The Quaker Oats Company

Stokely-van Camp, Inc.

Richard Schutzenhofer

Rei-Young Amos Wu

Michael J Mastio

Ashok Dhruv

Paul Konopacki

Osvaldo A Chu

Anthony L Armstrong

Timothy Thomas Olsem

Robert Kent Rusher

A method and system for producing a flavored beverage wherein the flavor is added in a separate step to a combination of the base ingredients after the base liquid has been pasteurized by, for example, thermal heating. The flavor can be added to a continuous stream of the base liquid after a thermally processed hot-fill beverage base liquid is made up. A return loop conduit of the hot-fill beverage base liquid portion of the system is capable of diverting the heated hot-fill beverage base liquid in a stable state, that is, at the desired temperatures ready for continued beverage production, while the flavor may be switched over in a downstream flavor dosing portion of the system. The system may be used to produce a desired batch of flavored beverage by producing a first flavor, cleaning only that portion of the system to remove the first flavor and then changing over the flavor additive component to a desired second flavor.

Hot-fill beverage production with flavor injection

A fluid processing system has a plurality of segments configured to receive flow of a fluid product. Each of the plurality of segments has a line input, a line output, a cleaning input valve, and a cleaning discharge valve. The cleaning input valve connects to the line input and the cleaning discharge valve connects to the line output. A cleaning medium is provided wherein the cleaning medium is injected into a respective cleaning input valve and drained through a respective cleaning discharge valve, such that each segment can be cleaned independently of each other.

Efficient liquid processing system

A method and system for cleaning containers being transposed through a container cleaning line, including an open-ended housing, a predetermined container flow path defined by the line of moving containers traversing the enclosure defined by the housing longitudinally, a first set of ionizing air nozzles mounted within the housing for directing ionized compressed air toward the containers in the container flow path, with at least one of the nozzles directing air flow into an open side of each container as it passes the nozzle and a second set of high velocity air nozzles mounted within the housing for directing high velocity compressed air toward the container flow path, the second set of high velocity nozzles being disposed along a direction essentially parallel to the container flow path with at least one of the nozzles flows directing high velocity air flow into the open side of each container as it passes the nozzle. Nozzle guards are provided to prevent contact between the containers and the nozzles.

Method of ionized air-rinsing of containers and apparatus therefor

Growing community of inventors

Naperville, IL, United States of America

Richard Schutzenhofer