JPH07327589A - Citrus preservation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the subject device capable of quickly regulating humidity by suppressing the temperature variation in a refrigerator as small as possible to prevent developing dew condensation on the surface of the peel of citrus fruits during their refrigeration. CONSTITUTION:Inside a refrigerator 1 equipped with a chiller 2, a square tent- shaped cover 3 made of polyvinyl chloride sheet covering airtightly citrus fruits held in small-sized plastic containers A each having vent holes is suspended by a wire 5, a temperature/humidity conditioner 9 equipped with a chiller 7 and a humidifier 8 is placed midway of conditioned air circulating channels 6a, 6b, and conditioned air G regulated in both temperature and humidity is fed from this conditioner 9 into the inner space under the cover 3. A wire 11 vertically woundly movable through a motor 10 is attached to the lower end of the cover 3, and this lower end is brought into or out of contact with the floor surface 4 to control the humidity in the space under the cover 3 in a state of small temperature variation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a storage device for citrus fruits provided in a refrigerator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is generally known that when citrus fruits are stored in a refrigerated state for a long period of 2 to 3 months or more, the citrus fruits are physiologically damaged and susceptible to tiger spot disease and the like.

Further, since a cooler for supplying cold air to the refrigerator usually performs dehumidifying action at the same time as cooling, the refrigerating atmosphere is likely to be in a low humidity state of 70% or less in humidity, and citrus fruits are dried in this atmosphere. It is also known that freshness will drop in a short period of time.

In order to prevent the problem of the refrigerated state of fruits and vegetables caused by low humidity, a tent for covering an object is provided in the refrigerator, and a cooler is installed outside the tent to prevent humidity in the tent. A storage device which constantly holds 90% or more is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-17946.

Further, CA storage (Controlled At) is used, in which conditioned air having adjusted components is used as a storage gas to preserve fruits and vegetables for a long time while maintaining their freshness.
A method called moss storage is known. This method suppresses the respiration of fruits and vegetables during storage by using conditioned air in which the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations are controlled to be lower than their partial pressures in normal air, and extends the storage period in which their freshness and quality can be maintained.

[0006]

However, in the conventional storage apparatus for fruits and vegetables, in which air or conditioned air is introduced into the refrigerator as described above, and further, a tent for covering the stored object is provided, the citrus fruits are stored in long. When stored for a long period of time, a large amount of water evaporates from the citrus peel portion, and the humidity inside the storage chamber becomes too high, which causes dew condensation on the surface of the citrus fruits, which causes spoilage and peeling. is there. Such a problem is further promoted if the temperature distribution in the refrigerator is not uniform.

When the humidity in the refrigerator becomes excessive,
It is considered that it is sufficient to introduce dry outside air, but this does not stabilize the refrigeration temperature and cannot be said to be in a good storage state.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to make it possible to quickly adjust the humidity condition in the refrigerator to a state suitable for citrus fruits, and at that time, the change in refrigerating temperature is possible. The object of the present invention is to provide a storage device for citrus fruits which is made smaller in size and does not cause dew condensation on the surface of the citrus fruits.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, a storage device for citrus fruits is provided with a cover made of an airtight sheet for covering the citrus fruits in a refrigerator containing the citrus fruits. The atmosphere inside the refrigerator and the atmosphere outside the cover inside the refrigerator communicate with each other through a regulated air circulation path through a temperature / humidity adjusting device, and the cover has an opening through which the atmosphere inside and outside can be ventilated and its opening / closing means. That is, the configuration with is adopted.

In addition, a tent-like cover made of a flexible airtight sheet for covering the citrus is provided in the refrigerator containing the citrus, and the tent-like cover having an opening on the lower surface is provided, and the atmosphere inside the cover and the outside of the cover inside the refrigerator. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the atmosphere is communicated with a regulated air circulation path via a temperature / humidity regulator, and an opening / closing device is provided to move the lower end of the cover up and down to bring it into and out of contact with the floor surface.

The conditioned air preferably comprises 90 to 98% nitrogen, 1.7 to 10.0% oxygen, and 0.2 to 0.4% carbon dioxide.

[0012]

Since the storage apparatus for citrus fruits according to the present invention is provided with the cover made of the airtight sheet for covering the citrus fruits to be contained in the refrigerator, the cold air supplied to the refrigerator from the existing cooling machine is citrus fruits. Prevents direct contact and prevents excessive cooling.

In addition, the storage device can supply a relatively small amount of a regulated atmosphere to the inside of the cover to quickly fill the surroundings of the citrus with an appropriate atmosphere, so that the operation efficiency is high and the inside of the cover is good. The temperature and humidity distributions are consistent and stable, and it is difficult for dew to form on the surface of citrus fruits.

When an atmosphere adjusted to have a relatively high humidity at a predetermined refrigerating temperature is supplied from the temperature / humidity adjusting device to the inside of the cover, an atmosphere having a relatively low humidity at the refrigerating temperature exists outside the cover. Therefore, if you open the opening of the cover by the opening and closing means and ventilate the atmosphere inside and outside the cover,
Humidity around citrus fruits can be quickly reduced by reducing the temperature change.

In the invention in which the cover is made of a flexible sheet material, the inside and outside of the cover can be ventilated very quickly by elevating and lowering the lower end of the cover to bring it into and out of contact with the floor surface of the refrigerator.

In the citrus preservation apparatus described above, when the partial pressures of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, which are the components of the conditioned air, are adjusted to a predetermined partial pressure, the respiration rate of the stored citrus fruits is further reduced, and sugar and acid There is no change, and decay and rind are less likely to occur, and citrus fruits can be stored in a more preferable refrigerated state.

[0017]

EXAMPLES The citrus fruits to be preserved in the present invention are not particularly limited in kind, and the citrus genus Citrus and the kumquat genus Fortun belonging to the citrus subfamily of the Rutaceae family are not particularly limited.
Any fruit may be used as long as it belongs to ella and Poncilus genus. Of these, the citrus genus is the main one.

As a flexible and airtight sheet material for airtightly covering such citrus fruits, a synthetic resin sheet such as vinyl chloride or polyethylene, or a thick cloth can be adopted. Also, when the cover is made of a material with low flexibility, the ventilation opening is cut out at a key part of the cover, and the lid for covering the opening is formed by a separate airtight sheet. Well-known opening / closing means such as lifting or sliding the lid to open / close can be adopted.

The conditioned air of citrus used in the present invention is not particularly limited in its composition, and air (usually nitrogen 78
%, Oxygen 21%, carbon dioxide 0.03%, and other rare gas 0.97%) can be used as they are, or the partial pressure of air components can be adjusted. Examples of components of the latter conditioned air include nitrogen 90 to 98%, oxygen 1.7 to 10.0%, carbon dioxide 0.2 to 0.4% (%
It has been found that the citrus fruits are particularly well-preserved by using those prepared in a molar ratio or volume%).

The reason for limiting the component ratio of the above-mentioned air is that if the nitrogen content in the conditioned air is less than 90%, the respiration rate cannot be sufficiently suppressed and the freshness tends to decrease, while if it exceeds 98%, it becomes citrus. This is because the required breathing volume cannot be secured at the minimum.

If the oxygen content in the conditioned air is less than 1.7%, the citrus fruits are likely to rot, and if the oxygen content in the conditioned air is more than 10.0%, the respiration rate becomes excessively large and freshness cannot be maintained.

Carbon dioxide in the conditioned air is 0.2%
If it is less than, the effect of respiratory depression becomes low, which is not preferable,
A large amount exceeding 0.4% is not preferable because a buoyancy phenomenon in which the stored citrus fruit and the skin are separated easily occurs.

The temperature of the conditioned air is preferably 1-5 ° C. This is because if the temperature of the regulated air is set to less than 1 ° C, there is a risk that the fruit may have a low temperature disorder due to an internal compartment where the temperature is 0 ° C or less due to the relationship between the accuracy of the instrument and the temperature distribution in the refrigerator. On the other hand, if it exceeds 5 ° C, the rate of fruit spoilage increases under the condition that the storage period exceeds 3 months, which is not preferable.

The humidity condition of the adjusted air is 82 to 90.
% Is preferably adjusted. Especially preferred humidity is 85
%. As described above, the preferable humidity condition varies depending on the temperature condition described above, and thus it is difficult to describe it as a single condition. However, even in a relatively low temperature condition of the temperature range, the low humidity condition is less than 82%. In this case, tiger spot disease which is a physiological disorder is likely to occur, which is not preferable. Further, even under relatively high temperature conditions, high humidity of more than 90% is not preferable because gray mold, black rot, and skin are likely to occur.

The refrigerator according to the present invention may be an ordinary food refrigeration / freezing facility or a food storage facility such as a refrigeration / freezing container provided with a heat insulating material, and the refrigerant and cooling system are not particularly limited. .

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment has a refrigerator 1
A storage device for citrus contained in a container, in which a small plastic container A having a vent is used to store citrus fruits, which are mandarin oranges, are placed on a pallet and stacked efficiently to be stored in a refrigerator 1, and a cooler Inside a refrigerator 1 having 2 is provided a rectangular tent-shaped cover 3 made of a vinyl chloride sheet that airtightly covers citrus fruits, suspended by a wire 5. The cooler 7 and the humidifier 8 are provided in the adjusted air circulation paths 6a and 6b.
The temperature / humidity adjusting device 9 having the above is interposed, and the adjusted air G from which the temperature and humidity of normal air are adjusted is supplied to the inside of the cover 3 from now on. The opening / closing device 12 that opens and closes the lower surface opening 3 a is a wire 1 that can be wound up and down by a motor 10.
1 is attached to the lower end of the cover 3, and the lower end of the cover 3 is brought into contact with and separated from the floor surface 4.

The above-mentioned cover 3 is installed with a wire 5 fixed to the ceiling of the refrigerator 1 at an appropriate interval from the ceiling surface, and the cool air of the cooler 2 runs along the outside of the cover 3 along the inside of the refrigerator 1. It can be freely distributed. A bar-shaped weight 13 is attached along the edge of the entire lower end edge of the cover 3 and hangs down from the lower edge. The length of the wire 11 makes contact with the floor surface 4, or
Alternatively, it is separated from the floor surface 4 by an appropriate distance.

Since the wire 11 for raising and lowering is wound around the pulley 14 which is fixedly arranged at a key portion near the ceiling,
The lower end of the cover 3 can be raised and lowered evenly. Of course, the opening / closing device 12 may have a known winding device including a gear with a one-way clutch, a handle for manually rotating the gear, and other known winding mechanism.

The inside of the cover 3 has a regulated air circulation path 6
Since the adjusted air G, which is communicated with a and is adjusted to an appropriate temperature and humidity outside the refrigerator 1 via the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9, is supplied from here, the inside of the refrigerator 1 is not partially excessively cooled. . The adjusted air G leaking from the opening 3a at the lower end of the cover 3 is returned to the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9 from the adjusted air circulation path 6b penetrating the side wall of the refrigerator 1, so that the adjusted air G is circulated. Become.

The adjusted air circulation path 6b is provided with an air intake / exhaust port with an operation valve 15. Fresh outside air introduced from this is cooled by a cooler 7 and humidity is adjusted by a humidifier 8. Can be supplied. Although the temperature and humidity conditions are managed by the thermometer 7a and the hygrometer 8a of the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9, it is simple to automatically manage them by a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor (not shown) and a known automatic driving device. is there.

As the humidifier 8 of the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9, well-known humidifiers such as a vaporization type using a filter, a centrifugal spraying type and an ultrasonic type can be used.

Further, in the case of using the regulated air made of the regulated air in which the partial pressure of nitrogen is increased in place of the regulated air made of the ordinary air as described above, the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9 is not shown in the figure. Air with an increased nitrogen partial pressure may be introduced from the oxygen separation device.

The oxygen separation device is not particularly limited in its separation mechanism, and for example, poly (4-methylpentene-1) or poly (2,6-dimethylphenylene oxide), which is well known as a gas separation membrane, is used. Air can be forced to pass through an oxygen-nitrogen separation membrane made of a polydimethylsiloxane derivative as described above, and the separated oxygen can be exhausted to take out air enriched with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

Using the embodiment configured as described above, for example, to store Satsuma mandarin orange for 3 months, the cooler 7 and the humidifier 8 of the temperature / humidity adjusting device 9 are driven to operate the operation valve 6b. The temperature of the air introduced from 1 is adjusted to about 3 ° C., the humidity is adjusted to about 90%, and the adjusted air G is supplied into the cover 3 from the adjusted air circulation path 6a.

In this case, at the beginning of the storage state, the lower end of the cover 3 is brought into contact with the floor surface 4 of the refrigerator 1 to make the inside of the cover 3 almost airtight. The humidity in the cover 3 is, for example, 9
When the humidity exceeds 5%, the motor 10 is driven to raise the lower end of the cover 3 from the floor surface 4 to open the lower end opening 3
By opening a, the atmosphere inside and outside the cover 3 is communicated, and the low-humidity adjusted air G cooled by the cooler 2 is introduced to quickly reduce the humidity inside the cover 3.

When the humidity in the cover 3 becomes low, for example, less than 85%, the humidifier 8 may be driven to supply the adjusted air G having a high humidity from the adjusted air circulation path 6a. In this case, by appropriately driving the cooler 7 to adjust the temperature, it is possible to perform relative humidity adjustment corresponding to the temperature change.

[0037]

As described above, in the citrus fruit preservation apparatus of the present invention, the refrigerator made of the airtight sheet for covering the citrus fruits can prevent excessive cooling. Further, when the inside of the cover is filled with an atmosphere of a relatively high humidity at a predetermined refrigeration temperature, a low temperature atmosphere of a relatively low humidity exists outside the cover. Ventilation can reduce the temperature change and quickly reduce the humidity around the citrus fruits, and even if humidity control is performed, dew condensation does not easily occur on the surface of the citrus fruits.

In the invention in which the cover is made of a flexible sheet material, ventilation inside and outside the cover can be performed very quickly, and nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, which are components of the adjusted air, can be moved to a predetermined partial pressure. For example, the respiration rate of the stored citrus fruits is well reduced, and the decomposition and budding phenomenon are less likely to occur, and there is an advantage that the citrus fruits can be stored in a more suitable refrigerated state.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view schematically showing an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Refrigerator 2, 7 Cooler 3 Cover 3a Lower surface opening 4 Floor surface 5, 11 Wires 6a, 6b Adjusting air circulation path 8 Humidifier 9 Temperature / humidity adjusting device 12 Switchgear 13 Weight

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator containing citrus fruits is provided with a cover made of an airtight sheet for covering the citrus fruits, and the atmosphere inside the lid and the atmosphere outside the lid inside the refrigerator are warm and warm.
A storage device for citrus fruits, which is in communication with a controlled air circulation path via a humidity control device, and is provided with an opening for opening and closing the atmosphere inside and outside the cover, and an opening / closing means for opening and closing the opening. 2. A tent-like cover made of a flexible airtight sheet for covering the citrus and having a bottom opening is provided in a refrigerator containing citrus, and the atmosphere inside the cover and the outside of the cover in the refrigerator. The atmosphere is communicated with a regulated air circulation path via a temperature / humidity controller, and a storage device for citrus fruits is provided with an opening / closing device that raises and lowers the lower end of the cover to bring it into and out of contact with the floor surface. 3. The conditioned air according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the conditioned air comprises 90 to 98% nitrogen, 1.7 to 10.0% oxygen, and 0.2 to 0.4% carbon dioxide. Citrus storage device.