JPS6359660B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing a boxed lunch that can be stored for a certain period of time and can be prevented from deteriorating in quality, such as deterioration in taste, or from rotting or spoiling.

Technical background of the invention and its problems There are many opportunities to eat bento at work or while traveling. This bento generally consists of cooked rice, which is a staple food, and side dishes, which are side dishes. However, due to the risk of food poisoning, especially in the summer, bento boxes must be served within a certain period of time, such as within six hours, after being produced. In this way, in order to serve a boxed lunch for a meal within a certain period of time, it means that the boxed lunch must be manufactured within a certain period of time calculated from the eating time.
For example, if a bento box is to be eaten at noon, this means that the bento box must be manufactured within a certain time (for example, within 6 hours) from noon, between 7 a.m. and 12 a.m. This led to an increase in labor costs for manufacturing bento boxes and was one of the reasons for hindering mass production.

Therefore, even if the bento is manufactured before the day, there is no risk of deterioration in taste, deterioration or spoilage of the bento, and therefore there is no risk of food poisoning, making it possible to manufacture the bento very efficiently. Moreover, it is expected that it will save on labor costs and increase the chances of eating boxed lunches.

In view of the above points, the present inventor has discovered that even if the bento is manufactured before the day on which the bento is eaten, the taste of the bento will deteriorate,
We conducted extensive research to provide a method for producing bento boxes that does not have to worry about deterioration or spoilage, and therefore does not require food poisoning. It is sufficient to fill the unfilled space with an inert gas such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas, and when filling the unfilled space of the bento container with inert gas, it is necessary to fill the unfilled space of the bento container with rice as a staple food. The present invention was completed based on the discovery that it is important to prevent the rice serving portion from rising above the wall.

Purpose of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides a method for producing a bento box that has excellent preservability and is free from deterioration such as deterioration of taste, rot, or deterioration even if the bento box is stored for a certain period of time. The purpose is to

Main aspects of the invention The method for manufacturing a boxed lunch according to the present invention includes placing cooked rice and a side dish in a rice serving section and a side dish serving section of a lunch container, respectively, and placing the lunch container in a concave portion of a conveyor having a concave portion corresponding to the lunch container. While storing and transporting the rice, scrape off the raised part from the wall of the rice serving section, and then pass through a preliminary chamber where air is sucked and inert gas is blown, and then the rice is filled with inert gas. The lunch container was placed in a sealed cooling chamber.
The lunch container is characterized by being cooled to a temperature of up to 1° C. while being sealed with a film and filling the unfilled space of the lunch container with an inert gas.

In the present invention, the side dish that is a side dish for a boxed lunch may be placed after the cooked rice is placed on the side dish serving portion of the lunch box, or after the raised portion of the cooked rice is scraped off.

The bento boxed lunch obtained by the method for manufacturing a boxed lunch according to the present invention has excellent preservability, so that it is possible to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process and is also extremely hygienic. Furthermore, the inert gas filled in the seal cooling chamber can be used repeatedly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The manufacturing process of the boxed lunch according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the bento container 1 used in the manufacturing process of the bento according to the present invention consists of a rice serving part 2 for serving cooked rice, which is a staple food, and a side dish serving part 3 for serving side dishes, salads, etc. The main food serving portion 2 is defined by a rice serving portion wall 4 that is provided to rise from the bottom wall of the container 1, and the side food serving portion 3 is similarly defined by a rice serving portion wall 4 that rises from the bottom wall of the container 1. It is defined by a side food serving section wall 5 which is provided so as to rise from the side. The rice serving portion wall 4 and the side food serving portion wall 5 are formed at approximately the same height as the side wall 6 of the container 1.

In such a bento container 1, cooked rice 7 is placed on the staple food serving portion 2 of the container 1 by an automatic cooked rice serving device (not shown) or manually by an operator. Similarly, Korotsuke,
Serve with 8 side dishes such as grilled fish. This arrangement of side dishes may be performed by an automatic side food serving device, or may be performed manually by an operator.

The bento container 1 in which the cooked rice 7 and the side dishes 8 are arranged as described above is stored in the recess 9 of the conveyor 10 having a recess 9 corresponding to the bento container, and is transferred on the conveyor 10 so that the surface of the cooked rice is flat. The area 11 is reached, where the portion of the rice that has risen above the wall 4 of the rice serving portion is scraped off so that there is no portion that rises above the wall 4 and side wall 6 of the rice serving portion of the lunch container 1. Make it. Regarding the side dish 8, prepare the side dish 8 in advance so that it does not rise above the wall 5 of the side dish serving part, or if it rises above the wall 5 of the side dish serving part, press it down. This prevents the side food 8 from being raised higher than the side food serving part wall 5.

To scrape off rice that has risen above the rice serving section wall 4, place a spatula-shaped scraping plate 12 above the conveyor 10 so that it touches the rice serving section wall 4 and side wall 6 of the lunch container 1. The scraping plate 12 is provided at a height such that it is in contact with the top surface of the conveyor, and the scraping plate 12 is used to scrape off the rice that has risen from the rice serving portion wall 4 of the lunch box that has been transferred by the conveyor 10. . The rice scraped off by the scraping plate 12 is returned to the rice bin by the intermittent movements of the scraping plate 12 toward the rice bin.

After serving the cooked rice 7 and the side food 8 in the bento container 1 in the above manner so as not to rise above the rice serving part wall 5 and the side food serving part wall 6, respectively,
The lunch container 1 is passed through a preliminary chamber 13 into which air is sucked and inert gas is blown. A vacuum pump 14 for sucking air and a valved conduit 15 for introducing an inert gas into the preliminary chamber are connected to this preliminary chamber 13. Further, it is preferable to provide a sealing member 16 at the entrance to the preliminary chamber 13 in order to keep the preliminary chamber 13 in a sealed state.

In this pre-chamber 13, the lunch container 1 can be pre-cooled, and for this purpose, a cooling device (not shown) may be provided in the pre-chamber 13, or cold inert gas from a sealed cooling chamber (to be described later) may be passed through a conduit 15. It may also be possible to introduce it into the preparatory chamber 13 by.

The lunch container 1 that has passed through the preliminary chamber 13 is then transferred to a sealed cooling chamber 17 filled with inert gas.
While cooling the lunch container in the sealed cooling chamber 17 to a temperature of -1°C, preferably 5 to -1°C, more preferably 4 to 0°C, an inert gas is poured into the unfilled space of the lunch container 1. While gas is sealed, the upper opening of the lunch container 1 is sealed with a film 19 by a vertically movable sealing device 18.

This seal cooling chamber 17 is provided with a conduit (not shown) for introducing an inert gas into the seal cooling chamber and a cooling device (not shown) for cooling the lunch container. A liquid nitrogen conduit 20 can also be provided in the sealed cooling chamber 17 so that introduction and cooling of the lunch container can take place simultaneously. By introducing liquid nitrogen into the seal cooling chamber 17 via conduit 20, the seal cooling chamber 17 is filled with inert gas and cooled.

Note that the preliminary chamber 13 and the seal cooling chamber 17 are continuously provided so as to be in contact with each other.

When liquid nitrogen is used for cooling, it is preferable that parts such as the conveyor 10 that come into direct contact with the liquid nitrogen be made of a material having low temperature durability such as high manganese steel.

As the film 19 for sealing the lunch container 1, a film having low oxygen permeability and excellent stability is preferable, and specifically, polyethylene film, polypropylene film, polyester film, pullulan film, etc. are used. Among these, pullulan film sold by Hayashibara Biochemical Research Institute is particularly preferred. This pullulan film is composed of water-soluble, non-gel-forming viscous polysaccharides, and has the characteristics of being edible and having a low oxygen permeability. have. Moreover, since this pullulan film can be tightly adhered to the lunch container 1, it also has the advantage of excellent sealing properties. Further, if the lunch box container 1 is sealed with this pullulan film, there is an advantage that the effort of removing the film when heating the lunch box can be saved.

In the present invention, the bento container 1 includes cooked rice 7 and side dishes 8.
The rice is placed so that it does not rise above the wall 4 of the rice serving section and the wall 5 of the side dish serving section.However, if the rice 7, etc. rises above the wall 4 of the rice serving section and attempts to seal the bento container 1. Then, when the lunch container 1 is stored in the recess 9 of the conveyor 10 and transferred to the preliminary chamber 13, cooked rice may adhere to the wall surface or the seal member 16 at the entrance of the preliminary chamber 13, which is undesirable. This is not desirable because the film sealing the lunch container 1 is deformed or shrunk by the moisture contained in the cooked rice or heat, and in some cases, pinholes are formed, allowing oxygen to enter the inside of the lunch container 1.

The bento box produced in this way is then -1
Preferably, it is stored in a refrigerator maintained at a temperature of up to 5°C, preferably 5 to -1°C, more preferably 4 to 0°C.

Effects of the Invention In the bento manufacturing method according to the present invention, cooked rice and side dishes are placed in the cooked rice serving portion and the side food serving portion of the bento container, respectively, and the bento container is placed in the recess of a conveyor having a recess corresponding to the bento container. While storing and transporting, scrape off the raised part from the wall of the rice serving area, and then pass through a preliminary chamber where air is sucked and inert gas is blown, and then it is filled with inert gas. The bento container is cooled to a temperature of -1°C in a seal cooling chamber, sealed with a film, and the unfilled space of the bento container is filled with inert gas, so the obtained lunch box can be stored easily. Excellent in sex. Therefore, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the bento manufacturing process, and it is also extremely hygienic.

In addition, the lunch containers are stored in the recess of the conveyor, which has a recess that corresponds to the lunch container, and are led to the preliminary chamber where air is removed, preventing oxygen from entering the sealed cooling chamber. The inert gas filled in the seal cooling chamber is the preliminary chamber 13.
It is economically advantageous because it can be reused as an inert gas introduced into the system.

The present invention will be specifically explained below using test examples.
According to the present invention, cooked rice 7 and side food 8 are placed in the lunch box container 1.
After serving, the lunch container 1 was cooled to a temperature of 2° C., nitrogen was filled into the lunch container 1, and the container was sealed with pullulan film. Similarly, after placing cooked rice 7 and side dish 8 in lunch container 1, place lunch container 2 in
Nitrogen is added to the lunch container 1 while cooling it to a temperature of ℃.
It was filled with an inert gas consisting of 50% carbon dioxide gas and 50% carbon dioxide gas, and was sealed with pullulan film.

The bento boxed lunch thus obtained was stored in a refrigerator kept at 2°C for 30 days, then taken out, warmed, and served as a meal.It had an excellent taste. Furthermore, no change in the color of the staple food or side food was observed.

On the other hand, when we simply placed rice and side dishes in a bento container, heated the bento after storing it in a refrigerator kept at 2°C for 30 days, and then served it as a meal, we found that the taste of the bento and the color of the side food had slightly deteriorated. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a lunch container used in the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the method of the present invention. 1...Lunch container, 2...Rice serving part, 3...Side dish serving part, 4...Rice dish serving part wall, 5...Side dish serving part wall, 6...Lunch container side wall, 7... Rice, 8...
Side food, 9... recess, 10... conveyor, 11...
Rice surface flattening area, 13...Preliminary room, 17...
Seal cooling chamber, 19...film, 20...liquid nitrogen conduit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Placing cooked rice and side dishes in the rice serving portion and the side dish serving portion of a lunch container, respectively, and storing the lunch container in a recess of a conveyor having a recess corresponding to the lunch container while transporting the container. The raised part from the wall of the rice serving section is scraped off, and then the air is sucked in and passed through a preliminary chamber where inert gas is blown, and then the rice is placed in a sealed cooling chamber filled with inert gas. A method for producing a bento box, which comprises cooling the bento container to a temperature of up to -1° C., sealing the bento container with a film, and filling an unfilled space of the bento container with an inert gas. 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the lunch container is cooled at a temperature in the range of 5 to -1°C. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the obtained boxed lunch is further stored in a refrigerator kept at 5 to -1°C.