Method and apparatus for the sterilization of ground meat using supercritical co2
AssigneeNovasterilis, Inc.
InventorsDavid Burns, Thomas Steffie, Alecia Eppelsheimer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for sterilizing a ground meat product through the application supercritical CO2 during the processing of the meat by introducing supercritical CO2 into an extruder as the meat passes through the extruder while controlling the pressure and speed at which the meat passes through the extruder to maintain the meat in contact with the supercritical CO2 for a time sufficient achieve a log reduction in colony forming units of microbial contaminants.
Claims5
A method for sterilizing a ground meat product through the application of supercritical CO2 during the processing of the ground meat comprising:
- feeding meat into a grinder where it is ground into ground meat;
- transmitting the ground meat to an extruder;
- introducing supercritical CO2 into the extruder as the ground meat passes through the extruder;
- and
- controlling the pressure and speed at which the ground meat passes through the extruder to maintain the ground meat in contact with the supercritical CO2 while in the extruder to achieve a log reduction in colony forming units of microbial contaminants so as to sterilize the ground meat.
2-3. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.