Package making – With contents treating – Vacuum or inert atmosphere
Patent
1990-06-25
1991-12-24
Sipos, John
Package making
With contents treating
Vacuum or inert atmosphere
53111R, 53167, 53431, 53551, B65B 5518
Patent
active
050741047
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention, which has as object a device for processing products in a controlled atmosphere and at a controlled temperature and particularly food products, relates more precisely to providing an inert atmosphere in the zone in which said products are prepared as well as the particular means which are associated therewith for introducing the product into the zone and removing it.
In the manufacture of certain food products, such for example as fruit emulsions or else different vegetables, potatoes, celery, etc. . . which must be processed and prepared for deep-freezing or packing, it is absolutely necessary to protect the product in question from oxidation thereof in free air, which results in yellowing, more particularly for fruits such as apples or avocado pears or potatoes. For the latter, precisely, which are very widely used for manufacturing deep-frozen or frozen chips, it is usual to process them in several manufacturing steps with metabisulfite which is a powerful antioxidant and which protects them from yellowing in free air. When metabisulfite is used in massive doses, it whitens the potatoes which are impregnated therewith and which may then absorb the oxygen which may possibly migrate through the wall of its packing, which makes it possible to use a packing bag permeable to oxygen, so thinner and less costly. On the other hand, processing with metabisulfite has the drawback of making potatoes spongy when being cooked, but also of freeing enzymes adversely affecting the taste quality of the consumed product.
It was then preferred to turn to a freezing method with pre-cooking which has the main advantage of blocking the process of releasing enzymes mentioned above. But in this case the chips obtained become crumbly. And then, if the use of metabisulfite is limited by the general directions laid down by the testing services, it is then necessary to take considerable precautions in packing the processed products so as to prevent oxygen from acting on the product.
One of the merits of the invention resides precisely in the fact that it makes it possible to limit very considerably the amount of metabisulfite used before processing and packing of the food product because it provides an inert atmosphere in the whole preparation zone of the product, towards which zone, in which and from which the product is processed continuously so as to obtain a final product which does not have the above mentioned drawbacks.
Thus the object of the present invention consists of a device for processing non fluid products in an inert atmosphere and at a controlled temperature particularly food products, comprising a plurality of machines or mechanisms adapted for providing washing, mechanical processing and packing of the processed product, characterized in that it consists to produce and maintain an inert atmosphere enclosing the machines and mechanisms for providing the processing of the product in the zone for preparing the product from its introduction in said zone till its removal out of said zone, and in that means as lock are provided to introduce the product at the inlet of the zone and to remove the product out of the zone after processing.
According to another main characteristic of the invention, a sealed enclosure defines a chamber filled with an inert atmosphere at a low overpressure inside which is located a succession of processing and transfer stations, the enclosure being provided with an inlet lock and an outlet lock.
According to an advantageous arrangement of the invention, the inlet lock is an immersion lock formed of a tank filled with a rinsing liquid, disposed both inside and outside the enclosure, through which it passes through an opening provided in one of the walls, said wall at the edge of this opening plunging into the liquid and forming a barrier between the outside air and the inert atmosphere of the chamber.
According to yet another interesting characteristic of the invention, a packing machine of a type known per se is associated with a hopper connected sealingly to one of the last tr
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Desjonqueres Olivier
Desjonqueres Zsuzsanna
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