Combi Oven Tray Placement Control for Cross-Contamination Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
The 'rolling' cooking process in combisteamers often leads to cross-contamination of food products due to condensates from upper trays dripping onto lower trays, where the cooking time of the lower trays may be insufficient to kill pathogens, posing a health risk.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that assigns a 'hygienic safe control time' (HSCT) to each food product, which indicates the minimum remaining cooking time required for trays below the intended placement level, using a controller with a memory and user interface to identify safe tray levels and prevent unsafe loading through alerts and locking mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a rolling cooking process is used to maximize cooking device utilization, then productivity is improved, but cross-contamination risk increases due to condensates dripping from upper trays to lower trays
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary checks before allowing tray placement by evaluating the HSCT of the food to be cooked against the remaining cooking time of food on lower trays. The controller proactively identifies safe tray levels and prevents unsafe placements before cross-contamination can occur, rather than reacting after the fact.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the cooking status of food on all trays and provides real-time feedback to the operator through the user interface. The controller alerts operators when a selected tray level is unsafe due to insufficient remaining cooking time on lower trays, enabling informed decision-making about tray placement.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If sheet metal barriers are added between cooking levels to prevent cross-contamination, then food safety is improved, but device complexity and space utilization deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical solution of sheet metal barriers with an electronic control system. The controller uses software logic to evaluate HSCT values and remaining cooking times, then provides electronic alerts and tray level recommendations through the user interface, eliminating the need for physical barriers while maintaining cross-contamination prevention.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If tray placement is restricted to prevent cross-contamination, then food safety is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to additional alerts and locking mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically calculating HSCT values, comparing them against remaining cooking times, and identifying safe tray levels without requiring operator intervention. The controller autonomously provides tray level recommendations and can lock unsafe levels, reducing the cognitive burden on operators while maintaining food safety.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methods and system for reducing or eliminating the possibility of cross-contamination between food to be cooked in a cooking device and food cooking in the cooking device. The methods and systems determine the placement into a cooking device of food product to be cooked by the distance sensor, determine a hygienic safe cooking time (HSCT) for that product based on the identification of food product to be cooked, and compare the HSCT to one or more remaining cooking times of food product cooking in the cooking device on levels below and/or above the desired placement of the food product to be cooked. Various methods of identifying the food to be cooked may be employed, both manual and automatic. As a result of the comparison, the methods and systems of the disclosure can identify safe carrier/tray level(s) for accepting placement of the food to be cooked.