KTU food technology students visit our Panevėžys bakery
What does bread production look like in a bakery operating around the clock? First- and third-year students of the Food Science and Technology study program at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) saw this up close when they visited the "Vilniaus duona" bakery in Panevėžys.
Open Industry Weekend
The visit took place during the "Open Industry Weekend," organized by the Panevėžys Development Agency "Panevėžys NOW." KTU associate professor Loreta Bašinskienė accompanied the students, and bakery manager Šarūnė Kiznienė and food technologist Julija Štitilienė warmly showed them around.
The future food technologists had the opportunity to see how what they learn at university works in practice: how bread production is organised on high-capacity production lines, what technologies and equipment are used, and what challenges arise in day-to-day production.
“You can learn the principles of food technology at university, but it is quite another thing to see how they work in one of the largest fresh bread bakeries, where production runs around the clock. It is important for us to open our bakery doors to students – we want future food technologists to see, while they are still studying, what knowledge and skills are needed in today’s food industry,” says Šarūnė Kiznienė, Head of the Panevėžys Bakery at Vilniaus duona.
Students were impressed by the scale and automation
"Since we are currently learning about bread-making technologies, it was very useful to see the ongoing production processes in practice and reinforce the knowledge gained," one of the students shared after the visit.
For others, the greatest impression was made by the scale of production itself: automated processes, modern high-performance equipment, and the fact that bread production in the bakery runs around the clock.
"It was interesting to see a modern bread baking company from the inside. This visit allowed us to understand the size and scale of the production process truly," the students recounted.
For us, such meetings are an opportunity to show how many different knowledge and professions lie behind the loaf of bread that arrives on the table every day. To bake bread and deliver it to stores, we need as many as 65 professions. And for future food technologists – to see where and how the knowledge gained at university can be practically applied.
Thank you from KTU for your visit. Until we meet again at the bakery!
