Apparatus for the uniform and rapid heating of foodstuffs

A method of continuously, uniformly and rapidly heating loads contained in sealed packs permeable to microwave, comprising the steps of:

• a. providing an elongate treatment chamber,
• b. conveying a plurality of sealed packs permeable to microwaves through said chamber, each pack containing a load to be heated by said microwaves,
• c. providing longitudinally spaced location identifiers on said conveyor correlating with the placement of said packs on said conveyor,
• d. projecting a plurality of upper and lower microwave guides into said chamber above and below, and directed to, said packs, said guides having outlets operably connected to the radially inner ends thereof,
• e. corresponding the cross-sectional shape of said outlets to the geometrical surface shape of said packs,
• f. generating microwave energy in each of said guides of a fixed predetermined wavelength,
• g. controlling the conveying and microwave generation, including scanning the conveyor for detecting said location identifiers correlating with the placement of said packs on said conveyor, and
• h. spacing the outlets of said microwave guides from the surfaces of said packs by a distance equal to or less than one wavelength of the microwave energy used for irradiation of said packs.