An apparatus for preparing food is provided, and includes a food chamber sized to receive at least one food item, a cutting structure configured to cut the at least one food item when pressed into contact therewith, an impeller for impelling the at least one food item into contact with the cutting structure, a liquid chamber for storing a liquid, a heating system for heating the liquid, and a liquid introduction system in communication with the liquid chamber, the liquid introduction system being operable to introduce at least one of a liquid mist and a liquid spray in the food chamber.

A cooking system in the form of a fryer is provided to reduce and/or optimize the amount of cooking medium required to operate the fryer, while improving the reliability of movement of food product through the cooking system during a cooking process. To this end, the cooking vat of the system is designed with one or more heating elements positioned to avoid generation of turbulent flow in the cooking medium. Moreover, the movement of food product along the cooking vat and/or out of the cooking vat is done reliably and in such a manner to avoid turbulent flow in the cooking medium. The automatic cooking system provides improved cooking medium life span as well as reduced overall oil volume use.

An anti-sticking conveyor belt of a frying machine includes a first transmission axle and a second transmission axle oppositely disposed, two chains, a plurality of connecting rods and a plurality of conveyor strips. Each conveyor strips is made of a high temperature resistant and anti-sticking material, and includes a conveyor belt surface for conveying fried products, a conveyor lower surface away from each conveyor belt surface, and a channel provided outwards between each conveyor belt surface and each conveyor lower surface. As each conveyor belt surface is greater than each conveyor lower surface and with cooperation of the chains, leveled progressing of the conveyor strips is maintained. At arched positions of the first transmission axle and the second transmission axle, the conveyor lower surfaces do not come into contact with one another, and the conveyor belt surfaces arranged are small to obtain an even and flat conveying plane.

A metal heat exchange tube assembly for a fryer cooking channel of a hot oil fryer for food-process lines has a plurality of elongate, rectangular, longitudinally-extending heat exchange tubes with open inflow and outflow ends; a laterally-extending abbreviated rectangular inflow-manifold tube with a plurality of apertures in a sidewall; and a laterally-extending abbreviated rectangular outflow-manifold tube with the same. The plurality of heat exchange tubes are joined to the inflow-manifold and outflow-manifold tubes with respective alignment among the open ends of the heat exchange tubes and the apertures in the sidewalls of the manifold tubes. The heat exchange tubes comprise a composite construction of an elongate, square-U shaped channel having a web bottom wall and flange sidewalls of a given uniform thickness, and an elongate closure strip welded along spaced seams to the exposed upper edges of the flanges of the channel, thereby forming a thermal oil conduit.

A fryer includes a cooking chamber for holding a cooking medium and at least one heating element positioned within the cooking chamber. The fryer further includes a conveyor belt for selectively advancing food product through the cooking chamber. The conveyor belt includes first and second chains coupled together by a plurality of elongate members extending therebetween. The conveyor belt further includes a plurality of paddles coupled to the first and second chains and extending therebetween to define a plurality of compartments. Each of the plurality of paddles includes a screen, and each compartment is sized to receive at least a portion of the food product. The conveyor belt defines a continuous loop.

A fryer for frying pizza includes a flying tank designed to contain cooking oil, immersion means and pushing means. The frying tank includes an input and an outlet. The input houses a first conveyor belt arranged to introduce a product in the tank. The outlet houses the first conveyor belt or a third conveyor belt to extract the product from the tank. The immersion means are arranged to regulate immersion of the product in the cooking oil during at least a portion of a relative path from the input to the outlet of the tank. The pushing means are configured for moving the product from the input to the outlet.

A food processing apparatus including a tank having an inlet end for receiving food product and an outlet end for discharging food product, the tank having an inner wall defining a compartment and including a solid, imperforate wall portion, fluid being contained in the compartment, and a rotatable auger mounted in the compartment, the auger for advancing food product within the compartment from the inlet end toward the outlet end, the auger including flights having a flight wall with a radial edge, a clearance space being defined between the radial edge of the flights and the solid, imperforate wall portion of the inner wall. Flow of fluid through the clearance space may be inhibited. One of the inner wall and the flight wall may include a perforated wall portion. Flow of fluid between the first auger section and the second auger section may be provided through the perforated wall portion.

A food processing apparatus includes a pressure vessel defining a compartment having an inlet end for receiving food product and an outlet end for discharging food product, an open-top screen mounted within the compartment and movable relative to the compartment between a first position, for food processing, and a second position, to facilitate cleaning, a rotatable auger mounted such that at least a portion of the auger is within the screen, the auger being operable to advance food product within the compartment from the inlet end of the pressure vessel toward the outlet end, and a transfer mechanism including a conduit in communication with the compartment, a fluid discharge positioned substantially within the conduit, and a pressurized fluid source in communication with the fluid discharge and operable to propel a fluid through the fluid discharge to move food product through the conduit.

Frying is performed in two stages so as to dip a retainer in frying oil at a prescribed dipping ratio and then to dip the whole of the retainer in the frying oil, and in addition, flow rates of the frying oil supplied from an upstream side and a downstream side of a frying oil tank and a surface level of the frying oil are controlled. Therefore, a noodle lump can be prevented from peeling off and floating from the bottom of the retainer before fixing the shape of the noodle lump due to a pressure applied by the frying oil so as not to impair the shape of the noodle lump, and as a result, frying efficiency or production efficiency can be improved. Besides, a noodle lump that has a very small number of coarse or dense portions in a distribution of noodle strings can be stably produced.

A metering apparatus (1) for metering frozen piece goods, comprising a housing (10) which defines a refrigerated chamber (11), wherein a piece goods container (3), a first conveyor unit (4), and a weighing unit (5) are arranged in the refrigerated chamber (11), wherein piece goods can be transported from the piece goods container (3) via the first conveyor unit (4) to the weighing unit (5), wherein an airlock (13) is arranged below the weighing unit (5), through which piece goods can pass out of the refrigerated chamber (11).