Manufacture of low oil potato chip

• Main Authors: GREG PAUL HILLIARD, BARBARA LOUISE WARBURG, OLIVER HERBERT, RICHARD ANDREW BAILEY, PAUL DAVID WORTH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 13.06.2012
• Subjects: CONVEYING; FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS; FOODS, FOODSTUFFS, OR NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, NOT COVERED BYSUBCLASSES A23B - A23J; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HUMAN NECESSITIES; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; PRESERVATION OF FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS, IN GENERAL; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; THEIR PREPARATION OR TREATMENT, e.g. COOKING, MODIFICATION OFNUTRITIVE QUALITIES, PHYSICAL TREATMENT; THEIR TREATMENT, NOT COVERED BY OTHER CLASSES; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

An apparatus for manufacturing curved, low-oil potato chips comprises a microwave oven (4) having a longitudinal cavity (6) forming a microwave chamber and a belt conveyor (24) extending through the microwave chamber. The conveyor comprises a plurality of links, the conveyor surface having a plurality of intersections 84 of adjacent links. At least some of the intersections include a stop surface 90 to prevent a potato slice from sliding in a first longitudinal direction. The stop surface comprises a surface of a first link, the surface being at least partly oriented towards a second longitudinal direction opposite to the first longitudinal direction. In a further embodiment, the conveyor has a continuously undulating surface with a maximum height of the undulations of from 5 to 15 mm and a pitch between adjacent undulations of from 35 to 75 mm.