Allpax specializes in providing thermal processing and in-container sterilization machinery with industry leading controls to fully automate the retort process for any container or no container. Delivering turnkey solutions for a variety of industries, Allpax ensures the highest product quality and safety. Allpax offers a wide range of retort technologies, container handling and retort loading and unloading options, reducing labor costs through automation and increasing throughput of the sterilization process.

Allpax’s line of Fresh Product Cookers are a specialized type of retort designed for the prepared foods manufacturer. Utilizing pressurized saturated steam for the cooking process reduces the cooking like a stove-top pressure cooker does. These retorts, however, are capable of processing thousands of pounds per batch. After the product is cooked, the retort then utilizes a powerful vacuum generator to cool the product through evaporative cooling. In addition to the saturated steam cooking, the rapid vacuum cooling provides high throughput. Vacuum cooling is also capable of bringing the product to near freezing temperature thus eliminating the traditional post cook refrigerated cooling process required for prepared foods such as potato and bean salads.

The Fresh Product Cookers are available with dual automatic orbital doors. This feature allows processors to isolate the cooked product from the unprocessed product further preventing cross contamination. Another benefit of the orbital doors is the reduced space required as compared to traditional swing-open doors. Because the Allpax orbital door is automatic, we are capable of providing fully-automated processing systems greatly reducing costly labor. These retort solutions feature automated monitoring and control, extensive recipe flexibility, advances in evaporative cooling, a streamlined design, and sanitary all stainless steel construction. As companies respond to the demands of customers for specialty food items, the Allpax retorts are available for quality, high speed production.

Consider foods such as fruits, chickpeas, vegetables, and potatoes. These foods are ideal for the evaporative cooling retort because they can be cooked and cooled in a single vessel. This process minimizes the need for handling. Ideal for sizes up to 3,200-pound batches of product, these retorts enable large quantities to be processed with ease. While evaporative and vacuum cooling has been used in the food industry for some time, new innovations from Allpax have made the vacuum process efficient while simultaneously enhancing the quality of the products and reducing costs.

Description of the process is as follows. The product is loaded into trays and placed in the retort manually on racks or automatically via conveyor through the load-side door. The door closes and the processing begins with a pre-vacuum step. This step removes air from the retort so the steam can more rapidly and evenly fill the vessel. Saturated steam then cooks the product to a desired temperature and or texture. The retort then enters the vacuum cooling stage of the process. One (or two depending on retort size and process requirements) large butterfly valve(s) opens and the retort and product are now connected to the vacuum generator. As the pressure drops, heat is removed from the product via evaporative cooling. Bursts of water spray replenish the moisture that would otherwise be removed from the product. The vacuum is generated either by steam ejectors or liquid ring vacuum pumps. After the product is cooled, a final vent opens allowing the vacuum atmosphere in the retort normalize to atmospheric pressure. The unload door then opens and the product is sent downline to further processing or preparation and packaging.

As is the case with all Allpax retorts, the above process is fully automated and controlled with our USDA/FDA approved PLC retort systems control and process logging and reporting software suite.