Process and article for determining the residence time of a food particle

摘要

The article of the present invention is an analog of a particular object which has substantially the same size, shape and rotational inertia of the object while having the density of the medium of which the object is within. The analog encompasses a signal generator which may be used to analyze various properties of the object. More specifically, the article of the present invention is an analog of a food particulate undergoing aseptic processing wherein the food particulate is a constituent of a heterogeneous food such as soup or yogurt with fruit. The analog has substantially the same size, shape and rotational inertia of the actual food particulate while the article has the density of a fluid. The analog encompasses a signal generator which may be used to measure the residence time of the analog in a holding tube of an aseptic processing machine. The article also has the thermal conductivity of the food particulate. The process of the present invention determines the residence time of a food particulate undergoing aseptic processing wherein the food particulate is a constituent of a heterogeneous food such as soup or yogurt with fruit. The process uses the article of the present invention to generate a signal which is indicative of the residence time of the analog. The signal generator may be a magnet, and more particularly a samarium cobalt permanent magnet.