PROCESSING LIQUID FOOD

Abstract

Processing of liquid food (102) in a system (100) is disclosed. The liquid food (102) is provided from a balance tank (104) to a heat treatment unit 106. The heat treating unit (106) receives and heat treats the liquid food (102) to provide heat treated liquid food (102a). A filter (108) receives and filters the heat treated liquid food (102a) to provide filtered, heat treated liquid food (102b). A packaging device (110) receives and packages the filtered heat treated liquid food (102b). Filtering of the liquid food (102) takes place on a heat treated side of the system (100), as close as possible to the packaging device (110).

Claims

1. A system for processing liquid food, comprising: a balance tank configured to provide the liquid food, a heat treatment unit configured to receive and heat treat the liquid food to provide heat treated liquid food, a filter configured to receive and filter the heat treated liquid food to provide filtered, heat treated liquid food, and a packaging device configured to receive and package the filtered heat treated liquid food.

2. The system of claim 1, comprising: tubing configured to convey the liquid food from the balance tank to the heat treatment unit, from the heat treatment unit to the filter and from the filter to the packaging device, a plurality of components arranged along the tubing between the balance tank and the packaging device, where the plurality of components are arranged such that a first number of components are arranged between the balance tank and the filter and a second number of components are arranged between the filter and the packaging device where the second number of components is lower than the first number of components.

3. The system of claim 2, where the second number of components is zero.

4. The system of claim 2, where the components comprise any of a pump, a valve, a deaerator.

5. The system of claim 2, where the filter comprises at least one clamp and at least one support ring, where the at least one clamp and the at least one support ring are configured to operate at a sterilization temperature and during a predetermined sterilization time.

6. The system of claim 5, where the at least one support ring is made of polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE.

7. The system of claim 1, where the filter is configured to remove particles having a size greater than 73 micrometer from the liquid food.

8. A method for processing liquid food, comprising: providing the liquid food from a balance tank to a heat treating unit, heat treating the liquid food to provide heat treated liquid food to a filter, filtering the heat treated liquid food to provide filtered heat treated liquid food to a packaging device, and packaging the filtered heat treated liquid food.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the filtering of the heat treated liquid food comprises: trapping particles that have been released from gaskets or components that are located along tubing, said tubing being configured to convey the liquid food from the balance tank, via the heat treatment unit, and to the filter.

10. The method of claim 8, comprising, between the filtering and the packaging: maintaining a temperature of the filtered heat treated liquid food within a range of 5 C.

11. The method of claim 8, comprising, between the filtering and the packaging: maintaining a pressure of the filtered heat treated liquid food within a range of 0,5 bar.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which

[0019] FIG. 1a-c are schematically illustrated block diagrams of embodiments of a system for processing liquid food,

[0020] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a filter that is used in the system of FIG. 1, and

[0021] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of embodiments of a method for processing liquid food.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] With reference to FIG. 1a, a system 100 for processing liquid food 102 is illustrated. The system 100 comprises a balance tank 104. The balance tank 104 is configured to provide the liquid food 102. The system 100 further comprises a heat treatment unit 106 that is configured to receive and heat treat the liquid food 102 to provide heat treated liquid food 102a. Following the heat treatment unit 106, i.e. downstream, is a filter 108 that is configured to receive and filter the heat treated liquid food 102a to provide filtered, heat treated liquid food 102b. The system further comprises a packaging device 110 that is configured to receive and package the filtered, heat treated liquid food 102b.

[0023] Each of the balance tank 104, the heat treatment unit 106 and the packaging device 110 are conventional units that are commonly used for processing liquid food that is heat treated and aseptically packed by the packaging device 110.

[0024] As indicated in FIG. 1a, the system 100 is divided into a non-heat treated side and a heat treated side. The non-heat treated side comprises the balance tank 104 and the heat treating unit 106. The heat treated side comprises the filter 108 and the packaging device 110. Depending on how long time period the liquid food 102 spends in the heat treating device 106 and to which temperature the liquid food 102 is heated in the heat treating device 106, the heat treated side may be an aseptic side.

[0025] From above follows that non-heat treated side refers to the part of the system inside which the liquid food is considered to be not fully heat treated. heat treated side refers to the part of the system inside which the liquid food is considered to be fully heat treated. Heat treated food refers to food in which the microorganisms in the liquid food have, due to the heat treatment, been killed or at least reduced to an extent where the number of viable pathogens is so low that that they are unlikely to cause disease, as long as the liquid food is stored as prescribed and is consumed before its expiration date.

[0026] With reference to FIG. 1b and FIG. 1c, various embodiments of the system 100 will be described. In FIG. 1b, the system 100 comprises tubing 112 that is configured to convey the liquid food 102, 102a, 102b from the balance tank 104 to the heat treatment unit 106, from the heat treatment unit 106 to the filter 108 and from the filter 108 to the packaging device 110. A plurality of components 114, such as a pump, a valve, a deaerator etc., are arranged along the tubing 112 between the balance tank 104 and the packaging device 110.

[0027] It is to be noted that there is a distinction between the tubing 112 and the components 114 in that none of the components 114 has a function that only involves conveying the liquid food, whereas the function of the tubing 112 lies solely in conveying the liquid food 102, 102a, 102b.

[0028] The plurality of components 114 are arranged such that a first number of components are arranged between the balance tank 104 and the filter 108. As FIG. 1b exemplifies, this first number is five due to the fact that three components 114 are arranged between the balance tank 104 and the heat treatment unit 106 and two components 114 are arranged between the heat treatment unit 106 and the filter 108. A second number of components are arranged between the filter 108 and the packaging device 110. The second number of components is lower than the first number of components. As exemplified by the embodiment in FIG. 1b, this second number of components 114 may be a single one and, as exemplified by the embodiment in FIG. 1c, this second number of components 114 may be zero, i.e. there is no component between the filter 108 and the packaging device 110.

[0029] Turning now to FIG. 2, embodiments of the filter 108 will be described in more detail. The filter may comprise an inlet 211 and an outlet 213 that connect to the tubing 112. Schematically illustrated particles 120 that, e.g., have been released from a gasket 113 due to wear located upstream in relation to the filter 108 are about to enter the inlet 211 of the filter 108.

[0030] As illustrated, the filter 108 may comprise at least one clamp 207 and at least one support ring 209. The at least one clamp 207 may be configured to clamp together a body 201 and a top 205 of the filter, noting also that the body 201 is hollow and accommodates a fine mesh strainer 203. The at least one clamp 207 and the at least one support ring 209 are configured to operate at a sterilization temperature and during a predetermined sterilization time. For example, the sterilization temperature may be 130 C. and the predetermined sterilization time may be 30 minutes.

[0031] The at least one support ring 209 may be made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The filter 108 may be configured to remove particles 120 having a size greater than 73 micrometer from the liquid food 102. For example, the fine mesh strainer may have a mesh size of 73 micrometer.

[0032] Turning now to FIG. 3, and with continued reference to FIG. 1a-c and FIG. 2, a method for processing liquid food 102 is illustrated in terms of a number of steps.

[0033] In a first step the liquid food 102 is provided 301 from the balance tank 104 to the heat treating unit 106. Next, the liquid food 102 is heat treated 303 to provide heat treated liquid food 102a to the filter 108. The heat treated liquid food 102a is filtered 305 to provide filtered heat treated liquid food 102b to the packaging device 110. This filtering 305 of the heat treated liquid food 102a may comprise a step of trapping 315 particles 120 that have been released from gaskets 113 or components 114 that are located along tubing 112, the tubing 112 being configured to convey the liquid food 102, 102a, 102b from the balance tank 104, via the heat treatment unit 106, and to the filter 108. Finally the filtered heat treated liquid food 102b is packaged 309.

[0034] The method may involve further steps that specify that the filtered heat treated liquid food 102b is subject to no active change of properties subsequent to the filtering 305. This may involve, after the filtering 305 and until the packaging 309, maintaining 306 a temperature of the filtered heat treated liquid food 102b within a range of 5 C. This means that no heat treatment of the liquid food is done after the filtering 305. Such steps may also or alternatively involve, after the filtering 305 and until the packaging 309, maintaining 308 a pressure of the filtered heat treated liquid food 102b within a range of 0,5 bar. This means that no pumping of the liquid food is done after the filtering 309.

[0035] From the description above follows that, although various embodiments of the invention have been described and shown, the invention is not restricted thereto, but may also be embodied in other ways within the scope of the subject-matter defined in the following claims.