Apparatus for chilling a plurality of food trays

Claim 1

In an apparatus for heating at least one covered container on each of a plurality of vertically stacked trays located on a plurality of shelves in a refrigerated enclosure having a door at at least one end thereof while at least one other container on each tray is chilled, the improvement comprising at least one blower element mounted inside the enclosure adjacent the end thereof which is opposite to said door and also adjacent the top wall surface of the enclosure; a removable insulated pan adapted to contain dry ice or other cooling material positioned on a shelf of said enclosure above the stacked trays, said pan having an inlet opening at one end to receive the exhaust from said blower and an exhaust opening at its other end to direct chilled air which has passed over the cooling material in the pan downwardly over the inside surface of said door; spacing means located in said enclosure and/or on the trays for spacing the trays from at least portions of said door and from at least portions of the enclosure end which is opposite to said door, and prevent them from blocking the vertical flow of chilled air passing along the portions of the inside walls of said door and opposite enclosure ends which are adjacent the portions of the trays containing the containers to be chilled, said flow of chilled air being thereby channeled so as to pass downwardly along the door adjacent the exhaust opening in said pan, horizontally across the containers to be chilled on said vertically stacked trays, and upwardly along the end wall of said enclosure opposite to said door to an inlet duct means for said at least one blower element.