• 专利附录
  • 专利说明
  • 权利要求
  • 类似技术
  • 同族专利
  • 引用文献
  • 法律状态
  • 优先权
    • 专利摘要:
    Method for pasteurizing almonds and other nuts with steam at atmospheric pressure. The amount of condensation on and the consequent water uptake of nuts is limited by pasteurizing the nuts in a heating chamber with a gaseous atmosphere including a steam mixture and forming a forced-convection path through the nuts. The limited water uptake maintains the quality of the nuts. A forced-convection steam cooker conveying food products on a foraminous conveyor belt forces the steam mixture through the nuts. A preheater preheats the nuts so that they can be pasteurized in the steam cooker at a temperature of between 85°C and 99°C to reduce the dwell time and increase throughput.
    公开号:ES2724365A2
    申请号:ES201990059
    申请日:2018-01-05
    公开日:2019-09-10
    发明作者:Joseph F Kovacs；Lapeyre, Iii；Michael V Sclafini
    申请人:Laitram LLC；
    IPC主号:
    专利说明:

    [0001]
    [0002]
    [0003]
    [0004] BACKGROUND
    [0005] The invention relates, in general, to steam cooking and more particularly to methods for steam cooking of dried fruits with forced convection at temperatures below 100 ° C (212 ° F).
    [0006] Often, nuts, such as almonds, are pasteurized by immersion in hot water or an air vapor environment. Conventionally, steam pasteurizers use heat of condensation to heat the exterior surfaces of nuts at temperatures high enough to deactivate enough microorganisms to meet acceptable pasteurization levels. The nuts enter the steam pasteurizer at a temperature below the steam temperature. The steam condenses on the outer surface of the nuts and raises its temperature. But condensation can wrinkle and loosen the outer peels of nuts. In the case of almonds and other nuts that are to be marketed with their peels, the water absorption of the nuts should be limited. An approach to limit condensation in almonds is described in International Patent Publication No. WO 2013/171336. This document teaches the preheating of foods with low humidity at a temperature above or slightly above the condensation temperature of the water vapor in the heating chamber to limit condensation. Another approach, described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0040030, vaporizes dried fruits at a pressure below room temperature to limit water absorption. But preheating requires an additional heater, and a vacuum system requires lots and not continuous handling.
    [0007]
    [0008] SUMMARY
    [0009] A version of a method that performs the features of the invention for pasteurizing nuts comprises: (a) transporting nuts along a transport path through a preheating chamber; (b) transport the preheated nuts in the preheating chamber along a transport path through a heating chamber; (c) force a substantially homogeneous gaseous atmosphere comprising a mixture of steam through the nuts in the chamber Either a drop and a connection and a current connection and transport fall to heat the outer peels of the nuts and limit the amount of water condensation that surrounds the nuts; (d) maintain atmospheric pressure in the heating chamber; and (e) control the temperature of the gaseous atmosphere in the heating chamber at a heating temperature of more than 85 ° C and less than 99 ° C.
    [0010] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
    [0011] These features and aspects of the invention, as well as their advantages, are described in more detail in the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings, in which:
    [0012] Figure 1 is a side view of a part of a steam cooking element, whose opposite side wall has been removed for reasons of clarity, which represents features of the invention; Y
    [0013] Figure 2 is an axial cross-sectional view of the steam cooking element of Figure 1;
    [0014] Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view in side elevation of the steam cooking element of Figure 1; Y
    [0015] Figure 4 is a block diagram of a steam cooking element such as in Figure 1 with a preheating zone.
    [0016]
    [0017] DETAILED DESCRIPTION
    [0018] A steam cooking element that operates according to and performs the features of the invention is shown in Figure 1 with its opposite side wall removed to better illustrate its components. The cooking element 14, which is open to the atmosphere, has a housing 16 that is supported on legs 17 and extends from an inlet end 18 to an outlet end 19. A porous conveyor belt 20 is driven around drive wheels. and crazy 22, 23 at opposite ends of an upper transport path 24 that crosses the cooking element. Bypass rollers or drums 26 guide the endless belt loop along a return path 28 below the cooking element. A network of steam pipes 30 injects steam supplied by a heater or other steam source into the cooking element through the bottom of the housing. This steam injection is regulated by valves 31 (in figure 2) in the steam network.
    [0019] The cooking element shown is modular with at least two identical heating modules 32, 32 '. More modules can be connected in series to extend the total low temperature heating region. A single module can be used for food products that only require a short warm-up time. Each module is individually controlled with its own steam valves. A feedback signal from a temperature ammeter 34 in each module They are either dropped or used by a roa or, like a roa or e gca program e, to control the opening of the steam injection valve to maintain a predetermined heating temperature in each module. The probe, controller, and valve provide means to maintain a preselected temperature in each module. Air circulators, such as fans 36 or blowers, introduce air 37 into the cooking element through one of the side walls 38, as also shown in Figure 2. The fan also introduces steam 40 injected into the heating element. cooking through openings in an impellent chamber 42, in which the air and steam are mixed. The fan blows the air-vapor mixture through openings in the upper part of the impeller chamber. The air-steam mixture then circulates along a convection path, indicated by arrows 44, which intersects the dried fruits 46 that are transported on the top of the conveyor belt 20 along the transport path. The tape is porous to allow the air-vapor mixture to pass through it and also to allow any condensation to drain. Other features of such a forced convection cooking element as described so far are provided in US Patent No. 6,274,188, "Method for Steam-Cooking Shrimp at Reduced Temperatures to Decrease Yield Loss", 14 August 2001, incorporated herein by reference. An example of such a cooking element is the CoolSteam® cooking element manufactured and marketed by Laitram Machinery, Inc., of Harahan, Louisiana, USA. UU. Due to the exhaustivity of the heat treatment by forced convection described, heat treatment at temperatures of less than 100 ° C (212 ° F) at atmospheric pressure is possible. In fact, temperatures in the heating region below 85 ° C (185 ° F) and preferably in the range between 62 ° C (144 ° F) and 79 ° C (175 ° F) are effective in bleaching or pasteurizing Almonds without burning or releasing their peels because low temperatures minimize moisture absorption by almonds.
    [0020] In operation, nuts, such as peanuts or almonds and other nuts, are transported in the steam cooking element 14 by the conveyor belt 20 along a transport path 56. The nuts are heated in a region low temperature cooking 58 which may include one or more identical forced convection heating modules 32, 32 '. The air is introduced into the modules and mixed with steam to form a substantially homogeneous gaseous atmosphere of air (or other gas, such as nitrogen) and steam or water vapor. This vapor mixture is circulated through an air circulation element, such as a fan, in a convection path that intersects the food product. In this example, the convection path is perpendicular to the transport path 56, but it can intersect or cross the transport path from other directions. Along with heat treatment at low temperature, The use of convection to dry ravities is also dried with a salad that wraps nuts and inhibits moisture absorption. The heating duration, the duration time, is set by one or more of: (a) the length of the low temperature heating region 58, (b) the speed of the conveyor belt 20, (c) the temperature of the heating region, (d) the size and type of the dried fruit, and (e) the thickness of the set of nuts on the conveyor belt. For almonds, the duration time can range from 4 to 9 minutes in order to achieve sufficient mortality, for example, a 6 log reduction in a target organism, such as salmonella. The temperature of the heating region is measured by a temperature probe and is controlled by the amount of steam introduced into the cooking element in each module.
    [0021] Figure 3 shows the steam cooking element 14 with two heating modules 32, 32 ’. In the first module 32, the convection path through the porous conveyor belt 20 and the dried fruits 46 transported is down. In the second module 32 ’, the convection path is up through the nuts. By subjecting nuts or other food products to convection flows both up and down results in a more uniform heat treatment.
    [0022] Temperature pasteurization as described is effective in minimizing the harmful absorption of water by nuts. But pasteurization of nuts at low temperatures requires a longer duration in the cooking element to achieve the desired death of pathogens. And longer duration decreases the production of the product.
    [0023] The preheating of dried fruits in a preheating chamber of dry air, low humidity 60, or preheater, before being transported to a pasteurization region 62, as shown in Figure 4, reduces moisture absorption during a subsequent pasteurization to greater temperatures, such as temperatures between 90 ° C (194 ° F) and 99 ° C (210 ° F) instead of below 85 ° C (185 ° F). For example, instead of pasteurizing dried fruits at room temperature in the low temperature pasteurization region for 4 min at 79 ° C (175 ° F), preheated dried fruits at a surface temperature of approximately 54 ° C (130 ° F) at a relative humidity of between 1% and approximately 60% they can be pasteurized at 95 ° C (203 ° F) in only 1.75 min. The preheater heats the surfaces of the nuts to a temperature below the dew point, or condensation temperature, to ensure that condensation forms on the outer surfaces of the nuts during pasteurization. Tests have shown that by preheating dried fruits in preheater 60 for between about 1 min and about 6 min at a temperature between about 57 ° C (135 ° F) and about 85 ° C (185 ° F) to raise the surface temperature of nuts at between approximately 38 ° C (100 ° F) and approximately It can be dried in the European region by forced convection value 62 of the cooking element at a temperature between 85 ° C (185 ° F) and 99 ° C (210 ° F) during a Duration time between approximately 1 min and approximately 6 min. This reduction in pasteurization time improves production. Pasteurization can also be performed up to a temperature of 74 ° C (165 ° F) with longer durations.
    [0024] Although the preheating chamber 60 has been described as a dry heat, low humidity heater, in other versions, the preheating chamber 60 may be an independent forced convection steam cooking element, an additional forced convection heating module that It precedes the two modules 32, 32 'of Figure 1, or the first module 32 of Figure 1.
    权利要求:
    Claims (10)
    [1]
    1. Method for pasteurizing nuts, comprising:
    transport nuts along a transport path through a preheating chamber;
    transport the preheated nuts in the preheating chamber along a transport path through a heating chamber;
    force a substantially homogeneous gaseous atmosphere comprising a mixture of steam through the nuts in the heating chamber along a connection path that cuts the transport path to heat the outer peels of the nuts and limit the amount of condensation of water that surrounds the nuts;
    maintain atmospheric pressure in the heating chamber;
    control the temperature of the gaseous atmosphere in the heating chamber at a heating temperature of more than 85 ° C and less than 99 ° C to pasteurize the nuts.
    [2]
    2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the preheating chamber is between about 57 ° C and about 85 ° C.
    [3]
    3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the duration of the nuts in the preheating chamber is between about 1 min and about 6 min.
    [4]
    4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the preheating chamber preheats the nuts to a surface temperature between about 38 ° C and about 85 ° C.
    [5]
    5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the preheating chamber preheats the nuts to a surface temperature below about 70 ° C.
    [6]
    A method according to claim 1, wherein the preheating chamber preheats the nuts to a surface temperature below the condensation temperature in the heating chamber to ensure that condensation forms on the dried fruit in the chamber of heating.
    [7]
    7. Method according to claim 1, wherein the duration of the nuts in the heating chamber is between about 1 min and about 6 min.
    [8]
    8. Method according to claim 7 wherein the duration of the nuts in the heating chamber is 4 min or less.
    [9]
    9. All according to claim 1, wherein the preheating chamber is a dry, low humidity preheater that maintains a relative humidity of between 1% and 60%.
    [10]
    A method according to claim 1, wherein the preheating chamber is a forced convection steam cooking element.
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    WO2018132307A1|2018-07-19|
    ZA201904189B|2020-12-23|
    CN110167363A|2019-08-23|
    AU2018208302A1|2019-07-18|
    ES2724365R1|2019-12-16|
    引用文献:
    公开号 | 申请日 | 公开日 | 申请人 | 专利标题
    US4829892A|1986-12-22|1989-05-16|Carrier Vibrating Equipment, Inc.|Apparatus for plasticizing nuts and the like|
    US4775544A|1986-12-22|1988-10-04|Carrier Vibrating Equipment, Inc.|Method for plasticizing nuts and the like|
    IT1236295B|1989-11-29|1993-02-02|Zanussi Grandi Impianti Spa|COMBINED MICROWAVE COOKING OVEN AND FORCED CONVENTION|
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    PL1933639T3|2005-10-04|2017-02-28|Jimmyash Llc|Methods of making snack food products and products made thereby|
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    US8932658B2|2008-12-22|2015-01-13|Laitram, L.L.C.|Method and apparatus for steam-cooking|
    CN102342549B|2011-09-08|2013-05-01|卢春贵|Drying device for flavoring nut food|
    US10098375B2|2014-03-03|2018-10-16|Laitram, L.L.C.|Forced-convection, steam-heating of nuts with preheating|
    法律状态:
    2019-09-10| BA2A| Patent application published|Ref document number: 2724365 Country of ref document: ES Kind code of ref document: A2 Effective date: 20190910 |
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    优先权:
    申请号 | 申请日 | 专利标题
    US15/402,889|US10098375B2|2014-03-03|2017-01-10|Forced-convection, steam-heating of nuts with preheating|
    PCT/US2018/012462|WO2018132307A1|2017-01-10|2018-01-05|Forced-convection, steam-heating of nuts with preheating|
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