GB605700A - Improvements in or relating to the drying of fruit and vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

605,700. Fruit and vegetable powders. NEWSOM, K. K. July 10, 1944, No. 13140. Convention date, Dec. 28, 1943. [Class 49] [Also in Group XIII] In making fruit and vegetable powders, the fruit or vegetables, which may be in the dried condition, are comminuted, washed in water of temperature 26-32‹C., dried in vacuo, while being agitated, at a temperature of 50-70‹C. to 2-6 per cent moisture content, and are then ground. The fruit or vegetable is comminuted in the grinder 1, washed and drained in the hollow screw device 4, and transferred, through the seed grinder 14 if desired, into the drier 10 provided with the jacket 16 through which heating medium passes to maintain a temperature of 57-65‹C. in the drier, in which drier a pressure of 26-29 in. of mercury below atmospheric is maintained and the material stirred by the curved blade stirrer 20; upon reduction of the moisture content to 25-40 per cent, the valve 22 is opened and the material is pumped to the drier 23, similar to the drier 10, and is there treated as in the drier 10 until a moisture content of 2-6 per cent is attained, whereupon the valve 33 is opened, and the material so discharged is ground to the desired degree of fineness in the grinder 34. During the course of the evaporation in vacuo there may be added to the comminuted fruit or vegetable a concentrated fruit juice, or the liquid drained from the comminuted fruit or vegetable on washing, after such liquid has been cooled and filtered; for example, an aqueous lemon concentrate stored in the tank 41 may be added through the conduit 31 to comminuted apricots being transferred from the drier 10 to the drier 23, or the liquid draining from the device 4 into the tank 7 may be cooled in the cooler 46 to -1-0.5‹C., filtered in the filter 47, and pumped directly into the conduit 31 or into the tank 41 for subsequent transference into the conduit 31. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 comprises procedures in which the washed comminuted fruit or vegetable is not necessarily dried in vacuo and is not necessarily ground after drying. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.