Advanced Food Preservation and Processing Method Using Energy Efficient Heat Recovery

这个项目建立在创新的，水果/蔬菜汁提取技术开发的玫瑰果农场有限公司创造百老汇新闻系列的冰苹果汁和苹果汁。英国每年有96，000吨苹果在农场/加工阶段被浪费，该工艺是出于减少食物浪费及其对环境的有害影响的愿望而创建的。目前的工艺使用冷冻技术来保存商业果园中被拒绝的苹果的新鲜度，这会产生独特的风味，同时在冰形成时压碎水果并破坏其细胞结构。然后，我们在压榨前将水果解冻，这样就不需要传统的碾磨机/破碎机，也可以防止水果的进一步损坏和氧化，以及对风味的不利影响。随后，苹果被压成苹果汁，然后装瓶或转化为苹果酒，从而形成增值产品组合。作为第一家以这种方式将果汁生产商业化的公司，我们发现该工艺在中小规模上是可行的，也是可管理的，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制定了一项专利草案，这使我们能够提高处理阶段的能量效率并减少当前的瓶颈。我们正在申请这项资助，以便我们可以在现场安装一个中试规模的示范装置，以确认我们的专利权利要求，并根据实验结果开发进一步的权利要求。一旦完成，我们将提交一份强大的专利申请，并寻求资金扩大到工业规模。然后，我们打算将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.