JPH09240787A - Gas displacing method of container head space - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve nitrogen substitution degree in a head space of a food container by filling the container with a filling matter, defoaming a foam generated due to the filling matter by a defoaming means, and spraying substitute gas. SOLUTION: A container is filled with a filling matter 5 from a filling tank 2 through a filling nozzle 3 at a section B. At this time, when the container is filled with a filling matter which generates a large quantity of foam, a foam 6 is generated at a section to be a head space at the time of sealing. To the foam 6 generated on the liquid level of the filling matter, hot air is sprayed from a hot air nozzle 7 at a section C so as to defoam, and nitrogen substitute gas is sprayed from a nitrogen nozzle 8 at a section D so as to substitute the nitrogen. As for the temperature of the hot air, it is set to about 50-150 deg.C, preferably 80-100 deg.C which is effective. After the substitution of the nitrogen, the container is heated by hot air coming from a sealing hot air nozzle 9 at a section E. At a section F, the top of it is sealed by a sealing jaw 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for replacing gas in a head space of a food container, such as a PET bottle, a glass bottle, a metal can or a paper container, which is filled with a liquid filler having a large amount of foam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of liquid food containers used for liquor containers, milk containers and the like have various shapes and materials. Since these containers inevitably have a headspace between the sealed portion and the surface of the filling after filling the container with the filling and sealing, there is a problem when the contents are affected by oxygen. Become. As a means for solving this problem, a method of replacing nitrogen or the like with air in the head space is used. The conventional method is to blow a gas such as nitrogen into the headspace immediately after filling the contents until sealing, or to drop liquid nitrogen in a liquid state after filling the contents until sealing and then vaporize the liquid nitrogen. Is used to replace the air in the headspace with nitrogen or the like.

However, in the gas replacement method in the case of filling a filling with a large amount of foam, the air retained inside the foam portion generated by the entrainment of air during the filling is not replaced with gas in the head space after sealing. It remained as it was, and as a result, it became a cause of deteriorating the gas replacement efficiency. Usually, in the case of a filling material with a small amount of foaming even by the conventional gas replacement method described above, the oxygen concentration in the head space is set to 5
It is possible to reduce it to around 6%. However, in the case of filling a filling with a large amount of foam, since air is retained inside the foam, gas replacement of the foam portion is not performed, and the oxygen concentration in the headspace is 10 to 10 in the conventional gas replacement method.
It can only be reduced to about 12%. When oxygen remains in the head space, there is a problem in that the filler deteriorates and deteriorates due to oxidation.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention removes bubbles almost completely even in a filling material having a large amount of foam when nitrogen is replaced, and the head of a food container regardless of the occurrence of foam. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for gas replacement in the head space of a food container, which can improve the nitrogen replacement ratio in the space and minimize the oxidative deterioration of the filling.

[0005]

The present invention has been conceived in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the invention of claim 1 is for gas replacement in the head space of a food container filled with a liquid filler having a lot of foaming, A food container characterized by filling a container with a specified amount of filling material, defoaming the foam generated by the filling material with a defoaming means, and then blowing a replacement gas to replace the air in the headspace with the replacement gas. This is a method for replacing gas in the head space. The invention of claim 2 is the method for gas replacement in the head space of a food container according to claim 1, characterized in that defoaming of foam is performed by blowing hot air. The invention of claim 3 is the method for gas replacement in the head space of a food container according to claim 1, characterized in that defoaming of the foam is performed by spraying steam. Claim 4
The invention of claim 1 is the method for gas replacement in the head space of a food container according to claim 1, wherein the defoaming means is a combination of hot air spraying and steam spraying.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a filling process to a top hermetic sealing process of a filling machine that uses a Goebel top type paper container as a food container as a gas replacement method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1A, the container 1 whose container bottom is molded and sealed is conveyed with its top opened. First, in B, the filling material 5 is filled into the container from the filling tank 2 through the filling nozzle 3. In the case of the present embodiment, the filling is divided into two steps using the two filling nozzles 3 and 4, but the filling may be performed in one step. At this time, when a filling with a large amount of foam is filled, the foam 6 is formed in the portion which will be the head space during sealing. Even when bubbles 6 are formed on the liquid surface of the filling liquid and gas such as nitrogen is blown into this portion to replace the head space portion with gas, the air wrapped in the bubbles 6 remains in the head space, The gas replacement rate does not increase. The bubbles 6 formed on the liquid surface of this filling are defoamed by blowing hot air from a hot air nozzle 7 at C, and then at D, a nitrogen substitution gas is blown from a nitrogen nozzle 8 to substitute nitrogen. . The temperature of this hot air is about 50-150 ° C, preferably 80 ° C.
-100 ° C is effective. It is effective to carry out the defoaming at a temperature as high as possible, but considering the damage to the container and the contents, 150 ° C. or lower is desirable. Further, hot air at 50 ° C. or lower has little defoaming effect.
Similarly, as a means for defoaming, the same effect can be obtained by using steam instead of hot air. After replacing with nitrogen,
The container is heated at E by hot air from the sealing hot air nozzle 9, and at F, the sealing jaw 1
0 seals the top. By using the above-described gas replacement method in the head space, it is possible to prevent the gas replacement efficiency of the filler having a large amount of foaming from decreasing, and to suppress the oxidative deterioration of the filler as much as possible.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. <Example 1> The nitrogen substitution rate with and without the defoaming step was measured in the case of filling grape juice with a relatively large amount of foaming. When the defoaming step was not used, the nitrogen substitution rate was about 40%. About 12 as the oxygen concentration in the headspace
It has been confirmed that when hot air at 100 ° C. for 100% is used, the oxygen substitution rate in the headspace is improved to about 80% with respect to about 4%.

[0008]

As is apparent from the above, according to the present invention, it is possible to almost completely remove a problematic bubble when substituting nitrogen by a defoaming method using hot air or steam even for a filler having a large amount of foam. Despite the occurrence of bubbling, it is possible to improve the nitrogen substitution rate in the head space and to make the oxygen concentration extremely small, and to suppress the oxidative deterioration of the filling.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a process from a filling process of a molding and filling machine of a paper container using a gas replacement method according to an embodiment of the present invention to a top sealing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Container 2: Filling tank 3: Filling nozzle 4: Filling nozzle 5: Filling material 6: Foam 7: Hot air nozzle 8: Nitrogen nozzle 9: Sealing hot air nozzle 10: Sealing jaw

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Asako Takahashi 1-5-1, Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo Letterpress Printing Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method of gas-displacing a head space of a food container filled with a liquid filling having a large amount of foam, after filling the filling with the container, the foam generated by the filling is defoamed by a defoaming means. After that, a replacement gas is sprayed to replace the air in the headspace with the replacement gas. 2. The gas replacement method for a container head space according to claim 1, wherein the defoaming means is hot air blowing. 3. The method for gas replacement of a container head space according to claim 1, wherein the defoaming means is steam spraying. 4. The defoaming means is a combination of hot air spraying and steam spraying.
A method for replacing gas in a container head space as described.