JPS582666B2 - Method and device for sterilizing retort food - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for sterilizing retort food and an improvement to an apparatus for the same.

So-called retort food, in which food is packaged in heat-resistant packaging bags made of heat-resistant packaging materials, such as aluminum foil, heat-resistant resin film, or laminates thereof, is easy to prepare, easy to store, and streamlined manufacturing. In recent years, the number of types of packaged foods has increased dramatically, as they have many advantages that meet the needs of both consumers and food manufacturers, such as the possibility of creating new demand for packaged foods.

When sterilizing such retort food, since the packaging bag is flexible, it is considered appropriate to hold it horizontally and give it a sterilizing heat history while standing still. Various considerations have been made to keep the water still.

This is because food moves within the bag under non-horizontal or non-stationary conditions, and if the thickness changes locally, insufficient heat history occurs, resulting in poor sterilization and the bag itself becoming scratched, wrinkled, etc. This may lead to damage such as bending, and this was an attempt to prevent this from occurring.

In recent years, in order to improve the sterilization efficiency of retort foods, various sterilizers have been developed that sterilize food at high temperatures in short periods of time, and this purpose has been successfully achieved.

However, in order to perform this high-temperature, short-time sterilization, it is essential to provide a sufficient sterilization heat history to the inside of the retort food in a short period of time.

Making the thickness of retort food sufficiently thin so that sufficient heat can penetrate through the short-time F trowel as described above is compatible with this purpose, but when considering the type of food or the appearance of the packaged product, This may not necessarily solve the problem.

Furthermore, in recent years, individual retort foods have tended to be relatively large, and viscous foods that are surprisingly difficult to transmit heat have been packaged. Circumstances are arising that hinder this.

The inventors have been repeatedly considering the sterilization of such tolerinto foods, and found that instead of the above-mentioned method of horizontally holding the object to be sterilized during sterilization, which is currently almost standard practice, They discovered that by adding a means to swing this back and forth, left and right, or both directions, surprising effects could be obtained, and this invention was achieved.

That is, the present invention provides a method for sterilizing retort food made by packaging food in a packaging bag made of heat-resistant packaging material while subjecting the retort food to one-touch rocking motion in the back and forth and/or left and right directions. The subject matter is a method for sterilizing retort food, which is characterized by: an apparatus for sterilizing retort food in which the food is packaged in a packaging bag made of the heat-resistant packaging material to carry out the method; An object of the present invention is to provide a rettle 1/food sterilization device characterized by adding a device for swinging the rettle 1 back and forth and/or left and right.

In this invention, retort food refers to food packaged in heat-resistant materials such as heat-resistant resin films, aluminum foils, or laminates made of appropriate combinations of these, as described above. Of course, this refers to similar products expected in the future.

In addition, sterilization of these retort foods is generally carried out in a sterilization retort, but the sterilization temperature and sterilization time are determined by many factors such as the type and nature of the food, and its destination, so there are no particular restrictions. Not allowed.

Next, in the present invention, giving the retort food a rocking motion means that the food flows appropriately inside the package and improves the efficiency of heat transfer. Therefore, the amount and cycle of the rocking, etc. can be determined in advance depending on the sterilization temperature, time, type of contents, etc.

The reason why this swinging direction is limited to the front-rear and/or left-right directions is that any other direction would have an adverse effect on the packaging material, etc., and would go against the purpose of maintaining the water pressure.

The concept of the above-mentioned foregoing and the left-right rocking includes not only the simple repetition of back-and-forth and left-right rocking, but also a rocking that is close to a circular motion resulting from a combination of these.

It is preferable to cool the retort food that has been sterilized as described above by applying the same rocking motion and pouring cold water over F. This improves the cooling efficiency and maintains the quality after cooling. Significant.

Next, the drawing shows an example of the sterilizer 1 of the present invention.
2 is a retort main body, and 3 is a support base such as a rail.

A movable base 5 is mounted on the support base 3 via wheels 4, and on the movable base 5, trays 1 each containing a large number of foods 6 arranged in a rettle 1 are stacked in multiple stages.

Next, 8 is a motor, 9 is a crank mechanism driven by the motor 8, and the other end is a drive shaft 1 that protrudes from the movable base 5 via a seal mechanism 10 of the retort main body 2.
1 as appropriate.

If the above motor 8 is driven once during sterilization, the crank 9
As a result, the movable table 5 moves back and forth, and the retort food 6 placed thereon swings in a circular direction.

By appropriately changing the crank mechanism 9, the direction can be changed to left and right or a combination thereof.

As described above, this invention is capable of sterilizing retort food.
This device is designed to give an appropriate rocking motion, which allows the food to flow properly within the device, and as is clear from the examples below, the sterilization efficiency is significantly improved, thus solving the above problem. The effect is truly a dog in the industry.

The present invention will be specifically explained below with reference to Examples.

Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 Butter 900g, wheat flour 900y, bouillon 9000.
! A white sauce was obtained using a conventional method using V, 300 g of milk, and 110 g of salt as ingredients.

Pour this white sauce into a plastic pouch (Toyo Seikansha,
Polyester-nylon-aluminum foil-polypropylene,
2000g was filled into a 280x340M) to obtain a retort food with a thickness of 35 mm.

A retort for high temperature sterilization (Toyo Seikansha,
H60-C=50-120/150 1SWR,A)
The sterilization time until the sterilization value Fo-3.1 was obtained under the conditions of an amplitude of 50 M, oscillation of 20 cycles/min, and a sterilization temperature of 135° C. was determined using the following Table 1.

After the sterilization is completed, the contents of the retort food are visually judged and graded with L, a, b by a color machine (Hhondenshokusha, CM-20) after cooling with cold water while shaking as above.
The values were calculated and shown in the same table (indicating the degree of browning; the smaller the value, the greater the degree).

For comparison, the above-mentioned rocking was carried out in the same way as the child and shown as Comparative Example 1.

) According to the results in the above table, it was clear that in the case of the present invention, the sterilization time was halved, and the quality of the contents was well maintained.

The product of Example 1 was left at 37° C. for 2 months, but no deterioration or deterioration occurred.

Examples 2 and 3 and Comparative Examples 2 and 3 The same procedures as in Example 1 were carried out except for the conditions shown in Table 2 below, and the sterilization time and contents were determined for each example product, and the results are shown in the table.

According to the results in Table 1, the sterilization time for Fo5.0 was reduced by more than half for large items, which was more than expected, and even for small items it was reduced by about 20%, which improved the quality of the contents. Retention(
This was also excellent.

Examples 4, 5, 6 and Comparative Example 4. , 5. 6?
The content of Example 1 was changed by varying the amount of flour and the viscosity as shown in Table 3 below, and the shaking conditions were: amplitude 20, 50 cycles/min, and bactericidal value Fo 5.0. The sterilization time was determined in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the results were shown in the table.

The results shown in the above table clearly show that the effect of the present invention, that is, the reduction in sterilization time, is particularly remarkable when the viscosity is high, as it is reduced by more than half, and when the viscosity is low, the results are almost the same. .

Example 7 and Comparative Example 7 Contents: 750 g of steamed tuna flakes, 25 g of salt water seasoning liquid
0g, retort pouch size 220X30071m
}Koi ooo. y filling, oscillation 200, hazy amplitude 10 cycles/min, sterilization with 120℃ hot water, (FO = 3.1
) was carried out in exactly the same manner as in Example (2), and the results shown in Table 4 below were obtained.The taste and flavor of each of these products were evaluated using 17 panels, and the results are shown in the same table.

This evaluation was performed on a 10-point scale, with the best taste and flavor being 5 points and the worst being 5 points, and the total evaluation and Q average value were shown.

According to the results shown in the table above, the present invention shows a remarkable improvement in sterilization efficiency even with solids, and also shows remarkable effects in terms of taste and flavor retention, almost comparable to unsterilized products. One thing was clear.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a sectional view of an example of a sterilization device using the present invention. 2... Retort body, 5... Movable base,
6... Retort food, 8, 9... Motor and crank mechanism (oscillating device).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When sterilizing retort food made by packaging food in a packaging bag made of heat-resistant packaging material, the retort food is sterilized while being given rocking motion in the front and back and/or left and right directions. Reto: A method for sterilizing Ruto food. 2. A device for sterilizing retort food made by packaging food in a packaging bag made of heat-resistant packaging material, characterized by the addition of a device for swinging at least the sterilizing section of the device back and forth and/or in the left and right directions. , Retort food sterilization equipment. 3. The sterilization method according to the preceding paragraph, wherein after the sterilization according to the preceding paragraph is completed, the retort food is cooled while being subjected to a similar rocking motion.