Retort technology improves the taste
of food packaged in microwaveable containers.
In a seven minute audio interview, Greg Jacob, vice
president and general manager ofAllpax(www.Allpax.com), powered byPro
Mach(www.ProMachInc.com), describes
how microwaveable bowls and pouches lend themselves to faster and more even
heat transfer when agitated in a retort with a gentle horizontal reciprocating
motion.
“This new gentle motion technology for microwaveable
food containers is a revolution for consumers, brand owners, and contract
packagers,” says Jacob. “Motion can be added to existing static retorts without
a penalty in batch capacity.”
Jacob says that not only does cycle time decrease by 30 to
50% for each retort batch, depending on product and speed of agitation, but
also the taste of the food improves. For example, burn on or scorching of dairy
products is eliminated and hydration of high starch foods such as beans is
accelerated uniformly.
In the gentle motion process, every horizontally
oriented container experiences the same agitation profile. This produces
greater uniformity in heat transfer within the package and therefore greater consistency
in taste among packages. Jacob explains how static retorts can be retrofitted
for reciprocating motion without any loss of batch capacity and with the same
operator interface and workflow.
