For most of us if we buy frozen foods we see a box with food inside.
We have no idea how it is produced. I hope to give you an insight into the process.
The images below are of machinery producing breaded chicken portions. As you look at it it may not seem very clean as this factory was in the initial commissioning phase. All food went through the machinery around 10 times over a few days. So not suitable for eating.
Raw chicken is first fed into a forming machine which chops the chicken into shapes.
Here the formed chicken pieces are being conveyed out of the former towards the coating batter.
The batter is running like a waterfall, so as the pieces of chicken pass through the waterfall of batter they are evenly coated. Inside the machine, they are flipped over. A second waterfall (perhaps it should be called a batter fall) coats the other side.
From the batter, the pieces are conveyed into the breadcrumbs where they are flipped to ensure all sides are coated.
From the breadcrumb machine, the chicken pieces are conveyed into the fryer. This is a small fryer of around one tonne an hour capacity.
The chicken is carried by the conveyor through the hot oil until it comes out of the other end. As said earlier this is early commissioning trials. No hands would be present and the chicken product would be conveyed away to a blast freezer, then to packing and from there to cold storage. (The output machinery is not installed yet.)
From when the raw chicken enters the forming machine it is never again touched by hand. Everything is automatic. The next person to touch the food is the customer when they cook it.
Although this is a long machine each section is a separate machine. After use, the line of machines is separated and each one carefully cleaned ready for the next day's production.
I was not commissioning this plant. I was commisioning the liquid phase system that provides the energy for the fryer. The fryer temperature is usually between 180°c & 195°c depending on the oil being used.
I hope you enjoyed this brief insight into automatic food production.