JP7436623B2 - bagged jelly food - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a bagged jelly food product in which konjac-containing jelly is enclosed in a packaging bag.

Jelly containing konjac has higher elasticity than jelly made from gelatin, and does not dissolve even at the temperature of the mouth, so it has been pointed out that if young children or the elderly accidentally swallow it without chewing it, they may get stuck in their throats. Therefore, various efforts have been made to prevent such accidents.

For example, in Patent Document 1, in a jelly food in which konjac-containing jelly is filled and sealed in a packaging bag, an opening is formed by tearing a film constituting the packaging bag and cutting out a part of the packaging bag. It is disclosed that when the container is crushed by hand, the jelly containing konjac is forced out from the opening. In the jelly food disclosed in Patent Document 1, by limiting the size of the opening and the "hardness" and "elasticity" of the konjac-containing jelly to a certain extent, when the consumer crushes the packaging bag, the konjac-containing jelly prevents it from jumping out of the packaging bag all at once.

Patent Document 1; Patent No. 4988882

However, even if the "hardness" and "elasticity" of the konjac-containing jelly contents are limited, conventional bagged jelly foods prevent consumers from tearing the film in a straight line when opening the packaging bag. If I wasn't conscious of it, the film would not be torn in a straight line, but would be torn diagonally. When the film is torn diagonally, a large opening is formed, and when the packaging bag is crushed, the konjac-containing jelly becomes a large lump and is forced out all at once. As a result, there is a high possibility that the jelly containing konjac will be swallowed without chewing.

According to the present invention, when opening a packaging bag, an opening of a desired size is formed by tearing the film linearly in a desired direction without the consumer being conscious of tearing the film linearly. As a result, one of the objects is to provide a packaged jelly food which can prevent jelly containing konjac from popping out of the opening at once and clogging the throat due to swallowing without chewing.

The jelly food of the present invention is a bagged jelly food comprising a packaging bag formed from a film and a konjac-containing jelly sealed in the packaging bag.
The packaging bag is configured to be opened by tearing the film at a position where the konjac-containing jelly passes through the enclosing part,
The film is characterized by having a layer structure of uniaxially stretched polypropylene film/gas barrier layer/heat seal layer.

According to the present invention, by using a film with a specific structure as the film, an opening of a desired size can be formed without the consumer having to be conscious of tearing the film linearly when opening the package, and as a result, It is possible to prevent jelly containing konjac from popping out of the opening at once and getting stuck in the throat due to swallowing without chewing.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a jelly food product according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a side view of a jelly food product according to one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the measurement of the opening circumference of a packaging bag. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of one form of film used in the jelly food shown in FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a front view of a jelly food product according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the tab remaining when the packaging bag is opened. 1 is a table showing the opening test results of Sample 1, which is a bag-packed jelly food produced using a three-layer film of uniaxially stretched PP/K-Ny/LLDPE. It is a photograph of several samples 1 near the opening after opening. It is a table of the opening test results of Sample 2, which is a bag-packed jelly food manufactured using a three-layer film of biaxially stretched PP/K-Ny/LLDPE. It is a photograph of several samples 2 near the opening after opening. 2 is a normal distribution curve of the opening circumference in the opening test of Sample 1 and Sample 2.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, front and side views of a bagged jelly food product 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention are shown. The bagged jelly food 100 includes a packaging bag 110 made of a film having heat-adhesive properties and a konjac jelly 120 filled and sealed inside the packaging bag 110, and when viewed from the side, it has the following shape in FIG. As shown, it is flat as a whole.

The packaging bag 110 has a heat-sealed portion 111 formed by heat-sealing a folded film or two films placed facing each other at their outer edges, and is not heat-sealed. The blank part is an enclosing part 112 in which konjac-containing jelly 120 is filled and enclosed. As the film, not only the above-mentioned sheet-like film but also a tube-shaped blown film can be used.

The packaging bag 110 can be opened by tearing the film. Therefore, a notch 113 is formed in the packaging bag 110 to indicate the position at which the film starts to be torn when the packaging bag 110 is opened. The notch 113 is formed at a position where, when the film is torn for opening, the film passes through the enclosing part 112 and the tearing of the film progresses, as shown by the broken line in FIG. By forming the notch 113, a tab 114 is formed in the packaging bag 110, which serves as a "knob" when tearing the film. When the packaging bag 110 is opened by tearing the film from the notch 113, the tab 114 is separated from the packaging bag 110. The part where the film is torn through the enclosing part 112 becomes an opening. Before the packaging bag 110 is opened, the opening can be said to be a portion that passes through the enclosing part 112 when the film is torn. After an opening is formed by tearing the film, the konjac-containing jelly 120 is extruded from the opening by crushing the packaging bag 110.

In FIG. 1, notches 113 are formed on both sides in the width direction at the upper end of the packaging bag 110 as an opening assist structure that indicates the starting position of tearing the film when opening, but the notches 113 are formed only on one side. You can leave it there. The opening assisting structure is not limited to the notch 113, but may also be, for example, a notch, a recess formed by recessing with respect to the outer shape of the packaging bag, or a mark printed on the packaging bag 110. good. However, by forming the opening auxiliary structure as the notch 113 or notch, the opening auxiliary structure and the tab 114 can be formed at the same time, and when the film is torn for opening, stress will be applied to the tip of the notch 113 or the notch. Due to the concentration, tearing of the film begins with less force. Note that it is possible to tear the film even without a structure indicating the tear start position, so this structure indicating the tear start position is not an essential configuration for the present invention.

The konjac-containing jelly 120 is obtained by solidifying a jelly solution containing a gelling agent and the like by the action of the gelling agent. The jelly solution contains konjac powder, so that the obtained konjac-containing jelly 120 has a unique texture with high elasticity.

The physical properties of the konjac-containing jelly 120 having such a unique texture can be expressed, for example, as "hardness" and "elasticity." The "hardness" and "elasticity" of the konjac-containing jelly 120 can be measured using, for example, a rheometer. Specifically, a plunger is pushed at a constant speed into a sample (konjac-containing jelly 120) placed on a sample stage, and the load amount (gf) and strain rate (compressibility) (%) are calculated when the sample loses resistance and breaks. ) are "hardness" and "elasticity", respectively.

The "hardness" of the konjac-containing jelly 120 used in the present invention is preferably 80 to 1000 gf, more preferably 400 to 500 gf, and the "elasticity" is preferably 30 to 60%, more preferably 45 to 55%. be. However, the above values were measured using a rheometer manufactured by Yamaden Co., Ltd. (product number: RE-33005C) in an atmosphere at room temperature (e.g., temperature 24°C, humidity 38%). This is the value when the sample is compressed at a speed of 1 mm/sec with the dimensions of the tip surface being 1 mm in width and 30 mm in length.

Furthermore, since the konjac-containing jelly 120 is filled and sealed in the packaging bag 110 in the state of a jelly solution and then solidified, the konjac-containing jelly 120 has the shape of the enclosing portion 112 of the packaging bag 110 as a whole. It has almost the same shape. Preferably, no air bubbles are present within the enclosure 112.

What is important in the present invention is that when the film is torn for opening, the opening is formed in a stable size without having to be conscious of tearing in a straight line; in other words, the direction in which the film is torn is specified. The goal is to be stable in this direction and to be torn in a straight line. Here, "the opening is formed with a stable size" means that when openings are formed by tearing the film for multiple samples, the circumference of the opening (hereinafter referred to as "opening circumference") ) means that the variation is small. Specifically, a coefficient of variation (so-called CV value) can be cited as an index representing variation. The coefficient of variation is preferably less than 0.05, more preferably 0.04 or less.

Here, the "opening circumference" refers to the entire circumference in the circumferential direction of the part of the broken surface of the film that forms the opening (therefore, does not include the heat-sealed part) in a packaging bag that has been opened by tearing the film. That's what I mean. However, the actual measurement is performed according to the procedure described below with reference to FIG. 3.

First, the contents are pushed out from the opened packaging bag to flatten the packaging bag. Next, the tearing start point SP and tearing end point EP of the portion of the torn edge of the torn film that does not include the heat sealing portion 111 and passing through the enclosing portion 112 are determined, and these tearing starting point SP and the pulling end point EP are determined. Measure the length of the connecting line segments. Next, the packaging bag is turned over, and the length of the line segment connecting the tearing start point SP and the tearing end point EP is similarly measured on the back side of the packaging bag. Then, the value obtained by adding the length of the line segment measured on the front side and the length of the line segment measured on the back side is defined as the "opening circumference length."

By forming the opening with a stable size, when pushing out the konjac-containing jelly from the opening, the konjac-containing jelly can be pushed out with an appropriate force and without jumping out from the opening all at once.

In order to form an opening with a stable size, it is important to decide what kind of film to use as the film constituting the packaging bag. FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of a film used to construct a packaging bag in the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the film 200 has a structure in which a heat seal layer 201, a gas barrier layer 202, and a polypropylene layer 203 are laminated in this order.

The heat-sealing layer 201 imparts heat-sealing properties to the film, and may contain, but is not particularly limited to, a polyolefin resin. Examples of polyolefin resins include high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), and ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer ( EAA), ethylene-methyl acrylate copolymer (EMA), ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer (EEA), ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer (EMMA), ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer (EMAA), and At least one member selected from the group consisting of polypropylene (PP) can be used. Among these, PP, LDPE, and LLDPE can be preferably used as the heat seal layer 201.

The gas barrier layer 202 is for imparting gas barrier properties to the film, and can be made of, for example, nylon, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), or the like. These may be used alone or in a stack of two or more. Among these, nylon can be preferably used because it can impart puncture resistance, heat resistance, flame retardance, chemical resistance, cold resistance, etc. to the film 200. Further, as the gas barrier layer 202, an aluminum vapor-deposited film, a silica vapor-deposited film, an aluminum oxide vapor-deposited film, etc. can also be used.

For the polypropylene layer 203, a uniaxially stretched polypropylene film is used. The polypropylene film is used so that the stretching direction is parallel to the width direction of the packaging bag to be manufactured. In this way, by laminating the polypropylene layer 203 made of a uniaxially stretched polypropylene film on the heat seal layer 201 and gas barrier layer 202, when the film is torn, it can be torn in a straight line without having to be conscious of tearing in a straight line. As a result, the opening can be formed with a desired circumferential length and with smaller variations.

The bagged jelly food 100 of this embodiment can be manufactured, for example, as follows.

First, a konjac-containing jelly solution containing a gelling agent and konjac powder is prepared as in the case of making a normal konjac-containing jelly. In addition to the gelling agent and konjac powder, sugars, fruit juice, flavoring agents, acidulants, coloring agents, and the like can be added to the konjac-containing jelly solution as necessary.

Next, the prepared konjac-containing jelly solution is heat sterilized. Heat sterilization can be performed by any method, such as using a tube-type heat sterilizer. Sterilization conditions can be, for example, 120 to 140°C for about 3 minutes.

After sterilization, the konjac-containing jelly solution is cooled to about 60 to 70° C. by a cooling device, and then filled and packaged using an appropriate filling and packaging machine. The filling packaging is preferably aseptic packaging in which packaging is performed in an aseptic environment using sterilized contents (jelly solution containing konjac in the case of the present invention) and sterilized packaging material (film in the case of the present invention). . Thereby, a packaging bag 110 filled with the konjac-containing jelly solution is obtained.

Next, the packaging bag 110 filled with the jelly solution is cooled to 25° C. or lower to solidify the jelly solution. As a result, a jelly food 100 as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained, in which a konjac-containing jelly 120 is filled and sealed in a packaging bag 110.

Here, an example was shown in which the konjac-containing jelly solution is sterilized and then filled and packaged, but the konjac-containing jelly solution may also be sterilized after being filled and packaged.

Considering that when a consumer eats the konjac-containing jelly 120, there is a possibility that the consumer may put the opening-opened part of the packaging bag 110 into their mouth, the heat-sealed part 111 and The overall width W1 (see FIG. 1) including the opening is preferably 30 mm or less. Furthermore, the width W2 of the opening formed by tearing the film (see FIG. 1) may be a length that allows the konjac-filled jelly 120 to be pushed out within the range of the length at which the film is torn for opening. There are no particular restrictions. However, if the width W2 of the opening is too short, the konjac-filled jelly 120 cannot be pushed out from the opening, and if the width W2 of the opening is too long, a large amount of the konjac-filled jelly 120 may be pushed out at once. There is sex. Therefore, it is preferable that the width W2 of the opening is, for example, 8 to 20 mm. In addition, in FIG. 1, when the film is torn at the position of the notch 113, if the film is torn in a straight line in the width direction of the packaging bag 110, the opening circumference will be the width W2×2 of the opening.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the packaging bag 110 has an opening width W2 narrower than a width W3 of the main enclosing part 112a, which is the part that mainly encloses the konjac-containing jelly 120. Therefore, when the konjac-containing jelly 120 is extruded, movement of the konjac-containing jelly 120 from the main enclosing part 112a to the opening is restricted.

On the other hand, in the packaging bag 110, the konjac-containing jelly 120 exists as one lump, and the konjac-containing jelly 120 has elasticity derived from konjac. Thereby, the konjac-containing jelly 120 is compressed when being pushed out from the opening, and is pushed out without being separated while being partially torn off.

As a result, even if the opened packaging bag is strongly crushed or the konjac-containing jelly 120 is strongly sucked, the konjac-containing jelly 120 will not fly out from the opening as a large lump. In order to eat the extruded konjac-containing jelly 120, it is necessary to bite it off with your teeth. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the konjac-containing jelly 120 pushed out from the packaging bag 110 from jumping into the consumer's mouth as a large lump and getting stuck in the throat due to being swallowed without chewing. Moreover, in order to eat the konjac-filled jelly 120 pushed out from the packaging bag 110, it is necessary to bite off the konjac-filled jelly 120, so the unique texture of the konjac-filled jelly 120 can be enjoyed.

As described above, the packaging bag 110 of the present embodiment is configured such that the width W2 of the opening is narrower than the width W3 of the main enclosing part 112a to suppress movement of the konjac-containing jelly 120 that is pushed out from the opening. However, if the width W2 of the opening is extremely narrow, it becomes difficult to push out the konjac-containing jelly 120. Therefore, for example, as in the present embodiment, the enclosing part 112 is arranged between the main enclosing part 112a and the opening, from the width W3 of the main enclosing part 112a to the width W2 of the opening. It is preferable to form the lead-out portions 112b so as to gradually become narrower. Thereby, even if the width W2 of the opening is narrow, the konjac-containing jelly 120 can be easily pushed out.

Although the present invention has been described above using a preferred embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above-described form, and can be arbitrarily modified within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

In the embodiment described above, an example is shown in which the present invention is applied to a three-sided seal type packaging bag 110. However, the form of the packaging bag may be a four-sided seal type packaging bag 210 as shown in FIG. 5, or a pillow type packaging bag (not shown). Furthermore, a gusseted packaging bag such as a gusset type or a standing type may be used.

The outer shape of the packaging bag 110 is arbitrary, for example, it may be a triangle, a quadrangle, a pentagon, or more polygon, a shape surrounded only by curves such as a circle or an ellipse, or a shape that is a combination of straight lines and curves. It may be. The shape of the enclosing portion 112 can also be any shape, such as a shape similar to the outer shape of the packaging bag or a shape different from the outer shape of the packaging bag when the packaging bag is viewed from the front.

Examples of experiments conducted to confirm the effects of the present invention will be described below.

<Experiment example 1>
[Preparation of film]
A three-layer film having the following layer structure was prepared as a film used for the packaging bag.
Polypropylene layer: uniaxially stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 25 μm)
Gas barrier layer: K (PVDC) coated nylon film (thickness: 15 μm)
Heat seal layer: LLDPE (thickness: 50μm)

[Manufacture of bagged jelly food]
The prepared film and the konjac-containing jelly solution prepared in advance are fed to a filling and packaging machine (manufactured by Orihiro Co., Ltd., ONPACK-TPC6) to produce a packaging bag filled with the konjac-containing jelly solution, and then the konjac-containing jelly solution is supplied. By gelatinizing the solution, a bag of konjac-containing jelly food (hereinafter referred to as "Sample 1") was obtained. The konjac-containing jelly solution used was a mixture of the same materials in the same proportions as the konjac-containing jelly solution for obtaining konjac-containing jelly commercially available from Orihiro Plandue Co., Ltd. The konjac-containing jelly solution was sterilized at 80° C. for about 30 minutes after the konjac-containing jelly solution was filled and packaged. The film was supplied to a filling and packaging machine so that the stretching direction was parallel to the width direction of the packaging bag. The shape of the packaging bag was as shown in FIG. The obtained bag-packed jelly food had an inner capacity of 20 g, and the dimensions of each part shown in FIG. 1 were W1 = 26 mm, W2 = 16 mm, and W3 = 42 mm.

[Opening test]
Fifty samples were taken from Sample 1, and five test subjects A to E conducted an opening test of 10 samples each. The packaged jelly food was opened by holding the heat-sealed portion 111 with both hands above and below the notch 113 in FIG. 1, and tearing the film in the width direction of the packaging bag 110. When opening the package, the subjects were simply told to ``open the package normally,'' but were not given any instructions such as ``tear it straight.'' The tearing speed of the film was approximately 1 cm/sec, although there were individual differences.

In the opening test, the "opening circumference" and "tab remaining" were evaluated. The "opening circumference" was measured according to the procedure described above (unit: mm). "Tab residue" may occur when the tearing direction of the film is not stable, and the presence or absence of this (the number of samples in which tab residue has occurred) was used as an indicator of linear tearability.

“Tab remaining” will be explained below. If the tearing of the film progresses to the heat-sealed part on the opposite side from the opening start side when the packaging bag is opened, the heat-sealed part may create a large resistance at that part. For example, when the film is torn in the direction of the white arrow in Figure 6, the tearing progresses on the front side of the packaging bag as shown by the one-dot chain line, and the tearing progresses on the back side film as shown by the two-dot chain line. think of. In this case, the film is torn along different routes on the front side and the back side, passes through the enclosing part 112, and reaches the heat-sealed part 111 on the side opposite to the opening start side at different positions R and S, respectively. Therefore, in the heat-sealed portion 111, the force for tearing the film is distributed to two locations, and as a result, a force larger than usual is required to tear the film. In this experimental example, if a large resistance force was felt while tearing the film, the tearing was interrupted and it was determined that "tab residue" had occurred.

<Experiment example 2>
A bagged jelly food was produced in the same manner as in Experimental Example 1, except that a three-layer film having the following layer structure was used as the film used for the packaging bag, and the obtained bagged jelly food (hereinafter referred to as "Sample 2") ), an opening test was conducted to measure the "opening circumference" and check for the presence or absence of "tab residue."

The structure of the film used in Experimental Example 2 was as follows.
Polypropylene layer: biaxially stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 25 μm)
Gas barrier layer: K (PVDC) coated nylon film (thickness: 15 μm)
Heat seal layer: LLDPE (thickness: 50μm)

FIG. 7 shows the measurement results of the opening circumference and the confirmation results of the presence or absence of remaining tabs in the opening test of Sample 1, and FIG. 8 shows photographs of the vicinity of the openings of some of the opened Samples 1. Similarly, for Sample 2, the measurement results of the opening circumference and the confirmation results of the presence or absence of remaining tabs are shown in FIG. 9, and a photograph of the vicinity of the opening is shown in FIG. Further, the normal distribution curves of the aperture circumferences of Sample 1 and Sample 2 are shown in FIG.

From these results, the following can be said.
(1) Sample 1 was torn straight throughout, and almost no tab remained except for one test subject. The incidence of remaining tabs was 14% overall, but when one specific subject was excluded, it was 5%. In addition, since it was torn straight, the variation in opening circumference was small.
(2) Compared to Sample 1, Sample 2 had an unstable tearing direction and was often torn in a wavy manner. Therefore, the incidence of remaining tabs was as high as 80% or more overall, and 50% even for the lowest test subject, and as is clear from FIG. 11, the variation in opening circumference was also large compared to Sample 1.
(3) The coefficient of variation of the aperture circumference was determined for each of Sample 1 and Sample 2. The coefficient of variation is a value obtained by dividing the standard deviation by the average value, and is used to relatively evaluate the relationship between data variations. The coefficient of variation for sample 1 was 0.033, and the coefficient of variation for sample 2 was 0.050.
(4) In order to verify whether there is a significant difference in the size of the variation in the aperture circumference between Sample 1 and Sample 2, we performed an F test with a significance level of 5%, and found that the limit value of the F value was 1.61, and the F value was 2.27, indicating a significant difference between Sample 1 and Sample 2.
(5) The only difference between Sample 1 and Sample 2 is whether the polypropylene layer of the film used is a uniaxially oriented polypropylene film or a biaxially oriented polypropylene film. Therefore, from the opening test results of Sample 1 and Sample 2, it can be said that the uniaxially oriented polypropylene film contributes more to the linear tearability of the film than the biaxially oriented polypropylene film.

100 Jelly food in a bag 110, 210 Packaging bag 111 Heat sealing part 112 Encapsulating part 113 Notch 114 Tab 120 Jelly containing konjac 200 Film 201 Heat sealing layer 202 Gas barrier layer 203 Polypropylene layer

Claims (7)

A packaged jelly food comprising a packaging bag formed from a film and a konjac-containing jelly sealed in the packaging bag,
The packaging bag is configured to be opened by tearing the film at a position where the konjac-containing jelly passes through the enclosing part,
The film has a layer structure of uniaxially stretched polypropylene film/gas barrier layer/heat seal layer,
The length of the entire circumference in the circumferential direction of the opening formed when the packaging bag is opened, and is the length of the front and back sides of the packaging bag when the konjac-containing jelly is extruded and flattened. When the opening circumference is the sum of the lengths of the line segments connecting the tearing start point and the drawing end point, which are measured at the part of the film's break line that passes through the enclosing part ,
A jelly food in a bag, characterized in that the coefficient of variation of the opening circumference is 0.04 or less . The bagged jelly food according to claim 1, wherein the gas barrier layer contains nylon. The bagged jelly food according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the heat-sealing layer contains linear low-density polyethylene. The bagged jelly food according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the packaging bag has an opening assisting structure that indicates a tearing position of the film when the bag is opened. The bagged jelly food according to claim 4, wherein the opening assisting structure is a notch. The bagged jelly food according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the packaging bag has a tab extending in the width direction of the packaging bag. The bagged jelly food according to claim 6, wherein the tabs are formed on both sides in the width direction of the packaging bag.

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