Apparatus for manufacture of frozen elongated pasta
AssigneeConopco, Inc.
InventorsRoberto Nardi, Sandro Panaioli, Valerio Simeone
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a process for the manufacture of frozen instant cooking pasta from elongated dried pasta products that substantially retains the pre-processing length of the dried pasta comprising the steps of; (i) dividing an elongated dried pasta products into one or more portions, each portion having a desired mass; (ii) loading each portion of pasta into one of a plurality of separate dosing devices; (iii) re-hydrating each portion of pasta within a dosing device; (iv) quenching the re-hydrated pasta resulting from step (iii); (v) freezing. Further embodiments are directed to the apparatus that is necessary for carrying out this process and the frozen product achieved.
Claims4
Apparatus for manufacture of frozen elongated pasta bundles comprising:
- (i) a weigher upstream of a plurality of dosing devices;
- (ii) the plurality of dosing devices being attached to rotating endless chains, the plurality of dosing devices each comprising a perforated tube and perforated cup;
- (iii) a blancher into which said plurality of dosing devices are submergible and for re-hydration of the dried elongated pasta after the pasta has been loaded into the plurality of dosing devices, the perforated tube and perforated cup being positioned to form a retaining means within the blancher by virtue of their attachment to the separate rotating endless chains;
- and
- (iv) a freezer, said apparatus providing for avoidance of cutting as means of dividing the re-hydrated elongated pasta.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.