At Besser Vacuum, for over 25 years we have been dedicated to the design and development of professional technologies for food excellence and sustainability: complete solutions that enable industry professionals to fully enhance the potential of their products and raw materials.
Our mission, in fact, is to make the food industry and foodservice sectors more sustainable through better food preservation, the enhancement of their organoleptic qualities, and waste reduction.
This commitment to innovation has led us to our latest achievement – Sonicook, a machine that leverages ultrasound technology to innovate food processing.
Why ultrasound technology?
It is not just another method, but the most studied and fastest-growing technique in the food industry for food processing. In recent decades, scientific studies on its food applications have grown significantly, and new benefits are being discovered every month – such as extending food shelf life, extracting essences and essential oils, accelerating meat aging, ripening fruit, aging wine, and much more, all in a fraction of the time normally required.
Sonicook is our solution to bring this high-level technology directly into professional kitchens; it is a versatile machine designed for chefs and bartenders to meet their specific needs. With Sonicook, they can not only experiment more, but also stimulate their creativity by leveraging a technology that was previously confined to laboratories and large food industries. This opens new pathways for culinary innovation, transforming the way food is prepared and used.
A breakthrough for chefs and bartenders
Sonicook enables professional kitchens to achieve results that until now were only possible in industrial environments with specially designed machines. The benefits are numerous and open up a wide range of effects and combinations; the machine can sonicate food both hot and cold, at reduced or full power, and can also function simply as a temperature-controlled tank for sous-vide cooking. In all operating modes, it allows monitoring of time, temperature, and ultrasound power parameters for perfect repeatability.
With Sonicook you can achieve:
- Tenderizing and flavor enhancement of meat and fish, with results similar to aging but without waste and weight loss
- Extraction of essential oils in a liquid (alcohol, oil, water)
- Initiation of fermentation and maturation processes, with enzyme activation
- Tenderizing of hard and fibrous foods such as vegetables
- Sanitization of food, increasing its shelf life
Why ultrasound?
Ultrasound is a form of energy generated by mechanical vibrations with frequencies above the human hearing range, typically above 20 kHz. One of the earliest uses of ultrasound in food processing dates back to the 1950s for extracting juice from citrus fruits. Since then, ultrasound has been used for a wide range of applications in food processing, including the extraction of bioactive compounds, modification of food structure, and improvement of processing efficiency. This technology can be used for various purposes in food processing, including enzyme activation or deactivation, mixing and homogenization, emulsification, dispersion, preservation and stabilization, dissolution and crystallization, hydrogenation, meat tenderization, maturation, oxidation, and as an aid in solid-liquid extraction for maceration.
How does Sonicook work?
Sonicook is equipped with six powerful ultrasound transducers that propagate ultrasonic energy within the treatment tank, along with heating elements that can directly heat the tank. Both the sonication and heating processes are easily managed and regulated via the machine’s front control panel, ensuring precision and repeatability in every operation.
The sonication process can take place either at high temperatures, thanks to the integrated heating elements, or in a cold environment by manually maintaining cold water. In both cases, temperature can be easily monitored and controlled via the integrated thermometer and customizable alerts, ensuring optimal process control.
How does sonication occur?
When high-power ultrasonic waves, propagated inside the tank by the transducers, interact with food, they induce a series of mechanical and chemical effects that influence the quality, safety, and characteristics of food. These effects are mainly cavitation and microstreaming:
- Cavitation: This is the most significant mechanical effect of ultrasound. Cavitation refers to the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of bubbles in a liquid. These bubbles are created due to the low-pressure phase following each ultrasonic wave propagation and collapse during the high-pressure phase. When these bubbles collapse, they generate shock waves and high-speed liquid jets, causing significant physical effects. This can alter cellular structures, increase mass transfer rates, and facilitate the extraction of intracellular components.
- Microstreaming: Around the bubbles produced by cavitation, small but rapid liquid flows occur, known as microstreaming. This action can induce shear forces that break cell membranes and enhance the mixing of liquids and small particles.
The combination of these mechanical effects, under different time and temperature conditions, allows for the wide range of effects described above. At the core of most of these processes is the disruption of cell membranes to increase extraction yield in fruit juices, emulsification in dairy products and mayonnaise-like systems, inactivation of microorganisms and enzymes for preservation purposes in some cases, and their activation to accelerate fermentation processes in others.
Want to learn more?
Sonicook is now available! After two years of testing and collaborations with chefs and industry experts, we can now offer it to professionals worldwide. Contact us for more information or follow our social channels to stay updated with the latest news from Besser Vacuum!