US 4,569,850 A · Method for thermally blasting outer coverings from food products

Abstract

This disclosure embodies an apparatus and process for the rapid removal of outer coverings and other unedible portions from food products with minimal loss of or damage to edible portions. The process has proven to be effective in the peeling of fruit and vegetable crops, coring peppers, shelling of legume seed pods, shucking and silking corn, popping corn, skinning onions, shelling of nut crops, scaling and skinning of fish, and removal of shells from shellfish. These processes are accomplished with an apparatus which heats the surface of the product very rapidly in an atmosphere of superheated steam under elevated pressure, supplemented with radiant heat from a vessel wall, and then flashes to atmospheric pressure by instantaneous opening of the vessel cover. The result is an explosion which blows the product from the vessel and simultaneously blasts the covering from the product by violent action of highly energized moisture beneath the product covering. In the particular case of the pimiento and bell peppers, the unedible core is also blown free of the edible pod during the thermal blast treatment. Suitable means are provided for catching the product as it leaves the vessel.

Claims54

Dependent claims

A method for thermally blasting outer coverings from food products with minimal loss of or damage to edible portions thereof, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) heating at least the surface of said food products under a predetermined pressure in a closed vessel filled with a fluid heating medium for a preselected period of time;
(b) rotating said closed vessel during said heating step so as to enable the uniform heating of at least the surface of said food products;
(c) depressurizing said closed vessel to atmospheric pressure, at least that portion of said depressurizing step from approximately one half said predetermined pressure to atmospheric pressure being substantially instantaneous;
(d) said depressurizing step including the step of substantially instantaneously opening a door forming a part of said closed vessel, said opening step including the substeps of:
(i) unlatching said door;
(ii) accelerating said door toward a wide opening position through the use of biasing means variably biased with respect to said door by gear means interconnected between said biasing means and said door;
(iii) decelerating said door beginning at about said wide open position, by reversing the force generated by said spring biasing omeans;
and
(iv) catching said door after the commencement of said deceleration substep in a position beyond said wide open position;
and
(e) catching said food products after they pass through an opening controlled by said door.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method for thermally blasting outer coverings from food products

Life of this patent

Method for thermally blasting outer coverings from food products

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims54