Abstract: A valve apparatus comprises two housings which can be alternatively connected to one another and separated from one another and possesses an orifice. Each housing holds a flap which is pivotable about an axis of rotation and has a disc and a pivot. The flap can be swivelled into a closed position in which it closes the orifice of the relevant housing at the flat mouth surface of the orifice. Each axis of rotation passes through the mouth area of the relevant housing at an acute angle. Each pivot is pivotably mounted in a hole of the relevant housing, which hole completely surrounds said pivot in cross-section, and is sealed from the housing. This gives a stable support and good sealing of the pivots and, in combination with the discs adjacent to one another when the housings are connected together, makes it possible to avoid contamination of the environment by the transferred material and contamination of the latter by materials present in the vicinity of the housing.

Abstract: A novel process for producing powdered carotenoid preparations, in which a suspension of a carotenoid in a high-boiling oil is brought into contact with superheated steam during a maximum period of 30 seconds, and subsequently emulsified the liquified solution of said carotenoid in oil produced by said contact with superheated steam in an aqueous solution of a colloid and then spraying and drying said emulsion to a powder.