How to Fix Gum Clumping and Filter Clogging in Food Processing - High Shear Mixing - Blog

In prepared foods manufacturing, ingredients like gums, pectins, hydrocolloids, soy powders, viscosity enhancers, and stabilizing agents play a critical role in texture, suspension, and overall product quality. But these powders also share a common challenge: they require sufficient shear to fully disperse and hydrate.

When they don’t get it, they form visible clumps—those infamous fisheyes—that lead to downstream headaches, wasted ingredients, and costly process interruptions.

A recent before-and-after filter comparison from one customer shows exactly how big that impact can be.

Before: A Filter Packed With Unhydrated Powder Lumps

The “before” picture shows a filter screen pulled after a batch was run without a Dynashear^® or Fastfeed^® system.

• What you see caught in the mesh is all too familiar:
• Large, unhydrated gum balls
• Partially hydrated clumps that never fully dispersed
• Fisheyes formed upstream that the tank mixer simply couldn’t break down

And because these agglomerates were present in every batch, the filter had to be cleaned after each run… and again after every shift. Not only was this adding labor and downtime—it was a clear sign that expensive functional powders were not being incorporated into the recipe.

These ingredients aren’t cheap. Every clump removed at the filter is literally dollars washed down the drain.

And when too much material is lost, the formulation can slip out of spec, forcing rework, adjustments, or even scrapping an entire batch—another significant cost hit.

After: A Near-Clean Screen With the Dynashear

Once the customer installed a Dynashear inline high shear mixer (a Fastfeed system would have produced the same results), everything changed.

The “after” picture shows:

• Almost no fisheyes reaching the filter
• Consistently smooth, fully hydrated product
• A screen that no longer required cleaning after every batch—or even every shift

In fact, the operator eventually checked the screen once a week, not for cleaning, but simply to ensure no tools or bolts had been left behind. From that point on, they never saw another gum ball.

Why This Change Saves More Than Time

When powders are fully dispersed and incorporated into the formula:

• None of them end up in the filter, so expensive ingredients aren’t thrown away.
• The recipe achieves consistent viscosity and texture, preventing QC issues and downtime.
• And in many cases, processors find they can reduce their powder usage entirely, because they no longer need to “overdose” ingredients to compensate for losses removed by the filter.

Put simply: the Dynashear doesn’t just solve a mixing issue—it directly saves money in every batch.

A Simple Filter Check Tells the Whole Story

If your filtration step is catching more than incidental particles, the problem isn't the filter at all—it’s a sign that the upstream mixing system isn’t generating enough shear for full hydration and dispersion.

The Dynashear fixes that in a single inline pass.