The flesh, which must be scrupulously examined for small bones and gristle before leaving the fleshing tables, is then transferred to a steam jacketed mixer and the bouillon from the batch of chickens just cooked is added back in its condensed form. The mixer is fitted with a ribbon-type blade, which rotates very slowly, thoroughly mixing all the flesh. The heat in the mixer jacket and the retention time are judged to reduce the bulk 15 percent by evaporation. If permitted by the specification, salt may be added at this point he process. Mincing The meat is taken from the mixer-dryer and minced through a 2.4mm, 4.8mm or 9.5mm plate, according to the size of granule required With a small scale operation, drying is usually carried out in a stove dryer by the simple hot air convection method, although medium sized conveyor band dryers can be used equally well Where a stove dryer is used, the meat is spread 25mm deep previously sterilised trays, and the latter are racked on trolleys of a suit size to fit the stove dryer As a preliminary to drying on trays, however, where considerable handling of the meat has taken place, it is necessary to sterilise it, and one method of effecting this is to move each trolley, with the trays racked in position, into an autoclave of rectangular shape-similar to those used in the canning industry. Here, the product is sterilised with live steam at latm for about 20min. This is a necessary precaution to reduce the bacteriological count arising from handling, exposure to room temperature and general conditions which encourage bacterial growth delay when using a conveyor band dryer, where no tray loading or predrying granules are transferred directly on to the band dryer plates at a 7.5cm bed depth Drying temperature is 66C at the inlet, and the time of travel through the heat zones is 30-40min From the dryer, the product passes through a cooling section, which reduces its temperature to 23"C A suitable size of through conveyor dryer for this purpose would be 9m long and 1.5m wide, with a 3m cooling section. This would handle up to a ton of raw material an hour Final moisture content should be 5 percent and the free fat content 35-40 percent.Mixing The flesh, which must be scrupulously examined for small bones and gristle before leaving the fleshing tables, is then transferred to a steam jacketed mixer, and the bouillon from the batch of chickens just cooked is added back in its condensed form. The mixer is fitted with a ribbon-type blade, which rotates very slowly, thoroughly mixing all the flesh. The heat in the mixer jacket and the retention time are judged to reduce the bulk 15 percent by evaporation. If permitted by the specification, salt may be added at this point in the process. Mincing The meat is taken from the mixer-dryer and minced through a 2.4mm, 4.8mm or 9.5mm plate, according to the size of granule required. Drying With a small scale operation, drying is usually carried out in a stove dryer by the simple hot air convection method, although medium sized conveyor band dryers can be used equally well. Where a stove dryer is used, the meat is spread 25mm deep on previously sterilised trays, and the latter are racked on trolleys of a suitable size to fit the stove dryer. As a preliminary to drying on trays, however, where considerable handling of the meat has taken place, it is necessary to sterilise it, and one method of effecting this is to move each trolley, with the trays racked in position, into an autoclave of rectangular shape - similar to those used in the canning industry. Here, the product is sterilised with live steam at latm for about 20min. This is a necessary precaution to reduce the bacteriological count arising from handling, exposure to room temperature and general conditions which encourage bacterial growth. When using a conveyor band dryer, where no tray loading or predrying delays are involved, sterilisation may be omitted. In this case the meat granules are transferred directly on to the band dryer plates at a 7.5cm bed depth. Drying temperature is 66°C at the inlet, and the time of travel through the heat zones is 30-40min. From the dryer, the product passes through a cooling section, which reduces its temperature to 23°C. A suitable size of through conveyor dryer for this purpose would be 9m long and 1.5m wide, with a 3m cooling section. This would handle up to a ton of raw material an hour. Final moisture content should be 5 percent and the free fat content 35-40 percent. 215