JPH0729838Y2 - Food sterilizer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Industrial field of application" The present invention relates to a device for sterilizing liquid food such as juice or milk by pressurizing it.

“Prior art and its problems” As is well known, sterilization of liquid foods as described above is most commonly performed by heating. However, in order to completely sterilize heat, the heating temperature and the heating are required. Time and time must be strictly controlled, and sometimes there is a possibility that sufficient sterilization is not performed or that the quality of food is deteriorated or changed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an effective sterilizing apparatus that can sterilize food without heating it.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a device for pressurizing and sterilizing a liquid food, the pressure container having the food filled therein, and the pressure container. Introducing pipe for introducing the food in, a pressure means for pressurizing the food filled in the pressure container, a discharge pipe for discharging the food from the pressure container, in the pressure container It is characterized by comprising gas blowing means for blowing gas into the bottom portion.

"Function" The sterilizer of the present invention focuses on the fact that when the food is pressurized to an extremely high pressure, the bacteria in the food cannot survive and die. The food filled therein is pressurized by a pressurizing means and kept at a high pressure, whereby sterilization is performed. After the sterilization treatment is completed, the gas is blown into the bottom of the pressure vessel by the gas blowing means to stir the food and the gas pressure causes the food to be discharged through the discharge pipe.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, a first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a press frame, 2 is a vertical bottomed cylindrical pressure vessel arranged in the press frame 1, and 3 is an upper lid that closes the upper portion of the pressure vessel 2. Further, reference numeral 4 is a pressurizing pump (pressurizing means), which pressurizes the liquid food 5 to be treated into the pressure vessel 2 through the introducing pipe 6 and the introducing hole 7 provided in the upper lid 3. With the introduction, the pressure can be increased to a high pressure, for example, about 2,000 to 4,000 kg / cm ² .

Further, the upper lid 3 has an air vent hole 9 to which an air vent tube 8 for venting air from the pressure vessel 2 is connected, and an outlet hole 10 to which an outlet tube 10 for leading out the food 5 after processing is connected.
11, gas injection pipe 12 for injecting gas into the pressure vessel 2
Are formed in the air vent pipe 8 and the blow pipe 12, and valves 14 and 15 are attached to the air vent pipe 8 and the blow pipe 12, respectively, and a check valve 16 and a pressure release valve are provided in the lead pipe 10. The valve 17 is mounted in parallel.

Further, inside the pressure vessel 2, a lead-out pipe 18 connected to the lead-out hole 11 and the blow-in hole 13 and a gas blow-in pipe 19 are connected. The lead-out pipe 18 and the gas blowing pipe 19 respectively extend from the lower surface of the upper lid 3 toward the bottom of the pressure vessel 2, and the tips thereof are located near the bottom surface.

The gas blowing pipe 12 is connected to an air supply means such as a blower or a blower (not shown), and a cleaning device such as a filter or a cleaner for cleaning the gas blown by the air supply means. The air supply means and the cleaning device constitute gas injection means together with the gas injection pipes 12 and 19.

The gas blown into the pressure vessel 2 may be any gas that is harmless and can be easily cleaned. For example, air or an inert gas may be used.

Explaining how to use the sterilizer having the above structure, first, the pressure vessel 2 is cleaned, the upper lid 3 is attached, and the pressure vessel 2 is placed inside the press frame 1. Then, while discharging air from the inside of the pressure container 2 through the air vent hole 9 and the air vent pipe 8 as indicated by the broken line arrow in the figure, the food product 5 is introduced by the pressurizing pump 4,
It is introduced into the pressure vessel 2 through the introduction hole 7, and when the food 5 is filled in the pressure vessel 2, the valve 14 is closed.
Is continuously introduced and the pressure is increased to high pressure, for example 2,000 to 4,000 Kg.
Hold at about / cm ² .

By keeping this state for a predetermined time, the bacteria in the food 5 cannot survive and die, so when the treatment is completed, the pressure release valve 17 is opened to return the pressure of the food 5 to normal pressure.

Then, the gas is purified by a cleaning device (not shown), and the gas is blown by a gas blower 12 and a blow hole.
13. Blow into the pressure vessel 2 through the gas blowing pipe 19. As a result, the blown gas floats as bubbles in the food 5 from the bottom of the pressure container 2, whereby the food 5 is agitated as shown by the solid line arrow in the figure and the pressure container 2
As the gas pressure inside increases, the gas is pushed out through the outlet pipe 18, the outlet hole 11, and the outlet pipe 10.

Since the one-step process is completed as described above, the above procedure is repeated thereafter.

According to the above sterilizer, it is possible to pressurize the food 5 to a sufficiently high pressure and obtain a sufficient sterilization effect. In addition, when the food 5 is sterilized by heating, deterioration or deterioration of the quality may occur. It never happens.

Further, in this device, the processed food 5 is pushed out by the gas, so that the inside of the pressure vessel 2 does not become a negative pressure as in the case where the food is sucked out by a pump, for example. There is no possibility that unprocessed food will flow into the container 2 and mix into the processed food, or ambient air will flow into the pressure container 2.
Therefore, contamination of the food 5 and the pressure vessel 2 can be prevented.

Moreover, in this apparatus, since the food 5 is stirred by the gas when it is pushed out from the pressure vessel 2, it is not necessary to provide a special stirring apparatus. In particular, in the case of processing a food containing solids, the solids are not contained in the pressure vessel 2 during the processing.
Since some sort of agitation means is required because it may be separated and settled on the bottom surface, according to this device, the food 5
Due to the gas floating inside, the precipitate is rolled up from the bottom of the pressure vessel 2 and is naturally mixed sufficiently.

Further, according to the above work procedure, since the treatment can be performed almost continuously without opening and closing the upper lid 3, the work efficiency is excellent and the inside of the pressure vessel 2 which is concerned when opening and closing the work is excellent. And the food 5 is not contaminated.

When the food 5 to be treated is raw water of carbonated drinking water, if carbon dioxide is used as the above gas, the raw water is sterilized and at the same time the carbon dioxide is dissolved in the raw water. Thus, carbonated drinking water can be produced.

The first embodiment has been described above. Next, the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In the apparatus of the second embodiment, a pressurizing cylinder 21 (pressurizing means) is arranged at the bottom of the press frame 20, and an upper lid is provided.
A vertical cylindrical pressure vessel 23 having 22 attached thereto is arranged, and the food 24 filled in the pressure vessel 23 is pressurized by pushing the piston 24 of the pressure cylinder 21 into the bottom portion of the pressure vessel 23. It is composed of.

The upper lid 22 is provided with an introduction hole 26 and an air vent hole 27 for the food 25, and the introduction pipe 2 is provided in each of them.
8 、 Air bleeder 29 is connected. The piston 24 of the pressurizing cylinder 21 is provided with a gas injection hole 30 and a discharge hole 31, and a gas injection pipe 32 and a discharge pipe 33 are connected to these, respectively. That is, in the device of the second embodiment, gas is blown from the bottom of the pressure vessel 23, and the processed food 25 is discharged therefrom, and the device of the first embodiment is used. The gas injection pipe 19 and the discharge pipe 18 in FIG.

Reference numerals 34 and 35 are check valves, 37 and 38 are valves, and 39 is a hydraulic pipe for operating the pressurizing cylinder 21.

In the device of the second embodiment, the introduction pipe 28 and the introduction hole 26 are provided.
After filling the pressure container 23 with the food 25 through it, the pressure cylinder 21 is operated to push the piston 24 into the pressure container 23 to pressurize the food 25 to sterilize it. Then, after the processing is completed, the gas is supplied to the pressure vessel through the blow pipe 32 and the blow hole 30.
When the gas is blown into the bottom of 23, the food 25 is stirred by the gas and pushed out of the outlet pipe 33 by the gas pressure, so that the same effect as that of the device of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[Effect of the Invention] As described in detail above, the present invention is configured to sterilize liquid food filled in the pressure container by pressurizing it by a pressurizing means, which may reduce the quality of food. Of course, a sufficient sterilizing effect can be obtained without deteriorating, and since the gas pressure is blown into the pressure vessel to push out the processed food, the pressure vessel becomes a negative pressure. Therefore, it is possible to effectively prevent the food and the pressure vessel from being contaminated, and it is possible to naturally stir the food when it is discharged without providing a special stirring means.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a sterilizing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a second embodiment. 1 ... Press frame, 2 ... Pressure vessel, 4 ... Pressure pump (pressurizing means), 5 ... Food, 6 ... Introduction pipe, 10,18
…… Outlet pipe, 12,19 …… Gas injection pipe (gas injection means), 2
0 …… press frame, 21 …… pressurizing cylinder (pressurizing means), 23 …… pressure container, 25 …… food, 28 …… introduction pipe, 32
…… Gas injection pipe, 33 …… Outlet pipe.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A device for pressurizing and sterilizing a liquid food, the pressure container having the food filled therein, an introducing pipe for introducing the food into the pressure container, and a pressure container. Pressurizing means for pressurizing the food filled inside,
A food sterilizer comprising: a discharge pipe for discharging the food from the pressure container, and a gas blowing unit for blowing a gas into a bottom portion of the pressure container.