JPH0817656B2 - Continuous production method and apparatus for whipped food - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to a continuous production method of whipped products and an apparatus thereof, and more particularly to a continuous production method of whipped foods represented by whipped cream and an apparatus thereof.

Background of the technology and prior art Whipped cream is used as a material for decorating the appearance of a decoration cake or the like.
In most cases, the whipped cream is squeezed out using a squeezing bag or the like. The quality of the whipped cream is judged based on the clarity of the artificial flower shape immediately after being squeezed and molded, and the artificialness of the flower including the shape retention of the molded artificial flower. If the hardness of the whipped cream is too hard, the shape retention is good, but the artificial flower's skin becomes rough, and if it is too soft, it becomes a so-called sagging state, shape clarity, shape retention The sex becomes worse. Thus, the whipped cream needs to maintain its hardness properly.

Conventionally, the following methods have been mainly known for adjusting the hardness when whipped cream is continuously produced.

(A) A method in which the hardness of a whipped cream is visually checked at the outlet of a rotary type stirrer for whipping, and the number of rotations of the stirrer is adjusted according to the hardness to obtain a desired hardness.

(B) A strain gauge for measuring the flow resistance of the whipped cream inside the discharge pipe of the rotary stirrer.
Is provided and hardness is detected by the degree of strain, and
The method of adjusting the rotation speed of the stirrer and thereby adjusting the hardness in the same manner as (1) (JP-A-61-1347).

(C) The hardness is detected by measuring the pressure loss in the discharge pipe of the rotary stirrer, and the number of rotations (of the stirrer) is adjusted in the same manner as in (a) above, thereby adjusting the hardness. Method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-265047).

Problems of Prior Art In the above-mentioned conventional techniques, a method of adjusting hardness was adopted by controlling the rotation of a rotary stirrer. However, when increasing the processing capacity of the above-mentioned device, or whipping time (whipped When handling creams with a long time (from start to completion) with the above-mentioned device, it is necessary to considerably increase the rotation speed of the rotary stirrer, and it is often necessary to adjust the proper use range (standard operating conditions) of the device. It is used beyond the limits. This causes an overload on the stirrer, which raises the product temperature of the whipped cream due to the heat generated by the stirrer, which causes rough skin (deterioration of quality) and also increases the wear of the mechanical seal in the bearing of the rotating shaft of the stirrer. That is,
There are problems that there is a limit in controlling the hardness of the whipped cream only by controlling the rotation speed of the stirrer, and that the life of the stirrer is shortened by increasing the rotation speed.

Means for solving the problems The present inventors, in the continuous manufacturing method and apparatus for whipped food, the method and means for controlling the hardness of the whipped food, as a result of research to solve the above problems, rotary type It was found that the adjustment of the product temperature in the stirrer had a great influence on the hardness of the obtained whipped food, and the present invention was reached based on this finding.

In the method of the present invention, a liquid phase raw material for whipped,
In a continuous production method of whipped foods, which continuously feeds a gas phase raw material at a desired mixing ratio and continuously whips with a rotary stirrer, a heat transfer medium is flown around the rotary stirrer to transfer heat. Adjust the temperature of the medium appropriately within the range of 3 to 12 ° C, lower the temperature of the heat transfer medium if the whipped food is harder than the desired hardness, and lower the temperature of the heat transfer medium if the whipped food is softer than the desired hardness. The temperature of is increased to control the hardness of the whipped food to a predetermined hardness.

Further, in the device of the present invention, a supply pipe for supplying the liquid phase raw material and the vapor phase raw material for whipping at a desired mixing ratio,
In a continuous production apparatus for whipped food having a rotary stirrer that connects a discharge pipe for taking out whipped food, a) means for detecting the hardness of the whipped food in the discharge pipe, and b) A means for adjusting the product temperature in the rotary stirrer by circulating a heat transfer medium through a jacket attached to the rotary stirrer, and c) the hardness detected by the means for detecting the hardness of the whipped food is desired. Means for lowering the temperature of the heat transfer medium when it is harder than the desired hardness, raising the temperature of the heat transfer medium when it is softer than the desired hardness, and adjusting the temperature of the heat transfer medium appropriately within the range of 3 to 12 ° C. And are provided.

In the method and apparatus for continuous production of whipped food,
The discharge flow rate of the whipped cream from the rotary stirrer, the internal pressure of the stirrer, the overrun of the product, the hardness, and the like are periodically changed, and a whipped cream having a certain property cannot be obtained. In order to solve this problem, it has been conventionally performed to change the back pressure based on the flow path resistance of the discharge pipe to homogenize and stabilize the product (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-59065). Gazette). However, the hardness of the whipped cream has not been adjusted by adjusting the product temperature in the stirrer.

The above-mentioned method or apparatus can be combined with a conventional method or means for adjusting the hardness of whipped cream. As a conventional hardness adjusting method and means, a method and means for adjusting the rotational speed of the stirrer, a method and means for adjusting the internal pressure in the stirrer (patent application filed on June 26, 1991 by the present inventors, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-163228), and a method and means for adjusting overrun (patent application filed on July 7, 1991 by the present inventors, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-176005).

Effect According to the present invention, by adjusting the product temperature in the rotary stirrer, or in combination with one or more of the following in addition to the product temperature, whipping that could not be solved by the conventional adjustment of the rotational speed only. The degree of freedom in adjusting the hardness of the cream can be increased. That is, it can be combined with adjusting the number of rotations of the stirrer, adjusting the internal pressure of the stirrer, adjusting overrun, and the like.

Examples In the present invention, the whipped food refers to all foods containing fine bubbles formed by mixing and stirring a gas-phase raw material and a liquid-phase raw material. Such foods include whipped cream, whipped butter, whipped yogurt, whipped jelly and the like. The hardness of these products changes depending on the degree of stirring.

Conventionally, a continuous production method for whipped foods has included the steps shown in FIG. That is, the cream as the liquid phase raw material is supplied from the cream tank 2 in FIG. 4 via the cream supply line 3 and the supply pump 1, and the sterilized and purified compressed air (gas phase raw material) is supplied to the air supply line (gas supply line). Phase stirrer 5 having a motor 11
Is whipped and the whipped cream is sent out from the discharge pipe 13. In such a conventional apparatus, the control of the hardness of the whipped cream has been performed by adjusting the rotation speed of the motor 11 as described above.

In the present invention, in such a continuous manufacturing method and apparatus, the hardness of the whipped food is adjusted by changing the product temperature in the rotary stirrer.

As a method of adjusting the product temperature, the liquid phase raw material and the gas phase raw material may be individually temperature-controlled before being mixed, but since the temperature at the time of whipping is a final hardness determining factor, the rotary type It is best to control the temperature inside the stirrer via the heat transfer medium around the stirrer.

Studies by the present inventors have revealed that the whipped cream becomes harder as the product temperature in the rotary stirrer becomes higher, and the whipped cream becomes softer as the product temperature becomes lower. Therefore, in the present invention, when the whipped cream is harder than the desired hardness, the product temperature in the rotary stirrer is lowered to control it to a predetermined hardness, and conversely the whipped cream is desired to have the desired hardness. If the hardness is lower than the hardness of No. 1, the temperature of the product in the rotary stirrer is increased to control to a predetermined hardness.

Of course, it is possible to use the conventional adjustment of the rotation speed and / or the internal pressure of the rotary stirrer and / or the hardness adjustment of the whipped cream by the control of the overrun in combination with the above-mentioned temperature control in the rotary stirrer. This makes it possible to cope with a wide range of changes in manufacturing conditions.

 Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on experimental examples.

[Experimental Example] Using the same apparatus as in Example 1 described later, the relationship between the product temperature in the rotary stirrer and the hardness of the produced whipped cream was tested.

However, the product temperature was adjusted by keeping the flow rate of the heat transfer medium (cooling water) flowing through a jacket attached around the rotary stirrer constant and changing the temperature.

The hardness of the whipped cream is measured by the penetration test (pene
tration test, rheology measurement method, Rheology Committee of the Society of Polymer Science, 130 and 131 pages, 2nd edition, Kyoritsu Shuppan, Showa 43
Year). In detail, the penetration tester (co
Using a ne penetrometer, a cone with a cone angle of 40 ° and a weight of 12 g is penetrated into the whipped cream for 5 seconds, and the depth at which the cone penetrates into the whipped cream is read in units of 1/10 mm. The entry was P _E. Thus indicating that softer as the value of P _E is large.

 The experimental raw materials and the operating conditions of the apparatus are as follows.

Liquid-phase raw material: Synthetic cream for whipping same as in Example 1 Gas-phase raw material: Compressed air (5 kg / cm ² G) Liquid-phase raw material flow rate: 100 / hr Gas-phase raw material flow rate: 100 Nl / hr Stirrer frequency: 450 rpm, 470 rpm, 490rpm, 510rpm (changed during manufacturing) Stirrer internal pressure: 0.4kg / cm ² G Cooling water temperature: 3-12 ℃ (changed variously during manufacturing) Flow rate of the above liquid phase raw material and gas phase raw material and the above stirrer For each combination of rotation speeds, the cooling water temperature was variously changed within the range of 3 to 12 ° C., and the hardness of the produced whipped cream was measured by the above-mentioned penetration tester. The results are shown in FIG.

In the figure, the horizontal axis is the temperature of the cooling water (° C), and the vertical axis is the penetration P _E.
[-] Is shown,-▲-▲-is N = 450rpm,-○-○
− Represents N = 470 rpm, −−−−− represents N = 490 rpm, and − ● − ● − represents N = 510 rpm (for a rotary stirrer).

From this result, even if the number of rotations of the rotary stirrer is the same, when the product temperature in the stirrer is increased, P _E becomes small, that is, hard, and when the product temperature is lowered, P _E is large, that is, soft. It turned out to be. Further, by changing the rotation speed of the agitator at the same time, N = 450 rpm and N = 51 in FIG.
It can be seen that the hardness can be controlled within the range of the 0 rpm diagram.

Example 1 FIG. 2 schematically shows an apparatus used in the present example. This device is basically the same as the conventional device shown in FIG. 4, and the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, the pressure detecting means 7 is attached to the supply pipe 3.
However, discharge pumps are provided in the discharge pipe 13 as the internal pressure adjusting means 6, respectively. The pressure of the portion is sent from the pressure detecting means 7 to the controller 9 as an electric signal. Different signals are given to the frequency converter 8 according to the deviation between the set value and the detected value given in advance to the controller 9, whereby the motor circuit speed of the discharge pump 6 is adjusted, and thereby the rotary agitator is rotated. Feedback control is performed so that the internal pressure maintains the set value.

The rotary stirrer 5 has a heat transfer medium (cooling water) around it.
A jacket 17 that distributes
The primary cooling water flowing to 17 is a cooling water pump 20, a heat exchanger 22.
The cooling water that flows into the jacket 17 via the cooling water temperature detection unit 18 and flows out of the jacket 17 is flow rate control valve 19
Flow rate is controlled by.

Secondary cooling water for heat exchange is conducted to the heat exchanger 22, and the secondary cooling water is circulated from the ice bank 21 by a circulation pump.
After passing through 14 and the flow control valve 15, it is conducted to the heat exchanger 22, and the secondary cooling water after the heat exchange flows back to the ice bank 21 via the return path.

The temperature signal from the temperature detection unit 18 of the primary cooling water is sent to the controller 16, and according to the deviation from the preset value, an opening degree signal is sent to the flow control valve 15, and the secondary cooling water is sent. PID feedback control is performed to keep the temperature of the primary cooling water at the set value by controlling the flow rate.

The liquid phase raw material was prepared according to the following. 50 parts of commercially available hydrogenated soybean oil (increasing melting point 35 ° C.) was heated to 65 ° C., 0.3 parts of commercially available purified soybean lecithin and 0.3 parts of monoglyceride were added, and stirred to dissolve and disperse to obtain an oil phase. . On the other hand, 0.4 part of a commercially available sugar ester was added to 50 parts of skim milk, and the mixture was stirred, dissolved and dispersed to obtain an aqueous phase. The oil phase and the aqueous phase were mixed and emulsified, heat sterilized at 70 ° C. for 15 minutes, and then 50 kg / c
Homogenized twice at a pressure of m ² G and 10 kg / cm ² G, cooled to 8 ° C., stored in the cream tank 2 and aged at the same temperature overnight to obtain 1000 kg of a whipped synthetic cream.

Using the above apparatus and raw materials, a whipped cream was produced under the following operating conditions.

Liquid-phase raw material: Synthetic cream (1000kg) Gas-phase raw material: Sterilized compressed air (5kg / cm ² G) Liquid-phase raw material flow rate: 100 / hr → 120 / hr (changed during production) Gas-phase raw material flow rate: 100Nl / hr → 120Nl / hr Stirrer speed: 500rpm Stirrer internal pressure: 0.6kg / cm ² G Primary cooling water flow rate: 700 / hr Primary cooling water temperature: 7 ℃ → 9 ℃ → 10 ℃ (changed during manufacturing) Liquid phase raw material The flow rate and gas phase raw material flow rate are 100 / hr and 10 respectively.
When the pressure is 0 Nl / hr, the stirrer internal pressure is 0.6 kg / cm ² G, and the primary cooling water set temperature is 7 ° C, the overrun of the obtained product is about 100%, and the hardness is 170 as the value of P _E. The artificial flower properties, that is, the moldability and the shape-retaining property were both good and constant, which was excellent.

Next, the flow rate of the liquid phase raw material (synthetic cream) was increased to 120 / hr.
And the flow rate of the gas phase raw material (compressed air) was 120 Nl / hr, and the setting temperature of the primary cooling water was 9 ° C. The discharge flow rate and internal pressure of each are 124 to 1
26kg / hr and 0.59 to 0.60kg / cm ² G, which maintained a nearly constant value, and the product overrun was about 100%, but the hardness was P
_E = 200, which was a little too soft and had poor shape retention, making it unsuitable for artificial flower formation.

Therefore, when the set temperature of the primary cooling water was set to 10 ° C, the product overrun was about 100% and the hardness P _E = 170, and the production of products with good artificial flowering properties, that is, moldability and shape retention will continue. Was done.

Example 2 An outline of the apparatus used in this example is shown in FIG. This device has the following mechanism added to the device of FIG. 2 used in the first embodiment. That is, means 23 for measuring the compression loss in the discharge pipe 13 to detect the hardness of the whipped food.
Is provided, from which an electric signal according to the hardness is sent to the controller 24, and a primary cooling water temperature setting signal is sent to the controller 16 according to the deviation from the preset hardness setting value. The controller 16 adjusts the opening degree of the flow control valve 15 according to the deviation between the setting signal and the temperature signal from the temperature detection unit 18, and feedback control is performed so that the hardness of the whipped food is maintained at the hardness set value. Done.

The raw materials used in this example and the operating conditions of the apparatus were as follows.

Liquid phase raw material: Synthetic cream of Example 1 Gas phase raw material: Compressed air of Example 1 (5 kg / cm ² G) Stirrer rotation speed: 500 rpm Product hardness setting value: P _E = 170 Liquid phase raw material flow rate: 100 / hr → 120 / hr (changed during manufacturing) Gas phase raw material flow rate: 100Nl / hr → 120Nl / hr (changed during manufacturing) In addition, regarding the change of flow rate of liquid phase raw material and flow rate of gas phase raw material, Each pressure loss Δ corresponding to the set value
P was predetermined as follows.

The diameter of the discharge pipe was 11/2 inches, and the length of the pressure loss measurement site was 4 m.

Through before and after the change to the manufacturing conditions, the overrun is about 100%, a stable whipped cream Hardness P _E = 168~173 was produced.

As can be seen from the above, the temperature of the heat transfer medium (cooling water) circulating in the jacket around the rotary stirrer, that is, the temperature of the product inside the stirrer, should be changed in spite of various changes in the processing conditions of the raw materials used. As a result, a whipped food having a desired hardness can be continuously and stably produced.

In this case, the control by the controller 24 may be PID control, but it has been known that the sample value control has better controllability.

Effects of the Invention The effects of the present invention are as follows.

(1) In the production of whipped foods, particularly whipped cream, it has become possible to stably and easily produce a product having a constant hardness.

(2) In the production of the above (1), it is possible to produce a product having a constant hardness despite a wide range of changes in the production conditions.

Although the present invention has been described above as a method and an apparatus for producing whipped food, the present invention is a whipped product whipped with a raw material having the same composition as that of the whipped food, for example, a method for producing cosmetic cream, ointment, glazing wax, and the like. It can also be applied to devices.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the technical idea of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a graph showing the relationship between the hardness of the whipped cream and the temperature of the primary cooling water flowing through the jacket of the rotary stirrer for producing it, with the number of rotations of the rotary stirrer as a parameter, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a process diagram / configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the method and device of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a process diagram / configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the method and device of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a conventional whipped food product. FIG. 3 is a process diagram and configuration diagram showing the manufacturing method and apparatus of FIG. Description of reference numerals 1: supply pump, 2: liquid phase raw material tank, 3: liquid phase raw material supply line, 4: air dispersion device, 5: rotary agitator, 6: discharge pump,
7: Pressure detection means, 8: Frequency converter, 9: Controller, 1
0: Gas phase raw material supply line, 11: Motor, 12: Frequency converter,
13: Discharge pipe, 14: Circulation pump, 15: Flow control valve, 16: Controller, 17: Jacket, 18: Temperature detection means, 19: Flow control valve, 20: Cooling water Kyo class pump, 21: Ice bank, 22 :
Heat exchanger,

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-1347 (JP, A) Actual application Sho 56-10763 (Actual development Sho 57-125256) Micro film (JP, U) of the contents

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A continuous process for producing a whipped food product in which a liquid-phase raw material for whipped and a gas-phase raw material are continuously supplied in a desired mixing ratio and continuously whipped by a rotary stirrer. Flow the heat transfer medium around the stirrer, adjust the temperature of the heat transfer medium appropriately within the range of 3 to 12 ° C, and if the whipped food is harder than the desired hardness, lower the temperature of the heat transfer medium If the hardness is lower than the desired hardness, the temperature of the heat transfer medium is raised to control the hardness of the whipped food to a predetermined hardness. 2. A continuous type of whipped food product having a rotary stirrer for connecting a supply pipe for supplying a whipped liquid-phase raw material and a gas-phase raw material at a desired mixing ratio and a discharge pipe for taking out whipped food. In the manufacturing apparatus, a) means arranged in the discharge pipe to detect the hardness of the whipped food in the discharge pipe, and b) a heat transfer medium circulated through a jacket attached to the rotary stirrer, and a product inside the rotary stirrer. A means for adjusting the temperature, and c) if the hardness detected by the means for detecting the hardness of the above whipped food is harder than the desired hardness, the temperature of the heat transfer medium is lowered to make it softer than the desired hardness. In this case, the continuous production apparatus for whipped foods is provided with means for increasing the temperature of the heat transfer medium and appropriately adjusting the temperature of the heat transfer medium within the range of 3 to 12 ° C.