JPS59210877A - Device for continuous peeling of tomato - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable improved and efficient peeling of tomatoes without causing problems of food sanitary and pollution, by bringing a given circulating high- temperature hot air flow into contact with tomatoes while preheated tomatoes are rotated and transported through a hot zone. CONSTITUTION:The hot zone 51 is formed on the way to the circulation duct 41 connected to the generating part 13 for a high-temperature hot air flow, the transporting means 71 positioned at the hot zone 51, transporting tomatoes with rotating them, is set, and the preheating zone 81 connected to the hot zone 51 is made at the inlet side of the transporting means 71. While preheated tomatoes preheated by the preheating zone are rotated and transferred by the transporting means 71, a given circulating high-temperature hot air is brought into contact with the tomatoes. Consequently, improved and efficient peeling of tomatoes is made possible without causing problems of food sanitation and pollution.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a continuous tomato peeling device, more specifically, by contacting with a high-temperature heated air stream, good and efficient peeling performance can be obtained, and there are no food hygiene or pollution problems. , relates to a continuous tomato peeling device.

BACKGROUND ART Bottled or canned peeled tomatoes are used in various dishes, and peeling is an important step in the production of peeled tomatoes.

Conventionally, common methods for peeling vegetables, fruit vegetables, or fruits include applying heated steam or heated gas under pressurized conditions and then returning the pressure to normal pressure (% Publication No. 46-40747, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1973). -34071, Japanese Patent Publication No. 54 36225, Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-46753, etc.), means of treating with alkali (mainly sodium hydroxide) after applying heated steam (
Many methods have been proposed, such as Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-20132), as well as means for applying calcium chloride and fatty acids.

However, these conventional means have the following drawbacks.

That is, in a process that requires pressurized materials, a corresponding pressure-resistant container and ancillary equipment are required, and in addition to pressure operation, the process is necessarily batch-like, making related work cumbersome. However, in processes that require the action of chemicals, food hygiene and pollution problems are unavoidable, in addition to the troublesome handling of the chemicals.

On the other hand, in relation to the product use, peeling treatment is required to suppress the significant softening of the flesh quality, which causes the appearance of the treated product to easily collapse, and to have less surface shouldering. Ru. In reality, this requirement is even stronger when peeling tomatoes, which have a softer fleshy texture and are more prone to surface shoulder deformation than potatoes, apples, etc. There are serious deficiencies in satisfying the requirements.

As a result of intensive research into a new tomato peeling process from the perspective of diagonal elevation, the present inventors found that by bringing a stream of high-temperature heated air into contact with tomatoes under certain conditions, the conventional drawbacks can be overcome and the above-mentioned problems can be overcome. The inventors have discovered that it is possible to meet these demands and have completed the present invention.

That is, the present invention relates to a continuous peeling device for tomatoes, the main part of which is a heating zone in which a flow of high-temperature heated air is brought into contact with the entire surface of the epidermis of tomatoes. The first invention is characterized in that the preheated tomatoes are brought into contact with a predetermined circulating high-temperature heated air stream while the tomatoes are being transferred, and the preheated tomatoes are transferred to the heating zone by a transfer means. The invention consists of a second invention, the gist of which is to make a predetermined circulating high-temperature heated air flow turbulent and contact the tomatoes while the tomatoes are being heated. explain.

FIG. 1 is a front (partially sectional) view showing an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a side view thereof, with some parts omitted in both figures.

The p1 fan 11 and the electric heater 21 usually have a high-temperature heated air flow generating section 31 consisting of a fan 11 connected to the drive motor lla and an electric heater 21 connected to the fan 11. A control device (not shown) is mounted to adjust the average flow rate and temperature of the hot air flow generated therefrom.

A circulation duct 41 is connected to this generation part 31, and a heating zone 51 of a floor chamber is formed in the middle of this circulation duct 41, and a heat insulating material 61a is appropriately provided in each of these zones. A transfer means 71 is positioned through the heating zone 51 to place tomatoes and transfer the tomatoes while rotating them. In the case of the drawing, this transport means 7
1 is composed of a full-mesh roller conveyor 71b connected to a driving morph 71a, but the conveying means used for the transfer may be a general heat-resistant roller conveyor in which rollers are arranged in parallel at intervals that prevent the tomatoes from falling. It may be a general net conveyor with appropriate undulations, and these can be summarized as follows:
The tomato is rotated and transferred within the heating zone 51, so that the high-temperature heated air flow contacts the entire surface of the tomato skin as evenly as possible. Also,
A preheating zone 81 is formed in the heating zone 51 on the inlet side of the transfer means 71, and this preheating zone 781
A heat insulating material 61b is also provided as appropriate.

Although the insulation materials 61a and 61b can be omitted, they are installed as described above in order to ensure work safety, stable peeling process unaffected by outside temperature, and energy saving since high-temperature heated air flow is used. I/-1° Figure 3 is a partially omitted front view showing another embodiment of the present invention.
It is a partially cross-sectional view. A high-temperature heated air flow generating section (not shown), a circulation duct 42, a heating zone 52, a transfer means 72,
The interrelationship of preheating zone 82 and insulation materials 62a, 62b is similar to that of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 described above. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a general net conveyor 72'b connected to a drive motor 72a is configured as the transfer means 72, and the heating zone 5 is still
2, stirring means 92 are attached above and below the net conveyor 72b to make the high temperature heated air flow turbulent. In the case of the drawing, the stirring means 92 is composed of a plurality of stirring blades each driven independently, but the stirring blades may be connected to each other and driven as a single unit. As the means, for example, a spiral plate or a so-called baffle plate may be appropriately combined. In any case, in the embodiment shown in FIG.
It does not rotate itself while passing through.

However, at least in the heating zone 52, the high-temperature heated air flow is made turbulent by the stirring means 92, so that the high-temperature heated air flow contacts the entire surface of the epidermis of the tomato.

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

A high-temperature heated air flow having a predetermined average flow velocity and temperature generated from the generation part 31 reaches the heating zone 51 via the circulation duct 41 in the upward direction in the figure, and a part of it is branched to the preheating zone 81. . A part of the high-temperature heated air flow is dissipated from the inlet side on the left side in the figure and the outlet side on the right side in the figure of the transfer means 71, but most of the rest is circulated in the downward direction in the figure. It is returned to the generation section 31 via the duct 41. The flow of the high-temperature heated air stream is repeated as described above, and by circulating in this manner, significant energy savings are achieved in the peeling process of tomatoes. On the other hand, the all-mesh roller conveyor 71b constituting the transfer means 71 rotates to the right in the figure, and the tomatoes placed on the transfer means 71 are preheated while rotating from the left hand direction to the right hand direction in the figure. It passes through zone 81 and heating zone 51.

In industrial mass production processing sites, washed tomatoes are subjected to peeling treatment, and on the other hand, it is extremely difficult to carefully identify the variety and ripeness of each individual tomato. That is, tomatoes to be peeled have a considerable amount of moisture attached to their epidermis9, and differences in variety and ripeness are allowed within a certain range.

In the present invention, the preheating zone 81 is mainly used to remove moisture adhering to the epidermis of tomatoes in advance, and the heating zone 51 is used to heat only the epidermis of the tomato from which moisture has been removed at a high temperature in an extremely short period of time. be. At this time, the high-temperature heating air flow is caused by the rotation of the tomatoes.
If differences in variety and ripeness are allowed for O l-mado, which is in even contact with the entire surface of the tomato, if the tomato is not rotated,
The peeling properties of the skin portion on the side in which the high-temperature heated air flow passes through deteriorates as a whole.

According to the present invention, a crack occurs only in the epidermis of a tomato, and the epidermis is easily and smoothly separated from the crack at the cuticle layer between the epidermis and the flesh. Therefore, the treated tomatoes discharged from the heating zone 51 can be completely peeled by simply putting them into cold water and making some adjustments, and almost no vascular bundles can be observed in the peeled tomatoes after peeling. There is little surface roughness, and the meat still retains its firm texture. Such good results cannot be obtained with conventional means for tomatoes, which have naturally soft flesh and are prone to rough skin compared to other vegetables and fruits. This is because, as mentioned above, when a tomato is brought into contact with a high-temperature heated air stream, only the epidermis of the tomato is directly affected by it in a very short time and does not reach high temperatures, while the fleshy parts below the cuticle layer are hardly affected by it. This is thought to be due to the fact that the peeling mechanism according to the present invention is fundamentally different from that of conventional means. In fact, CA is applied to the epidermis, the middle part of the fleshy part, and the middle part of the fleshy part (the center of the tomato) of ripe tomatoes.
(Chromel-Alumel) When a thermocouple is attached in a straight line and a high-temperature heated air stream is applied to the tomato from the skin side at a temperature of 450 to 460°C and an average velocity of 4 m7 seconds, the skin instantly Although the temperature reaches 200°C or more, the degree of change is significantly small in other parts.

According to the tests conducted by the present inventors, the high-temperature heated air stream used as described above for peeling tomatoes in the present invention has a temperature of 30
Preferably, the average flow rate is 3 m 7 seconds or more at 0°C or higher.
Particularly preferred is an average flow rate of 4 to 7 m/sec at a temperature of 400 to 5'5'O<0>C. Under such conditions, the contact time of the high temperature heated air flow to the tomatoes in the heating zone 51 is 10 to 3 m/s.
Approximately 0 seconds is sufficient. However, the temperature, flow rate, and contact time of the diagonal are in a mutually complementary relationship with respect to the peeling of tomatoes.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a front view (partially sectional, partially omitted) showing one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side view (partially omitted), and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11...Fan, 21 Electric heater, 31
・Generation part, 41.42 ・Circulation duct,
51.52 Heating zone, 71.72 ・Transfer means, 81.82 ・Preheating zone, 92 ・Stirring means, patent applicant Kagome Co., Ltd. agent Patent attorney Hiroshi Iriyama 1a

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A high-temperature heated air flow generation section, a circulation duct connected to the generation section, a heating zone formed in the middle of the circulation duct, and a device positioned in the heating zone for rotating tomatoes. and a preheating zone formed on the inlet side of the transfer means in communication with the heating zone, and the tomato preheated in the preheating zone is rotated by the transfer means. A device for continuous peeling of tomatoes, wherein the tomatoes are brought into contact with a predetermined circulating stream of high-temperature heated air while being transferred through the heating zone. 2. A generation part of the high temperature heated air flow, a circulation duct connected to the generation part, and a heating zone formed in the middle of the circulation duct, both of which are positioned in the heating zone, disturb the high temperature heated air flow. [fluidizing] b1 stirring means, a transfer means for transferring tomatoes, and a preheating zone formed on the inlet side of the transfer means in communication with the heating zone,
While the tomatoes preheated in the preheating zone are transferred through the heating zone by the transfer means, a predetermined circulating high temperature heated air flow is made turbulent by the stirring means and brought into contact with the tomatoes. A device for continuous peeling of tomatoes.