General Mills, Inc.

Oregon Potato Company

Robert Erickson

Lily Leung Fee

Anita J Hall

James N Weinstein

Ralph A Stenvik

Patrick E Allen

Dean W Creighton

Terry G Reishus

Rodney McCalley

Jason Herzog

Karen M Garrity

Donald F Steenson

Darin T Huffman

Mark Stueber

Steve J Schoo

Craig Bolt

Frank Tiegs

Steve Harris

Cereal piece

A continuous method for improving the firmness of vegetable products uses a continuous vegetable product treatment device comprising a vegetable product treatment chamber having a vegetable product inlet, a vegetable product outlet, a vegetable product transport mechanism for urging the vegetable product toward the vegetable product outlet, and at least one liquid introduction orifice for introducing a liquid. Vegetable product is continuously treated in the chamber at a temperature of from about 125&#xb0; F. to about 160&#xb0; F., and the liquid in the treatment chamber is maintained at a pH of from about 5 to about 7. Individual vegetable products reside in the treatment chamber for a time of from about 20 minutes to about 60 minutes. The heat-treated vegetable products are blanched in a subsequent blanching step at a temperature ranging from about 190&#xb0; F. to 210&#xb0; F. for a time of from about two to about 10 minutes.

Continuous process to produce firmer processed vegetables

A system and a method include breaking a sheet of frozen pizza into individual pieces for packaging. In an embodiment, the frozen pizza sheet includes five individual pieces separated by frangible lines. The breaking process includes a first step, wherein two end pieces are broken off by a first breaking mechanism, and a second step, wherein two additional end pieces are broken off a remainder of the frozen pizza sheet by a second breaking mechanism arranged downstream of the first breaking mechanism. In preferred embodiments, each breaking mechanism includes multiple holding wheels and multiple camming wheel rotatably mounted on a common driven axle.

System and method for breaking sheets of frozen pizza into individual pieces

Growing community of inventors

Crystal, MN, United States of America

Robert Erickson