Oxyhydrogen Flame Surface Precooking for Food Products
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surface cooking processes for meat and sandwich bread products face challenges in reducing cooking times while maintaining a grilled appearance, adhering to temperature regulations, and efficiently cutting soft products like sandwich loaves without causing irregularities or bacterial growth.
Innovation Solution
The use of an oxyhydrogen flame for controlled surface heat treatment, allowing for precise temperature management and minimal energy transfer, combined with the absence of post-treatment cooling for meat products and pre-slicing surface treatment for sandwich loaves, ensures efficient and safe processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If thermal marking is applied to create grilled appearance, then the product gains characteristic marking and cooked look, but the surface temperature becomes too high requiring violent cooling that may drop below freezing level
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies selective heating only to the surface layer of the product using infrared radiation, while the core remains unaffected. This localized heating creates the grilled marking effect without transferring excessive heat to the product core, eliminating the need for violent cooling and preventing temperature drop below freezing level.
Solution Approach 2:
The marking process uses periodic infrared radiation pulses applied for very short durations (fractions of a second to a few seconds). This periodic action allows the surface to absorb just enough energy for marking while the brief exposure time prevents excessive heat penetration, maintaining surface temperature control without requiring subsequent cooling intervention.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If cooling system is introduced to control temperature after marking, then the product temperature can be maintained below 4°C to prevent bacterial development, but the system becomes expensive and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The invention performs the marking operation in advance during the production process, creating the grilled appearance before the product enters final storage or sale. By completing the thermal marking step preliminarily with controlled infrared radiation, the product is ready for distribution without requiring complex cooling systems to maintain the marked appearance, thus preventing bacterial development while avoiding expensive cooling infrastructure.
3Productivity
If high cutting rates are applied to soft sandwich loaves, then productivity increases, but the soft product shape is not stabilized causing irregularities and blade sliding
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies infrared radiation to the surface of soft sandwich loaves before cutting to create a stabilized crust layer. This preliminary thermal treatment firming up the surface, which prevents blade sliding and maintains product shape during high-speed cutting operations, thereby achieving both high productivity and cutting quality without requiring complex cooling systems.
4Duration of action of moving object
If infrared radiation is used for surface cooking, then cooking time is reduced and grilled appearance is achieved, but the average temperature of the product may exceed regulatory limits
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses infrared radiation to heat only the surface layer of the product locally, achieving the grilled marking effect in a very short time. The selective surface heating means the average temperature of the entire product remains low and compliant with regulations, while the surface reaches the necessary temperature for marking without requiring prolonged heating that would raise the core temperature.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method reduces water loss and maintains product integrity, preventing bacterial proliferation and achieving the desired grilled appearance without deep heating, while enabling high cutting rates and compliance with temperature regulations.
Implementation Method 1
The use of an oxyhydrogen flame for controlled surface heat treatment, allowing for precise temperature management
Implementation Method 2
a flame produced by a burner, the flame used being an oxyhydrogen flame
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a preferably continuous method for precooking the surface of food products, characterized in that all or part of the surface of the product makes contact with the flame produced by a burner, the flame employed being an oxyhydrogen flame, preferably a hydrogen/oxygen flame.