JP2694149B2 - Food sterilization method - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for sterilizing foods such as meats, seafood, and agricultural products. [Prior Art] Generally, for sterilization of meat, for example, chlorine-based agents such as sodium hypochlorite are widely used. The upper limit of the amount of the chlorine-based drug used is not regulated under the current Food Sanitation Law, and is currently used in large amounts to enhance the bactericidal effect. [Problems to be solved by the invention] By the way, in the sterilization method using this chlorine-based chemical, the corrosiveness of the chlorine-based chemical used accelerates the wear of mechanical equipment and causes carcinogenesis by reacting with organic acids of foods. The substance, trihalomethane, is produced, and this trihalomethane may remain in food. Further, since the sterilizing ability and the harmful effect on the human body depending on the concentration of the drug are proportional to each other, it is not preferable from the viewpoint of food hygiene to use a large amount of this chlorine-based drug to enhance the bactericidal effect as described above. Further, since the chlorine-based drug is used as the bactericide in this way, there is a problem that an organic substance remains on the sterilized food and a malodor peculiar to the chlorine-based drug is generated in the sterilization treatment site. Furthermore, in recent years, reflecting the strong demand of consumer organizations and the like, there is a movement to regulate the amount of residual chlorine, and adoption of a new sterilization method is expected. The present invention has been made in view of such problems and demands of the conventional technology, has no carcinogenicity, does not deteriorate quality, and can eliminate residual sterilized food and odor in a sterilization plant. A method for sterilizing food is provided. [Means for Solving Problems] That is, the present invention is to prepare an ozone-containing treated water by adding an organic acid to water and dissolving ozone, and then sterilize food using the ozone-containing treated water. The present invention provides a method for sterilizing foods, which comprises: Here, the organic acid in the present invention is for adjusting the pH of the ozone-containing treated water to be acidic in order to effectively sterilize the food, and the addition method is to add the organic acid itself to water directly. Alternatively, this organic acid may be added in the form of an aqueous solution having an appropriate concentration. Examples of the organic acid include citric acid, acetic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, and other organic acids permitted as food additives under the Food Sanitation Act. Further, the treated water containing ozone referred to in the present invention is treated water for sterilization, which contains these organic acids for sterilizing food and ozone. The pH of the ozone-containing treated water is 3 to 5, preferably pH.
If it is 3 to 4 and the pH is less than 3, corrosion of the equipment is accelerated due to corrosiveness, and the odor peculiar to the organic acid may be attached to the food, which may impair the food value. The synergistic effect of is poor and the bactericidal effect cannot be fully exerted. The ozone concentration of the treated water containing ozone is 1 to 10
mg / l, preferably 2-5 mg / l. If it is less than 1 mg / l, the ozone concentration is too low and the bactericidal effect is not sufficient, while if it exceeds 10 mg / l, the ozone concentration is too high and it is not economical. ,
Ozone diffuses into the atmosphere and deteriorates the atmosphere, and the oxidizing action of ozone may change the quality of some foods. The temperature of the ozone-containing treated water during sterilization of food is usually 0 to 30 ° C, preferably 3 to 10 ° C.
If it is lower than 0 ° C, the temperature is too low and the treatment time for sterilization tends to be too long, while if it is higher than 30 ° C, the temperature becomes too high and the ozone dispersion speed becomes too fast, and the bactericidal effect becomes worse. Will be enough. In addition, the sterilization processing time of the food with this ozone-containing treated water is the case of the spray method in which this ozone-containing treated water is sprayed on the food and sterilized, and the food is treated in the treated water tank filled with this ozone-containing treated water. Although it differs from the case of the method of sterilizing by sterilization, it is usually several seconds to tens of minutes. The ozone-containing treated water of the present invention is prepared by adding an organic acid to water and dissolving the ozone, but preferably the ozone is dissolved at the same time as or after the addition of the organic acid to the water. It is better to let it. This is because the ozone decomposition rate becomes slower when ozone is dissolved in the low pH range where the organic acid is dissolved in advance. Hereinafter, the method for sterilizing food according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. As a food sterilizer using the food sterilization method of the present invention, a sterilizer for a poultry carcass will be taken as an example. As shown in FIG. 1, this sterilizer includes a water receiving tank 10, a supply pump 20, a spray unit 30, a pH adjusting system 40, and an ozone containing system 5
0, a conveyor 60, and a treated water tank 70 are provided. The water receiving tank 10 is a tank for storing the water W to be supplied from the tap water and adjusting the pH, and the supply pump 20 sprays the ozone-containing treated water W2 onto the poultry carcass S through the spray unit 30. It is a pump for making. Further, the spray unit 30 sprays the ozone-containing treated water W2 onto the poultry carcass S. The pH adjusting system 40 controls the pH of the water W supplied into the water receiving tank 10.
Is a system for adjusting the sterilization of the carcass S of poultry,
It has an acetic acid solution tank 41 and an acetic acid supply pump 42. This acetic acid solution tank 41 has an acetic acid solution (organic acid) 411 inside.
The acetic acid supply pump 42 is a pump for supplying the acetic acid solution 411 in the acetic acid solution tank 41 into the water receiving tank 10. In order to sterilize the poultry carcass S together with the pH adjusting system 40, the ozone-containing system 50 dissolves ozone O ₃ in the water W1 in the water receiving tank 10 to prepare the ozone-containing treated water W2. This system has an oxygen cylinder 51, an ozonizer 52, an ozone dissolution loop section 53, a gas-liquid separation tank 54, and an exhaust ozone treatment column 55. The ozonizer 52 is a device for generating ozone O ₃ from the oxygen gas sent from the oxygen cylinder 51 by using discharge or ultraviolet radiation, and is one of the tap water W supplied to the water receiving tank 10. Part is used as cooling water. Also, ozone dissolution loop portion 53, an annular apparatus for dissolving ozone in water W1, the ejector 531 to actually dissolve ozone O ₃ in water W1, the water receiving tank 10 to the ozone dissolution loop portion 53 A circulation pump 532 is provided to supply W1 and to circulate and dissolve ozone O ₃ in order to increase the content of ozone O ₃ in the water W1. In the ozone dissolution loop section 53, the water W is
It becomes ozone-containing treated water W2 containing ozone and acetic acid solution 411. Further, the gas-liquid separation tank 54 has the ozone dissolution loop portion 53.
Is a tank for separating the ozone-containing treated water W2 in the gas-liquid separation.
Is connected to the supply pump 20 in order to supply it to the spray section 30 via the supply pump 20, and the upper part thereof is a water receiving tank for returning a part of the ozone-containing treated water W2 from which gas has been separated to the water receiving tank 10. Communicated with 10. Further, the upper part of the tower is connected to an exhaust ozone treatment column 55 for treating the undissolved ozone in the separated gas and releasing it to the atmosphere. The action of the sterilizing apparatus adopting the food sterilizing method of the present invention is as follows. Similarly, as shown in FIG. 1, first, the water W previously sent is stored in the water receiving tank 10 and the pH in the water receiving tank 10 is increased. A predetermined amount of acetic acid solution 411 is supplied from the adjusting system 40, and pH-adjusted water W1 is produced. On the other hand, in the ozone-containing system 50, the oxygen gas in the oxygen cylinder 51 is supplied into the ozonizer 52, and ozone O ₃ is generated by discharge or ultraviolet irradiation. After that, water W1 which pH in the receiving tank 10 is lowered is circulated by a circulation pump 532, whereas the gas containing ozone O ₃ generated is sent to the ejector 531, wherein the adjusted the pH of water W1 Ozone O ₂ is dissolved by mixing with and becomes ozone-containing treated water W 2. Next, the ozone-containing treated water W2 is again used in the gas-liquid separation tank 54.
Is sent to and the gas containing undissolved ozone is separated to obtain ozone-containing treated water W2 having a predetermined ozone concentration. The ozone-containing treated water W2 is sent to the spray unit 30 by the supply pump 20, and is sprayed or dipped in the poultry carcass S attached to the conveyor 60 or the treated water tank 70 for sterilization. A part of the ozone-containing treated water W2 from which the gas has been separated is returned to the water receiving tank 10, and the separated undissolved ozone O ₃ -containing gas is released to the atmosphere via the exhaust ozone processing column 55. By doing this, it is possible to sterilize the food without carcinogenicity and without degrading the quality,
Further, it is possible to eliminate the harmful substances remaining in the sterilized food and the bad odor in the sterilization plant. The sterilizing apparatus to which the food sterilizing method of the present invention is applied is not limited to this. [Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following Examples. Example 1 Glacial acetic acid was added to water kept at 5 ° C. to adjust the pH to 4.0, and then an ozone-containing gas was blown in to adjust the ozone concentration to 3 mg /
The treated water containing ozone adjusted to 1 was adjusted to 100 ml in an Erlenmeyer flask. In this ozone-containing treated water, 10 ⁷
1 ml of Salmonella / ml was added and sterilized under the treatment conditions shown in Table 1. The results are shown in Table 1. Example 2 An experiment was performed in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the ozone concentration of the treated water containing ozone was adjusted to 5 mg / l. The results are shown in Table 1. Example 3 An experiment was performed in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the pH of water was adjusted to 3.0. The results are shown in Table 1. Example 4 An experiment was performed in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the temperature of water was kept at 24 ° C. The results are shown in Table 1. Comparative Example 1 100 ml of water cooled at 5 ° C. was collected in an Erlenmeyer flask, and glacial acetic acid was added to prepare treated water having a pH of 4.0.
To this treated water, add 1 ml of 10 ⁷ / ml Salmonella,
Sterilization was performed under the treatment conditions shown in Table 1. The results are shown in Table 1. Comparative Example 2 The same experiment as in Comparative Example 1 was carried out except that the pH of water was adjusted to 3.0. The results are shown in Table 1. Comparative Example 3 100 ml of water cooled at 5 ° C. was sampled in an Erlenmeyer flask, and ozone-containing gas was blown thereinto to prepare treated water having an ozone concentration of 3 mg / l. 1 ml of 10 ⁷ cells / ml of Salmonella was added to the treated water and sterilized under the treatment conditions shown in Table 1. The results are shown in Table 1. Comparative Example 4 The same experiment as in Comparative Example 1 was performed except that the ozone concentration of the treated water was adjusted to 5 mg / l. The results are shown in Table 1. As is clear from Table 1, the ozone-containing treated water of the present invention in which both of them are used in combination has a more remarkable bactericidal effect than the acetic acid aqueous solution alone or the ozone water alone. [Effects of the Invention] The present invention thus prepares an ozone-containing treated water by adding an organic acid to water and dissolving ozone, and then sterilizes a food product using the ozone-containing treated water, thus causing carcinogenesis. In addition, it is possible to obtain the effects of eliminating harmful substances in the sterilized food and eliminating the bad odor in the sterilization plant, without any deterioration in quality and without degrading the quality.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a process diagram showing one embodiment of a food sterilizing apparatus used in the food sterilizing method of the present invention. S; Poultry carcass (food) W; Water 10; Water tank 20; Supply pump 30; Spray unit 40; pH adjusting system 50; Ozone-containing system 60; Conveyor 70; Treated water tank

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A method for sterilizing a food, which comprises adding an organic acid to water and dissolving ozone to prepare ozone-containing treated water, and then sterilizing the food using the ozone-containing treated water. 2. The method for sterilizing food according to claim 1, wherein the ozone-containing treated water is prepared by dissolving the ozone at the same time as or after adding the organic acid to the water. 3. The method for sterilizing food according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the ozone-containing treated water has a pH of 3 to 5. 4. The method for sterilizing food according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the ozone-containing treated water has an ozone concentration of 1 to 10 mg / l.