Patent ID: 7993603

Claim:
A conditioning system for sterilizing products within sealed packages comprising: a product conditioning unit including of a tunnel having two pairs of parallel sidewalls, and an entrance and an exit to form a conduit having a substantially quadrilateral cross-section, said tunnel subdivided into one or more consecutively aligned stages; a plurality of pressure sealing doors to seal at least one stage to form a gaseous tight sealed pressurizeable stage; a pressurizing means for controlling the pressure of said pressurizeable stage and for increasing the pressure within said pressurizeable stage to a sufficient level to prevent sealed packages from bursting upon application of heat; a conveyor means for advancing products from up line to downline through said conditioning unit; and a heating means for providing heating in at least said pressurizeable stage of the conditioning unit, said heating means including first and second sets of microwave sources for creating a microwave field for heating products wherein said first set of microwave sources includes one or more microwave sources which emit microwaves at a right angle to the axis of advance of products advancing through said tunnel and said second set of microwave sources includes one or more microwave sources which emit microwaves at a right angle to the axis of advance of products advancing through said tunnel, said first set of microwave sources directly connected to a first sidewall and said second set of microwave sources directly connected to a second opposing sidewall so that microwave energy emanates from said first microwave sources from a first side of said products and microwave energy emanates from said second microwave sources from an opposite side of said products.