A transporting element for accommodating and for transporting spherical, cylindrical or egg-shaped articles, in particular foodstuffs, in particular eggs, along a conveying route, has a plurality of mounts arranged one beside the other along the longitudinal extent. The transporting element is designed in the form of a channel-like body with an accommodating space curved in the form of part of a circle, as seen in cross section, and encloses an angle of at least 180. The mounts are designed in the form of slot-form apertures in that region of the channel-like body that is curved in the form of part of a circle. The apertures extending parallel to one another, and transversely to the longitudinal extent of the channel-like body, as far as longitudinal crosspieces on either side, these forming a respective longitudinal periphery.

The invention relates to a method of drying a material, that includes the steps of: providing a gaseous atmosphere with superheated steam in a housing, transporting a material into the housing, and drying the material in the gaseous atmosphere. Thereafter, transporting the dried material out of the housing and extracting from the gaseous atmosphere volatile substances which escape from the material into the gaseous atmosphere, especially flavors. The invention is also direct to an apparatus for drying the extruded material.

A method for sanitizing food products on a production line (201), and a production line (100) for processing food products (103), comprising: a first processing enclosure (101) and a second processing enclosure (102) and a conveyor system (103) configured to move a food product through the first processing enclosure (101) and onwards through the second processing enclosure (102). The first processing enclosure (101) is coupled to a gas supply system (113) delivering a flow of gas at a gas temperature above 70 degrees Celsius via an orifice (113; 114) to generate a first processing atmosphere within the first processing enclosure (101) exposing at least a portion of the surface of the food products, while travelling through the first processing enclosure, to a first processing temperature (Ts) which is above 60 degrees Celsius. The second processing enclosure (102) is configured with an atomizing nozzle (106; 107) to deliver a spray of a supply of an antimicrobial chemical agent (123) towards the food products (103) travelling through the second processing enclosure.

The continuous pasteurization system (100) that pasteurizes raw food products (104) while substantially maintaining the raw state of the raw food products includes a conveyor (102) on which the raw food products (104) are loaded for delivery to a pasteurization apparatus 36, wherein the raw food products are quickly heated so that the temperature of the outer surface of the raw food products is raised sufficiently to achieve a desired pathogen kill level. Thereafter, the raw food products (104) are immediately cooled in a cooling apparatus (110) to remove the heat applied to the raw food product and maintain the substantial raw state of the raw food product. A control system (24) is connected to a processor (30) as well as various measuring devices and instruments, including temperature measurement devices (T.sub.1-T.sub.5) to control the operation of the pasteurization system (100).

A method and apparatus for temperature processing a food item. It should be noted that the description provided herein will primarily focus on cooking temperature processing, but cooking is referred to, the process for determining core temperature can also be used for chilling and/or freezing a food item. One implementation of the technology as disclosed and claimed, utilizes a combination of 3D profile scanning camera, mid-range infrared camera, high-resolution encoder-based positioning device, and cook profile settings in order to measure the physical attributes of the product related to the fully cooked state. The system is measuring at least two aspects that determine the temperature change within an object during the cook process and they are geometry and thermodynamic properties.

A thermal processing and control system (10) includes a thermal processing station (12) for receiving food products (14) being carried on a conveyor system (16). A first scanning station (18) is located upstream from a similar processing station (12) for scanning the food products being carried by the conveyor (16). A second scanning station (20) is located downstream of the thermal processing station (12). A diverter conveyor (24) diverts selected food products (14) from the conveyor (16) to a transverse conveyor (26) which is capable of positioning the diverted food product onto a temperature measurement station (28), whereat the temperature of the food product is measured, either manually or automatically.

The invention relates to a method of drying a material, that includes the steps of: providing a gaseous atmosphere with superheated steam in a housing, transporting a material into the housing, and drying the material in the gaseous atmosphere. Thereafter, transporting the dried material out of the housing and extracting from the gaseous atmosphere volatile substances which escape from the material into the gaseous atmosphere, especially flavors. The invention is also direct to an apparatus for drying the extruded material.

An apparatus for drying a material is provided. The apparatus comprises a housing, a superheated steam generator, inlet and outlet ports disposed relative to the housing and an extraction unit for extracting volatile substances from the atmosphere within the housing.

Provided is a method for producing roasted nori, comprising a heating treatment step in which immobilized sheet-like nori is treated with superheated steam for at least one second. The present invention also relates to a heating treatment machine for heat-treating sheet-like nori, which includes: a nori placement section that has an upper surface on which nori is placed, and a lower surface located at the side opposite to the upper surface; an uplift prevention section which has a lower surface disposed so as to face the upper surface of the nori placement section, and which is configured to be situated so as to leave a space of at most 50 mm between the upper surface of the nori placement section and the lower surface of the uplift prevention section; a superheated steam blast port for blasting superheated steam over the nori placed on the nori placement section; and a superheated steam generation device for generating superheated steam and supplying the superheated steam to the superheated steam blast port.

An apparatus for pasteurizing and cooling food products comprises a pasteurizing tunnel, a first air processing unit associated with the pasteurizing tunnel, and a transfer unit for transferring the food products from the pasteurizing tunnel to a cooling tunnel comprising a second air processing unit, the pasteurizing tunnel comprising two thermally independent in-line sections consisting of a steam pasteurizing section and a pre-packaging section.