Shock-wave meat treatment
AssigneeHydrodyne Incorporated
InventorJohn B. Long
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improved tenderization of meat is achieved by using, individually or in combination, (1) a capacitor discharge chamber of shortened height; (2) a drum-head on which the meat sits during treatment and which is located at the upper end of the capacitor discharge chamber; (3) meat supporting structure which substantially holds the meat in place on the drum-head during capacitor discharge; (4) an indexing carousel for delivery the meat to a location above the capacitor discharge chamber and for transporting the treated meat to a discharge location; (5) an improved negative compression or rarefaction wave; and (6) the combination of shock wave treatment with other operations.
Claims35
In a method of tenderizing meat and/or killing microbes in meat comprising subjecting meat to a shock wave propagated through a non-compressible fluid, the improvement wherein
- placing said meat on a solid layer having an acoustic impedance approximately the same as the acoustic impedance of said non-compressible fluid, said non-compressible fluid lying adjacent one surface of said solid layer and said meat being supported on an opposite surface of said solid layer;
- restricting movement of said meat when subjected to said shock wave;
- and
- exposing said shock wave to a zone of reduced acoustic impedance after passage through said meat to create a rarefaction wave which passes through said meat in a direction opposite said shock wave.
In a method of tenderizing meat and/or killing microbes in meat comprising subjecting meat to a shock wave propagated through a non-compressible fluid, the improvement comprising
- placing said meat adjacent a first surface of a solid layer having an acoustic impedance approximately the same as the acoustic impedance of said non-compressible fluid, said non-compressible fluid lying adjacent a second surface of said solid layer;
- restricting movement of said meat when subjected to said shock wave;
- and
- exposing said shock wave to a zone of reduced acoustic impedance after passage through said meat to create a rarefraction wave which passes through said meat in a direction opposite said shock wave.
In a method of tenderizing meat and/or killing microbes in meat comprising subjecting meat to a shock wave propagated through a non-compressible fluid, the improvement comprising
- placing said meat adjacent a first surface of a drum-head diaphragm having an acoustic impedance approximately the same as the acoustic impedance of said non-compressible fluid, said non-compressible fluid lying adjacent a second surface of said drum-head diaphragm, said drum-head diaphragm separating said meat from said non-compressible fluid;
- and
- restricting movement of said meat when subjected to said shock wave passing through said non-compressible fluid and then through said drum-head diaphragm and into said meat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.