JP2816297B2 - Butter refurbishment method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a butter refurbishment method, and more particularly to a butter refurbishment method and apparatus for continuously and rapidly increasing butter temperature, homogenizing, degassing, and forming.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, butter production tends to be maximum in summer, while consumption tends to increase in winter. For this reason, some of the butter produced in the summer is 20-30k
It is stored in the form of block butter (hereinafter referred to as block butter) packed in a cardboard box of about g, and is refurbished in the winter for home butter (for example, 225 g small package). At this time, this block butter is -20 to prevent oxidation.
It is extremely hard because it is cooled to below ℃, and it is necessary to adjust its temperature to a softness suitable for the filling and packaging equipment of butter when renovating. Therefore, in a conventional refurbishment method using a kneading device such as a butter homogenizer or an auger screw, a block butter cooled to about -20 ° C is placed in a heating chamber and heated to about + 5 ° C over about 30 days. It has since been renovated. The reason why it takes a long time to raise the temperature is that the thermal conductivity of butter is low, and that
This is caused by phase transition of water containing 6%, poor heat transfer of corrugated cardboard, etc. Also, if the temperature of the heat storage is too high, part of the butter is melted and the quality deteriorates. . Further, such a long-term heating operation not only restricts production and sales plans but also involves a risk of causing problems such as deterioration of butter and microbial contamination during the heating period. As a method of remodeling the butter in a short time, a method of raising the temperature by microwave (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
No. 0-142756) and a method and apparatus for retrofitting butter (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-251142).

[0003]

The former method has the advantage that the temperature of the butter can be raised instantaneously. However, it is necessary to change the wavelength and irradiation time of the microwave depending on the size of the butter, and If it is large, there is a disadvantage that the temperature difference between the vicinity of the surface and the center becomes large and it is difficult to make the temperature distribution uniform. In addition, there is also a disadvantage that the production cost is high because large power is required. The latter enables continuous refurbishment by a refurbishment method in which crushed butter is extruded while kneading, degassing, heating and compressing, but the temperature of the crushed butter is low (about -1 ° C in the example). In order to raise the temperature to a temperature suitable for filling and packaging, heating is required in the extrusion process. In this case, once the melted butter is cooled and solidified, the quality is greatly deteriorated. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the temperature control of the surface of the heater in contact with the butter is complicated in quality control. As described above, the conventional remodeling method has problems in production / sales planning, microbial contamination, control of product quality, manufacturing cost, and the like. In particular, butter is important not only in its flavor but also in physical properties such as hardness and ductility, which depend on the temperature history of butter as described above. Is the most important factor. Therefore, it is necessary to consider not only the final temperature but also the temperature control during the whole renovation process in the renovation of butter. The present invention considers the above problems, especially the temperature control during this refurbishment process, maintains the physical properties of butter before refurbishment as much as possible, and is a quick and sanitary and low-cost butter refurbishment method and apparatus. The purpose is to provide.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides the following method and apparatus to achieve the above object. In the remodeling method of the present invention, the butter particles in a low temperature state are deaerated while kneading, and the temperature is raised by the internal heat generated in the butter by kneading, and the kneading is performed while controlling the temperature to 8 to 12 ° C. by a cooling operation. In addition, the remodeling device of the present invention employs a supply device for supplying butter particles in a low-temperature state, a deaeration device for deaeration while kneading, and kneading the deaerated butter. A kneading device is used which comprises a kneading device which raises the temperature by the internal heat generation in the butter, and performs kneading and compression while controlling the temperature within a certain range by a cooling operation and extrudes the mixture.
In addition, as a supply device of butter particles, a continuous twin-screw extruder in which a screw rotates in different directions is used,
As the deaerator, a continuous twin-screw kneading device having a barrel having an opening, a vacuum pump for removing air from the opening, and a vacuum control valve for adjusting the degree of vacuum of the opening are provided. A flow rate / pressure control device (hereinafter, referred to as a bubbling device) for controlling a supply flow rate and a supply pressure of the butter at an inlet of the deaeration device is preferably provided between the supply device for the butter particles and the deaeration device. Is installed.

[0005]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
The present invention is a renovation in which butter particles in a low temperature state are kneaded while being degassed, the temperature is raised by the internal heat generated in the butter due to the kneading, and the temperature is controlled within a certain range by a cooling operation. Is the way.
An apparatus for performing this is shown in FIG. (1) is a butter particle supply device, and (2) is a kneading device.
In a pipe (3) between the supply device (1) and the kneading device (2), a flow pressure control device for controlling the supply flow rate and pressure of the butter at the inlet of the kneading device, that is, a buffering device (4). There is. The kneading device (2) comprises a continuous twin-screw kneading device (7) comprising a barrel (5) and a screw (6), and a deaerator (13). The continuous kneading apparatus (7) has a pre-kneading compression extrusion section on the inlet side, a deaeration section at the center, and a kneading compression extrusion section on the exit side, and the deaeration section has an opening in the barrel (5) and a deaeration section (8).
A vacuum pump (9) for removing air from the opening deaerator (8) and a deaerator (13) comprising a vacuum control valve (10) for adjusting the degree of vacuum of the deaerator. I have. A jacket (11) is provided on the outer periphery of the barrel (5), and a cooling device (12) for supplying a coolant to the jacket (11) is provided.
Is a refrigerant inlet and (17) is a refrigerant outlet. As the butter particle supply device (1), a continuous twin-screw, different-direction extrusion screw type device is used, and as the continuous twin-screw device (7) of the kneading device (2), a twin-screw meshing screw is used. . As other kneading equipment, the inside of a chamber having a closed structure except for the entrance and exit of butter normally used in butter making machines and the like is partitioned by a perforated plate, butter is passed through this perforated plate, and the butter immediately after passing is depressurized and deaerated. A kneading device can also be used. In FIG. 1, (14) is a butter supply port, (15) is a butter discharge port, and (M) of the butter supply device (1) and the continuous twin-screw kneading device (7) is a drive motor.

[0006] In the butter refurbishment method of the present invention, butter particles in a low temperature state are used, but when the butter particles are supplied by the butter supply device, air is also mixed and supplied between the butter particles. Therefore, the butter thus supplied has a large number of fine spaces structurally, in which air is taken. In general, it is known that when air is contained in butter, the hardness of the butter decreases, and the uniformity and spreadability of the tissue deteriorate. Therefore, deaeration is indispensable in the butter remodeling method of the present invention. The butter particles are introduced into the kneading device while adjusting the flow rate and the inflow pressure, and are deaerated while being kneaded in the deaeration section. Degassing pressure is about -79 kP
a (-600 mmHg) is preferable. At this time, the temperature of the butter is increased by kneading, but if the temperature of the butter is too low, the degassing effect is reduced. If the temperature is too high, the butter is melted or sucked in the degassing section. Therefore, the degree of kneading is adjusted by controlling the shape and rotation speed of the screw so that the butter has an appropriate hardness. Further, sufficient kneading can be performed before reaching the degassing section to control the temperature. Although the air of the butter after deaeration has been removed, most of the fine space described above is kept as it is. Then, the deaerated butter is compressed and kneaded in a kneading / compressing / extruding section on the outlet side to remove this space, to make the structure uniform, and then to push out to a filling and packaging machine. Since strong kneading is required in this step, the temperature of the butter is likely to increase significantly.
Here, looking at the dynamic viscoelasticity characteristics of the butter measured by the present inventors, it can be seen in FIG. 2 that the butter has a large loss elastic modulus between 11 ° C. and 13 ° C. That is, when the temperature exceeds this temperature range, the rate at which mechanical energy changes to heat energy sharply increases. Therefore, it is necessary to perform cooling so that the temperature of the butter does not exceed this temperature range during kneading. The temperature of the butter supplied to a normal filling and packaging machine is preferably in the range of about 8 ° C to 12 ° C. As described above, in the present invention, butter is used for raising the temperature by utilizing the change of mechanical energy to heat energy during kneading, and directly contacting the surface of a heating device for heating by contacting a high-temperature object. Not in contact. Since the heat generated by such kneading is internal heat generated by the forced deformation of butter, unlike the temperature heating that utilizes heat conduction as performed by a heating device, a temperature having a uniform temperature distribution is used. It can be carried out. In this way, the temperature is raised in the kneading process, and the above-mentioned contact-type heating device, which has the danger of melting butter, is eliminated from the entire remodeling process. This is a major feature of the present invention.
In this regard, the present invention provides a "method and apparatus for redecorating butter".
(Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-251142).

EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLE About 20 kg of block butter cooled to -20.degree.
Using a scraping type rotary pulverizer, rotation speed 900 rpm
As a result, butter particles having a diameter of about 5 mm to 30 mm were obtained. At this time, the temperature of the obtained butter particles was about -1 ° C. That is, it was possible to raise the temperature by about 19 ° C. in the pulverizer. The butter particles are introduced into a butter supply device equipped with a biaxial screw rotating in a different direction, and supplied to a continuous twin-screw device via a buffering device so that the inlet pressure thereof becomes about 0.5 kg / cm ^2. Then, the temperature of the butter at the supply port was raised to about 2 ° C. The temperature rise of the butter was mainly due to kneading in the butter supply device and pipe conveyance. The supplied butter was preliminarily kneaded in a continuous twin-screw kneading apparatus while cooling at a barrel temperature of about 3 ° C., and the butter temperature was adjusted to about 5 ° C. before being introduced into the degassing section. This is -60 with a vacuum pump.
The pressure was reduced to 0 mmHg, and the mixture was uniformly deaerated while weakly kneading. The deaerated butter was kneaded, compressed and extruded while cooling at a barrel temperature of about 3 ° C. The butter thus obtained has an outlet temperature of about 10 ° C. and is suitable for filling and packaging, and has an air content of 0.1 μl / g.
Below, the air content of ordinary block butter is 1.0
To less than 10.0 μl / g, which was extremely good. This is shown in FIG. Further, the hardness, the color and the appearance were good, and the homogeneity was particularly excellent.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the control of butter temperature in the refurbishment process is the most important factor in quality control. According to the present invention, not the final temperature but the frozen butter is crushed and supplied during the whole refurbishment process. Temperature control by the cooling device of the present invention, it is possible to perform the renovation while maintaining the physical properties of the butter before renovation, and to provide a series of renovating devices for butter which are quick, sanitary and low-cost. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a butter retrofitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a temperature change of a loss elastic modulus of butter;

FIG. 3 shows the air content in butter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 supply device 2 kneading device 3 supply pipe 4 buffering device 5 barrel 6 screw 7 continuous twin screw kneading device 8 opening deaeration hole 9 vacuum pump 10 degree of vacuum control valve 11 jacket 12 cooling device 13 deaeration device 14 butter supply port 15 Butter outlet

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23C 1/00-23/00 A01J 1/00-27/04

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] The method according to claim 1] Butter particles in the cold state, then kneaded with degassing, and further kneaded and compressed while controlling the temperature at 8 to 12 ° C. by lift temperature and cooling operation by the internal heat generation in the butter by kneading A method of retrofitting butter, characterized by extruding. 2. A supply device for supplying butter particles in a low temperature state, a deaeration device for deaeration while kneading, a temperature rise of the deaeration butter by internal heat generated in the butter by kneading, and a cooling operation. A butter refurbishment system consisting of a kneading device that extrudes by performing kneading and compression while controlling the temperature within a certain range. 3. The butter refurbishment apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a continuous twin-screw extruder in which a screw rotates in different directions is used as a butter particle supply device. 4. A continuous twin-screw kneading device having a barrel having an opening, a vacuum pump for removing air from the opening,
3. The butter retrofitting device according to claim 2, wherein a deaeration device comprising a vacuum control valve for controlling the degree of vacuum in the opening is used. 5. The butter retrofitting device according to claim 2, wherein a continuous twin-screw kneading device having a cooling device is used as the kneading device. 6. The butter according to claim 2, further comprising a flow / pressure control device for controlling a supply amount and a supply pressure of the butter at an inlet of the deaeration device, between the butter particle supply device and the deaeration device. Refurbishment equipment.