Patent FR-2989555-A1 (FR)
Title: Installation, used to sterilize envelope of e.g. ham, comprises conveyers coming into lacunar contact with food product to move product between conveyers so that no surface of lower part of envelope is free of treatment by ozonated water
Inventor: CHEVELU JEAN-MARC
IPC: A23B4/26
Filed: 2012-04-20
Abstract: The installation comprises a treatment chamber (7), an ozone generator (3), and an upstream conveyor (5) and a downstream conveyer (6) that have a unit coming into abutment in an envelope of a bread food product (2) to longitudinally move the food product from upstream to downstream through the chamber. The conveyers move the food product within a treatment boundary, and come into a lacunar contact with the food product to differentially move the product between the conveyers so that no surface of a lower part of the envelope is free of the treatment by the ozonated water. The installation comprises a treatment chamber (7), an ozone generator (3), pipes for delivering ozonated water to the treatment chamber, and an upstream conveyor (5) and a downstream conveyer (6) that have a unit coming into abutment in an envelope of a bread food product (2) to longitudinally move the food product from upstream to downstream through the treatment chamber. The conveyers move the food product within a treatment boundary, and come into a lacunar contact with the food product to differentially move the food product between the conveyers so that no surface of a lower part of the envelope is free of the treatment by the ozonated water. The conveyers are provided with mesh belts whose meshes are multiple times greater than a diameter of a metal yarn. The conveyers are arranged so that contact zones between the food product and the meshes of the belt of the downstream conveyor are distinct from contact zones between the food product and the meshes of the belt of the upstream conveyor. The conveyors comprise chains, belts or equivalent units and have different or identical spacings. The spacing of smaller value of one of the conveyors is arranged in an extension of the spacing of highest value of the other conveyor. The spacings are transversely shifted compared to a width of a chain, belt or equivalent unit. The treatment chamber is connected to a suction unit in its upper portion, and removes ozone generating an internal pressure. The treatment chamber is provided with input and output hoppers for the passage of the conveyors and/or the food products. Each hopper is provided with a separate closure flap. The chamber is also equipped with an inside sensor and an outside sensor that detect a level of ozonization of air reacting on a control unit of the generator, and sound and light alarms. The treatment chamber comprises longitudinal slopes for sprinkling the ozonated water above, below and on each side of a movement path of the food product, a tank for receiving water from ozone treatment, and a rate controlling unit for controlling the ozonation of the ozonated water in response to a unit for supplying the ozonated water from the tank. The treatment chamber is divided into two distinct compartments including an upstream treatment compartment and a downstream draining compartment. The compartments are provided with openings for the passage of the conveyers and the food product. The openings are equipped with an obturation flap. The upstream compartment comprising slopes of ozonated water injection. The downstream draining compartment contains the tank for the reception of draining water and the tank of the reception of the ozonated water delivered by the generator. The generator is under the dependence of a unit for controlling its flow rate and an ozone content responsive to a sensor measuring the ozone concentration in the water of the tank. The upstream compartment includes a unit for extracting fat content from the food product by the sprinkling the ozonated water, where the unit comprises a perforated conveying belt placed transversely, and an end of the belt is connected with a lower part of the slope for injecting the ozonated water and another end emerges outside of the chamber. The treatment chamber is vertically divided into: a lower tank containing the ozonated water, where a tube of ozone injection emerges in the lower tank; and an upper tank containing the conveyers. The conveyers are carried by a unit for vertically moving the conveyors according to a cycle defined by a control case between an upper position and a lower position.