Abstract: A beverage dispensing apparatus for obtaining a beverage from a normally-sealed beverage dispensing package carrying a locating projection for cooperation with an aqueous medium injector. The package is typically a sachet having, as the locating projection, a nozzle sealed in one edge seam. The sachet is loaded into the open door of the machine with the sachet at least partially-supported on the door by cooperation of its nozzle with a sachet support member. The door is closed and the sachet is transferred to a water-introduction station where a hollow injector and the nozzle are moved into engagement. Water is introduced into the sachet from reservoir, mixes with the contents of the sachet and leaves through an opening made in the base of the sachet to be collected in a container. The spent sachet is then discarded to a waste sachet disposal area.

Abstract: A beverage dispensing machine provided with the ability to alter machine characteristics and to diagnose machine faults without additional fault indicating displays through use of beverage select buttons normally used to select a variety of beverage selections offered by the machine.

Abstract: A circuit for generating high frequency output pulses comprising a magnetron, a pulse transformer having its secondary winding coupled to apply firing pulses across the input terminals of the magnetron, charge storage means connected in circuit with the primary winding of the pulse transformer, and switching means for discharging the charge storage means through said primary winding to generate a firing pulse from said secondary winding, said switching means comprising an FET switching device having output terminals connected in series with said primary winding, and a control terminal, and a control circuit adapted to deliver low voltage (e.g. less than 20 volts) pulses to said control terminal.

Abstract: A dispensing machine particularly for dispensing bottles or cans. The machine has a storage area formed by a plurality of parallel vertically spaced inclined shelves and at the lower end of each shelf is a pick-up station. A carrier mounted on a carriage moves vertically past the pick-up stations and can receive a bottle from any selected one by operating a release mechanism when it is adjacent the required pick-up station. The carriage takes the selected bottle to a dispensing station at the top of the machine where the carriage tips and rolls the bottle into a fixed position from which it can be removed by a customer.

Abstract: A frozen food product which is readily penetratable by thawing water and capable of rapid rehydration comprising a frozen food or mixture of foods having a moisture content which has been adjusted to below that which the food or mixture normally has when ready for consumption. The product contains both frozen and unfrozen water and an added water soluble salt or salts sufficient to maintain unfrozen water in the product. Any individual salt may be present in an amount of up to 4% by weight of the frozen product but the total salt content when more than one salt is present should not exceed 10% by weight of the frozen product. After salt addition the food product is subjected to freezing temperatures to obtain a food product containing both frozen and unfrozen water.

Abstract: An apparatus for dispensing containers, in particular disposable cups, from a stack. The apparatus has two jaw assemblies, each having a catch member and a lever member pivotable about horizontal axes between a first rest position in which the stack of containers is supported by the lever member and a second dispensing position in which the lowermost container is pulled from the stack by the lever member while it is supported by the catch member, and the inner edges of the catch member and lever member are formed as concave segments of a circle to provide good support and even loading on the containers during operation.

Abstract: What are disclosed are edible materials containing a thickened or gelled phase comprising a mixture or a reaction product of at least one carrageenan and at least one glucomannan, wherein the gelled phase may be either a thermo-irreversible gel or a thermo-reversible gel and the pH of the edible material is below 8.

Abstract: A process for reducing a fishy smell in a packaged food product containing a fishy ingredient wherein a non-toxic reducing agent in a fishy odor reducing amount is mixed with other ingredients including fish material, to produce a food product, the product is sealed in a container and subjected to heat sterilization within the sealed container.

Abstract: A rehydratable dry animal food is prepared by preparing a mix of comminuted, heat-treated meaty materials, fat and pregelatinized starch carbohydrate binder, forming the mix into pieces and drying the pieces to form permeable solid pieces which rehydrate to a paste-like material of heterogeneous texture. The mix preferably contains bone fragments, which can be softened by autoclaving and which lend a desirable flaky texture to the rehydrated product. The pregelatinized starch carbohydrate binder may be pregelatinized potato powder or cereal products in which the starch content is in pregelatinized form or other starch containing products in which the starch component has been pregelatinized. Typical mixes contain 70-80% meaty materials, 10% fat and 10-20% of said binder. The pieces may be extruded under low pressure or extrusion-expanded to give an open texture.

Abstract: A shelf stable food product, which can be used for domestic animals comprises solid protein pieces in an aqueous gel and contains 6 to 20% protein, 3 to 12% fat and 65 to 95% moisture and is stabilized by antimycotic and a pH of 4.5 or below achieved with acid-producing micro-organisms. The product is prepared by dissolving a gelling agent in the aqueous phase of the product components at a pH value above 4.5, and after adding the other ingredients a gel is formed, and the pH is reduced by fermentation to a value below 4.5. Gelling agents may be ionic polysaccharides, including alginates, pectates and carrageenan, or thermoreversible protein systems such as gelatine.

Abstract: A nestable container in which identical containers are held together in a stack by holding means. The holding means comprise axially extending ribs on the outside of the container which engage a cylindrical surface on the inside of the container to hold the container together in the stack by friction.

Abstract: Blood, red blood derivatives or blood-containing materials such as liver are decolorized for use in food or animal food products by oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide or calcium or sodium peroxide. Excess peroxide can be removed and a desirable color achieved by adding further blood, blood derivative or meaty material. Reaction with the peroxide can be facilitated by a pH reversal process in which the pH is raised or lowered by at least 2 units and then restored. Heat or a combination of heat and pH reversal can also be employed. Flavors and other additions added to the blood or other material before decolorization are locked in the resulting product. The decolorized material can be canned as a mince-like product or mixed with other foodstuffs.

Abstract: A machine includes a housing with a door or panel which is removable to provide an opening for access to the interior of the machine. The chassis which is normally horizontal carries two rear rollers at its sides near the rear of the chassis. The rear rollers engage horizontal guide rails on the sides of the housing. The chassis carries two front rollers at its sides near the front of the chassis. The front rollers engage a vertical guide. By these means the chassis is movable between its normal horizontal position and a vertical position in the opening at the front of the machine so that components on the underside of the chassis are accessible for servicing and repair.

Abstract: A protein food product is described, together with a process for making it. Whey protein derived from milk is adjusted to a pH of 6 to 9 and coagulated by heat, thereby giving a firm, non-brittle material which is useful as a protein food in its own right, or as a matrix for composite products, or in the manufacture of pieces resembling meat offals such as kidney, to improve the texture of meat-containing mixes, for example of sausage type, and for other food products, all of which are useful as protein foods for animals and also for human beings.

Abstract: The invention relates to the long term stabilization of proteinaceous food products both for human and for animal consumption, having a moisture content exceeding 50% and preserved against microbiological spoilage by a pH value of 4.5 or below. The long term stabilization of such products is enhanced by the presence of viable homofermentative acid producing organisms, notably lactic bacteria, together with available fermentable carbohydrate. In the preferred process the pH value of a proteinaceous product is reduced to a value in the range 5.0 to 4.0 and fermentation of the bacteria is then brought about, whereby the pH value of the product attains a final value not exceeding 4.5, if necessary with a lowering of pH value by the action of the bacteria. In preferred embodiments of the process a food grade acid is added to reduce the pH of the product to the range 4.5 to 4.0 and the final pH value of the product lies in the range 4.3 to 3.8.

Abstract: The invention relates to food products and provides novel foods for animals, especially pets. In particular the invention relates to coherent elastic semi-moist food products which are stabilized against bacterial growth by the inclusion of humectants at reduced water activity. The products include subdivided protein material bound together with a gel formed by a polysaccharide gelling agent containing monosaccharide units other than (including in addition to) glucose residues and preferably having free or esterified acidic substituent groups. A preferred example of such a gelling agent is a mixture of xanthan and carob gums. Quantities of gelling agent in the range 0.2 to 5% are preferred and the moisture content should be from about 30% to 70%, the humectant concentration of about 5% to about 40% by weight, the pH between about 3.5 and about 7.5, and the water activity (Aw) below 0.95 or below 8.5 depending on the acidity of the product.

Abstract: The invention relates to food products having a gelled or thickened aqueous phase, a pH value of 2.5 up to 5.0 and in the case of milk products up to the neutral range about 7.5. Applicants have found unexpected benefit in using crude pectinaceous material of which the degree of esterification is or has been reduced to less than 20%, and preferably less than 10%, as the thickening or gelling agent in such products. Gel strength measurements show that comparable gels are formed with much lower pectin concentrations when the crude material is used than when purified or extracted pectin is employed. Gel structures are better and there is an outstanding cost advantage. Products contain from 0.1 to 20% crude pectinaceous material such as comminuted citrus peel. They may contain comminuted animal or vegetable protein or fruit puree or other flavoring at a pH of 2.5 to 5.0.

Abstract: A nestable container of resilient plastics material comprises integral bottom and side walls, the side walls diverging generally from the bottom to the top. The container has means for holding the containers together in a stack, comprising projections which provide pairs of mutually opposed shoulders on the outside of the container and projections on the inside of the container. The space between the shoulders of each pair is slightly less than the width of each projection on the inside of the container so that when such identical containers are brought together the shoulders on one container are displaced circumferentially to allow the projections on the inside of the other container to pass between them and engage behind them holding the cups together.