Frito-lay North America, Inc.

Recot Inc.

Frito-lay, Inc.

Ponnattu Kurian Joseph

Michael Grant Topor

Pravin Maganlal Desai

James William Stalder

David Lawrence Barry

Colin Jeffrey Burnham

Henry Kin-Hang Leung

John Richard Masson

Robert William Saunders

V N Mohan Rao

Kathryn Melissa Dove

Andrew Cecil Harvey

Edward Dickinson

Lawrence Alan Graham

Donald Joe Tatsch

Malcolm E Taylor

Richard Terrazzano

Patsy Coppola

Stephen N Forti

Joseph H Gold

Todd Charles McNeel

Edward Joseph Goldman

Mehrnaz Vafaie

Kenneth R Brocker

Renu Mathew

Vn Mohan Rao

Sheyla Rivera Ramsay

Tim Wilding

Ali Reza Peyrovi

Edward Leon Ouellette

William Douglas Henson

Lawrence W Wisdom

Rogers Williams

Vincent Allen Elder

John Gregory Fulcher

Gerald Vogel

Ximena Quintero Fuentes

Eric Richard Boudreaux

Bruce LeDoyt

Ramonica Green

Wu Li

Gerald James Vogel

Eric Boudreaux

Mohan V N Rao

Pravin Maganlal Desai Desai

A continuous process for making a pita chip or other similar products using a continuous pressing step that occurs shortly after a continuous oven initial cooking step. Applicants' invention produces a final product with characteristics of a traditionally cooked pita chip using equipment that provides for significant increases in manufacturing throughput. The use of a continuous oven with the relatively concurrent pressing step allows for the production of a flat chip piece on a continuous product line.

Continuous process for making a pita chip

A continuous oven comprising cascading conveyors. In one embodiment the oven comprises an oven floor, a ceiling, a left panel, and a right panel. The oven floor and ceiling are attached by the left and right sides defining an oven cavity. Located inside the oven cavity is at least one cascading conveyor. Also within the oven cavity is a partition which separates the oven into an upstream end and a downstream end.

Continuous oven with a cascading conveyor

A composition and method for providing a strong dough having a substantial quantity of fresh potatoes. Fresh potatoes are made into a mash and centrifuged to reduce the water content to about 70% by weight. Such potato mash can comprise over 50% by weight of the final dough. This dough can be used to make sheeted or extruded products. Such dough results in improved, more naturally-flavored products compared to products made entirely from dehydrated or partially-dehydrated potato derivatives. The method comprises finely slicing potatoes to form a potato slurry or mash; decanting excess water from the potato slurry; heating the potato slurry to a temperature no greater than about 190 degrees Fahrenheit; cooling the slurry to under 140 degrees Fahrenheit; and imparting a low amount of work input to a mixture of the slurry and other ingredients to form a shapeable dough.

Fabricated food product made from fresh potato mash

A process and apparatus for a method for reducing the amount of acrylamide in thermally processed foods. This invention permits the production of foods having significantly reduced levels of acrylamide. The method relies on the manipulation of various unit operations used in the production of food products, particularly the washing and cooking unit operations. For example, the washing unit operation can be modified to provide a contacting step at an increased time and temperature, and adding components such as calcium chloride and L-cysteine to an aqueous solution used for the contacting. The cooking unit operation can be modified by dividing it into at least a higher-temperature first heating step and a lower-temperature second heating step in order to avoid the high-temperature/low-moisture conditions most favorable for acrylamide formation.

Method for reducing acrylamide formation in thermally processed foods

A method for reducing the amount of asparagine, a pre-cursor of acrylamide, in food products that are thermally processed. This invention permits the production of foods having significantly reduced levels of acrylamide. The method relies on contacting a potato feed such as potato slices containing asparagine, an acrylamide pre-cursor, with a leaching solution to extract asparagine out of the potato feed. Thermally processing the leached potatoes will result in a potato product having a lower level of acrylamide than a non-leached, thermally processed potato product.

Method for reducing asparagine in food products

Methods for reducing acrylamide formation in thermally processed foods

Seasoning for use with snack chips can be recovered and recycled. A seasoning permeable conveyor transports snack chips through a seasoning application. The seasoning applicator deposits seasoning onto the snack chips. The conveyor allows the seasoning not adhered to the moving snack chips to substantially pass through and by toward a seasoning recoverer. The seasoning recoverer, which is positioned beneath the conveyor, collects the seasoning for purification and blending with fresh seasoning. After blending, the seasoning mixture is transported to the seasoning application for use.

Seasoning recovery and recycle

An improved dough sheeting system and method which allow for improved selection of sheeter gap size and which provide a quick release mechanism to prevent damage to sheeter rollers. Hydraulic actuators, attached to a movable roller, hold the roller in a fixed position relative to an opposing roller. The actuators are engaged with a closing force in excess of the force exerted by the sheeted material against the rollers thereby ensuring that the rollers maintain a gap of fixed width. Thermal expansion blocks mounted to the frame or housing of the opposing roller provide a means for fine adjustments in the sheeter gap.

Sheeter gap adjustment and hydraulic operation

Growing community of inventors

Irving, TX, United States of America

Ponnattu Kurian Joseph