Frozen food dispensing system that limits internal clean-in-place operations

A frozen food dispensing system configured for external ingredient delivery, the system comprising:

• a housing;
• a mixing chamber configured to receive a food portion and a gas portion;
• a manifold body having a front side, a back side, a top side, at least one blending chamber, a plurality of ingredient inlet ports at the top side, a plurality of pressure reservoirs at the back side, a plurality of ingredient egress ports at the front side intersecting the plurality of pressure reservoirs, and a plurality of ingredient ingress ports at the front side intersecting the at least one blending chamber;
• a plurality of inlet conduits fastened to the plurality of ingredient inlet ports and configured to receive ingredients from a plurality of external ingredient sources positioned remote from the housing;
• a plurality of electronic valves secured to the front side of the manifold body and movable between an open position and a closed position such that, in the open position, an ingredient passes from one of the plurality of pressure reservoirs through one of the plurality of ingredient egress ports and through one of the plurality of ingredient ingress ports into the at least one blending chamber, and such that, in the closed position, the ingredient is prevented from egressing the one of the plurality of pressure reservoirs through the one of the plurality of ingredient egress ports;
• at least one food product egress conduit fastened to the at least one blending chamber and fluidly coupled to the mixing chamber;
• a pump connected to the at least one food product egress conduit and configured to draw ingredients through the manifold body and into the mixing chamber;
• a refrigeration system including a compressor, a condenser coil, a refrigerant metering device, and an evaporator coil in thermal communication with the mixing chamber, the refrigeration system being configured to freeze a food product within the mixing chamber;
• and
• a control system including a microcontroller configured to actuate the plurality of electronic valves and the pump to achieve targeted blend ratios.

A frozen food dispensing system configured for external ingredient delivery, the system comprising:

• a housing;
• a mixing chamber configured to receive a food portion and a gas portion;
• a manifold having a blending chamber, a plurality of ingredient inlets, and at least one ingredient egress port fluidly coupled to the mixing chamber;
• a plurality of valves configured to selectively control flow of ingredients from a plurality of external ingredient sources positioned remote from the housing into the blending chamber;
• at least one pressure sensor configured to determine a blending chamber pressure;
• a refrigeration system including a compressor, a condenser coil, a refrigerant metering device, and an evaporator coil in thermal communication with the mixing chamber, the refrigeration system being configured to freeze a food product within the mixing chamber;
• and
• a control system including a microcontroller configured to initiate a recipe pulse sequence when the blending chamber pressure is below a predetermined food product pressure and to terminate the recipe pulse sequence when the blending chamber pressure is at least the predetermined food product pressure.