JPH099937A - Sterilization of edible material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a sterilizing method capable of sterilizing a solid edible material and soup under conditions suitable for each without using a retainer and immediately delivering after sterilization. CONSTITUTION: Sterilization of a solid edible material (a) is carried out from the first to the last by using a disposable container 1 used in distributing stage instead of a retainer. A heat-resistant container, preferably, whose upper end is widely opened is used as the container 1. A definite amount of the solid edible material (a) is put in the container 1 and the container 1 is housed in a sterilizing kettle 3 and the sterilizing kettle 3 is evacuated. Then, high- temperature and high-pressure steam is introduced into the sterilizing kettle 3 and the steam is retained for a prescribed short time. The pressure of the sterilizing kettle 3 is reduced and the solid edible material (a) is cooled and the container 1 is taken out from the sterilizing kettle 3. Lastly, soup or water is filled in the container 1 and the opening of the container 1 is hermetically sealed with a lid plate 16 and the hermetically sealed container 1 is subjected to retort sterilization.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for sterilizing foodstuffs,
In particular, the present invention relates to a sterilization method for foodstuffs in which solid foodstuffs are heat-sterilized with steam while stored in a disposable container, cooled under reduced pressure, filled with juice or water, retort-sterilized, and then shipped as they are.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as a wide variety of cooked foods have been provided, sterilization methods of food materials are becoming more and more diverse. Of these, retort sterilization is one of the typical and basic sterilization techniques.In this retort sterilization, solid foods are filled and sealed in a plastic or aluminum laminated sheet bag with juice and heat sterilized in a retort kettle. To process.

[0003]

In the conventional retort sterilization, solid food and soup are simultaneously heat-treated through a sealed bag. Therefore, sterilization suitable for each solid food and soup should be independently performed. I couldn't. Further, since the heating is performed through the bag, the processing time tends to be long, such as several tens of minutes to several hours, and the thicker the bag, the longer the processing time required. For this reason, there have been problems such as deterioration of quality and deterioration of flavor due to long-term exposure of food and juice to high temperature.

The present inventors previously proposed a new sterilization method to solve such a problem (Japanese Patent Application No. 6-208).
No. 548). In this sterilization method, solid food and juice are separately sterilized and then filled in a bag for shipping.A small capacity dedicated retainer is used for sterilization of solid food, and multiple retainers are used. To sterilize solid foods.

However, when the retainer is used as described above, a separate step of transferring the solid food material from the retainer to a bag for shipping is required, and a step of cleaning the used retainer for reuse and cleaning the retainer are required. A device, and further, a retainer circulation moving device and the like are required.

The present invention has been proposed in view of these problems, and an object thereof is to sterilize solid foods and juice under conditions suitable for each without using a retainer. It is to provide a sterilization method which can be shipped immediately after sterilization.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises the steps of accommodating a solid food material in a heat-resistant disposable container having an opening, accommodating the disposable container in a sterilization kettle, and evacuating the sterilization kettle. A step of sterilizing the solid food material by introducing high temperature and high pressure steam into the sterilization kettle and holding it for a predetermined time, a step of depressurizing the sterilization kettle and cooling the solid food material, taking out the disposable container from the sterilization kettle, The method includes the steps of filling the container with juice or water, sealing the opening of the disposable container with a cover plate, and sterilizing the sealed disposable container by retort sterilization.

[0008]

The heating temperature and heating time in the sterilization pot are set according to the type of solid food. The heating temperature and pressure for retort sterilization are set to the optimum conditions for sterilizing juice or water. As for the sterilization condition of the solid food material, the quality deterioration of the food material can be minimized by anticipating the re-sterilization by the subsequent retort sterilization and setting the sterilization condition slightly loose.

Sterilization of solid foodstuffs contained in a disposable container is not required until the final stage of packaging and shipping as a product. Therefore, simplification of the process from the sterilization process to the shipping process and an opportunity for contamination. Can be minimized.

[0010]

An embodiment of the method of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the method for sterilizing foodstuffs according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, one pack of solid foodstuff a is put into a disposable container 1 which is continuously conveyed by a conveyer means such as a belt conveyor from a predetermined position of an inserter 2. A certain amount is put into a fixed amount, and a plurality of disposable containers 1 containing the foodstuff a are put together in a sterilization kettle 3.
It is desirable that the disposable container 1 is a container having heat resistance, for example, made of aluminum foil, and has a wide upper end so that steam can easily enter. A plastic container used for packaging ordinary retort food can also be used as the disposable container 1.

As the sterilization pot 3, for example, a hollow cylindrical horizontal can body having openable and closable openings 3a and 3b at both left and right ends can be used. The sterilization pot 3 stores a plurality of disposable containers 1 containing foodstuffs. After that, the openings 3a and 3b at both ends are closed to sterilize the solid food material a. The opening / closing ports 3a and 3b can adopt a ball valve type or a slide valve type.
Inside the sterilization kettle 3, the containers 1 containing the solid foodstuffs a are accommodated in a row in a state of being adjacent to each other without any space.

In the sterilization pot 3, a pressure reducing pipe 5 having a pressure reducing valve 4 connected to a vacuum pump not shown, and a steam supply pipe 7 having a steam supply valve 6 connected to a steam generating source not shown
An exhaust pipe 9 that has an exhaust valve 8 and is opened to the atmosphere is connected to an atmosphere introduction pipe 12 that introduces the atmosphere into the sterilization kettle 3 through a vacuum break valve 10 and a filter 11. Further, a drain pipe 15 having a drain valve 13 and a trap 14 is connected to the bottom of the sterilization pot 3.

The sterilization kettle 3 is operated by exhausting the air in the sterilization kettle 3 to form a vacuum in the sterilization kettle 3, introducing high-temperature high-pressure steam into the sterilization kettle 3, and supplying the steam to the sterilization kettle 3 for a predetermined short time. Step of keeping inside (for example, 5 seconds to 5 at 130 ℃ ~ 150 ℃
Min), the step of exhausting from the sterilization kettle 3 to reduce the pressure in the sterilization kettle 3 to the atmospheric pressure or the vacuum, and the step of introducing the atmosphere into the sterilization kettle 3 and vacuum breaking when the pressure is reduced to the vacuum.

Before the steam is introduced into the sterilization kettle 3, the inside of the sterilization kettle 3 is evacuated as described above, so that the microscopic holes inside the solid food material a are degassed and every corner of the food material a is reached. Steam circulates all at once, enabling uniform and effective sterilization. By depressurizing the sterilization pot 3 as described above, the solid foodstuff a
The temperature of can be rapidly lowered, and the solid foodstuff a can be prevented from being overcooked by residual heat. When the pressure is reduced to atmospheric pressure, the temperature of the food material a drops to about 100 ° C. Further, if the pressure is reduced to a vacuum, the temperature drop will be further increased. In this way, effective sterilization is performed in a short time, and unnecessary heat does not act on the foodstuff a, so that it is possible to prevent deterioration of the quality of the foodstuff a and collapse of the foodstuff a due to overheating.

After sterilizing the solid foodstuff a in the sterilization kettle 3, the container 1 is taken out from the opening / closing port 3b on the opposite side, and the juice or water b sterilized in another step is filled by the filling machine / packing machine 4 into the container 1 The inside of the container 1 is filled with the seal lid plate 16
Then, the product is hermetically sealed and taken out as an intermediate product or a final product, and then subjected to retort sterilization treatment. The conditions for retort sterilization differ depending on the type of juice, etc.
It is 10 to 20 minutes at 20 ° C. The container 1 that has undergone the retort sterilization is shipped as it is at room temperature and sent to the commercial distribution network. In addition, from the opening / closing port 3b of the sterilization kettle 3 to the filling / packing machine 4
It is desirable to install the area up to the above in the clean booth C in order to prevent secondary pollution.

The retort sterilization is the final sterilization performed in a sealed state of the container 1 and, at the same time, when the container 1 is filled with the juice content or the water b without sterilization, the juice content or the water b is added. It is also for sterilization. The retort sterilization mainly sterilizes by high pressure and does not particularly require strong heating, so that the quality deterioration of the solid food material a can be minimized. Since the retort sterilization is the second sterilization for the solid food material a, the sterilization conditions in the first sterilization kettle 3 may be slightly relaxed in some cases to reach the desired sterilization state by the retort sterilization. . In this case, quality deterioration of the solid foodstuff a due to heat can be further reduced.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and various modifications can be made. For example, the sterilization pot 3 has open / close ports 3a at both ends,
In addition to the one having 3b, it may have a structure in which an opening / closing port is provided only at one place and the solid foodstuff a is put in and taken out therefrom. The present invention is also applicable to sterilized rice cooked rice. In this case, rice as a solid food material a is washed with water and absorbed by a predetermined amount, drained, put into a disposable container 1, and steamed in a sterilization pot 3. Then, the rice is sterilized and cooked, the filling machine / packing machine 4 is used to fill a predetermined amount of water, the vessel is sealed, and then the retort is sterilized. By adjusting the amount of water absorption for rice before cooking rice and the amount of filling water for the container 1 after cooking rice, a delicious sterile cooked rice or sterile porridge that can be distributed at room temperature can be obtained.

[0019]

According to the present invention, a disposable container for shipping is used instead of the retainer to sterilize the solid food from the beginning to the end, so that the transfer of the solid food is not necessary at all and the conventional retainer is used. The configuration and maintenance of the sterilizer are simpler than those of the sterilization method using. Further, since the solid food material and the juice component are sterilized separately, optimum sterilization conditions can be set for each. Further, since the solid food material is sterilized by temporarily evacuating the inside of the sterilization kettle and then introducing steam, it is possible to effectively sterilize in a short time, and thus it is possible to prevent deterioration of quality and boiling down of the food material. Furthermore, since the sterilization kettle is decompressed after the steam is introduced to rapidly cool the foodstuffs, residual heat does not remain in the foodstuffs and overcooking due to the residual heat can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Disposable container 2 Inserting machine 3 Sterilizer 4 Filling machine / packing machine a Solid foodstuff

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A step of accommodating a solid food material in a heat-resistant disposable container having an opening, a step of accommodating the disposable container in a sterilization kettle, a step of applying a vacuum to the sterilization kettle, and a high-temperature high-pressure steam in the sterilization kettle. A step of sterilizing the solid food material by introducing and holding it for a predetermined short time, a step of decompressing the sterilization kettle and cooling the solid food material, taking out the disposable container from the sterilization kettle, and filling the container with juice or water And a step of sealing the opening of the disposable container with a cover plate, and a step of sterilizing the sealed disposable container by retort sterilization. 2. The method for sterilizing foodstuffs according to claim 1, wherein the juice or water is sterilized in advance and then filled in the disposable container.