Drying of foodstuffs

摘要

An apparatus for drying foodstuffs involves a pallet supporting a stack of containers containing the foodstuffs. The pallet has a perimeter on which the stack of containers is sealingly supportable. The top of the pallet has at least one aperture to permit air flow therethrough, and the top, bottom and sides of the pallet define a ventilation duct for receiving air through the top of the pallet. A low pressure plenum in fluid communication and sealingly engaged with the ventilation duct draws air down vertically through the foodstuffs through the top of the pallet and out of the ventilation duct into the plenum. A drying installation involves the apparatus in a climate controlled room. A method of processing foodstuffs involves controlling temperature, relative humidity or both temperature and relative humidity of air in the room and drawing the air in the room vertically down past the foodstuffs until the foodstuffs are processed. The apparatus, installation and method are particularly useful for drying grapes by an Appassimento drying method.

主权项

1. An apparatus for drying foodstuffs, comprising:
(a) a single moveable pallet having sides, a bottom and a top, the top of the pallet configured to support only one stack of containers from a bottom of the stack, the pallet comprising elongated support members forming a perimeter on which the stack is sealingly supportable, the top of the pallet comprising at least one aperture to permit air flow therethrough, the top, bottom and sides of the pallet defining a ventilation duct for receiving air through the top of the pallet, the at least one aperture in the top of the pallet situated directly below the stack of containers; (b) a low pressure plenum in fluid communication and sealingly engaged with the ventilation duct, the low pressure plenum configured to draw air down vertically through the top of the pallet and out of the ventilation duct into the plenum; and, (c) a plurality of foodstuff holding containers arranged in a vertical stack, the stack sealingly supported on the perimeter of the pallet, wherein the containers comprise apertures in a bottom thereof configured to permit air flow at least from above the container through the bottom of the container, the stack of containers having sides, a bottom and a top, the sides of the stack sealed against air flow, the top and bottom of the stack open to air flow, wherein the low pressure plenum draws air vertically down through the top of the stack through the plurality of containers through the bottom of the stack into the ventilation duct and out of the ventilation duct into the plenum, wherein the vertical stack comprises a plurality of stacked rows of containers, each row of containers comprising a plurality of containers arranged so that a side of each container abuts a side of another container in the row, each row configured to have a substantially the same arrangement and perimeter as a neighboring row in the stack, whereby a bottommost row is sealingly supported on the perimeter of the pallet.