JP2005170390A - Vacuum individual packaging method for portion of meat - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for vacuum packaging portions of meat, which are prepared by cutting meat into many parts, an item by an item at high speed, using a small amount of film, while preventing a meat drip from soaking into a skirt. <P>SOLUTION: According to the method, the portions of meat are placed spaced apart from each other on a rolled out lower film, and a rolled out upper film is put over the portions of the meat. Then, a part of the film that is not occupied by the portions of the meat is sealed and cut to form a cylindrical sealed body of the portions of the meat, which is then covered with a vacuum box and air is sucked out from both openings of the cylindrical sealed body to deaerate it. Both openings of the deaerated sealed body is sealed to form a four-side sealed body of the portions of meat, which is passed through a hot air tunnel to fuse and weld together the skirt between each portion of meat with two or more sealing line, between which is then cut again. The film used in the above process is self-weldable and is not thermally shrinkable. The skirt between each portion of meat is sealed by forming two or more sealing lines using an impulse sealer, and the skirt is cut between the sealing lines. At this time, both upper and lower films are heated from above and below with upper and lower heater wires, which start heating at different times. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention wraps individual pieces of livestock such as cows, pigs and chickens and large-scale fish pieces divided into many parts (partial meats) one by one at a high speed using a small amount of film, and each individual package The present invention relates to a method for printing information on the history of partial meat.

Traditionally, one carcass carcass is divided into 26 parts such as loin, roses, fillets, etc., vacuum packed, heated to shrink the film, or cooled without shrinking and stored at around 0 ° C. The so-called chilled beef is in circulation.
For example, a piece of meat is placed in a bag having a width of 200 mm to 600 mm, which is blow-molded and sealed at the bottom, deaerated from the mouth of the bag with a vacuum packaging machine, vacuum-sealed, the film is shrunk with a hot water shower, and cold water is used. There was a method of cooling, storing and delivering at around 0 ° C.

Further, the wound lower film is unwound, the partial meat is placed on the lower film, the wound upper film is unwound and covered with the partial meat on the lower film, and the center portion of the seal portion Is cut into a cylindrical sealing body with partial meat sandwiched between upper and lower films, the cylindrical sealing body is sucked from both openings, the openings are sealed, and vacuum sealed to obtain a four-way sealing body There is also.
As these partial meat packaging films, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 are disclosed, and various films are provided.
Recently, there are increasing cases of mass distribution stores and users who want to simplify the tray packaging work dividing one head into 74 parts or 138 parts, and wishing to deliver by individual vacuum packaging.
JP-A-10-34800 JP-A-11-207886

In order to meet this need, even when the conventional packaging method is used to unwind the upper and lower films, the upper and lower films are unwound at a constant pitch for each piece of meat, and suction and vacuum sealing operations are performed. Therefore, as the partial meat becomes smaller, the packaging material increases twice or three times, and the packaging efficiency decreases to 1/2 or 1/3. The time required for suction / vacuum sealing is the main packaging time.
If two or three pieces of meat are arranged apart from each other and made into one bag of vacuum package in one vacuum process, the packaging materials will only increase slightly and the packaging efficiency will not decrease, but they will be separated from each other. The vacuum cannot be maintained.

  Even if a commercially available impulse sealer is used for sealing and cutting, a portion where heat does not reach and is not sealed remains, and a vacuum leak occurs from this portion. If the sealing is performed more strongly, the film adjacent to the sealing portion is broken, so-called sealing breakage occurs, and in this case, vacuum leakage also occurs. This is because there are a lot of wrinkles in the skirt between the partial meats, i.e., where there is no partial meat and the upper and lower films are in direct contact with each other. This is due to the fact that there are sometimes 8 overlapping parts, and there is no impulse sealer that seals the overlapping and non-overlapping parts with heat and pressure suitable for each.

In Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-326534, the present applicant has disclosed a method of sealing and cutting two or more pieces of a vacuum package of partial meat while maintaining a vacuum. Even with this method, wrinkles remained in the skirt portion of the film between the partial meats, and there was a phenomenon that the drip oozes into the wrinkles. Usually, it is said that 0.3 to 0.6% of the drip of meat is leached. In particular, a small portion of meat that trims fat and removes the streaks that form a protective film, after packaging, the amount of drip is further increased and flows to the skirt of the film between the portions of the portion that are to be wrapped apart. The drip is noticeable and adversely affects the commercial value of the meat.
Furthermore, the conventional method of shrinking the film by showering with warm water to remove wrinkles results in heating the partial meat that you want to keep as low as possible after slaughter, raising the room temperature in the working room, It is not preferable from the viewpoint of maintaining freshness.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
(1) A step of arranging one or more partial meats apart from each other on the lower film that has been unwound and fused with the upper film at the tip,
(2) A step of covering the unwound upper film over the partial meat,
(3) A step of sealing and cutting a portion where no partial meat exists at a constant pitch in a direction perpendicular to the flow of the film to obtain a partial cylindrical seal body;
(4) Covering a vacuum box, sucking and degassing from both openings of the cylindrical seal body,
(5) a step of sealing both openings of the degassed cylindrical seal body;
(6) a step of passing the obtained partial meat 4-way sealing body through a hot-air tunnel and fusing the upper and lower films together;
The above steps (1) to (6) are carried out using upper and lower wound films having heat fusion, self-weld, and non-heat-shrinkable properties. When using a method of sealing with two or more heater wires using an impulse sealer, and cutting the obtained seal wires into a partial cut in a vacuum state, the film layer is heated from above and below, The heating start times of the upper and lower heater wires are different.

  That is, the present invention arranges two or three small partial meats apart from each other and collectively sucks and vacuum seals to save time and film required for suction and deaeration, and suppress drip leaching. It is. When dividing the vacuum-sealed packages, it was difficult to heat the whole evenly because the generation of wrinkles at the site to be sealed was inevitable. The present invention has been completed by finding that by delaying the heating start time of the heater wire by 0.3 to 4.0 seconds, it is possible to easily divide it while maintaining a vacuum without causing any unfused part or seal breakage. It is.

  Furthermore, by using a heat-fusible, self-weld, non-shrinkable film as the film, the film on the front and back is in close contact with each other simply by passing through a hot air tunnel at 70 to 95 ° C. In addition to stopping only at the part where the film and the film are in contact with each other, leaching of the drip itself is suppressed and the freshness of the partial meat is improved. That is, the amount of the drip is reduced, and there is no possibility of the drip flowing out to the skirt portion where no partial meat exists. The self-weld film layer is fused to the extent that hinders the drip leaching only by passing through the hot air tunnel, but since it is not pressurized, the peel strength is inferior to that of the seal portion.

As the partial meat is finely divided, a large amount of drip tends to leach out. By using a special film and passing through a hot-air tunnel, the present invention can wrap a piece of meat that has been divided into many parts one by one using a small amount of film at a high speed, and also allows for the leaching of drip. Suppressed and leached drip no longer accumulates in wrinkles between films.
Furthermore, in the present invention using a non-heat-shrinkable film, the tampering prevention and traceability of the partial meat that is packaged and distributed is improved. In the case of beef, an individual identification number / carcass number can be attached, and in the case of pork, a lot number can be attached. Further, a device for printing the date of processing, company name, factory name, etc. on each pack can be attached. Alternatively, the printed label can be attached to each package.

The present invention can be used not only for beef, but also for pork, chicken, etc., livestock meat, and fish meat.
The film used in the present invention needs to be heat-fusible, gas barrier, self-weld, and non-heat-shrinkable. Self-welding means that if the package is heated by passing it through a hot-air tunnel, the sealant layers of the upper and lower films are fused together, making it difficult for the drip to leach out from the partial meat, and the drip to be leached into the skirt It does not spread to the part. The hot air tunnel is a device that is exposed to hot air of 70 to 95 ° C., preferably 72 to 90 ° C., and is allowed to pass for 1 to 10 seconds, preferably 3 to 7 seconds. By this operation, the upper and lower films are fused to each other at the skirt portion where there is no partial meat, and the passage of the drip is prevented.

  The film of the present invention is heat-fusible and self-weldable. In order to impart such characteristics, if the melting peak temperature of the synthetic resin mainly constituting the sealant layer constituting the innermost layer is measured in accordance with JIS K 7125 and is in the range of 70 to 90 ° C. Often, soft polyolefin resins such as ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, ultra-low density polyethylene, ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer, and ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer are preferably used. Among these, an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having a vinyl acetate content of 15 to 25% by weight is preferably used. The synthetic resin mainly constituting the sealant layer is such that the proportion of the synthetic resin in the sealant layer is 60% by weight or more, preferably 80% by weight or more.

  Furthermore, the film of the present invention is non-heat shrinkable. In the conventional method using a heat-shrinkable film, even if it is printed on the film before packaging, it is illegible because it shrinks. Further, it is possible to stick the printed label to the meat, but the label may contaminate the partial meat. The non-heat-shrinkable film can be read after packaging, and is difficult to peel off even if a label is attached to the film before packaging. Therefore, if the present invention is carried out, the history of the partial meat can be transmitted from the distribution stage until it is tray packed at a pack center such as a supermarket or backyard.

In the present invention, the following steps (1) to (7) are sequentially performed as shown in FIG.
(1) The process is a process of placing the partial meat 10 on the lower film 15 unwound with the sealant layer facing up on the partial meat placement site on the rotor conveyor 14 of the packaging machine. In the step (1), the leading end of the unrolled lower film 15 is fused with the leading end of the upper film 16 to form the seal portion 11.
If beef is explained, if it is a 26-part large-sized partial meat, one piece can be put. However, if the pitch length of the film to be sent out is set to be constant, if the partial meat 10 is divided into 74 parts or 138 parts, as shown in FIG. 1 (3), two or more perpendicular to the film flow direction. Can be placed. In this case, it is important to arrange two or more partial meats 10 apart from each other. The separation distance varies depending on the size of the partial meat, but is an interval at which secondary cutting by the impulse sealer can be performed without any trouble.

In the step (2), the upper film 16 is covered while being unwound on the partial meat 10 on the lower film 15 whose tip is sealed in advance with the tip of the upper film 16.
In the step (3), the part where the partial meat 10 does not exist at a constant pitch is sealed perpendicularly to the film flow direction, the central part of the seal part is cut, and the cylindrical seal body 17 and the tip part are sealed together. The upper and lower films 9 are obtained. Reference numeral 12 denotes a skirt where the upper and lower films 9 are in direct contact and fused. The upper and lower films whose leading ends are sealed together are used when the next step (1) is performed. Plan views are shown in the subsequent steps.
(4) In the step, one or more cylindrical sealing bodies 17 are covered with a vacuum box, and the cylindrical sealing body 17 is evacuated by suction for 10 to 30 seconds.
(5) In the process, the opening of the cylindrical sealing body 17 that has been evacuated is horizontally sealed. As is clear from FIG. 1, a skirt portion 12 exists between the partial meat 10 and the partial meat 10, and a sufficient interval is maintained for secondary cutting.
(6) In the process, one four-way sealing body 13 in which two or more partial meats are packaged apart from each other is passed through the hot air tunnel. By passing through the hot-air tunnel, the front and back films self-weld in the skirt portion 12, and the flow of the drip that leaches out is hindered.
(7) In the step, secondary cutting is performed between the partial meat and the partial meat.
As a result, two or more partial meats can be processed at a time in the time-consuming vacuum and degassing step (4), and the working efficiency is improved. 19 is a secondary cleavage site. (1) When one piece of meat is placed in the process, it is packaged as it is, so the (7) process is unnecessary.

In the steps (1) to (2) in FIG. 2, a long and thin partial meat such as fillet meat is sealed at a 1/2 pitch to obtain two 1 / 2-width cylindrical sealing bodies 17. . This state is (3) in FIG. (4) In the step, two or more 1 / 2-width cylindrical seal bodies 17 are sucked and degassed at once. Next, as described in FIG. 1, the opening of the cylindrical seal body is sealed, and the hot air tunnel is passed in step (6). As shown on the left side of FIG. 2 (7), when one partial meat is inserted into one four-way seal body, the vacuum individual package 18 is obtained as it is (7 ) The process is not necessary. Therefore, when one partial meat is charged in all the cylindrical sealing bodies 17 processed in one suction and deaeration process, the secondary cutting process of (7) becomes unnecessary. .
As shown on the right side of the drawing in FIG. 2 (7), when two or more partial meats are charged in one four-way seal body, the gap between the partial meat 10 and the partial meat 10 is Cut with the impulse sealer of the present invention. In the case of the right side in FIG. 2, three vacuum individual packages 18 having secondary cutting sites 19 are obtained.

  Although FIG. 2 shows the process of working at 1/2 pitch, when the partial meat is even smaller, it can be worked at 1/3 pitch or 1/4 pitch. In the case of FIG. 2, four vacuum packaging bodies are obtained by one suction and deaeration process. Even if it is the partial meat of the cow divided into 138 parts, as shown in FIG.1 and FIG.2, the packaging method in the case of having divided | segmented into the conventional 26 parts by devising arrangement | positioning and processing. Compared to the above, it has become possible to reliably carry out vacuum packaging using a film and a time that is slightly increased.

  A transverse vertical sectional view of the sealer part of the impulse sealer used in the present invention is shown in FIG. (A) shows the time when the upper heater table is raised, and (B) shows the time when the upper heater table is lowered. Reference numeral 1 denotes an attachment guide, and two upper heater stands 2 are attached to the attachment guide 1 in parallel. Two upper heater wires 3 are attached to almost the entire length of the upper heater table at the lower end of the upper heater table. A lower heater wire 5 is attached to the upper end of the lower heater base 4 at a position corresponding to the upper heater wire 3. A heat-resistant cushion material 6 made of silicone rubber or the like is attached under the lower heater wire 5. The surfaces of the upper heater wire 3 and the lower heater wire 5 are covered with a release tape 7 made of a fluorine resin such as Teflon (registered trademark) or a silicone resin so that the film does not adhere to the heater wire due to heat. Reference numeral 8 denotes a cutting blade, which waits upward between the two rows of lower heater bases 4 and rises when the upper heater base 2 descends to secondaryly cut the film 9.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of two or more partial-thick four-way sealing bodies 13 arranged in a line at a constant interval from each other. Reference numeral 9 represents the upper and lower films 15 and 16 simply as a film. Here, the skirt portion having a constant interval with each other is an interval at which the partial meat and the partial meat can be divided by the impulse sealer. Since the partial meat of irregular shape and size is packaged, it is inevitable that the film is wrinkled in the skirt between the partial meat. In order to separate the partial meat from the partial meat, it is difficult to evenly heat the location of two films and the location of six or more films where wrinkles and wrinkles overlap even if heated and pressed with the impulse sealer shown in FIG. It is.

  On the lower heater line 5 of the impulse sealer shown in FIG. 3, the skirt portion 12 of the four-way seal body 13 of two or more partial meats is placed, the upper heater base 2 is lowered and pressed, and the upper heater wire 3 is instantaneously applied. A voltage is applied to heat and press, and in this state, the lower heater wire 5 is delayed for 0.3 to 4.0 seconds, preferably 0.5 to 3.0 seconds, more preferably 0.6 to 2.0 seconds. Apply voltage to During this delayed time, the film heated by the upper heater cools and facilitates the heat sealing by the other heater. At the same time, the cutting blade 8 waiting between the two lower heater bases 4 rises, and the skirt portion 12 interposed between the two upper heater bases 2 or between the lower heater bases 4 The film 9 is cut. In this case, a voltage may be applied to the lower heater line 5 first, and a voltage may be applied to the upper heater line 3 with a delay.

Since the cut piece obtained is heat-sealed immediately before cutting, it is a vacuum individual package, and each time the vacuum packaging device is operated once, many pieces of meat are vacuum-packed individually. Result. According to the prior art, only one piece of meat could be packaged with a single operation of the vacuum packaging apparatus.
In FIG. 3, two heater wires (3, 5) are provided on one heater stand (2, 4), but one, three or more heater wires are provided on one heater stand. It doesn't matter.

  The partial meat obtained by dividing one cow into 138 pieces was wrapped with upper and lower films having a width of 1000 mm, a gas barrier property, and a non-heat-shrinkable property. This film is a film having a thickness of about 40 μm laminated in the order of a polyethylene layer, a polyamide layer, an eval layer, and a sealant layer, and the sealant layer is an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having a vinyl acetate content of 20% by weight, The melting peak temperature measured with a differential scanning calorimeter in accordance with JIS K 7121 was 80 ° C. As shown in FIG. 1, packaging was performed according to the following procedure.

(1) A relatively large partial meat on the lower film top 15 that has been unwound and fused with the upper film 16 at the partial meat placement position on the rotor conveyor 14 with the sealant layer facing upward. The two were aligned perpendicular to the film flow direction apart from each other.
(2) The upper film 16 was put on the two partial meats lined up on the lower film.
(3) The rear of the two partial meat rows was sealed perpendicular to the film flow direction, and the two partial meats 10 were stored in the cylindrical seal body 17.
(4) The cylindrical seal body 17 was covered with a vacuum box, sucked from both openings, and the upper and lower films were brought into close contact with the partial meat, and the upper and lower films were brought into close contact with each other to form the skirt portion 12 at the portion where the partial meat did not exist. One vacuum process took 20 seconds.
(5) The opening of the cylindrical sealing body 17 was sealed in a vacuum state, and the four-way sealing body 13 was obtained.
(6) The four-way seal body 13 was passed through a hot air tunnel at 85 ° C. for 5 seconds.
(7) The intermediate part of the two partial meats of the four-side seal body with the skirt portion self-welded was sealed with the impulse sealer of the present invention and then secondary cut to obtain a vacuum individual package 18.

In this embodiment, after the energization of the upper heater wire 3 of the impulse sealer is started, the energization of the lower heater wire 4 is started after a delay of 0.7 seconds. In the absence of it, a piece-meal package was obtained in about half the time of the conventional method.
The obtained vacuum package was stored and distributed at 0 ° C, but even for end users, there was no drip flowing in the wrinkles of the skirt part, the amount of drip was small, and the pink color between the transparent films. Partial meat was tightly packed. Also, the freshness improved because the temperature in the work room was kept low.
Furthermore, in this example, since the individual identification number, carcass number, company name, factory name, and processing date of the cow were printed on the upper film immediately before packaging, the follow-up survey of each individual package became easy.

In Example 1, in the steps (1) and (2), the feeding pitch of the lower film 15 and the upper film 16 is halved, and two elongated fillets are arranged in parallel to the film flow direction. The seal line 11 in the flow direction was provided twice as much as that in Example 1. As a result, as shown on the left side of (3) in FIG. 2, two thin cylindrical seal bodies 17 each loaded with one partial meat were obtained. The cylindrical seal body 17 was covered with a vacuum box, and the many cylindrical seal bodies 17 were evacuated in one step. The vacuum process took 20 seconds. The opening part of each cylindrical sealing body was sealed, and many 4-way sealing bodies 13 were obtained in 1 vacuum process.
Similarly to Example 1, when passing through the hot air tunnel, two vacuum individual packages 18 as shown on the left side of FIG. 2 (7) were obtained, and this did not require secondary cutting. Similarly to Example 1, this vacuum individual package also had a transparent skirt portion 12, and the partial meat could be packaged in vacuum in about half the time of the conventional method.

In Example 2, as shown on the right side of (3), (4), (5) and (7) in FIG. 2, a total of 6 small partial meats are spaced in two rows on the left side and 3 on the right side. Kept in order. In the same manner as in Example 2, both the lower film and the upper film were sent out at a 1/2 pitch to obtain a cylindrical sealing body 17 charged with three partial meats. The opening part of each cylindrical sealing body 17 was sealed, and two four-way sealing bodies 13 containing three partial meats were obtained. After passing each through a hot-air tunnel, the skirt part between the partial meat | flesh 10 and the partial meat | flesh 10 was sealed and cut | disconnected with this invention impulse sealer, and the vacuum individual package of 6 partial meat | flesh was obtained.
In this example, it has been possible to obtain an excellent vacuum individual package similar to Examples 1 and 2 with a work efficiency of about 1/5 of the conventional one.

It is the flow sheet which showed the vacuum individual packaging process of the present invention one by one. It is the flow sheet of the other Example which showed the vacuum individual packaging process of this invention sequentially. It is horizontal-vertical cross-section explanatory drawing of the sealer part of an impulse sealer, (A) shows the time of a raise of an upper heater stand, (B) shows the time of a lowering of an upper heater stand. It is sectional drawing of the vacuum packaging body of the 2 or more meat chunks arranged in 1 row at fixed intervals mutually.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Installation guide 2 Upper heater stand 3 Upper heater wire 4 Lower heater stand 5 Lower heater wire 6 Heat-resistant cushioning material 7 Peeling tape 8 Cutting blade 9 Film 10 Partial meat 11 Seal part 12 Skirt part 13 Four-way seal body 14 Rotor conveyor 15 Bottom Film 16 Upper film 17 Cylindrical seal 18 Vacuum individual package 19 Secondary cutting part

Claims (7)

A method for vacuum partial packaging of partial meat, characterized in that the following steps are sequentially performed using upper and lower wound films of heat-fusibility, self-weld property and non-heat-shrink property.
(1) A step of arranging one or more partial meats apart from each other on a lower film that has been unwound and whose tip is fused and cut with the upper film;
(2) A process of covering the unwound upper film over the partial meat,
(3) A step of sealing and cutting a portion where no partial meat exists at a constant pitch in a direction perpendicular to the flow of the film to obtain a partial cylindrical seal body;
(4) Covering a vacuum box, sucking and degassing from both openings of the cylindrical seal body,
(5) a step of sealing both openings of the degassed cylindrical seal body;
(6) A step of passing the obtained partial meat 4-way seal body through a hot-air tunnel. In the step (1), two or more partial meats are separated from each other on the unrolled lower film and arranged in parallel with the film flow direction. In the step (4), two or more cylindrical seal bodies are deaerated in the vacuum box. 2. The method of vacuum wrapping of partial meat according to claim 1, wherein: (1) In the process, two or more partial meats are separated from each other on the unrolled lower film and arranged perpendicular to the film flow direction. (6) After the process is completed, the skirt portion between the partial meats is 2 using an impulse sealer. When using the method of sealing with two or more heater wires, and then cutting the resulting seal wires into two parts and dividing each part in a vacuum, the film layer is heated from both the upper and lower sides, and the upper and lower heater wires are heated. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the start times are different. 4. The method for vacuum partial packaging of partial meat according to claim 1, wherein the hot air tunnel is a tunnel set at a temperature of 70 to 95 [deg.] C., and the tunnel is passed for 1 to 9 seconds. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the heating start time of the upper and lower heater wires is different by 0.3 to 4.0 seconds when performing secondary cutting. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information about the history of the partial meat is printed on a film immediately before packaging. 7. The melting peak temperature of the sealant layer constituting the innermost layer of the heat-fusible, self-weld, non-heat-shrinkable film is 70 to 90 ° C. 7. Vacuum packaging method for partial meat.