KEBAB

DESCRI PTI ON

TECH N I CAL FI ELD

The invention is related to an electro-heating apparatus which enables to rapidly and safely produce doner (Turkish doner kebabl . without changing its quality.

PRI OR ART

Doner is a traditional meat product of Turkey. I n the food sector, doner, can be presented for sale as a semi-cooked/cooked processed food in businesses and it can also be sold in restaurants to consumers by cooking it before serving it to customers.

Generally, the surface of the doner is heated by means of heat transfer applied over the surface of the doner, the heat transfer is transferred into the inner portions of the doner via a transmission mechanism. I n this type of heating method, if excess energy is applied onto the surface a roasted layer is formed due to heat accumulation on the surface, however the sections inside the doner starting from below the surface remain uncooked. Therefore both cooked and uncooked meat pieces can be present at the sections of meat cut with a knife.

As it is known, meat is a food product that needs to be given special importance in terms of food safety. Meat can comprise microorganisms that are hazardous to human health. Before consuming the meat, it is necessary to heat the meat to an effective temperature (70-75 ° C, etc.) in order to inactivate some harmful microorganisms and to reduce the number of microorganisms before consumption of said meat. This cooking process must be provided homogenously for all meats. I t is mandatory for all sections of the meat product purchased as a portion before consumption to reach a critical temperature, in other means it is mandatory for the meat to be cooked.

For this reason, it is important for all sections of the meat such as doner that is served as a portion to reach the desired cooking temperature.

I n the food sector, the heat energy provided in procedures where surface heating applied needs to be adjusted precisely. I f low energy is applied, only the surface will be affected, and this will not allow the sections below the surface to be cooked. I f high energy is applied the surface will be burnt and therefore it will lead to the formation of toxic compounds that are hazardous for human health. Due to this reason, the heat energy must be such that it can cook both the surface and the section below the surface, so that when the cutting process is continued the meat is continuously cooked. I t is quite difficult to provide this condition practically.

I n the presently applied doner cooking systems, it is aimed to solve this problem by controlling temperatures during production at operating conditions and by using automatic cutting tools. However in such a case the process time is slow and it takes a long time for high volume doner rolls to be cooked. The heat is transferred towards the inner sections of the doner roll onto which heat is continuously applied on the surface of the doner, however this energy is not sufficient to provide cooking. For this reason, microbiological problems arise regarding the doner which is a meat product that is open to microbial growth. More microorganisms need to be inactivated during the cooking process of doners subjected to such a condition. This means that the present cooking criteria will not be adequate. This is a situation needs to be determined with control by experts.

Some businesses process doner by freezing it and they try to prevent the doner from being spoilt during the cooking process that takes a long time. I n such a case the cooking of the frozen product needs higher energy to be used.

The personnel that cook the doner in restaurants that carry out this cooking process before serving to the consumer need to be specialized in their field. However, it is a problem to find people who can apply the cooking process by meeting the above mentioned cooking criteria of the doner which is widely used for consumption and examining the risks to human health and the factors that affect quality. The high energy applied in order to cook the doner rapidly before serving to the consumer may lead to toxic compounds being formed at the surface section of the doner, for the inner section to remain uncooked and therefore the presentation of a food product that is not safe in terms of microbes. On the other hand this also causes the quality of doner to quickly change and leads to obtaining a low quality product. When low energy is applied a product that is not sufficiently cooked is obtained and this may lead to unsafety in terms of microbes. Providing rapid and homogenous heating on the surfaces of the product during the cooking of doner and other similar meat products is an important issue. The application efficiency of the user during traditional cooking, directly affects the quality of the cooked product. Various systems have been developed in order to solve this problem. Studies where the surface temperature of the product is automatically controlled and/or where heat source controllable systems are used are available among the developed systems. Systems such as electric resistances, quartz, ceramic etc. , lamps, microwave, infrared, ohmic heating, induction heating etc., are used as controllable heat sources. BRI EF DESCRI PTI ON OF THE I NVENTI ON

The present invention is related to an electro heating apparatus developed for cooking doner in order to eliminate the disadvantages mentioned above and to provide new advantages to the related technical field.

The invention relates to the usage of a new method in order to cook doner which is widely used in the food sector. The electro-heating method is used in order to rapidly cook doner in order to provide food safety prior to the commonly used surface roasting method applied onto the section of the doner that is to be consumed. The invention allows rapid and homogenous cooking by applying heat to the desired section of doner and enables to meet the cooking criteria required in terms of food safety. As a result the application of moderate heat during roasting should also be enough to complete the traditional cooking process. During the roasting process, as high thermal energy application is not needed, the risk of formation of toxic compounds that are hazardous to human health is also reduced.

The invention provides food safety in cooking doner which is a stacked meat product and which is unique as it enables to heat the desired section of the doner by passing electric current through it, in order to accelerate the cooking process. The invention is also unique in that it applies electric current via the electrodes that are formed of nested rings that are in contact with the surface of the doner, and that have been positioned on both the opposite surfaces of the doner and in that doner is used as the resistance which completes the circuit. The heating can be conducted in a rapid and homogenous manner by means of the apparatus that has been developed.

The aim of the invention is to provide electric current to the electrodes by enabling perfect contact of the electrodes to the doner, that are to be placed on both the opposite surfaces of the doner, and to use the doner placed between the electrodes as resistance.

Another aim of the invention allows a cooking process application which can meet sufficient cooking criteria of the desired sections of the doner. Another aim of the invention is to provide heating to the desired sections of the doner by using nested ring shaped electrodes. Another aim of the invention is to provide sectional cooking starting from the side surfaces of the doner towards the centre of the doner in a controlled manner.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the electrodes that enable to cook doner meat are made of electric conducting materials. According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrodes located at the top and the bottom is either fixed or mobile.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrodes have different sizes and different geometrical shapes.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrodes have a nested ring shape.

BRI EF DESCRI PTI ON OF THE FI GURES

Figure 1 shows an electro heating apparatus developed in order to cook doner.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 Electrodes

2 Doner (Gyro)

3 Connection Cables

4 I nsulating Support

DETAI LED DESCRI PTI ON OF TH E I NVENTI ON

The novelty of the invention has been described with examples that shall not limit the scope of the invention and which have been intended to only clarify the subject matter of the invention. The invention is related to an electro heating apparatus that has been developed in order to cook doner (2) .

The invention solves the problem of having uncooked meat sections by applying, starting from the surface before the cooking process; a rapid and homogenous cooking process having the desired thickness. As a result it will be sufficient for the cooking process to be applied to be moderate and burning of the surface sections will be prevented. Therefore, it is possible to cook a doner product that is safe in terms of microbes, that is high quality and has low toxic compound formation risk.

The invention allows a cooking process application which can meet sufficient cooking criteria of the desired sections of the doner (2) . As opposed to only surface heating provided in the prior art a system , the invention allows homogenous cooking of the surface and the sections close to the surface before the roasting process. As a result before applying a roasting process onto the surface, the surface sections that are to be served for consumption and the sections under the surface can be cooked rapidly and homogenously at desired thickness.

The electro-heating method is based on the principle of heating/cooking of the meat by submitting an electric current through the desired section of the doner and creating heat generation in this desired section. The electro-heating method is used to provide processes such as heating, cooking, pasteurizing, sterilizing, boiling food stuffs, creating enzyme inactivation, microbial inactivation, evaporation, extraction etc. When electro heating is compared with traditional heating methods, it is known that it maintains and improves the quality of food stuff better, or that it does not alter the quality of food stuff.

As opposed to the present heating systems, in this invention cooking is provided at the desired sections and levels rapidly by applying a different electrode configuration to ohmic heated meat products such as doner. The cooking process is carried out sectionally, from the side surfaces of the doner towards the centre of the doner in a controlled manner.

Homogenous heat generation and therefore homogenous heating is performed depending on the electric current passing through the doner (2) . The homogenous passage of electric current through the doner, depends on perfect contact of the electrodes with the food stuff. The aim of the invention is to provide electric current to the electrodes by enabling perfect contact of the electrodes (1 ) to the doner (2) that are to be placed on both the opposite surfaces of the doner, and to use the doner placed between the electrodes (1 ) as resistance. The difference of this invention in comparison to the present heating applications is that heating is provided to the desired sections of the doner by using nested ring shaped electrodes (1 ) . The electro-heating method provides an apparatus which allows cooking of the desired section of doner (2) .

Said invention is formed of a system which enables to cook doner depending on the principle of transferring electricity at a suitable voltage to the doner (2) meat that has been placed on an insulating support (4) via connection cables (3) that are connected to the electrodes (1 ) that are placed on the top and bottom surface of the doner such as to be in contact with the doner.

The electrodes (1 ) can be in any number and geometrical shape that are suitable to the shape and size of the doner (2) meat. Electrodes (1 ) enable to cook the doner (2) meat gradually by ohmic method, starting from the surface of the meat. Electric current is provided to the opposite electrodes (1 ) placed on the outermost bottom and top sections of the meat such as to be in contact with the surface of the doner (2) meat. When the electrodes (1 ) are not in contact with doner (2) meat, current is shut off from these electrodes (1 ) and it is provided to the inner electrodes. The electro cooking process has been designed to provide cooking from the outer section towards the inner section, gradually. Electrodes (1 ) provide gradual ohmic cooking by starting to cook from the outer section of the doner (2) meat towards the inner section. Electrodes (1 ) that enable to cook the doner (2) meat are made of electric conductive materials. The electrodes (1 ) located at the top and the bottom is either fixed or mobile.

An electro heating apparatus that has been developed in order to cook doner according to the information given above; characterized in that it comprises;

• electrodes (1 ) which enable to heat the desired section of the doner (2) meat, which provides a current to the electrodes located on the opposite outermost bottom and top sections of the doner meat (2) that are in contact with said doner meat, and where the current is cut off from the opposite top and bottom electrodes when they no longer contact the doner (2) meat and allows a current to pass through the inner opposite electrodes, and allows gradual cooking of the doner (2) meat with an ohmic method starting from the surface of said meat,

• connection cables (3) which provides suitable voltage to be given to the electrodes (1 ) ,

• insulating support (4) onto which the shaped doner (2) meat is stacked on.