Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to the cutting assembly from a conveyor system fed by a trough shaker or other singulator device. Food items on the conveyor are aligned longitudinally and are then impaled on small spikes protruding from the conveyor so that they maintain the longitudinal orientation during their travel to a feed roller portion of the system. The feed rollers firmly grip the food items by their peripheries and advance them into the rotary cutting assembly. This assembly includes a helically shaped cutting member defining at a leading edge thereof a slicing blade and supporting on its front surface a plurality of perpendicularly extending scoring blades. The helically shaped cutting member is mounted at its periphery by being threadedly received in a helical thread cut in an annular holder.

Abstract: A knife assembly for a potato slicing machine used in slicing potatoes into waffle or lattice cut sections includes an elongated, corrugated knife and inner and outer clamping members for clamping the knife therebetween. The inner and outer clamping members each have a plurality of parallel, tapered fingers which extend toward a cutting edge of the knife along grooves in one side of the knife, thereby to support both sides of the knife and lift potato surfaces away from such side and any potential interfering edges which might shear away portions of the cut potato surfaces. A unique potato product formed using such knife assembly is a potato section having a peak to peak thickness of about 4/16 to 10/16 inch. The section has opposite sides, each with longitudinal ridges and grooves therebetween. The ridges and grooves of one side are disposed at an angle to those of the other. The section also has a grid of openings formed therein.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an apparatus for slicing a food product such as a potato into helical strips such as curlicue potato fries. The potatoes are pumped with water by a centrifugal food pump to a tapered elastic tubular delivery tube. The tube expands as the potato progresses along the tube. The delivery tube allows the potato to be gently forced against a circular rotating cutting head assembly. The cutting head assembly cores the potato, scores concentric cuts and then slices the potato to produce helical cut segments.

Abstract: A process for preparing frozen coated potato products is disclosed. Raw potatoes are washed, cut, blanched, and partially dehydrated. The cut potatoes are then coated with an aqueous starch slurry. The aqueous starch slurry is comprised of a combination of modified ungelatinized potato starch, modified ungelatinized corn starch, rice flour and other optional ingredients. The coated potato strips are parfried in oil, then frozen. The frozen strips are prepared for consumption by either finish frying in hot oil, or heating in an oven. The starch coating enhances the holding quality of the ready to consume product. It also improves the acceptability of the finished product by increasing the crispiness of the outer surface, and helping to maintain the tenderness of the interior of the cut potato.

Abstract: A method for producing french fried potato strips which includes washing and cutting raw potatoes into suitably sized strips. The raw potato strips are steam blanched, immersed in a hot brine solution, partially dehydrated in hot air, par fried in oil, and then frozen. After par frying, the strips have a solids content of about 20 to 45 percent by weight. The frozen french fries are reconstituted by finish frying, and have a sodium chloride content of about 0.5 to 2 percent by weight.

Abstract: A process for preparing frozen coated potato products is disclosed. Raw potatoes are washed, cut blanched, and partially dehydrated. The cut potatoes are then coated with an aqueous starch slurry. The aqueous starch slurry is comprised of a combination of modified ungelatinized potato starch, modified ungelatinized corn starch, rice flour and other optional ingredients. The coated potato strips are parfried in oil, then frozen. The frozen strips are prepared for consumption by either finish frying in hot oil, or heating in an oven. The starch coating enhances the holding quality of the ready to consume product. It also improves the acceptability of the finished product by increasing the crispiness of the outer surface, and helping to maintain the tenderness of the interior of the cut potato.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an apparatus for slicing a food product such as a potato into helical strips such as curlicue potato fries. The potatoes are pumped with water by a centrifugal food pump to a tapered elastic tubular delivery tube. The tube expands as the potato progresses along the tube. The delivery tube allows the potato to be gently forced against a circular rotating cutting head assembly. The cutting head assembly cores the potato, scores concentric cuts and then slices the potato to produce helical cut segments.

Abstract: An apparatus for slicing food products, including potatoes and the like, includes a plurality of perpendicularly intersecting knife blades of chevron configuration which are arranged in a substantially pyramidal formation. The apex of the pyramidal formation and apexes of the individual blades point downstream, away from the direction of flow of a fluid stream which carries the potatoes toward the knife assembly for slicing. The blades are mounted by a unitary fixture having a cylindrical bore and mounting the blades such that the farthest upstream blades are spaced farthest away from the axial center of the blade assembly, with successive downstream blades being spaced incrementally closer to such axial center. The blades are further mounted such that no parallel blades axially overlap one another.

Abstract: A light-reflection defect detection apparatus and method for sensing the presence of food products or other articles and detecting defects therein is described using pulsed light-emitting semiconductor devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The LEDs emit at least three different wavelengths of light including two of visible light (i.e., red and green light) and one of infrared light. Viewers each including photosensor, such as a photoelectric detector, are employed to sense the light reflected from the article and to produce sensor output signals which are sampled and stored before being transmitted to a digital computer for signal processing. The groups of LEDs are pulsed ON and OFF by a capacitor discharge pulse generator circuit which causes a substantially constant current to flow through the LEDs so that they emit light of uniform intensity. The defect detection apparatus and method is especially useful in detecting defects in elongated food products such as French-fry potato strips.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to the cutting assembly from a conveyor system fed by a trough shaker or other singulator device. Food items on the conveyor are aligned longitudinally and are then impaled on small spikes protruding from the conveyor so that they maintain the longitudinal orientation during their travel to a feed roller portion of the system. The feed rollers firmly grip the food items by their peripheries and advance them into the rotary cutting assembly. This assembly includes a helically shaped cutting member defining at a leading edge thereof a slicing blade and supporting on its front surface a plurality of perpendicularly extending scoring blades. The helically shaped cutting member is mounted at its periphery by being threadedly received in a helical thread cut in an annular holder.

Abstract: An alignment apparatus is disclosed for aligning weighed batches or elongated objects, such as French-Fried potato strips. The batch of objects is weighed in a scale and discharged onto a moving conveyor belt which separates the objects and projects such objects from the conveyor into a vibrated alignment container including a first container means having a curved deflector wall and a second container means with a gated discharge outlet. The objects impact a vertically-curved rear deflector wall of the first alignment container means in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto and may fall into contact with a straight front deflector wall so that they are aligned substantially parallel to such rear wall when they fall into the supply inlet of a second container means. The second container means if a rectangular tube having a gate at its discharge outlet which is normally closed.

Abstract: A knife assembly for a potato slicing machine used in slicing potatoes, into waffle or lattice cut sections includes an elongated, corrugated knife and inner and outer clamping members for clamping the knife therebetween. The inner and outer clamping members each have a plurality of parallel, tapered fingers which extend toward a cutting edge of the knife along grooves in one side of the knife, thereby to support both sides of the knife and lift pototo surfaces away from such side and any potential interfering edges which might shear away portions of the cut potato surfaces. A unique potato product formed using such knife assembly is a substantially ellipsoidal section having a peak to peak thickness of about 7/16 inch. The section has opposite sides, each with longitudinal ridges and grooves therebetween. The ridges and grooves of one side are disposed at an angle to those of the other. The section also has a grid of openings formed therein.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to a cutter head assembly from a conveyor system. Food items on the conveyor system are aligned longitudinally and fed to the cutter head assembly. The cutter head assembly includes a cylindrical sleeve or tube having an open discharge end and an opposed cutting end to which a cutting member is attached. The sleeve is supportively carried by a cylindrical jacket having a pair of outer flanged members, a central drive-belt engaging member and fasteners coupling the outer members together to secure the central member therebetween. The sleeve is secured coaxially within the jacket by fasteners and the entire assembly rotated by a drive belt engaging the central member. The entire assembly is supported by idler rollers which ride in a circumferential track formed by the jacket and by thrust rollers which engage the discharge end of the cutter head assembly.

Abstract: An alignment apparatus is disclosed for aligning weighed batches of elongated objects, such as French-fried potato strips. The batch of objects is weighed in a scale and discharged onto a moving conveyor belt which separates the objects and projects such objects from the conveyor into a vibrated alignment container. The objects impact a vertically-curved rear deflector wall of the alignment container in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto and may fall into contact with a straight front deflector wall so that they are aligned substantially parallel to such rear wall when they are discharged from such container. The objects fall freely by gravity through a drop tube from such alignment container for further separation and alignment into a packaging machine which packages the weighed batch of aligned objects.

Abstract: A cutter apparatus is disclosed for cutting elongated food products such as french fry potato strips, to cut them in two or to remove defects. The cutter apparatus includes two independently operated knives which are actuated by pneumatic cylinders controlled by solenoid valves that apply air pulses to such cylinders for fast operation. The valves are operated in response to control signals produced by light sensor means which senses the defect and causes a central processing unit of a computer to produce the control signals. The knife blades are each connected to the piston rod of the cylinder by a flexible resilient connector for causing the blade to move in a non-linear manner downward in response to linear movement of the piston rod for cutting the defect from the food product while such product is moving along a conveyor belt beneath such cutter, without arresting movement of the food product.

Abstract: A method for making french fried potato strips includes peeling and cutting potatoes into raw potato strips. The potato strips are steamed, dried in ambient air, parfried, cool in cold air, parfried again and then frozen. In a modified form of the invention, the raw potato strips are blanched, cooled in cold air, blanched again, dried in ambient air, parfried, cooled in cold air, parfried again and then frozen. Time and temperature parameters of the steps can be varied to produce frozen potato strips having a relatively low solids content and improved quality or, alternatively, high quality frozen potato strips which can be finish fried in less than two minutes.

Abstract: With the method and apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of elongated articles such as french fry potatoes are separated into a plurality of groups of articles which are weighed. The weighed groups are selectively combined into a batch of articles of predetermined weight by selectively dumping scale buckets containing such groups into a common collector container to provide such weighed batch. The articles of such weighed batch are then discharged from such common collector container into one of a plurality of alignment systems mounted on a rotating common support. Each alignment system includes three vibrating conveyor stages which prealign the articles and feed such articles into an alignment container where they are aligned so that their longitudinal axes are substantially parallel in such container.

Abstract: A method for making skin-on potato boats includes slicing raw potatoes in half along their major diameter to form potato halves with exposed cut surfaces and removing center portions of the potato halves, leaving a potato layer adjacent the potato skin. The resulting hollowed-out potato halves are blanched, parfried, and frozen for later reconstitution. Upon parfrying, the potato layer has an integrated cellular structure. The reconstituted product has an oil content within the range of about 6-11%.

Abstract: A continuous method and apparatus for the efficient production of gaseous chlorine dioxide by the reaction between gaseous sulfur dioxide and an aqueous solution of a metallic chlorate. The chlorate solution and a highly concentrated sulfur dioxide gas are introduced into a packed columnar chamber at closely adjacent locations at the bottom of the chamber so as to flood the chamber and maximize both the contact area and contact time of the two reactants. Throughout the reaction the chamber is subjected to high vacuum imposed by an eductor which exhausts the chlorine dioxide gas and spent reactants. For use of the chlorine dioxide to produce potable water or treat foodstuffs, the chlorine dioxide and spent reactants are exhausted from the chamber separately by respective eductors substantially balanced with respect to each other to impose comparable vacuums upon the chamber.

Abstract: The food product sensor and trimmer apparatus and method may be used to detect and remove defects from french fried potato strips or other elongated food products as they are conveyed in separate channels on a conveyor belt. Such apparatus comprises a defect sensor for each channel including a plurality of light detectors which detect two different wavelength light bands, such as visible light and infrared light, reflected from the surface of the food product to determine the length of the product, the size of the defect and the position of the defect on the product. Visible light and near infrared light are reflected from the product and sensed by different detectors and the ratio of detected visible light to infrared light determined to detect defects and locate them relative to the opposite ends of the product.