Linde Group’s UK and Ireland subsidiary BOC is partnering in The Advanced Cooking and Cooling Technology project (ACCT), which is a two year project that aims to develop a cooking and cooling system aimed at improving the quality and health quotient of ready meals.
ACCT will be funded by government organization Innovate UK. The project will entail the amalgamation of two manufacturing processes steam infusion technology for quick cooking and use of liquid nitrogen for quick cooling.
BOC will contribute its cryogenic rapid cooler to the new integrated system to facilitate the just-in-time production and improvement in the food production of soups, ready meals, and sauce-based food products.
Through the two-year span of the project, a scientific understanding of the use of liquid nitrogen on sauces and soups and over the vegetables, fruits and meats that these foods will contain, will be studied in order to enhance the nutritional values.
The project also may result in the extension of the product's shelf life and reduction of wastage is also targeted since the project integrates a flexible process to minimize production, cleaning and product replacement to meet the dynamic supply requirements.
BOC Application Technology business development manager Cedric Hanson said:"There are major opportunities for improvement in food manufacturing - improving nutritional values and productivity and reducing waste - so BOC is delighted to be a key partner in this project. We believe it will result in the development of a new generation of food products and processes that are not possible using current process technologies."
ACCT partners also include the University of Lincoln's National Centre for Food Manufacturing, food engineering company Olympus Automation Ltd Group and UK-based frozen ready meal manufacturer Iceland Manufacturing Ltd.
