Continuous food product cooling system

A rotary drum chilling system for cooling particulate food product, comprising:

• a generally cylindrical drum having an inlet end, an outlet end, and a plurality of processing zones interposed between said inlet end and said outlet end, including at least an initial processing zone and a final processing zone, each of said processing zones including a flood section, a drain section, and a nozzle, wherein the downstream direction in said drum is from said inlet end toward said outlet end and the upstream direction is from outlet end toward said inlet end;
• at least one motor for rotating said drum;
• a food conveyor disposed within said rotary drum for moving food product in the downstream direction;
• a source of chilling liquid in direct fluid communication with said nozzle in said final processing zone;
• a final processing zone catch basin disposed under said drain section of said final processing zone, said catch basin in fluid communication with a processing zone in the upstream direction;
• an initial processing zone catch basin disposed under said drain section of said initial processing zone;
• and
• a discharge conduit for discharging fluid from said initial processing zone catch basin;
• wherein said nozzles discharge chilling liquid so as to submerge food product in chilling liquid in each of said flood sections for a period of time such that the product particulates are surrounded with the chilled liquid, exposes the coldest food product to the coldest chilling liquid in said chilling system, agitates the food product as it is conveyed through said processing zones, and wherein the movements of the chilling liquid is controlled by said food conveyor such that different temperatures of chilled liquid are not mixed together during operation.