Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks.

Systems and methods have demonstrated the capability of rapidly cooling the contents of pods containing the ingredients for food and drinks. Some machines include a refrigeration system to cool food or drink in a pod. Some machines include an evaporator of the refrigeration system, the evaporator including an inlet port to receive refrigerant and an outlet port to discharge refrigerant. Some machines include a processor controlling the refrigeration system. In some examples, the refrigeration system is operable to apply a freezing cycle to the food or drink in which refrigerant flows through the evaporator exchanging heat from ingredients in the pod to the refrigerant causing a temperature difference between an evaporator inlet temperature and an evaporator outlet temperature.

A machine for preparing frozen confectionery has the ability or characteristic of forming a seat used for accommodating an essentially cup-shaped container. The machine has a heat exchange element having a heat exchange contact surface arranged to be in contact with a heat exchange portion of the container when the container is placed in the machine. The heat exchange element has an inverted conical or curved shape or a number of inverted conical sections, or a combination of curved and inverted conical sections. The confectionery produced can be a frozen product, such as soft ice, or a chilled dessert, such as mousse or whipped yogurt.

A machine for dispensing an individual portion of a frozen dessert may include a cartridge cart having walls forming a cavity having a longitudinal central axis and configured to accommodate a cartridge. The cartridge may include a tube having first and second ends, a nozzle disposed at the first end, and a piston disposed between the nozzle and the second end and configured to slidably move along the tube. The individual portion of the frozen dessert may be contained within the tube between the nozzle and the piston. The machine may also include a plunger, a drive source operably coupled to the plunger and configured to drive the plunger along the central axis, and a support configured to support the first end of the cartridge such that actuating the drive source causes the individual portion of frozen dessert to dispense through the nozzle.

A method for making ice cream including a basic flavor in which an additional flavor of a different type is inserted includes the following steps: preparing a container for processing the basic ice cream product; cooling and stirring a basic preparation inside processing container to make a basic ice cream product; preparing a hermetically sealed capsule containing an additional flavor; opening the capsule; simultaneously transferring a portion of the basic ice cream from the processing container to the serving container and the additional flavor from the open capsule to the serving container, wherein the simultaneous transferring step comprises a step of delivering the additional flavor into a first predetermined spatial region and a step of delivering the basic ice cream into a second spatial region which contains the first spatial region, so that the additional flavor is fed into the basic ice cream in the serving container.

An ice cream lift including a platform that contacts and pushes up a base of an ice cream container, the platform operatively connected to a lift mechanism that drives the platform from a first position to a second higher position. A method of lifting a base of an ice cream container, by contacting the base with a platform, detaching the base from sides of the ice cream container, and driving the platform and base upwards to a higher position within the ice cream container. A container lift, comprising a platform that contacts and pushes up a base of a container, the platform operatively connected to a lift mechanism that drives the platform from a first position to a second higher position. A method of lifting a base of a container.

A nozzle assembly and adapter provided for selectively interconnecting to a soft serve dispenser to allow filling of farinaceous products such as donuts with a soft serve product. One of the adapter and the nozzle assembly can include a cleansing port for receiving a cleaning solution to allow periodic cleaning of the nozzle assembly. The nozzle assembly is separable from the adapter to permit the adapter to remain operably connected to the soft serve dispenser through which soft serve product can be dispensed.

Systems and methods of producing a frozen food product include mixing ingredients with a liquefied gas, e.g. liquid nitrogen. The texture and quality of the food product may be determined by sensing temperature or viscosity, and controlling the rate at which the liquefied gas flows into the mixture, i.e. dosing. This functionality may be achieved using one or more scoops, the position of which may be controlled by actuators. The dosing may be controlled by a program that receives input from one or more sensors, and the program may be responsive to input of the type or amount of ingredients being mixed. In addition, the dosing may be controlled by a human being through a user interface, e.g. by pushing a dose button.

A refrigerator appliance may include a cabinet, a door, a sealed cooling system, and an ice cream unit. The door may include a door liner defining an icebox compartment. The door may include a chilled air supply opening and a chilled air return opening spaced apart from the chilled air supply opening. The ice cream unit may be disposed within the icebox compartment. The ice cream unit may include a freezing tank, a rotatable auger extending into the freezing tank, a tank jacket, and a unit duct or support base. The tank jacket may receive the freezing tank and define a cooling passage extending about the freezing tank from a jacket inlet to a jacket outlet. The jacket outlet may be open to the icebox compartment to exhaust air from the cooling passage to the icebox compartment.

A machine for making liquid or semi-liquid food products includes a processing chamber for processing a basic mixture and including a stirrer and thermal treatment system operating in conjunction to convert the basic mixture into a liquid or semi-liquid product; an electronic drive and control unit; a dispensing device having a dispensing nozzle connected to the processing chamber to deliver the product; a support having a seat for housing a receiving container; a movement device for vertically moving the support between a vertical position away from the nozzle and a vertical position close to the nozzle; and a device for rotating the housing seat about a vertical axis. The electronic drive and control unit is operatively connected to the movement device and to the device for rotating the housing seat to drive them according to a predetermined law of motion.