asymmetric flow zones.
Yes. PW TankLine tanks in aluminum and stainless steel store edible oils and other liquid food products. Material and design we define with you.
The right size depends on your daily consumption, delivery intervals, the number of products, and the space available at your site. PW StoreLine silos are available in a wide range of sizes and diameters, and silos too large for road transport are assembled on site. We size the system with you – without oversized investment.
Yes. We deliver to every U.S. state and support your project with silo transport, field assembly, silo installation and supervision, and site relocation of existing systems.
Very likely. Our silo systems are designed for nearly all free-flowing, granular, and powdered bulk solids. Send us your material details – particle size, bulk density, moisture, and how the product is filled and discharged – and we will review the right storage solution with you.
Tell us about your products, required storage capacity, how the silo is filled and discharged, and your site conditions. Based on this, we work out the material, silo type, and configuration with you and send you a detailed quote.
