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US 4,294,858 AGranted
Self-surfaced meat product manufacturing method and apparatus
OwnerRex E. Mouleinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerRex E. Mouleinventor
Estimating the term…
An emulsion is stored in pressure containers and is ultimately forced from one container and then the other to a pump which pumps the emulsion against back pressure of the food product into a long Teflon tube of large diameter. The tube passes through cavities in plural microwave ovens and is cured by microwave energy from two magnetrons in each oven operating at about 2,450 megahertz and 1,000 watts each. The flow rate is controlled by the pump so that the food product remains in the microwave energy field for about 4 to 5 minutes whereupon it is fully cured. The continuously flowing food product in the tube is surrounded by a hot oil heat exchanger which heats the surface to about two to five hundred Fahrenheit, while the product is radially constrained and is under back pressure. The tube passes through a cooling heat exchanger immediately after the heater whereupon the surface is cooled to about 40.degree. Fahrenheit while radially constrained and under pressure, thus forming a smooth self-skin. Initial back pressure is assured by a plug which the food product forces through the tube until the tube is full to provide the autogenic back pressure. The back pressure provided by the resistance to flow of the moving mass and the frictional resistance of the product-tube innerface decreases as the product nears the end of the apparatus. At the end of the apparatus the cooled product is sliced and wrapped or cut in lengths to be sliced elsewhere.
The method for preparing a self-surfaced congealed meat product comprising storing emulsified product in a container, forcing the emulsified product from the container, forcing the emulsified product through a tube at a predetermined rate against a back pressure, wherein back pressure is created by laterally constraining the product as it moves through the tube, passing microwave energy through the tube and into the product, continuing forcing of the product through the tube and continuing passage of microwave energy through the tube and into the product, thereby congealing the product while the product remains under pressure, heating the tube to temperature sufficient to melt materials on the outer surfaces of the product, conducting heat through the tube to outer surfaces of the product thereby forming a self-skin on the product while the product remains under pressure, subsequently cooling the tube and cooling the outer surfaces of the product while the product continually passes through the tube, thereby solidifying materials in the outer surfaces of the product and completing the forming of a self-skin, and releasing the product from the tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.