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.

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.

A stirrer is provided such that a fluid being processed can be more efficiently shown by way of the action of an intermittent jet flow and processing capacity can be improved. The stirrer concentrically includes a rotor that includes a plurality of flat vanes and that rotates, and a screen that is place around the rotor. The screen includes a plurality of slits in the circumferential direction thereof, and screen members that are positioned between adjacent slits. The fluid being processed is discharged by rotation of the rotor from the inside of the screen to the outside as an intermittent jet flow through the slits. The width of the distal working face on the distal end of the vane in the rotational direction is smaller than the width of the basal end of the vane in the rotational direction.

A stirrer is provided that can more efficiently achieve shearing applied, by an action of an intermittent jet flow, to a fluid to be processed. The stirrer concentrically includes a rotor including a blade, a partition wall, and a screen, wherein: the screen includes a plurality of slits in a circumferential direction thereof and screen members located between the adjacent slit; by rotating at least the rotor of the two components, the fluid to be processed is discharged from the inside to the outside of the screen as the intermittent jet flow through the slit of the screen; the screen has a cylindrical shape having a circular cross section; an opening of the slit provided on the inner wall surface of the screen is used as an inflow opening; openings of the plurality of slits provided on the outer wall surface of the screen are used as outflow openings; and the width of the outflow openings in the circumferential direction is set to be smaller than the width of the inflow opening in the circumferential direction.

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.

The invention relates to a food processing system (100) for preparing an edible mass of a food product starting from a raw food material, the system comprising: one or a plurality of food containers (20), each one comprising a raw food material in form of dehydrated material and/or paste and/or chunks; one or a plurality of dispensing and reconstituting chambers (10), each chamber being associated to at least one food container (20), each of the chambers (10) comprising a variable and/or exchangeable reconstitution and deposition device configured for hydrating and/or structuring and/or reconstituting in batches the raw food material provided by the one or more food containers (20) in order to create a homogeneous edible mass of food product, the device being further configured to deposit in-line with a controlled flow the edible mass of food product once prepared. The invention further relates to a method for operating a food processing system (100) as the one described in order to prepare an edible mass of food product starting from raw food material: the information on the kind of raw food material and on its processing is retrieved from identification means on the one or more food containers (20) and/or from a connected database, in order to process the raw food material in the one or more of the dispensing and reconstituting chambers (10) according to a certain recipe, acting on the hydration ratio and/or mixing speed and/or mixing time and/or temperature and/or viscosity and/or texture

There is provided a stirring device including a stirring tank including an inner peripheral wall which is circular in cross section, at least one circulating impeller and at least one dispersion blade which are located inside the stirring tank and rotatable around a vertical axis independently of each other, and a guide ring disposed radially outward near the dispersion blade. The circulating impeller is disposed along the inner peripheral wall of the stirring tank, and rotates around the vertical axis to form at least a downward flow in a stirring object existing inside the stirring tank. The dispersion blade rotates to apply a shear force to the stirring object, and is disposed at a radially inner position of the stirring tank from the circulating impeller, and at a position in contact with a flow of the stirring object, which is formed by the circulating impeller.