Method and apparatus for treating material under pressure

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a method and apparatus for industrially freezing (or cooling) food or the like under pressure. The method consists of isostatically exerting pressure on the material such as food (14) and the frozen body (15) composed mainly of water through the pressure medium (12) contained in the pressure vessel (1), thereby cooling the material (14). When the temperature of the material (14) decreases below 0.degree.C. at which freezing does not take place under pressure, the pressure is released rapidly so that fine ice crystals are formed in the material (14). The apparatus comprises a pressure vessel (1) having therein a high-pressure chamber (6) which can be supplied with a pressure medium (8), a treating vessel (9) in said high-pressure chamber (6), said treating vessel (9) having therein a treating compartment (13) containing a pressure medium (12) to apply isostatic pressure, and a plurality of trays (16) removably arranged in the treating compartment (13) in its axial direction, each of said trays holding the material (14) and the frozen body (15) composed mainly of water.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.