Method and equipment for storing foodstuffs, plants, vegetables,

Details Method and equipment for storing foodstuffs, plants, vegetables, Method and equipment for storing foodstuffs, plants, vegetables,

1992-11-19

1995-04-04

Yeung, George

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Processes

Cooling, freezing, or treating cooled or frozen product,...

62407, 62426, 62441, 426418, A23L 300, F25D 1700

Patent

active

054036097

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and equipment for the storage of foodstuffs, vegetables, meats and other organic substances, and the product to be stored is put into a sealed closed, openable, cooled chamber.
As is known, the usability of foodstuffs stored in refrigerators can be used through a period of several days depending on the kind of products. The duration of possible storage without loss of quality is in direct relation with the amount of heat extracted by the surroundings, i.e. with the extend of cooling of the product. At temperatures above 0.degree. C., most substances of vegetable of animal origin can be stored for short periods of time without risking deterioration. E.g., lettuce or radish become withered and unusable after 1 or 2 days of storage on open shelves of conventional refrigerators. At temperatures below 0.degree. C., and especially in freezers where the temperature is kept around or in given cases below -18.degree. C. the storage times may be as long as 1 year in the case of certain kinds of foodstuffs. However, with these procedures applying high rates of heat extraction and deep-freezing, damage of cells manifesting itself in a high degree of loss of quality after thawing cannot fully be eliminated. With refrigerating machines known so far, the chamber temperature is usually controlled so as to follow the temperature of the cooling plate incorporating the evaporator of the cooling circuit, which has the drawback, that the cooling plate does not cover the entire inner surface of the chamber, but only a small part of it, some parts within the chamber tend to assume different temperatures. So, for examples, the surface of the cooling plate is generally colder than the remaining inner surface of the chamber. Since the cooling circuit is switched on and off cyclically, also the cooling and heating periods follow each other cyclically, the temperature of the cooling plate also varies accordingly. As shown by measurements, the temperature variation within the chamber in space and time can exceed a span of 4 to 5.degree. C. Due to the different temperatures and various temperature differences, air flows develop within the inner space, contributing to the evaporation of water present in the cells of products and thereby to their desiccation.
Because of within such wide temperature changing in the case of known kinds of refrigerators and known cooling methods, in the chambers serving for the storage of the various foodstuffs, mainly vegetables, fruits, etc., the average temperature is adjusted to lie between 3 to 4.degree. C., ensuring thereby that the temperature will possibly be prevented from dropping below 0.degree. C. within the chamber. Namely, in the case when the temperature decreases under 0, due to freezing, the cells may suffer severe damages, whereby the foodstuffs may become unsuitable for human consumption within a short time.
Since the metabolism of cells of some foodstuffs, mainly that of vegetables and fruits, is still considerable enough at 3-4.degree. C., at such storing temperatures the cells get aged within rather short periods of time (within a few days in some kinds of cells), and the viruses, and bacteria settling on foodstuffs proliferate, whereby the stored goods may soon become unsuitable for consumption.
The refrigerating machine specified in HU-PS 185130 is provided with a cooling circuit comprising a single compressor and a number of chambers independently controlled to different temperatures, and in the primary cooling circuit having capillaries several evaporators are arrenged and there is a secondary cooling circuit consisting of a liquefaction apparatus (condensing equipment) and an evaporator. Since with this known arrangement the chambers of the refrigerating machine are cooled by cooling plates comprising an evaporator in the cooling circuit, the drawbacks characteristic of designs operating with cooling plates exist also here.
With open-top cooling desks it is known that the bottom and the two opposite-side walls of the cooling desk around the coolin

REFERENCES:
patent: 4210000 (1980-07-01), Lee
patent: 4662186 (1987-05-01), Park
patent: 4958506 (1990-09-01), Guilhem et al.

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