Method and apparatus for controlling the quality of food products and system for treating food products comprising the apparatus

A production system for making a liquid or semi-liquid food product, comprising:

• a machine for treating the food product, the machine adapted to thermally treat the food product, including at least one actuator operating on the food product;
• a controller that controls the at least one actuator;
• a container for processing the food product and defining a treatment chamber;
• the at least one actuator including a stirrer and being configured to apply a treatment process to the food product inside the treatment chamber, the stirrer being mounted inside the container to mix the product inside the treatment chamber;
• a quality control apparatus for controlling a quality of the food product, comprising;
• a quality control module, comprising:
• a sensor to detect at least one parameter regarding a property of the food product and/or a property of a processing environment, among a physicochemical and/or organoleptic property, color, form, temperature, relative humidity, impedance, or overrun of the food product;
• a processor connected to the sensor for receiving a detected value of the at least one parameter regarding the property of the food product;
• the processor being configured to derive a quality indication of the food product based on the detected value, the quality indication including information relating to a quality of the food product, expressed as an assessment of the quality, relating to the at least one parameter,
• a communication module connected to the processor and configured to transmit information relating to the derived quality indication;
• the communication module being connected to the controller of the machine to send control and adjustment signals to the machine based on the derived quality indication of the food product and the controller of the machine being configured to adjust the at least one actuator based on at least one of the control and adjustment signals;
• a feedback device connected between the processor and the controller of the machine, including a user interface configured to allow a user to send to the processor a parameter representing a quality assessment of the food product used during a self-learning mode;
• and
• wherein the processor combines the derived quality indication of the food product based on the detected value, the quality assessment of the food product obtained from the user during a self-learning mode, and an average final quality indication of preceding foods product to obtain a final quality indication according to the following:
• Ifin=(Gop+In)/Imedn-1
• wherein,
• Ifin is the final quality indication of the food product;
• Imedn-1 is the average final quality indication of the preceding food products;
• Gop is the quality assessment from the user in the self-learning mode;
• and
• In is the quality indication derived from the sensor.