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OwnerPriya Ranjan Dass, Navnita Dassinventors
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The present invention is a method for pasteurization of Curry, a sauce or simmer sauce made with onion, tomato and plethora of spices, mostly used in Indian or other Asian cuisines. CAPS uses 5 things to achieve such long shelf-life—2-step unique cooking process, ingredients mainly spices, HPP (high pressure pasteurization), PET containers and refrigeration. We are not using HPP here for a 2.5-5 log cycle reduction in microorganisms as done by all products now as our cooking process itself brings microbes level to <10. However as evident from the lab reports, HPP does play a role in extending the shelf-life as we compared both pre-HPP and post-HPP samples. Our choice of PET containers (recycle code 1) has a role too on account of its 50 times less OTR than the microwavable PP containers (recycle code 5) used mostly for the restaurant take-outs.
CAPS is the first such method of pasteurization which extends the shelf-life of a low acid food item to 500 days in refrigeration maintaining the original taste and flavor as it does not use any preservatives.
Ours is the first HPPed food products with the shelf-life of 150 days and more in refrigeration as our cooking process eliminates spores and spores forming bacteria. HPP alone does not kill the spores and spores forming bacteria.
Ours is the first packaged Indian or Asian food in refrigeration or in the ‘Fresh’ section at the US grocery stores without any preservatives with the shelf-life of 100 days and more.
The pH of pre-HPP Mother's curry and pre-HPP Tikka Masala curry varies from 4.9 to 5.2. Post-HPP pH of our products vanes from 4.5 to 5.5 over 500 days testing as per our lab reports.
HPP used in CAPS uses the cold water (40-50 F) at high pressure of around 85000 psi for 3 minutes to kill bacteria and other microorganisms.
Curry is the heart or soul of Indian cuisine. It is liquid or semi-liquid depending on the composition. It is used to make an entree. Let me explain. If you come to our Nirmal cafe and order say Tofu Tikka Masala or Chicken Tikka Masala, both entrees. Our chef would pour ‘Tikka Masala’ curry into a pan, mix tofu or grilled chicken into it and boil it for 5 minutes. Your entree is ready. Please see attached our menu at Nirmal café. Other Indian restaurants do it differently. We Indians eat entrees with the rice or breads. The entrees in Indian cuisine are always served hot (say 160-200 F) for the real flavor of spices. Though Curry at cold temperature (say 50-100 F) could be used as pasta sauce, barbeque sauce or dressing, dip or spread.
As mentioned in the abstract, PET containers have good impact strength (needed for HPP), 50 times less OTR (Oxygen transmission rate), important for extended shelf-life and very low MVTR (Moisture vapor transmission rate), important for Curry with almost 99% moisture content. See attached for link print-out-http://www.alphaplastic.com/bottle-basics/plastics-comparison-chart.php for the comparison chart of various plastics. PET containers beat all types in our requirements. Only drawback of PET containers is its being not ‘Microwavable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.