| 摘要 |
Bulk spices and leafy herbs are sterilized for human consumption by feeding the product continuously through an airlock system from a screw feed hopper into a jacketed vessel having a screw conveyor; the temperature and pressure inside the vessel are elevated and maintained at predetermined values by injecting culinary steam, saturated or superheated; the delicate leafy type product is rapidly conveyed through the vessel and is then discharged through a second airlock system into a jacketed cooling vessel in which the product is cooled to approximately the same or slightly above ambient temperature; the cooled product is then conveyed to a dryer; hard shell type products, such as seeds, roots or bark, the heat-treated product is fed directly into the dryer without cooling. |
