Abstract: Potato chips having a flavor, texture and appearance similar to batch cooked chips and decreased oil content are prepared on a continuous basis by depositing freshly sliced potato slices enveloped in natural starches released during the slicing process in a precooking sluice where they are conveyed in a continuous stream of heated precooking oil which caramelizes the natural starch envelope prior to the precooked slices being deposited in a second continuous stream of cooking oil heated to a higher temperature where the final cooking of the potato chips takes place.

Abstract: A potato chip production line has an improved precooking process and apparatus which includes an elongated sluice having a moving stream of heated precooking liquid of a temperature within a desired range of 200 to 300 degrees F. at an upstream end of the sluice, a conveyor for introducing thin starch-coated potato slices into the stream at the sluice upstream end, paddle wheels rotatably mounted in the sluice at sites spaced along and within the stream for partially damming the stream and the potato slices carried therein at the sites in order to control the stream level and the degree of precooking of the slices, and nozzles connected to the sluice in communication with the stream and disposed adjacent to the respective sites and generally below the paddle wheels.

Abstract: A potato chip production line has an improved precooking apparatus which includes an elongated sluice having a moving stream of heated precooking liquid of a temperature within a desired range of 200 to 300 degrees F. at an upstream end of the sluice, a conveyor for introducing thin starch-coated potato slices into the stream at the sluice upstream end, paddle wheels rotatably mounted in the sluice at sites spaced along and within the stream for partially damming the stream and the potato slices carried therein at the sites in order to control the stream level and the degree of precooking of the slices, and nozzles connected to the sluice in communication with the stream and disposed adjacent to the respective sites and generally below the paddle wheels.

Abstract: A system for monitoring the operations of a person, such as a bartender, who has under his control a number of containers, such as bottles of liquor, from which he dispenses individual portions, and for keeping a running inventory of all the containers that are available to the operator at the beginning of a work period. The system includes a work station that has a compartment for retaining an array of containers from which the operator is dispensing portions, a container identifying and disposal unit for receiving empty containers presented to it by the operator, and a storage unit arranged to hold a plurality of containers and dispense one of the containers after the operator presents a similar container to the identifying and disposal unit.