JPS6344357B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a simple method for sterilizing self-supporting pouches after being heated and filled.

2. Description of the Related Art Standing pouches are widely used as simple containers for beverages such as juice drinks. This self-supporting pouch is a self-supporting packaging bag formed by sealing the side edges of a pair of sheets that have a roughly W-shaped folded portion at the bottom (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 110039/1983). After filling the contents, the top is sealed to obtain a filled and sealed state as shown in the side view in FIG.

When this self-supporting pouch is filled with a liquid, particularly an acidic liquid content such as juice, the liquid content itself is generally heated, filled, sealed, and then supplied to the market without being sterilized by retort. This is because the content liquid itself is highly resistant to bacteria and the pouch is heated to sterilize due to the temperature of the content liquid. However, a problem was found in this filling and sterilization method as well. This is because, as shown in FIG. 1, a self-supporting pouch 1 after hot filling usually has an upper space 2, and the temperature of the pouch wall 3 that comes into contact with this space is considerably lower than the temperature of the liquid content 4. . As an example, when a container with a nominal capacity of 200 g is filled with 200 g of hot water at 92°C, the temperature of the vessel wall in contact with the upper space (approximately 7 c.c.) is 54°C. Therefore, as long as such a filling method is followed, a sufficient sterilizing effect cannot be obtained on the container wall that comes into contact with the upper space, and the survival of bacteria such as yeast causes spoilage. This problem can be solved by retort sterilization of the pouch after heating and filling, but retort sterilization requires expensive equipment and is not necessarily advantageous in terms of energy.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention aims to provide a simple method for sterilizing a self-supporting pouch after being heated and filled, and more specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple method for sterilizing a self-supporting pouch that has been filled with a high-temperature liquid and sealed. It is characterized by selectively heating the contact portion.

Hereinafter, typical embodiments of the method of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

The method of the present invention is carried out according to conventional methods up to filling the pouch with the liquid content and sealing the pouch.

The pouch obtained after heating and filling is as shown in FIG. 1, and the container wall 3 in contact with the upper space is heat sterilized, for example, as shown in FIG. 2. That is, the pouch 1 after being filled is held by the holder 5 as necessary, and in the process of being transported along the filling line (that is, in the direction perpendicular to the paper plane of FIG. 2), the pouch 1 is placed almost parallel to the filling line. Selective heat sterilization of the vessel wall 3 is performed by directly spraying hot water or steam onto the vessel wall 3 from the pipe 6. Note that the pipe 6 is surrounded by a shielding plate 7 as necessary.

Moreover, selective heating of the upper vessel wall 3 can be performed by contacting it with the content liquid 4. That is, since the content liquid immediately after filling still has a temperature of 90° C. or higher, the content liquid 4 is effectively brought into contact with the upper container wall 3 to heat and sterilize that part. For this purpose, the pouch itself may be tilted or rocked. At this time, there is no change in temperature of the pouch container wall that has already been in contact with the liquid, but the upper container wall that has newly come into contact with the liquid is selectively heated.
As a specific embodiment, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the holder 5 that accommodates and holds the lower part of the pouch 1 is transferred by the belt conveyor 8, a raised portion 9 may be provided on the conveyor belt 8. good. Before and after passing through this raised portion 9, the pouch housed in the holder 5 is tilted left and right (that is, forward and backward in the direction of travel), and the upper container wall of the pouch that comes into contact with the upper space 2 comes into contact with the liquid content 4. and heated. Incidentally, the container may be tilted in a direction perpendicular to FIG. 3, that is, to the left and right of the traveling direction of the conveyor belt. Furthermore, although the heating of the upper vessel wall due to contact with the liquid contained above is not particularly shown,
It is easy to understand that this can also be achieved by swinging the pouches by applying appropriate vibrations to a conveying means such as a conveyor belt.

In any of the embodiments described using FIGS. 2 and 3 above, in order to effectively heat the upper container wall, the body of the pouch 1 is moved from the holder 5A to the holder 5A, as shown in FIG. It is effective to reduce the area of the pouch container wall that comes into contact with the liquid in advance by holding down the upper pouch container wall, and selectively heat the exposed upper container wall.

The pouch, which has been heat sterilized including the upper container wall in accordance with the present invention as described above, is then cooled in a refrigerator in accordance with a conventional method and stored or supplied to the market.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a simple method for solving the problem of sterilization failure due to the presence of an upper space, which is a problem when heating and filling a self-supporting pouch.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a hot-filled pouch to be processed according to the invention; FIGS.
The figures each show an aspect of heat sterilization according to the present invention, with FIG. 2 being a view from the side of the pouch, and FIG. 3 being a view from the front of the pouch. FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state in which the pouch is held under pressure for efficient heat sterilization. 1... Pouch, 2... Upper space, 3... Upper container wall, 4... Content liquid, 5... Holder, 6... Hot water or steam pipe, 8... Belt conveyor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A method for sterilizing a self-supporting filled pouch, which comprises selectively heating the contact area with the upper space of the self-supporting pouch filled with a high-temperature liquid and sealed. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the contact portion of the self-supporting pouch with the upper space is heated by spraying hot water or steam from the outer surface of the pouch. 3. The heating of the contact area with the upper space of the self-supporting pouch is performed by tilting or rocking the pouch to bring the high temperature liquid content into contact with the contact area with the upper space. Method.