Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Process disinfecting – preserving – deodorizing – or sterilizing – Process of storage or protection
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-07
2001-08-21
McKane, Elizabeth (Department: 1744)
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Process disinfecting, preserving, deodorizing, or sterilizing
Process of storage or protection
C422S033000, C422S037000, C426S330500, C426S333000, C426S419000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06277328
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to methods of aseptically transporting bulk quantities of sterile products, for example edible food products, over extended distances using road, rail or marine transport containers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the processing of edible food products, and prior to final packaging of the products in small quantities for consumer use, it is often necessary to store large quantities of the material in bulk form and to do so under aseptic conditions in order to ensure the ultimate purity of the food product as applied to the consumer. It is often necessary that the materials remain in storage tanks for extended periods of time, often exceeding three or more months. Accordingly, it is important to avoid the introduction of any microorganisms into storage tanks for such products as microorganism contaminants, even if admitted into the tank in only small quantities, will eventually contaminate the entire storage tank contents. Additionally, depending on the type of food product which is stored, it is often necessary to maintain the stored material at a constant temperature. For example, when the food product has been previously partially or fully processed to a desired intermediate or final condition, for example the food product has been pasteurized and a change of its temperature during storage will adversely affect the condition, it is important that the aseptic storage facility does not adversely affect the food product temperature.
Various methods and apparatus have been specially designed for facilitating aseptic storage of bulk quantities of sterile products such as edible food products. For example, the Rechsteiner et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,951,184, 3,998,589 and 4,047,547 disclose methods and apparatus for sealing, sampling and filling aseptic storage tanks. The Nelson U.S. Pat. No. 3,678,955 further discloses an aseptic storage and valving system for facilitating storage of edible bulk materials. The Rechsteiner et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,871,824; 3,918,678 and 3,918,942 also disclose aseptic valves and filters for use in connection with bulk storage containers for aseptically maintaining edible food products.
Because packaging facilities for bulk food products are often remote from the storage locations for bulk food products, it is often necessary to transport the food products over extended distances to one or more packaging facilities. Road, rail and/or marine transport may be necessary. For aseptic products, it has been difficult in the past to maintain aseptic conditions of the bulk quantities of food products during transport over extended distances owing to the difficulties of preventing microorganism contamination and the cost of providing necessary equipment to reduce the likelihood of such contamination. For example, in the past, bulk quantities of tomato products have been shipped via railroad car. However, the railroad cars required outfitting with an expensive external nitrogen supply device to maintain a positive nitrogen pressure in each railroad car at a level of approximately 1-2 psig. Additionally, the railroad cars were subjected to steam sterilization prior to introduction of the tomato products to prevent microorganism contamination therein. Accordingly, the prior systems were limited to products which did not have significant temperature sensitivity. On the other hand, edible food products such as citrus products, which generally require low storage temperatures to avoid the requirement for one or more repeated pasteurization processing steps, were not suitable for transport under these prior rail transport systems.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved and economical methods and apparatus for aseptically transporting bulk quantities of sterile products such as edible food products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods of aseptically transporting a bulk quantity of a sterile product such as an edible food product over extended distances. It is a further object of the invention to provide methods of aseptically transporting bulk quantities of edible food products over extended distances by road, rail or water, preferably by use of tank trucks, railroad tank cars and boats or ships, respectively. It is a further object of the invention to provide methods of aseptically transporting bulk quantities of edible food products which are temperature sensitive. It is a still further object of the invention to provide such methods for aseptically transporting bulk quantities of sterile products such as edible food products over extended distances and for extended periods of time in an economical manner. It is yet a further object of the invention to provide apparatus, including tank trucks and the like, suitable for use in such methods.
These and additional objects of the invention are provided by the present methods of aseptically transporting a bulk quantity of a sterile product such as an edible food product. The present methods comprise sterilizing a transporting container by flooding the container with a chemical sterilant, pressurizing the sterilized container with a positive pressure inert gas atmosphere, aseptically supplying a bulk quantity of a sterile product such as an edible food product to the sterilized container, sealing the pressurized container supplied with the sterile product to substantially maintain a positive pressure therein during transport of the container, and transporting the container with the edible food product therein. The present methods overcome various disadvantages of the prior art and allow aseptic transport of bulk quantities of edible food products and other sterile products in an efficient and economic manner.
These and additional objects and advantages provided by the present invention will be more fully understood and apparent in view of the following detailed description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3678955 (1972-07-01), Nelson
patent: 3714956 (1973-02-01), Nelson
patent: 3871824 (1975-03-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 3873753 (1975-03-01), Nelson et al.
patent: 3918678 (1975-11-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 3918942 (1975-11-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 3951184 (1976-04-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 3998589 (1976-12-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 4022922 (1977-05-01), Nelson
patent: 4047547 (1977-09-01), Rechsteiner et al.
patent: 4287821 (1981-09-01), Ukai et al.
patent: 4325296 (1982-04-01), Ukai et al.
patent: 4929459 (1990-05-01), Silvestrini
patent: 6030580 (2000-02-01), Raasch et al.
patent: 0136042 (1985-04-01), None
patent: 0658494 (1995-06-01), None
Raasch Jeffrey B.
Smith Charles E.
Dinsmore & Shohl
Enerfab, Inc.
McKane Elizabeth
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