| 摘要 |
<p>A method and apparatus for preparing essentially fat free chips such as potato chips without the use of deep fat frying processes. The method of the present invention includes the steps of exposing sliced raw potatoes (12) to a high intensity microwave field that rapidly converts moisture within the slice (12) into steam and drying the exposed slices to form chips. The apparatus of the present invention includes a meander waveguide (14) with a microwave absorptive terminator (62) at an end of the waveguide (14). Apertures (18) are provided along portions of the waveguide (14) for transporting the potato slices (12) through the waveguide (14). A belt link type conveyor belt (20) having an open lattice structure is employed to convey raw product slices (12) through the meander waveguide (14). Generally each conveyor belt link (70) has a product slice supporting surface configured to define a hump (76) so as to impart a potato chip-like shape to the raw product slices (12) during the high intensity microwave exposure step.</p> |
