Advanced Food Preservation and Processing Method Using Energy Efficient Heat Recovery

这个项目建立在Rosehip Farm Limited开发的创新的水果/蔬菜汁提取技术的基础上，以创建百老汇出版社的冰莎草和苹果汁系列。在英国，每年有9.6万吨苹果在农场和加工阶段被浪费，这一过程是出于减少食物浪费及其对环境的有害影响的愿望。目前的过程使用冷冻技术来保存商业果园中被丢弃的苹果的新鲜度，这创造了独特的风味特征，同时随着冰的形成和细胞结构的分解，水果被粉碎。然后，我们让水果在压榨前解冻，这就不需要传统的碾磨机/粉碎机，防止水果进一步损坏和氧化，并防止其对味道的不利影响。随后，苹果被压榨成苹果汁，然后装瓶或转化为苹果酒，以形成一个增值产品组合。作为第一家以这种方式将果汁生产商业化的公司，我们发现这种工艺在中小型规模上是可行的和可管理的，但为了扩大到工业水平并对食物浪费产生重大影响，需要创新。因此，我们为我们的工艺放大版本的愿景开发了一份专利草案，使我们能够提高加工阶段的能源效率，并减少目前的瓶颈。我们正在申请这项拨款，以便我们可以在现场安装一个中试示范单位，以确认我们的专利主张，并根据实验结果提出进一步的主张。一旦完成，我们将提交一份强有力的专利申请，并寻求资金，以扩大到工业规模。然后，我们打算将这一专利工艺授权给英国和全球的其他农场和食品加工设施，以最大限度地减少食物浪费及其对环境的不利影响。

This project builds upon an innovative, fruit/vegetable juice extraction technique developed by Rosehip Farms Limited to create the Broadway Press range of Ice Cyder and Apple Juice. With 96,000 tonnes of apples wasted every year in the UK at the farm/processing stages, the process was created from a desire to reduce food waste and its detrimental environmental impacts.The current process uses freezing technology to preserve the freshness of rejected apples at a commercial orchard, which creates a unique flavour profile and simultaneously crushes the fruit as ice forms and breaks down its cellular structure. We then allow the fruit to thaw prior to pressing, which eliminates the need for the traditional mill/crusher and prevents further damage and oxidation of the fruit and its adverse impact on flavour.The apples are subsequently pressed into apple juice, which is either bottled or converted to cider, to make a value-added product portfolio. As the first company to commercialise fruit juice manufacture in this way, we have found the process to be viable and manageable on a small to medium scale, but in order to scale up to industrial levels and make a significant impact of food waste, innovation is required.As a result, we have developed a draft patent for our vision of a scaled-up version of our process, which allows us to increase the energy efficiency of the processing stage and reduce current bottlenecks. We are applying for this grant so that we can install a pilot-scale, demonstration unit on site to confirm the claims of our patent and develop further claims as a result of the experiment.Once completed, we will submit a robust patent application and seek funding to scale-up to an industrial scale. We then intend to licence the patented process to other farms and food processing facilities across the UK and globally to maximise the reduction in food waste and its adverse environmental impacts.