Project targets ready meals
A project involving BOC, a number of food companies and the University of Lincoln is set to revolutionise ready meals.
Funded by Innovate UK, the two year project aims to develop a cooking and cooling system that will dramatically improve the quality and healthiness of ready meals, while also reducing current food waste levels and increasing the speed of production.
The Advanced Cooking and Cooling Technology project (ACCT) will seek to combine two food manufacturing processes, including a new cryogenic rapid cooler from BOC.
The ACCT team’s intention is to develop an integrated system that involves the rapid cooking of food using OAL’s patented steam infusion Vaction technology followed by rapid cooling (using liquid nitrogen).
The new system would greatly enhance food production within the fast growing markets for ready meals, soups and other sauced based food products. It will target areas where there are major opportunities for improvement in food manufacturing, such as nutritional values, productivity and waste.
Cedric Hanson, BOC’s business development manager at Application Technology, says, “BOC is delighted to be a partner in this project. Our cryogenic rapid cooler is the latest in a line of innovations that BOC is introducing into the UK and – together with our project partners – we look forward to integrating the cooler with OAL’s rapid steam infusion to produce a commercial, just in time production system.”
