Wet collection of coating exhaust from food-product coating apparatus

A wet collection apparatus for collecting dry coating material exhaust from food-product coating apparatus for dusting or coating food product pieces with dry coating material in automatic and/or mechanized food-process lines;

• comprising:
• a water vessel comprising a bottom wall, an inflow-side sidewall spaced apart from a discharge-side sidewall by a pair of endwalls all sealed with the bottom wall and thereby giving the bottom wall a quadrilateral floor plan, and an open top;
• a removable closure for the open top;
• an exhaust blower mounted on or pneumatically-coupled to the vessel or closure;
• a vacuum line extending between and pneumatically-coupled to both the food-product coating apparatus and one of the vessel or closure;
• the water vessel being characterized by a generally hollow interior defining a process chamber whereby filled partially with a pool of water;
• and
• a plurality of channel-dividing partitions mounted in the hollow interior of the water vessel, spanning between the endwalls, forcing the flow of exhaust air through the process chamber to submerge and re-emerge into and out of the pool of water whereby in a porpoising fashion of submerging and re-emerging.