Patent ID: 6497106
Filing Date: 2002-12-24
Classification: A23B,A23L,F25D

Abstract:
Apparatus for chilling or freezing a plurality of pieces of a food product, comprising(A) cooling means comprising (1) a rotatable drum defining an enclosure and having an inlet for said pieces and an outlet for said pieces, (2) means in said drum for continuously urging pieces in said drum from said inlet through a cooling region in said enclosure and toward and out of the outlet when the drum is rotating, (3) cryogen dispensing means for feeding cryogen from a source outside said drum into said drum and dispensing said cryogen onto said cooling region, and (4) means for rotating said drum; (B) feeding means for receiving said plurality of pieces and feeding them continuously into the inlet of the rotatable drum, which feeding means includes means for automatically sensing the mass flow rate at which said pieces are being fed into said inlet and for generating electrical signals corresponding to said automatically sensed mass flow rate; (C) electronic control means for receiving from said feeding means said signals corresponding to said mass flow rate and for receiving electronic inputs corresponding to the temperature of said pieces being fed into said inlet and to the desired temperature of said pieces exiting the outlet of said drum, predetermined quantity of said product has been fed into said cooling region, and for automatically controlling the rate at which cryogen is fed by said cryogen dispensing means onto said cooling region as a function of said signals and said inputs so as to dispense cryogen at a rate sufficient to lower the temperature of said pieces to be at the desired exit temperature when they exit the drum; wherein when said pieces are fed to said feeding means said feeding means senses the mass flow rate of said pieces and generates and sends to said electronic control means electrical signals corresponding to said mass flow rate, and wherein when the average temperature of said pieces and the desired exit temperature are inputted into said electronic control means, cryogen is dispensed onto said cooling region at a rate sufficient to lower the temperature of said pieces to be at the desired exit temperature when they exit the drum only after a plurality of said pieces occupy said cooling region.