Refrigeration – Processes – Congealing flowable material – e.g. – ice making
Patent
1998-06-18
2000-01-11
Tapolcai, William E.
Refrigeration
Processes
Congealing flowable material, e.g., ice making
62345, F25C 110
Patent
active
060122935
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND ART
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for freezing material, such as foodstuff, into portions by positioning the material divided into portions on a sheet and passing it over a contact freezing refrigerating panel. The present invention allows freezing of viscous material into portions of controlled shape and size. The present invention also relates to blocks frozen in accordance with the method or by means of the apparatus of the invention.
The present invention is especially suitable for freezing viscous foodstuff materials with or without solid pieces. For example, sauce, pieces of vegetables, meat, or mixtures thereof. The invention may advantageously be used for freezing portions weighting from 5 to 200 g or more.
A traditional way of freezing food material is by pouring the material into molds which are then cooled. This is a relatively slow way of freezing due to the very little if any direct contact with the cooling medium. Another disadvantage of this traditional mold is that releasing the frozen material from the mold is difficult due to the increased in size of the frozen material.
It is also known to chill and freeze food material by depositing it onto a sheet and passing the sheet over a contact freezing surface so as to provide, at least on its lower surface, a frozen crust. The contact freezer has the advantage that it provides fast freezing as a result of the contact between the material to be frozen and the cooling surface, while the thin sheet prevents the material from sticking to the cooling surface. Another way of freezing food material is by depositing it onto a steel belt and cooling it with nitrogen.
However, these known freezing methods suffer from the problem of controlling the shape and size of the material to be frozen, and are unsuitable for freezing composite or layered products. When dosing viscous material onto a sheet or belt it will evidently spread resulting in a flat pellet type end product. Furthermore, there is a risk that the separately dosed material will flow into the other doses and thus freeze into bigger lumps.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes the above described difficulties and provides an apparatus and a method which give the possibility of: of well defined shape and size. A freezing of blocks in a well defined shape and size gives a good presentation of the final frozen product. material into a layered or composite product of well defined geometry, for example, by stepwise filling and freezing of the material in the mold produces a well defined layered product. bigger blocks comprising homogeneous mixed material or composite products. metering of which eases the filling of final packages and minimises overfilling of the packages.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the present context "blocks" shall be taken to mean every shape which can be in a mold, e.g. cubes, thin pellets, or units of more complex geometry.
Accordingly, in a first aspect the invention provides an apparatus for freezing of material into blocks comprising cooling means and motion means to pass a sheet or belt along the cooling means, characterised in that the apparatus further comprises upwards and downwards open compartment, sheet or belt acting as a base of the compartment in at least part of the passage, and
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cooling means is a refrigerating panel and the material to be frozen is dosed onto a sheet which is moved by the motion means. Advantageously, convection freezing means may be provided e.g., above the refrigerating panel.
In an alternative preferred embodiment of the invention the cooling means is nitrogen and a steel belt acts as a base of the compartments.
The conveying means may comprise a support or a fixation for the mold or molds, and means for conveying the support or fixation such as a conventional motor. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the conveying means comprises a molding conveyor defining the mold or molds, i.e. a conveyor belt wherein the mo
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Nestec S.A.
Tapolcai William E.
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