Method for preparing semi-finished products in a package with the possibility of their further automated heating and/or cooking

A method of cooking of a pre-cooked product in a package adaptable to further automated heating and/or cooking, the method comprising:

• cooking a product to obtain a pre-cooked product;
• rapidly cooling the pre-cooked product down to a temperature from 5° C. to 9° C. for no more than 90 minutes to obtain a cooled pre-cooked product;
• placing the cooled pre-cooked product into a food portioning container, wherein a size and shape of components of the cooled pre-cooked product placed into the food portioning container are selected to permit microwave radiation to fully penetrate through the components;
• packaging the food portioning container containing the cooled pre-cooked product into a hermetically sealed package, wherein air in the package is replaced with carbon dioxide or helium;
• treating the package containing the food portioning container with ultraviolet radiation having a specific radiant energy of not less than 1600 J/m2;
• applying a barcode to the package containing the food portioning container, the barcode encoding an individual microwave oven heating program determined specifically for the pre-cooked product, the microwave oven heating program containing an indication of a power level of the microwave oven required and a time required to heat the pre-cooked product to a consumption-ready condition;
• shock freezing the package containing the barcode and the pre-cooked product according to an individual shock freezing program experimentally determined specifically for a type of the pre-cooked product;
• after the shock freezing, storing or transporting the package containing the barcode and the pre-cooked product at a temperature not higher than −18° C.;
• and
• prior to consumption, and in response to a barcode reader of a microwave oven reading the barcode on the package containing the pre-cooked product, causing the microwave oven to heat the pre-cooked product to the consumption-ready condition according to the individual microwave oven heating program encoded on the barcode;
• wherein the cooking of the product to obtain the pre-cooked product further comprises cooking ingredients of the product separately according to an individual heating program specific to each of the ingredients, wherein each individual heating program is selected to cook each of the ingredients to a different degree accounting for expected changes to each of the ingredients in response to the shock freezing of the pre-cooked product and heating of the pre-cooked product in the microwave according to the individual microwave oven heating program.