GB1123517A - Method and apparatus for applying a particulate material to a food product - Google Patents

Abstract

1,123,517. Coating foods. S. P. LIPOMA, H. E. WATKINS, D. L. WARD, P. C. MURRAY,. H. R. ROBERTS and J. T. "HOURIGAN [trading as LIPOMA ELECTRONICS CO.]. 10 April, 1967, No. 16327/67. Heading A2A. [Also in Divisions B2 and B8] Particulate material is applied to a food product by establishing a recirculating stream of air, introducing the material into the stream to be carried in suspension thereby to the food product, and establishing an electrostatic field in a region of the stream to charge the particles. Thus salt, pepper, cheese, cinnamon, sugar, preservative or food colouring may be applied to potato chips, corn chips, :potato products, grain cereals and apple slices (as the case may be). Food products are delivered batchwise off a feed belt 10, Fig. 1, into a hopper 25, Figs. 1, 4 and 6, wherein they are treated with charged particles of flavouring circulated by air through the conduits 16 and 17 (as indicated by the arrows) and after treatment the hopper 25 is turned over to discharge the treated food products on to a further conveyer 21. For the electrification, particles of flavouring held in a bin 45 are sucked with air through a blower and thereafter charged by passage through a corona discharge of 30,000 volts potential. Direct or alternating current voltages may be applied, for example between a metal -tube and two electrodes fitted within a non-conducting plastics flow conduit (Fig. 8, not shown). The hopper assembly consists of two rotatable baskets placed back-to-back, each including a truncated conical portion 62, Fig. 6, a screen 64 and a hub 67 from which flat plates 69 extend radially. The impact of air and particles on the flat plates in circulating from the tangential inlet 88, Fig. 1, causes the assembly to rotate about the axis 72, whereby the food products on the upper screen 64 are uniformly treated. After the treatment the assembly .is turned over about an axis (76-78, Fig. 7, not shown) perpendicular to the axis 72. A slitted rubber gasket element 84, Fig. 4, for guiding the food products into the hopper is deflected to allow this rotation of the assembly. The .chamber 12 housing the hopper assembly is normally maintained against substantial air leakage by a door or flap 90 and an elastic gasket bonded to the periphery of a disc 74, Fig. 6, so as to contact the inner surface .of the wall 80 of the chamber. A pivoted, generally channel-shaped baffle 96 assures the retention of the food products on the feed belt until the products are allowed to fall into the upper basket. In a further embodiment (Figs. 9 to 12, not shown) charged condiment particles are blown into an earthed container (C) filled with the food products.