Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes
Patent
1995-09-22
1997-08-19
Yeung, George
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
99467, 99484, 426416, 426599, A23P 100
Patent
active
056586108
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and a device for high-pressure treatment of liquid substances, for example foodstuffs, wherein the substance undergoes a cyclic process where a limited amount of the substance during each cycle is pressurized in a pressure intensifier to a predetermined pressure and is then maintained at this pressure for a predetermined period of time.
The method and the device are especially suitable for use in high-pressure treatment of large quantities of liquid substances and where certain demands are placed on how large a volume of the substance that can be treated per unit of time.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years, high-pressure treatment has started to be utilized as a method for, among other things, inactivating microorganisms and certain enzymes in foodstuffs, in particular in foodstuffs of a particularly high quality, such as fruit juices and the like. The advantage of high-pressure treatment as compared with the more frequently used heat-treatment method is that the microorganisms and the degrading enzymes in the freshly pressed juice are killed or inactivated without destroying vitamins and flavouring. During heat treatment, on the other hand, the taste and the vitamin contents are changed, which requires additives to restore, as far as possible, the nutritive value and taste of the freshly pressed juice.
A decisive factor for obtaining a good result during the high-pressure treatment is that the substance is maintained under a sufficiently high pressure for a sufficiently long period of time. The pressure and the holding time are chosen in dependence on the properties of the substance to be treated, and the general rule is that the higher the pressure and the longer the holding time, the better the result. Further, the rule applies, within certain limits, that if the holding time is extended, the pressure can be reduced and vice versa. Daring treatment of fruit juices, the pressure is usually set a 1,000-15,000 bar and the holding time can vary between a few seconds and some 10 to 30 minutes.
During high-pressure treatment of liquid substances, a so-called pressure intensifier is used. By pressure intensifier is meant here a device which has a high-pressure chamber in which the substance to be treated is pressurized. The pressurization can be accomplished, for example, by designing one of the end walls of the high-pressure chamber as a high-pressure piston with a certain area, which is insertable into the high-pressure chamber. Outside of the high-pressure chamber this piston is secured to a low-pressure piston with a larger area, arranged in a low-pressure chamber. By supplying a certain pressure to the low-pressure piston, for example hydraulically, a higher pressure is thus obtained inside the high-pressure chamber.
When liquid substances are to be treated by high pressure using the present technique, a quantity of the substance as large as can be contained in the pressure intensifier is supplied thereto. Thereafter, the substance is pressurized to the predetermined pressure and is kept in the pressure intensifier at this pressure for the predetermined period of time. After expiration of the predetermined holding time, the pressure in the pressure intensifier is reduced, whereby the substance is decompressed. When the decompression is completed, the substance is removed from the pressure intensifier and the high-pressure treatment is thereby completed.
During industrial manufacture of, for example, juice, but also of other liquid products, a process is often used in which all treatment steps from the raw material to the finished and packaged product are carried out in one unbroken chain. When high-pressure treatment is applied, the high-pressure treatment is thus included as one link in the process chain. According to the prior art as above, one or up to three pressure intensifiers are used in a process chain. In those cases where two or three pressure intensifiers are used, these can utilize one and the same hydraulic unit for generating the pres
REFERENCES:
patent: 5213029 (1993-05-01), Yutaka
patent: 5328703 (1994-07-01), Nakagawa et al.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 16, No. 334, C-964, Japanese Publication No. 04-09673, "High-Pressure Liquid Processing Device", Inventors: Manabe Yuko et al., Applicant: Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Ltd., Published: Mar. 30, 1992.
Bergman Carl
Westerlund Jan
Asea Brown Boveri AB
Yeung George
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