FOOD TREATMENT DEVICE

Abstract

A food treatment appliance includes a thermally insulated food treatment chamber, a refrigeration unit, a microwave generation facility configured to introduce microwaves with an associated microwave frequency into the food treatment chamber, and a low-frequency generation facility configured to introduce into the food treatment chamber low-frequency waves with a frequency which is lower than the microwave frequency.

Claims

1-19. (canceled)

20. A food treatment appliance, comprising: a food treatment chamber; a first function unit for treating food in the food treatment chamber; and a second function unit for treating food in the food treatment chamber, said second function unit being configured in the form of a low-frequency generation facility for introducing waves with a frequency of less than 902 MHz into the food treatment chamber.

21. The food treatment appliance of claim 20, wherein the first function unit includes a microwave generation facility for introducing microwaves with an associated microwave frequency into the food treatment chamber.

22. The food treatment appliance of claim 20, wherein the first function unit includes an electrically operated resistance heating unit.

23. The food treatment appliance of claim 20, wherein the first function unit includes a refrigeration unit, said food treatment chamber being a thermally insulated food treatment chamber.

24. A food treatment appliance, comprising: a thermally insulated food treatment chamber; a refrigeration unit; a microwave generation facility configured to introduce microwaves with an associated microwave frequency into the food treatment chamber; and a low-frequency generation facility configured to introduce into the food treatment chamber low-frequency waves with a frequency which is lower than the microwave frequency.

25. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, wherein the microwave frequency is 902 MHz or more, in particular 915 MHz, or 2.45 GHz.

26. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, wherein the low-frequency waves have a frequency of less than 500 MHz, in particular a frequency which is in one or more of the following frequency bands: [6.765 MHz to 6.795 MHz] [13.553 MHz to 13.567 MHz] [26.957 MHz to 27.283 MHz] [40.66 MHz to 40.70 MHz] [433.05 MHz to 434.79 MHz].

27. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, wherein the low-frequency generation facility includes a microwave generator.

28. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, wherein the low-frequency generation facility includes an electromagnetic alternating field generator configured to generate an electric and/or magnetic low-frequency alternating field in the food treatment chamber.

29. The food treatment appliance of claim 28, wherein the electromagnetic alternating field generator includes a number of capacitor plates connectable to an electric alternating voltage, said food treatment chamber located in a space between the capacitor plates.

30. The food treatment appliance of claim 29, wherein at least one of the capacitor plates is arranged above the food treatment chamber, and at least another one of the capacitor plates is arranged below the food treatment chamber.

31. The food treatment appliance of claim 28, wherein the electromagnetic alternating field generator includes a coil connectable to an electric alternating voltage.

32. The food treatment appliance of claim 31, wherein the coil is arranged above the food treatment chamber, said electromagnetic alternating field generator including another coil connectable to an electric alternating voltage and arranged below the food treatment chamber.

33. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, wherein the low-frequency generation facility includes an ultrasound generator.

34. The food treatment appliance of claim 28, further comprising an ultrasound generator configured to introduce ultrasound waves into the food treatment chamber.

35. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, further comprising: a detector for detecting a portion of the microwave radiation and/or the low-frequency waves used in the food treatment chamber; and an evaluation facility configured to reduce the introduction of lower-frequency waves and to increase introduction of microwaves automatically based on the portion.

36. The food treatment appliance of claim 24, constructed to run a food treatment program which when executed causes: the food treatment chamber to be initially kept in a freezing state, activation of a defrosting program segment to terminate the freezing state and to introduce the low-frequency waves into the food treatment chamber, and then activation of a cooking program segment to predominantly introduce only microwaves into the food treatment chamber.

37. The food treatment appliance of claim 35, constructed to enable a user to preset a time, which is random and then permanently selected.

38. The food treatment appliance of claim 37, wherein the time is preset by the user during execution of the defrosting program segment.

39. A method for operating a food treatment appliance, comprising: activating a defrosting program segment to introduce low-frequency waves into a food treatment chamber of the food treatment appliance; and then activating a cooking program segment to introduce predominantly only microwaves into the food treatment chamber.

Description

[0066] FIG. 1 shows a sectional front view of an outline of a food treatment appliance 1, which has a thermally insulated food treatment chamber 2, a refrigeration unit 3 for cooling the food treatment chamber 2, a microwave generation facility 4 for introducing microwaves with an associated microwave frequency into the food treatment chamber 2 and a low-frequency generation facility in the form of an electromagnetic alternating field generator 5 for generating an alternating field with a lower frequency than the microwave frequency in the food treatment chamber 2. The alternating field generator 5 is connected to an alternating voltage source (not shown) for this purpose.

[0067] The microwave generation facility 4 generates microwaves with a microwave frequency of for example 915 MHz or 2.45 GHz, which are then guided into the food treatment chamber 2, in particular in the region of a top 6 of a wall 7 delimiting the food treatment chamber 2.

[0068] The alternating field generator 5 has a first capacitor plate 8 and/or a first coil 8 and a second capacitor plate and/or a second coil 9, between which the food treatment chamber 2 is located. In the present instance the first capacitor plate or coil 8 is arranged along the top 6 and the second capacitor plate or coil 9 is arranged along a bottom 10 of the wall 7. They take up at least 75% of the respective surfaces of top 6 and bottom 10.

[0069] The food treatment appliance 1 is designed to supply alternating current to the capacitor plates or coils 8, 9 so that these generate an electric or magnetic alternating field, which fills the food treatment chamber 2. The electric or magnetic alternating field can in particular have a frequency, which is in one or more of the following frequency bands: [0070] [6.765 MHz to 6.795 MHz] [0071] [13.553 MHz to 13.567 MHz] [0072] [26.957 MHz to 27.283 MHz] [0073] [40.66 MHz to 40.70 MHz] [0074] [433.05 MHz to 434.79 MHz].

[0075] The food treatment appliance 1 can also have an ultrasound generator 11, which can be used to introduce ultrasound waves into the food treatment chamber 2.

[0076] The food treatment appliance 1 can also have detector 12 for detecting a portion of the microwave radiation used in the food treatment chamber 2 and/a detector 13 for detecting a portion of the electric or magnetic alternating field used in the food treatment chamber 2. The detector 12 can be integrated in the microwave generation facility 4. The detector 13 can be integrated in the alternating field generator 5.

[0077] The detectors 12, 13 are coupled to an evaluation facility 14, which is designed to automatically reduce a strength or energy of the electromagnetic field and increase an introduced microwave energy, or vice versa, based on portion. The evaluation facility 14 can be designed in particular to terminate the introduction of lower-frequency waves and start the introduction of microwaves based on portion. The evaluation facility 14 can be coupled to a control facility 15, which is designed to control the food treatment appliance 1, in particular operation of the refrigeration unit 3, the microwave generation facility 4 and the alternating field generator 5. The evaluation facility 14 can also be integrated in the control facility 15.

[0078] The food treatment appliance 1, in particular its control facility 15, is designed to run a food treatment program, in which the food treatment chamber 2 is initially kept in a freezing state, then a defrosting program segment is activated, in which the freezing state is terminated and at least the lower-frequency waves are introduced into the food treatment chamber 2, and then a cooking program segment is activated, in which only the microwaves are introduced into the food treatment chamber 2. This time preset by the user can be any time, which is then permanently selected and can be programmed into the food treatment appliance 1 by way of an operating facility (not shown) of the food treatment appliance 1, for example, or by way of an external entity such as a smartphone, etc. Additionally or alternatively the time preset by the user can be preset by the user during the course of the defrosting program segment. This can be performed based on receipt of a corresponding external command.

[0079] To communicate with an external entity, for example a mobile user terminal such as a notebook, smartphone, etc., the food treatment appliance 1 can have a corresponding wireless and/or wired interface, in particular a network interface 16. The network interface 16 is coupled to the control facility 15 and is configured in particular for bi-directional data transmission with the external entity. The network interface 16 can be for example a WLAN adapter, an Ethernet adapter, etc.

[0080] Two possible application scenarios are described in more detail in the following:

A) A user stores a deep-frozen chicken (in a cook pot for later) in the food treatment appliance at freezing temperatures, while enjoying a holiday lasting several weeks. After a delayed (therefore not precisely schedulable) return, s/he spontaneously starts the defrosting and cooking operation (by app) from the airport, said operation being relatively rapid due to the rapid and food-friendly first defrosting stage at frequencies <902 MHz (approx. 20 mins rather than 1 h with conventional heating units) and switching seamlessly to the heating operation using microwaves when the melting point of ice has been reached (defrosting from −18° C. to approx. −2° C. is performed more effectively with low frequencies in the alternating field of the capacitor plates, while further thawing and heating are performed more effectively with high microwave frequencies). When the user arrives home, the chicken is cooked and ready to eat, without having to be moved anywhere in the process.
B) The user spontaneously decides s/he wants meatloaf and finds 1 kg of mince in the freezer compartment. Defrosting takes quite a long time with conventional heat and some time even with microwaves if parts are not to be cooked on the outside in the process. The use of low-frequency waves and optionally the deployment of microwaves already mean the mince can be defrosted and heated very quickly to its processing temperature of 20° C. While the meatloaf is in the appliance the user is suddenly called away and cannot terminate the cooking operation. In this instance the appliance completes the cooking operation and cools the meatloaf until the user can eat it the next day or freezes the finished meatloaf immediately if longer storage is required.

[0081] The present invention is of course not restricted to the illustrated exemplary embodiment.

[0082] Generally “one”, etc. can refer to one or a number, in particular in the sense of “at least one” or “one or more”, etc., unless this is specifically excluded, for example by the expression “just one”, etc.

[0083] A number can also refer to just the cited number as well as a standard tolerance range, unless this is specifically excluded.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

[0084] 1 Food treatment appliance

[0085] 2 Food treatment chamber

[0086] 3 Refrigeration unit

[0087] 4 Microwave generation facility

[0088] 5 Low-frequency generation facility

[0089] 6 Top

[0090] 7 Wall

[0091] 8 First capacitor plate/first coil

[0092] 9 Second capacitor plate/second coil

[0093] 10 Bottom

[0094] 11 Ultrasound generator

[0095] 12 Detector

[0096] 13 Detector

[0097] 14 Evaluation facility

[0098] 15 Control facility

[0099] 16 Network interface