RU2015081C1 - Method and cardboard container for packing of storage-stable liquid foodstuffs not saturated with carbon oxide - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: food industry. SUBSTANCE: method includes steps of pasteurization; pouring in cardboard containers having a cover with two sloping surfaces and flaps; sealing; and cooling. The containers are manually opened to form a drain hole. The containers have thermoplastic coatings made, for an example, of polyethylene. The pouring in is carried out at ambient pressure and temperature lower than 27 C. The containers are sealed by an easy-to-open sealant disposed in the center of an end flap upper section. The pasteurization is carried out after sealing by warming the container up to the temperature laying in the range from 71 C to the thermoplastic coating softening temperature. The foodstuff is left at this temperature for a predetermined pasteurization time. The cardboard container has a pointed top sealed by heating. The top is built by opposite lateral panel having end flaps. The lateral and end panels are provided with folding lines to ease the opening and closing of the container. The central upper part of each end flap is provided with a zone of lowered adhesion. The lower central part of the upper flaps is provided with a point hole with is pressed in both upper flaps simultaneously to bond the adjacent folded inside end flaps. EFFECT: improved packing. 8 cl, 7 dwg

Description

 The invention relates to a method of packaging food storage products, preferably citrus and vegetable juices, which are free of pathogenic and thermophilic microorganisms that are not saturated with carbon monoxide unsaturated with carbon monoxide, with a pH of 3.0-4.6, and the corresponding packaging in the form of a cardboard box for these products.

 A known method of packaging products of the above type, involving pasteurization, pouring into cardboard containers with a gable lid with sashes that are opened manually to form a drain hole, having a thermoplastic coating, clogging and cooling.

 However, a product of this type packaged in this way cannot be stored on a shelf for a long time (i.e., without cooling) and requires either placing it in a refrigerator or adding preservatives. Both that, and another creates inconvenience to the consumer.

 Therefore, the aim of the invention is to increase the shelf life of a product of the indicated type on a shelf (in vivo) without the addition of preservatives.

 This is achieved according to the invention in that, in the method of packaging carbon monoxide-unsaturated liquid food products, mainly citrus and vegetable juices that do not contain pathogenic and thermophilic microorganisms, with a pH of 3.0-4.6, including pasteurization, pouring into cardboard containers with a gable a lid with sashes that are opened manually to form a drain hole, having a thermoplastic coating, for example, polyethylene having a softening temperature of 79 ° C, blocking and cooling, filling containers is carried out they are poured at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of less than 27 ° C, the container is closed by means of an easily openable seal located in the center of the upper part of the end leaf, and pasteurization is carried out after the container is closed by heating it to a temperature in the range from 71 ° C to the plastic softening temperature, after which the product is kept at this temperature for a predetermined pasteurization time to obtain storage stable liquid food product.

 Liquid food products to which the method of this invention is applicable include non-carbonate fruit products such as citrus products or citrus-flavored products, fruit products, vegetable juices, and vegetable smoothies mentioned above. Carbonation must be eliminated, because otherwise the pressures created during the manufacturing process will be too high. Another requirement for food products is the absence of pathogenic and thermophilic bacteria. Most juices and drinks have a pH ranging from 2.8 to 4.0, but not more than pH 4.6. At pH greater than 4.6, there is a potential problem of pathogenic bacteria. Below pH 4.6, yeast, mold, and bacteria are problems.

 If the pH is greater than 4.6, which may be in products such as milk, then it is necessary to pre-treat with an ultrahigh temperature in the range from 115 ° C to 126 ° C for 15-20 s in order to kill pathogens and then cool to room temperature. Ultra-high temperature pretreatment is desirable for some tomato-based vegetable products due to the initial high content of thermophilic mold.

 Juices and drinks for which this process is applicable are located in containers at room temperature in the range from 4 to 24 ° C and are processed in advance, as described above, if necessary. Then they are fed to the filling unit, where juice or drink is fed into the containers.

 Although this is not essential, it may be useful to install a spray infusion valve in the line between the container and the filling unit. The spray infusion valve is used to add up to 8 g / cm2 of nitrogen or carbon dioxide, preferably about 1 g / cm2. The purpose of the spray is to create a small positive pressure to prevent any bacteria from entering the container after filling.

 For this, it is preferable to use carbon dioxide. A product sprayed with carbon dioxide will contain such a small amount of carbon dioxide that it cannot be classified as a carbonate product.

 In a conventional filling unit, individual containers are filled with cold. The temperature of the liquid food product should be less than 27 ° C and it is desirable that it be below 21 ° C to obtain a neutral or positive pressure after filling. This may contrast with hot filling temperatures of the order of 82 ° C. The maximum temperature that can be applied depends on the conditions, including the positive pressure from the spray gas and the sealing force, which in some cases can absorb a small vacuum. However, as indicated above, vacuum is undesirable. After filling and closing the boxes, pressure is created from neutral to small positive.

 Other preferred modes and techniques of the method are shown in the dependent claims.

 Further, the invention will become more clear on examples of the method, not limiting the scope of the invention.

 Cardboard boxes of the indicated type are filled with cold (unheated) juice and a pasteurization unit is transferred containing three zones — a pre-heating zone, a holding zone and a cooling zone.

 This installation may be in the form of a continuous moving line on which rows of boxes spaced are placed so that water can drain on the sides of the boxes to heat or cool the contents. Water temperature is from 82 to 85 ° C. After a certain period of time, which varies depending on the size of the box, the liquid product inside the containers reaches the set pasteurization temperature. Preferably, the pasteurization temperature is about 68 ° C, which is achieved over a period of about 13-19 minutes in the case of a one liter box. Two-liter boxes allow you to reach this temperature in 20-24 minutes, and for 250-milliliter boxes 4-7 minutes are enough.

 In the holding zone, the product is kept at a given pasteurization temperature for a predetermined time to ensure the complete destruction of microorganisms. The appropriate time at various pasteurization temperatures can be taken from the respective reference books. A holding time of 10 minutes is recommended for a preferred temperature of 68 ° C. The temperature should not be more than 84 ° C (at which the shutter speed will be about 4 minutes), otherwise there may be problems with softening the plastic when the container contains a plastic layer, and it may peel off from the cardboard. A slightly higher temperature can be used with plastic having a higher softening point, such as polypropylene. At lower temperatures, the exposure time is quite long. For example, at 71 ° C it will be about 25 minutes.

 In the cooling zone, after holding for a predetermined time, the boxes are fed into the cooling zone, where they cool to a temperature of 32 to 40 ° C. This temperature is preferred for the rapid evaporation of excess moisture on the surface of the container. The temperature of the cooling water can be from 1.7 to 15 ° C. Then the boxes leave the installation and are packed in boxes.

 PRI me R 1. This example relates to the production of 4546 liters of ready-to-drink orange juice. 615 L of orange juice with a concentration of 65 Brix (% soluble solids) is supplemented with 585 L of water and mixed for 10 minutes.

 Then, using positive pressure pumps, this mixture is fed through a line to the filler. The line contains a mixing nozzle to spray carbon dioxide and give the final product a gas pressure of the order of 0.1 psi (8 g / cm2). In the filler, CO2 is introduced at a temperature of about 21 ° C into liter boxes with sloping lids, which are sealed by hot pressing. The boxes are heated to a temperature of 75 ° C in 14 minutes and kept at this temperature for 10 minutes. Then they are cooled with water at 4.5 ° C for 12 minutes to give a 32 ° C temperature at the outlet. Orange juice has a shelf life of three months and it is recommended that it be stored for a maximum of six months. The taste of orange juice is noticeably better than when using the hot filling method.

 PRI me R 2. Pasteurized cocktail of clam juice. A batch of 4546 l is prepared from 454.6 l of tomato paste (32-34 brix), 253 g of salt, 27.1 kg of monosodium glutamate, 316 kg of hard glucose, 13.5 kg of spices and 45, 46 kg of clam broth. It is fed to the pasteurizer, where the product is brought to a temperature of 121 ° C for 10-20 s and maintained at this temperature for 48-52 s, cooled to 21 ° C, and then poured and processed, as described in example 1.

 As noted above, the present invention also relates to an improved point-top cardboard box.

 Pointed-top boxes are commonly used to pack liquid foods such as milk, juices, citrus products, and vegetable smoothies. When the product must be frozen, as is the case with milk, the strength of the seal is not critical. It is enough to prevent splashing, and due to the short shelf life on the shelf, there is practically no problem with spoilage due to contamination entering the box. Therefore, in this well-known case, it is not difficult to create a coating that can be easily opened without much effort by the consumer. On the contrary, when the product to be packaged is of a different type, for example, the type of orange or vegetable juice, it is desirable that it has a sufficiently long shelf life without the need for freezing. If the plug is leaky, bacteria, mold and yeast can contaminate the product and lead to spoilage. Also, if air passes into the container, it can cause souring.

 Therefore, in this case, it is necessary to provide a very reliable seal. The entire lid is sealed by hot pressing in accordance with existing practice, and pressure on it is usually carried out in the form of vertical lines, a horizontal line and a center point. However, the result is that the container is not easy to open from the point of view of the average consumer.

 This creates difficulties in creating an acceptable container with a sloping lid. Various techniques were used in an attempt to solve this problem, including a weakened line of discontinuity, but this was not completely satisfactory.

 Cardboard box according to the invention, made of thermoplastic coated cardboard and having a pointed top corked by thermal sealing, which consists of side panels located opposite one another with the upper leaves glued together and two opposite end panels bent inward with end leaves extending from the panels a lower height than the upper flaps of the side panels, and attached to the lower part of the upper flaps, bend lines are made on the side and end panels to facilitate opening and closing, and in the center of the upper part of the end leaf there is an area of weakened adhesion left unsealed or poorly sealed, it differs from the known boxes of this type in that in the lower central part of the upper leaves there is a point recess, pressed simultaneously into both upper leaves and fastening adjacent inwardly curved end leaves.

 In FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a sloping box according to the invention; in FIG. 2 - opening the box shown in FIG. 1, while part of the cover is removed; in FIG. 3 - the box shown in FIG. 1, open to display areas to be sealed; in FIG. 4 is a plan view of a stamp that can be used to seal the box of FIG. 1-3; in FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a box with a sloping lid in accordance with another example implementation of the present invention, which shows the opening of the box; in FIG. 6 is a perspective view in side view of the female part of the stamp for the manufacture of the example shown in FIG. 5; in FIG. 7 is a perspective view in side view of the male part of the stamp for the manufacture of the example shown in FIG. 5.

 The box shown is basically of a conventional design. It contains opposite pairs of side walls 10 and 11 connected by a fifth panel 12 (shown in Fig. 3).

 There is a bottom cover 13 and a sloping cover, generally indicated by 14. The sloping cover contains a pair of side panels 15 having bending lines 16 to facilitate opening, and a pair of end panels (sashes) 17 having bending lines 18. A pair of upper flaps 19 is a continuation of the side panels (flaps) 20, which are a continuation of the panels 17. The flaps 19 are hot sealed face to face, as shown in FIG. 1. The leaves 20 are hot sealed to the inside of the lower parts of the leaves 19, as shown in FIG. 2. Usually make a pair of rack lines 21 at the end, which should not open and which coincides with the fifth panel. At the other end there is a rack line 21a. There is also a horizontal rack line 22. The rack lines are mainly designed to give greater security to sealing. There is also a rack point (region) 23, which compresses together, extends all the way and seals the adjacent ends of the inwardly curved end flaps 17. Everything mentioned above is usual in terms of design.

 The difference from the conventional structure in accordance with this invention lies in the sealing area between the sash 19 and the sash 20. In accordance with normal practice, in the case of hot filling, the entire interior of the sash 20 is sealed to the sash 19. In accordance with this invention, the region is preferably in the form of an inverted triangle 25 remains unsealed at the top in the center of the sash 20, as shown in the selected part in FIG. 2. The rest of the sealed area is shown as shaded and indicated by 24.

 In FIG. 3, the unsealed area is shown at 23a and 23b, which combine to form region 23 when the box is closed. It has been found that especially when there is a place of the rack point 23 at the apex of triangle 25, effective sealing is provided instead of this unsealed area. The unsealed area in the upper center allows the consumer to start opening the box, and also leads to the fact that in the place where the consumer needs to apply the least effort, there is less than the sealed and subject to separation.

 In FIG. 4 shows a male sponge of a suitable die 30, including a die front 31 for compressing the upper part of the flaps 19 together, die front parts 32 and 33 for the ends and horizontal rack lines 34 of the notch, vertical rack lines 35 of the notch and the protrusion 36 of the notch for the rack . The front part 37 of the stamp, which connects the flaps 19 and 20, is cut out at point 38, leaving a triangular unsealed area. This can be used with a fitting female stamp.

 Other options for creating a given unsealed area should include the use of silicon as a release agent to prevent adhesion in region 25. Another option when using a binder instead of hot sealing is to neglect the binder in region 25. However, hot sealing is the preferred method of closing when the box is coated with a thermoplastic resin. A preferred structural material consists of five layers, namely, an inner coating of polyethylene, a partition of aluminum foil, a layer of polyethylene, a bonding foil, a layer of cardboard and an outer layer of polyethylene. Other thermoplastic coatings of an acceptable type may be used for food products such as vinyl resins, such as polyvinyl chloride.

 In FIG. 5 shows an improved structure that is similar to that shown in FIG. 1-4, but only here is shown an unsealed or slightly sealed area on top of the sash 20 immediately above the rack 23 in the form of a triangle 25a instead of the triangle shown in FIG. 2 and also shows an unsealed or slightly sealed area 25b extending between the rack point 23 and the rack line 21a. Areas 25a and 25b are left unsealed or they are slightly sealed by creating a stamp that does not create pressure or creates slight pressure on these areas.

 A suitable die 30 is shown in FIG. 7, where matrix 41 is shown, and in FIG. 6, where a punch 40 is shown. As shown in FIG. 7, the punch 40 has a stamping surface 42 having a raised longitudinal flange (rib) 43, creating a horizontal strut line, and vertical flanges (membranes) 44 and 45, creating strut lines on the side of the container, which should remain sealed, and a vertical rib (membrane ) 46, creating a rack line from the side of the container to be opened. The punch 40 has a seat screw 47 providing a central rack point 23. The region 25a of FIG. 5 is provided with a compressible region 48 immediately above the set screw 47, offset in the direction of the side of the box to be opened. The relief region 49 is also protruded from the set screw 47, providing a rack point 23 for the membrane 46, which creates a rack line 21a. The punch 40 also comprises a region (part) 50 for sealing the upper leaves of the container 19 and regions 52, 53 and 54 for sealing the rest of the wings 20.

 The matrix 41 shown in FIG. 6 has an upper region 55 that mates with the punch portion 50, and a slightly cropped region 51, the upper edge of which is positioned to coincide with rib 43. The stamp has slots 56 and 57 to match the membranes 44 and 45 and slot 58 to match the membrane 46. It also has a depressed region 59 for easing the pressure, compatible with the region 49 of the punch, and a basically rectangular region 60 of the pressure relief, combined with the region 48 of the punch.

Claims (8)

1. A method of packaging liquid foods that are stable during storage of carbon monoxide-unsaturated products, mainly citrus and vegetable juices that do not contain pathogenic and thermophilic microorganisms, with a pH of 3.0 - 4.6, including pasteurization, pouring into cardboard containers with a gable lid with sashes, which manually opened to form a drain hole having a thermoplastic coating, such as polyethylene, clogging and cooling, characterized in that, in order to increase the shelf life of products in natural conditions ditions without adding konsenvantov, filling the containers is performed at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of less than 27 ^o C, the container plugging is performed by the easy open seal, placed in the center of the top of the end flaps, and pasteurization is carried out after the occlusion by heating the container to a temperature ranging from 71 ^o C to the softening temperature of the thermoplastic coating, after which the product is maintained at this temperature for a predetermined pasteurization time to obtain stable at nenii liquid food product.  2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that when processing a container with a capacity of 0.25 l, the exposure time is 4 to 7 minutes.  3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that when processing the container with a capacity of 2 l, the exposure time is 20 to 24 minutes 4. The method according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the cooling after pasteurization is carried out at 32 - 41 ^o C. 5. The method according to claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, in order to destroy pathogenic or thermophilic microorganisms, the product is heated to an ultra-high temperature of 115 - 126 ^o C. before pouring.  6. The method according to claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, in order to create an easily openable seal by making a poorly sealed area in the drain hole of the container, the blockage is made by applying heat and pressure to the end leaves of the container, while to the upper part of the end leaves of the container apply less pressure, and more to the rest.  7. The method according to p. 6, characterized in that the clogging is carried out by applying heat and pressure to the side flaps with the formation in the central lower part of the side flaps of a depressed point fastening the adjacent edges of the end flaps bent inward.  8. Cardboard container made of thermoplastic coated cardboard and having a pointed top corked by thermal sealing, which consists of side panels located one against the other with the upper leaves glued together and two opposite end panels bent inward with annular leaves extending from the panels lower than the upper flaps of the side panels and attached to the lower part of the upper flaps, bend lines are made on the side and end panels for easy opening and closing, and in the center of the upper part of the end leaf there is an area of weakened adhesion left unsealed or poorly sealed, characterized in that in the lower central part of the upper leafs there is a point recess, pressed simultaneously into both upper leafs and fastening the adjacent end leaves curved inward .

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