The performance evaluation of a continuous vegetable cooker

A continuous vegetable cooker was evaluated and shown to produce improved quality-cooked vegetables under more hygienic conditions as compared to batch type conventional cooking. The operating parameters for 85 +/- 3% degree of cooking as optimal were determined for green peas, carrot, kohlrabi, and radish. The final product was evaluated in comparison to conventional cooking in terms of the degree of cooking and product quality (retention of chlorophyll, vitamin C and carotenoids; microbial analysis). The thermal efficiency of the cooker and specific energy consumption were compared with published data for steam blanchers.