A food processing system is provided with: a heating unit equipped with a heating mechanism for indirectly heating food; a cooling unit equipped with an air blowing cooler for cooling the food heated by the heating unit; and a conveyor for transferring the food through the heating unit and the cooling unit. The integrated food processing system allows a large amount of sterilized food having a good texture, good taste and long shelf life to be provided.

A contact drum freezer system includes a contact drum freezer, an endless product wrap belt and a cross feed conveyor. The contact drum freezer is mounted to revolve about an axis generally parallel to a main lane of transit. The endless product wrap belt has an intake shelf, an inner product-compressing run encircling most of the drum and an outer return run looping back to the intake shelf. The cross feed conveyor is situated in the main lane of transit and has a return run a and product-carrying run for transferring product laterally out of the main lane of transit and onto the intake shelf of the product wrap belt.

Disclosed herein is a multi-temperature-region ice-temperature fresh keeping storehouse and a fresh keeping method for bergamot pears that includes a precooling region, a feeding and discharging channel, a cooling region, an ice temperature detection device, a grading device, a conveyer belt control device, an automatic storage device, and a temperature rise and fall buffering channel. The cooling region includes four freezers, with temperatures ranging from 0° C.-−3° C. The four freezers are connected level by level according to a temperature reduction rule. The present disclosure implements multi-temperature-region graded storage of bergamot pears according to the value of an ice point temperature of the bergamot pears, so that they are always stored close to the ice point temperature without freezing, thereby preventing freeze injury, and prolonging shelf life.

Disclosed herein are compositions comprising agglomerates formed of fruit flakes and target ingredients, such as flavorings, colorings, aromatic particles, nutrients, etc. Also disclosed are methods for making fruit flake agglomerates that can deliver higher concentrations of flavorings, colorings, aromatic particles, nutrients, etc.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a novel freezing system and a method for producing frozen ingredients, the system and method being such that the amount of free water after defrosting of the frozen ingredients is lower than with conventional freezing. The present invention solves the above problem by providing an ingredient freezing system comprising two or more freezing units for freezing the ingredient, and a transport unit for transporting the ingredient to the two or more freezing units, the two or more freezing units being configured so as to freeze the ingredient in stages so that the ingredient is frozen at progressively lower temperatures as the ingredient is transported on the transport unit.

A food processing system is provided with: a heating unit equipped with a heating mechanism for indirectly heating food; a cooling unit equipped with an air blowing cooler for cooling the food heated by the heating unit; and a conveyor for transferring the food through the heating unit and the cooling unit. The integrated food processing system allows a large amount of sterilized food having a good texture, good taste and long shelf life to be provided.

An electrostatic spray chilling system is configured to rapidly cool foodstuffs. A conveyor traverses foodstuffs through a chilling tunnel. A chilled primary airflow is provided to the chilling tunnel to cool the foodstuffs. As the foodstuff is traversed through the chilling tunnel, spray modules generate and apply sprays of electrostatically charged fluid onto the foodstuff. The charged fluid droplets are attracted to the grounded foodstuff. The charged fluid droplets can be guided onto the foodstuff by secondary fans, configured to generate subflows of the chilled primary air, and by air guiding baffles.

The invention relates to a continuous process for freezing a flow of aqueous material in liquid form and moving the aqueous material through at least one tube from an inlet of the tube to an outlet of the tube so as to form a breakable or cuttable frozen extrusion without bursting the tube. The process creates an extruded material that comprises liquid aqueous material entrapped between frozen aqueous material to self-lubricate the extrusion as it moves through the tube. An apparatus for carrying out the process of the invention is also provided.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a novel freezing system and a method for producing frozen ingredients, the system and method being such that the amount of free water after defrosting of the frozen ingredients is lower than with conventional freezing. The present invention solves the above problem by providing an ingredient freezing system comprising two or more freezing units for freezing the ingredient, and a transport unit for transporting the ingredient to the two or more freezing units, the two or more freezing units being configured so as to freeze the ingredient in stages so that the ingredient is frozen at progressively lower temperatures as the ingredient is transported on the transport unit.

This invention refers to a method for freezing food, in particular fruit and vegetables, and a method for drying food, in particular fruit and vegetables, by exposing the food to a negative pressure and removing water from the food while exposed to the negative pressure. The present invention also refers to a device for drying food, in particular fruit and vegetables, comprising a negative pressure chamber, a vacuum pump for generating a negative pressure in the negative pressure chamber, and a liquefier connected to the negative pressure chamber by a closable valve. The present invention provides a method and a device for freezing or drying food, in particular fruit and vegetables, which maintains product properties of the food, such as color, taste and structure, as far as possible and which at the same time is as time-, energy- and cost-saving as possible, by conditioning the food during the methods by applying an electric field and in that the device comprises at least one capacitor for generating an electric field.