Abstract: An arrangement for allowing comestible products to be conveniently heated in a disposable pouch. A kitchen utensil is constructed with a top rim shaped to support the disposable pouch containing a packaged comestible. The disposable pouch has an outer periphery at least as large as that defined by the top rim of the utensil such that the pouch is supported by the top rim of the utensil while it is being heated therein. In a first embodiment, an electrical heating element is provided as an integral part of the base of the utensil, while in a second embodiment a cover for the utensil also has an electrical heating element constructed as an integral part thereof. In several embodiments, the pouch has one or more electrical contacts to complete circuits to the heating elements such that the latter cannot be activated until a pouch is properly placed on the utensil.

Abstract: Certain frozen foods, as deep fat fried foods and baked and leavened products, are, during a microwave exposure, buffered against microwave edge and spot heating by enclosing said food within a microwave-permeable, vapor-resistant, heat-resistant enclosure which can employ a vapor release means. Where, within said enclosure and around said food, a microwave-permeable, transparent-to-liquid-and-oil-under-pressure, plastic film is enclosed in a water-and-oil-absorptive, microwave-permeable material and where the defrosting, heating and subsequent cooling can be temperature monitored, where the results can be varied by using water and salt water and where baked and leavened products useful life can be extended by the timely application of water.

Abstract: A beverage that may be consumed as a substitute for bovine milk or that may be stabily mixed with bovine milk in any proportion up to 10 days prior to consumption, and a process for making the same.Soy beans are ground in the presence of an acidified water solution that has a pH that optimizes protein extraction from ruptured bean cells and that insures that the amino acids so extracted will be in cationic form and therefore electrically associated with negatively charged ions supplied by the acidified water solution so that the protein is maintained in suspension and so that the solution is otherwise stabilized. The low pH also inhibits the enzymatic development of "painty", "fishy", and "beany" off-flavors.

Abstract: The invention relates to a mould for packaging desserts, particularly for ice-cream cake with coating syrup containing fruit or pieces of fruit. The mould is in the form of a cup comprising an opening through which the dessert is introduced into and removed from the mould and is characterized in that it comprises a first compartment near the opening which defines a first space and which is intended to receive a product solid at the storage temperature and a second compartment which defines a space below the first space and which is intended to receive a syrup liquid at the storage temperature, the second compartment comprising a central part situated at the bottom of the cup and communicating with the first compartment through an opening and a peripheral part which consists of circumferentially spaced grooves or depressions arranged in a star around the central part and which forms a flow channel for the syrup and also acts as a stiffener for the mould.

Abstract: The fact that meatballs in a casing have been heated to a predetermined temperature sufficient to inactivate the virus of foot and mouth disease is permanently indicated by using a holder device to position a temperature recorder at the thermal "cold-spot" of the mass of meatballs. The temperature recorder is preferably of the type which permanently changes color when heated to the desired predetermined temperature, and the holder may be an apertured disc to which the temperature recorder is secured by an enveloping netting. An import inspector will then be able to ascertain that the meat has been previously heated to the desired temperature by observing the color of the temperature recorder.

Abstract: An expresso coffee maker for use in a microwave oven. The water is stored in a microwave transparent reservoir or container which is adjacent to the pot. The pot and reservoir are coupled in a fixed spacial relationship by a collar. The collar includes a strainer which presses against a layer of coffee grounds when the collar is rigidly secured to the reservoir. The compressed coffee grounds in combination with the strainer form a pressure resistant seal over the opening of the reservoir. The water in the reservoir is heated by microwave energy. The pressure rises to a level sufficient to force steam and water through the coffee grounds into the pot.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for treating cheese, preferably cheese offcuts, to form a reconstituted block of cheese. The offcuts are first cut into small chips and then repressed in an evacuated environment to form the reconstituted block of cheese which may then be cut to commercially saleable sizes and packaged.

Abstract: A packaging arrangement for a generally friable product sealed in a plastic pouch, the latter of which is positioned in a sealed cylindrical container so as to be restrained from axial movement therein. A separator may be located in the container to bias the pouch radially outwardly into engagement with the inner cylindrical surface of the container. Moreover, a corrugated liner may be interposed between the plastic pouch and the inner wall of the container to thereby provide added protection to the friable product from shock loads iparted to the container.

Abstract: An improved bacon package is disclosed. The stiffening packaging element, commonly known as a bacon board, has full width top and bottom panels which support the bacon from the bottom and cover it over the entire top. Cover flaps on the ends of the top panel are defined by lines of weak bending resistance, and function to cover the ends of the array of bacon when the packaging element and bacon are enclosed in plastic films in a vacuum packaging operation.

Abstract: New bacon packaging is disclosed. The stiffening packaging element, commonly known as a bacon board, has full width top and bottom panels which support the bacon from the bottom and cover it on the top. Special cover flaps on the ends of the top panel are defined by transverse lines of weak bending resistance. The cover flaps, which function to cover the ends of the array of bacon, have segmental arcuate lines of weak bending resistance extending from the free edge of the cover flaps to the corresponding transverse line, and back to the free edge.

Abstract: A reusable tubular casing is made of porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane for the production of caseless (skinless) parboil or raw sausages. The membrane has a microstructure comprising PTFE nodes connected by PTFE fibrils with a porosity of about 70-80%, a Gurley No. less than about 28 seconds, a Bubble Point Pressure greater than about 13, and a Water Entry Pressure greater than about 40 psig. The casing is contacted on at least a part of its circumferential area by a porous support such as a cylindrical lattice. A new process for production of parboil or raw sausage involves heating the sausage in casing formed by a reusable non-adherent, vapor permeable membrane to drive off moisture and other volatile materials, and removing the sausage from the casing. The sausage can subsequently be smoked and the casing reused.

Abstract: After baking bread dough goods in an oven at about 375.degree. F., their temperature is lowered to at least about 120.degree. F., and they are then cryogenically cooled to about 45.degree. F. or below in about 5 to about 15 minutes. The baked goods are then maintained at a temperature of about 37.degree. F. to about 45.degree. F. for at least about 25 minutes to effect substantial starch crystallization; after which time, slicing, bagging and freezing are carried out. Cryogenic cooling is preferably effected in a CO.sub.2 cooler, and the cooled baked goods are maintained at about 40.degree. F. for between about 25 and about 60 minutes prior to freezing by movement along an insulated conveyor which is cooled by circulation therethrough of cold CO.sub.2 vapor exhaust from the CO.sub.2 cooler.

Abstract: An improved food preparation process is disclosed. In order to practice the process, a container is provided which has a centrally-depressed receptacle with an outwardly and downwardly extending rim. A food filling is first deposited in the container receptacle. The container receptacle and rim are then covered with a sheet of unbaked dough so that the dough conforms to the container rim. The now-filled and covered container which comprises the food product is then frozen. The frozen product filled container is inverted in a conventional oven and heat is applied. A seal is formed between the dough sheet and the container at the juncture of the container walls and rim. The filling heats to a fluid state. When the container is removed, the filling flows outwardly to fill the upstanding crust formed by the baked dough.

Abstract: A novel ice cream product container with complementary closure member is disclosed. The container body member is usually of paperboard and formed from an integral blank comprising edge-reinforcing flaps articulated to wall members, which reinforcing flaps are then folded down upon and secured to their respective wall members to provide a reinforced portion of double thickness in the container formed from the blank. This folded-over, reinforced portion is also present in the flat-folded tube produced from the blank, the squared-up tube, the erected container, and finally in the closed and filled package. This folded-over, reinforced portion of double thickness contains defined areas of low resistance adapted to receive lugs formed in a wall of the complementary closure member. The closure member also provides a complementary channel between essentially upstanding and downstanding walls for receiving the reinforced portion of the container walls in frictional engagement therewith.

Abstract: A sausage-casing/sleeve combination has a flexible synthetic-resin sleeve having a laterally open aperture, a pair of longitudinal ends, and a tear line extending longitudinally from this aperture to one of the ends. A plurality of sausage-casing sections having overlapping ends and longitudinally compressed accordion-fashion are carried on the sleeve between the aperture and the one end. This combination is made by fitting the sleeve over a mandrel tube, clamping the end of the sleeve at the tip of the mandrel tube, and then pulling the sections over the thus rigidified sleeve while ejecting water from the end of the sleeve to soften the sausage-casing sections. The overlapping ends may be stapled, glued, or sewn together.

Abstract: Chopped pieces of meat are placed within a mixer having an outlet with a feed screw, and an elongated discharge tube is coupled to the outlet. The outer end of the discharge tube supports a plate having a predetermined shape corresponding to the shape of a meat product such as a steak or pork chop forming an individual serving portion. A plastic bag is pulled over the discharge tube and end plate, followed by a clamped tubular mold having a longitudinal joint and an inner surface corresponding to the shape of the end plate. The outer end of the mold is closed, and the mixed meat product is extruded through the tube into the bag within the mold while the mold is moved from the tube and end plate under restraining back pressure. The mold is unclamped, and the bag and meat product are slid from the mold onto a tray conforming to the shape of the lower portion of the mold. The meat product is frozen on the tray, after which the bag is removed, and the meat product is cut into individual serving portions.

Abstract: A disposable or reusable and reclosable thermoplastic bag capable of being compactly stored as a food container in freezers, yet capable of standing with an upright spout in a microwave oven for non-spill thawing and cooking of food contained in the bag. The bag is formed of two wing-shaped pouches on either side of the upright spout. The preferred closure is a zipper type which can automatically vent upon softening of its thermoplastic structure during the cooking stage. The bag preferably has inner and outer skin layers of different heat-softening temperature responses so that peripheral sealing is effected only with the inner layers, allowing the wing-shaped pouches to be formed out of a gussetted bottom without sealing of the outer layer plies facing one another.

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 gourmet press for producing hors d'oeuvres and similar snacks in the form of morsels of various foods stacked on a skewer. The press is a tubular device with a sharpened end which is pressed into various foods such as cheese, meat, bread, fruit and the like to cut out portions of such foods. Cut portions of food stack successively inside the tube and, when the required stack is complete, a skewer is inserted through the stack. The skewered stack is then ejected by a finger operated plunger mounted in the tube.

Abstract: An improved method for extracting frozen stick confections from several mold cups of a mold strip of a stick confection freezing apparatus is disclosed. At a pre-extraction station, the sticks of the frozen confections are individually grasped and individually pulled with separate spring forces while the mold cups are heated from below by hot water sprays. Each confection is lifted from the mold cup as soon as the surface layer thereof sufficiently thaws, and before each confection is completely removed from the cup, it is released and dropped back into the cup. At a second extraction station, all of the confections are simultaneously removed and thereafter conveyed to apparatus for wrapping the frozen confections.