JP7486165B2 - Food drying methods - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a food dryer that dries items such as vegetables, fruits, and sweets using an electric heater or the like as a heat source.

There is a known food dryer that dries items to be dried, such as vegetables, fruits, and sweets, placed on shelves in a drying chamber by circulating air heated by a heat source such as an electric heater through the drying chamber. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a circulation type dryer that dries plants such as fruits, mushrooms, and tobacco leaves by circulating air.

For many food manufacturers, it is common to place the items to be dried in a food dehydrator between noon and evening, start the drying operation, and remove the items from the food dehydrator the next morning for packaging. Figure 9 shows a flowchart of the work process after the drying operation using a conventional food dehydrator is completed. When the drying operation is completed (step 120), it is checked whether the items to be dried have absorbed moisture (step 121). If no moisture absorption is confirmed, all the items to be dried are removed from the drying chamber (step 123), and the items to be dried are packaged (step 124).

The end time of the drying operation depends on the start time and duration of the drying operation, so if the drying operation starts in the afternoon or evening and ends (step 120) early the next morning, the items to be dried may have absorbed moisture due to the humidity outside when employees arrive at work in the morning. In this case, after a second drying operation of about 1 to 2 hours (step 122), all the items to be dried are removed from the drying chamber (step 123) and packaged (step 124).

JP 2019-148361 A

As mentioned above, conventional food drying using food dryers is based on the assumption that re-drying operation may be necessary, and this has not been seen as an issue in the field of food drying. For example, the circulation dryer described in Patent Document 1 enables more precise and efficient control, making it possible to improve the quality of the dried material in terms of taste, flavor, and texture while reducing the heating costs required for drying (paragraph [0046] of Patent Document 1), but this is intended to improve quality, not work efficiency.

In view of the above background, the present invention aims to provide a food dryer that eliminates the need for re-drying operation and improves work efficiency.

To achieve the above object, the food dryer of the present invention is a food dryer that circulates heated air within a drying chamber to dry the food, the objects to be dried are food that will be packaged in a moisture-proof manner after the drying operation, and is equipped with a control unit with a built-in timer and an operation panel that allows the end time of the drying operation or the start time of the drying operation to be set, and by setting the time, it is possible to know in advance the end time of the drying operation, so that the packaging can be done immediately after the drying operation ends, and a re-drying operation after the drying operation can be omitted. With this configuration, the objects to be dried can be packaged immediately after the drying operation ends, before they absorb moisture, making a re-drying operation unnecessary and improving work efficiency.

In the food dryer of the present invention, the control unit preferably stores an operating program corresponding to the material to be dried, the operating program can be selected by operating the operation panel, and the total time for drying operation according to the selected operating program is preferably displayed on the operation panel. With this configuration, the operator can easily know the total time for drying operation, making calculations for time setting easier.

The effects of the present invention are as described above. Immediately after the drying operation is completed, the objects to be dried can be packaged before they absorb moisture, eliminating the need for a second drying operation and improving work efficiency.

1 is an external perspective view of a food dehydrator according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the food dehydrator shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from the rear side. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing signal exchange in a food dryer according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a stored program stored in a control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of settings of a stored program according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of an operation panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a flowchart showing the process steps from start to finish in one embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of starting a timer according to an embodiment of the present invention. 13 is a flowchart of a work process after completion of a drying operation using a conventional food dryer.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of a food dryer 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is an external perspective view of the food dryer 1 shown in Fig. 1, seen from the rear side. A door 3 and casters 4 are attached to a main body 2, which is a box body. Inside the main body 2 is a drying chamber 5, and a number of shelves 6 are arranged in the vertical direction of the drying chamber 5. Each shelf 6 is placed on a support plate 7, and the shelf 6 can be removed from the main body 2 by pulling the shelf 6 forward.

Although not shown, an electric heater and a blower are installed on the top of the main body 2. Drying operation is performed with the door 3 closed. The entire bottom surface of the shelf 6 is meshed, allowing air to pass through the bottom surface of the shelf 6. The electric heater may be, for example, a sheath heater, and the blower may be an axial fan or a sirocco fan. In addition, although the present embodiment will be described using an example in which an electric heater is used as the heat source, the heat source may also be a burner fueled by kerosene or gas, or a steam heater.

Air is introduced into the drying chamber 5 through the air intake 8 by the rotation of the blower, and then heated by an electric heater. The air then passes through the shelves 6 from the side to the top, and the air that has circulated through the drying chamber 5 is exhausted through the exhaust vent 9 shown in Figure 2. As this air circulation is repeated, the items to be dried on the shelves 6 are dried.

The upper part of the main body 8 is provided with an operation panel 10, which allows various inputs and displays various information. In this embodiment, the operation panel 10 is a touch panel that can be operated by directly touching the LCD screen, but is not limited to this. Details of operations using the operation panel 10 will be described later with reference to FIG. 6.

The objects to be dried by the food dryer 1 are vegetables, fruits, tea, Japanese sweets and Western sweets. Examples of vegetables include shiitake mushrooms, radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, and komatsuna. Examples of fruits include persimmons, mangoes, raisins, figs, apples, mandarin oranges, and strawberries. Examples of tea include herbs, turmeric, angelica tree, and bamboo grass. Examples of Japanese sweets include amber, sweetened azuki beans, and rice crackers. Examples of Western sweets include peels, rusks, and fruit pound cake.

These items to be dried are foods whose quality is affected by moisture absorption, and are packaged in moisture-proof packaging after the drying operation is completed. For this reason, if the items absorb moisture when left after drying, they will need to be re-dried. As will be explained in detail later, the food dryer 1 of the present invention was developed with the aim of eliminating the need for re-drying, and is suitable for drying items whose quality is affected by moisture absorption, such as those mentioned above.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing signal exchange in the food dryer 1. Figure 4 is a diagram showing a stored program stored in the control unit 20 shown in Figure 3, and Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of the settings of the stored program. In Figure 3, the operation panel 10 has an input unit 11 and a display unit 12. Details will be explained later with reference to Figure 6, but the input unit 11 is where the operator enters information, and the display unit 12 is where operation settings and the like are displayed according to the input contents.

In FIG. 3, the control unit 20 is composed of a control board equipped with a microcomputer, and controls the operation of the blower 31 and heater 32 in response to commands from the operation panel 10 and signals from the temperature sensor 30. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 20 stores operation programs corresponding to the objects to be dried. In FIG. 3, when the operator selects the object to be dried using the input unit 11 of the operation panel 10, the control unit 20 executes the program operation 22 corresponding to the object to be dried that has been input.

As shown in an example in Figure 5, the operation program divides the total drying time into multiple stages, and the temperature and drying time in the drying chamber 5 at each stage are preset according to the object to be dried. In Figure 3, the control unit 20 executes temperature control 21 in response to a signal from the temperature sensor 30, while controlling the operation of the blower 31 and heater 32, and executes program operation 22 according to the operation program.

The control unit 20 has a built-in timer, and is also capable of executing timer operation 23. The operator selects whether or not to use timer operation 23 using the input unit 11 of the operation panel 10, and can set the drying end time or drying start time. For example, if the drying end time is set, the control unit 20 will end the drying operation at the drying end time, and will start program operation 22 after a predetermined standby time has elapsed. Details of timer operation 23 will be explained later with reference to FIG. 8.

Figure 6 shows an example of the display screen of the operation panel 10. By pressing the program selection button 13, an operating program according to the material to be dried can be selected. In the example of Figure 6, "Shiitake mushrooms (sliced)" is displayed in the program display section 14, which corresponds to the first program shown in Figure 4.

The setting display unit 15 displays the set temperature and drying time in the drying chamber 5 at each stage for the program operation when the object to be dried is shiitake mushrooms (sliced). This display corresponds to the operation program shown in Figure 5, and when an operation program for an object to be dried other than shiitake mushrooms (sliced) is selected, the contents of the selected operation program are displayed.

The total time display 16 shows that the total time of the programmed operation is 12 hours. Pressing the start button 17 starts the drying operation, which ends after 12 hours have elapsed. On the other hand, when the timer start button 18 is pressed, the operation does not start immediately, and the display screen of the operation panel 10 switches to the timer setting screen.

The timer setting screen (not shown) may be one that allows at least one of the drying end time and drying start time to be set. The drying end time may be input by inputting the drying end time, or may be the time T until the drying operation ends (drying operation ends after T hours). The drying start time may be input by inputting the drying start time, or may be the time T until the drying operation starts (drying operation starts after T hours).

Below, with reference to Figure 7, the operation using the food dehydrator 1 will be explained in the order of steps. Figure 7 is a flow chart showing the order of steps from start to finish of the operation. At the start of the operation, the items to be dried are placed on the shelf 6 (see Figure 1) (step 100). Steps 101 to 104 are steps related to operations using the operation panel 10 (see Figures 1 and 6). This figure shows the case where timer start (18 in Figure 6) is selected; if timer start is not selected, the time setting step 103 is omitted, and step 104 becomes start (17 in Figure 5).

The operator presses the program selection button 13 (see FIG. 6) to select an operation program that corresponds to the objects to be dried placed on the shelf 6 (step 101). This selection causes the total time for the program operation to be displayed on the total time display unit 16 (see FIG. 6) (step 102). The operator sets the drying end time or drying start time taking into account this displayed time (step 103).

Below, timer start will be explained with reference to FIG. 8. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an embodiment of timer start. This figure is a diagram showing the time series from timer start (step 104) in FIG. 7 to the end of the drying operation (step 105). In this embodiment, the object to be dried is shiitake mushrooms (sliced), and the screen in FIG. 6 is displayed on the operation panel 10 when the timer is started. In addition, the time when the timer is started is 5:00 PM, and the operator's desired time for the end of the drying operation (step 105) is 9:00 AM the following day. 9:00 AM is the start time of work for the day.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, the drying operation will end 16 hours after the timer starts. On the other hand, as shown in the total time display section 16 in FIG. 6, the total time of the drying operation is 12 hours. Therefore, if the drying operation is started immediately, it will end 4 hours before the desired end time of the drying operation.

Therefore, to end the drying operation at the desired time, it is necessary to start the operation four hours after the timer starts. In this embodiment, since the drying end time or drying start time can be set, it is possible to end the drying operation at the desired time. If the drying end time is input by inputting the drying end time, then if 9:00 a.m. is input as the drying end time, the current time of 5:00 p.m. and the total drying operation time of 12 hours are known, so the control unit 20 calculates the 16 hours until the end of the drying operation, and subtracts the total drying operation time of 12 hours from 16 hours to derive the standby time of 4 hours.

When setting the timer start time as described above, the operator must perform calculations to calculate the input time, but these calculations are not complicated and do not place a burden on the operator. In addition, because calculations are required by the operator, a simple control board is sufficient, which helps to reduce the increase in costs associated with adding a timer start function.

In this case, in FIG. 8, when the timer is started (step 104), the drying operation starts at 9:00 PM (step 104b) after a four-hour wait (step 104a). The drying operation continues thereafter (step 104c) and ends at 9:00 AM after 12 hours, which is the set time for the drying operation, have elapsed. As mentioned above, 9:00 AM is the start time for work on a given day. Since the worker knows in advance that the drying operation will end at 9:00 AM, he or she can remove the objects to be dried (step 106 in FIG. 7) immediately after the drying operation ends, and can then perform packaging work for the objects to be dried (step 107 in FIG. 7).

In this embodiment, the objects to be dried can be packaged immediately after the drying operation is completed, before the objects absorb moisture, eliminating the need for a re-drying operation (step 122) as shown in FIG. 9 and improving work efficiency.

In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the drying end time of 9:00 AM was input, but it is also possible to input the time until the drying operation ends (16 hours in the embodiment of FIG. 8), the drying start time (9:00 PM in the embodiment of FIG. 8), or the time until the drying operation starts (4 hours in the embodiment of FIG. 8).

The above describes one embodiment of the present invention and one example, but these are merely examples and may be modified as appropriate. For example, the content of the drying operation program shown in FIG. 5 may be simplified by reducing the number of steps, or conversely, may be more finely controlled by incorporating intermittent operation. Also, the time displayed on the total time display unit 16 in FIG. 6 only needs to be known, and does not necessarily need to be displayed.

1 Food dehydrator 6 Shelf 10 Operation panel 13 Program selection button 16 Total time display section 18 Timer start button 20 Control section

Claims (1)

A food drying method using a food dryer that circulates heated air through a drying chamber to dry the food,
The object to be dried is food that will be packaged in a moisture-proof manner after the drying operation.
The food dryer comprises:
A control unit having a built-in timer;
and an operation panel that allows the user to set a drying end time or a drying start time,
By setting the time, the end time of the drying operation can be known in advance, so that the packaging is performed immediately after the drying operation is completed, and a re-drying operation after the drying operation is eliminated.
A food drying method characterized in that the control unit stores an operating program corresponding to the material to be dried, the operating program can be selected by operating the operation panel, and the total time of drying operation using the selected operating program is displayed on the operation panel .

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