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, density and rotational inertia of the object. 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, density and rotational inertia of the actual food particulate. 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 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.