ASEPTIC SOFT SERVE AND SLUSH MACHINES

The overall goal of the research is to determine the feasibility of Inventherm's soft serve ice cream and slush machine (SSM) that eliminates the need for disassembly, cleaning and sanitizing. The research has three objectives.1. Design and testing of the novel freeze chamber for the SSM. The testing should demonstrate that the freeze chamber can produce soft serve with the desired mouthfeel (i.e. ice crystal size, overrun, and temperature. Furthermore the freeze times and durability should be acceptable for commercial viability.2. Fabricate a prototype SSM that demonstrates feasibility of a complete SSM system. The freeze chamber for the SSM will be incorporated into a complete system that includes drawing liquid product from a reservoir and continuously freezing and dispensing the product. For commercial viability, the SSM needs to be similar in size or smaller than existing equipment with a similar throughput.3. Preliminary manufacturing cost assessment. This objective addresses the technical risk that the manufacturing cost of Inventherm's SSM would bne unacceptable. For commerical success, increases in equipment cost should be offset by reduced cleaning costs, greater uptime and a greatly reduced risk of foodborne contamination.