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US 3,996,385 AGranted
Method and device for preparing foodstuffs with direct passage of electric current
AssigneeElectro-Food AB
InventorKnut Birger Vigerstrom
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AssigneeElectro-Food AB
InventorKnut Birger Vigerstrom
Estimating the term…
The present invention relates to a method and device for the processing of organic substances, particularly the preparation of comestibles such as potatoes, with direct passage of electric current in an electrolyte. The method is distinguished in that the electric characteristics of the current passage processing, e.g. the voltage applied, are varied during the processing period and that the processing is divided into a number of stages with mutually dissimilar electric characteristics. The device is chiefly characterized by transporting means which convey a plurality of vessels filled with electrolyte and the substance to be treated, a filling station for filling said vessels with electrolyte and the substance to be processed, a processing path along which the transporting means convey the vessels and where said vessels are subjected to processing, current supply means which are electrically connectable with the electrolyte in the vessels on the processing path and control means which vary the electric characteristics of the current passage processing for each vessel while said vessel is moving along said processing path. In a further method, the applied voltage to the electrodes is intermittently interrupted and the electrodes for a continuous processing machine may be subdivided, the sections being alternately connected with the current supply in such a manner that all sections are never simultaneously connected to the current supply.
In a method for heating potatoes, including immersing electrodes in an electrolyte, immersing said potatoes in the electrolyte between, but substantially out of contact with said electrodes, and applying an alternating electrical potential to said electrodes to supply an alternating electric current to said electrodes so that current passes through the electrolyte and said potatoes the improvement comprising lowering, during the processing period and for the entire substance, the rate at which the electrical energy is supplied by the current by irreversibly decreasing from a first to a second potential level both greater than zero, the potential of the applied alternating current.
In a method for heating potatoes, including immersing electrodes in an electrolyte, immersing said potatoes in the electrolyte between, but substantially out of contact with said electrodes, and applying an alternating electrical potential to said electrodes to supply an alternating electric current to said electrodes so that current passes through the electrolyte and said potatoes the improvement comprising lowering, during the processing period and for the entire substance, the rate at which the electrical energy is supplied by the current by intermittently interrupting the current supply to the electrodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.