Apparatus for form-frying snack food product

US6578471B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Recot Inc. · US

Inventors

• Lawrence Graham · Corinth, US
• Ponnattu Kurian Joseph · Irving, US
• Todd Charles McNeel · Flower Mound, US
• Kenneth R. Brocker · Plano, US
• Stephen N. Forti · Stoneham, US
• Edward Goldman · Foxborough, US
• Malcolm E. Taylor · Pepperell, US
• Edward L. Dickinson · Littleton, US
• Patsy Coppola · Bedford, US
• Richard Terrazzano · Salem, US
• Andrew C. Harvey · Waltham, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 3, 2001
• Grant date: Jun 17, 2003
• Expiry date: Jan 27, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S425/812
• WIPO field: Food chemistry
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Apparatus and method for cooking snack food pieces features a drum-type fryer which transports individual, die-cut piece preforms through hot oil contained within a cooking tank defined between the periphery of the drum and a housing in which the drum is contained. Vacuum transfer and feed rollers transfer the individual piece preforms from a die-cutting roller assembly onto the drum for cooking, and a similar roller transfers the cooked snack food pieces from the drum to a take-away conveyor for subsequent, downstream processing. The pieces are retained by suction against molding surfaces of frying mold elements distributed over the periphery of the frying drum.