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AssigneeChiquita Brands International Inc.
InventorsJavier Palacio, Julio Vasquez, Ilya Ilyin, Cesar Miranda, Rafel Lopez, Gustavo Solano, Humberto Wedderburn
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The present invention defines an apparatus and a process for vacuum drying fruit or vegetables, particularly tropical fruit, such as bananas, mangos and pineapples, so as to provide an exceptionally sweet and flavorful fruit chip snack product which is substantially free of any additives such as frying oil, preservatives, added sugar and artificial sweeteners. The process is a vacuum drying process and utilizes a drying apparatus in the form of an autoclave which contains within it a stacked platen heat exchanger wherein trays of the fruit to be dried are placed between heated platens in the heat exchanger. The platens are heated using hot water or a hot water/steam mixture and the drying is done in the autoclave under pressure.
A process for drying fruit or vegetable pieces by placing said fruit or vegetable pieces in an apparatus which comprises an autoclave containing within it, in a stacked configuration, a plurality of substantially flat platens, spaced apart from each other in the vertical direction, which are internally heated by hot water and a plurality of trays to hold said fruit or vegetable pieces, said trays being insertably placed between and parallel to the heated surfaces of adjacent pairs of said platens;
A process for drying fruit pieces utilizing an apparatus which comprises an autoclave containing within it, in a stacked configuration, a plurality of substantially flat platens stacked apart from each other in the vertical direction, which are internally heated by hot water, and a plurality of trays to hold said fruit pieces, said trays being insertably placed between and parallel to the heated surfaces of adjacent pairs of said platens, said process comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.