JP6734065B2 - Food processing apparatus and processing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for heat-treating various food materials and a processing method using the same.
Particularly, it relates to heat treatment using superheated steam.

Methods for treating foodstuffs with superheated steam at temperatures above 100° C. are known.
For example, Patent Documents 1 to 4 describe a method for polishing rice using superheated steam, a method for producing rice flour, and the like.
However, the processing devices disclosed in these documents do not fully exhibit the characteristics of superheated steam, and are inferior in productivity.

Japanese Patent No. 4746706 JP, 2008-154576, A JP 2001-120199 A JP, 2006-87641, A

It is an object of the present invention to provide a treatment apparatus and method using superheated steam that takes advantage of the characteristics of food materials.

A foodstuff processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a container for putting foodstuffs and a tunnel portion through which the container passes, a transfer means for transferring the container in the tunnel portion, and vibration or rotation of the container. And a varying means for applying the movement of the superheated steam jet unit and the heater.

Here, the container is a tray, a drum, or the like in which foodstuffs are put.
The tunnel portion has an entrance through which a container passes and an exit, and is surrounded by a tunnel.
Superheated steam refers to steam generated by heating water and further heated at a normal pressure to a temperature exceeding 100° C., for example, 200 to 500° C.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the plurality of superheated steam jetting units and the plurality of heaters are independently controlled.
With this configuration, it is possible to control the ejection conditions and heating conditions of the superheated steam for each container that passes through the tunnel portion.
The superheated steam fills the inside of the tunnel portion to form a reducing atmosphere, and the heating heater has a function to reheat the steam whose temperature has decreased to a superheated state, and also serves as a heating source for food.
When passing the container through the tunnel, a zone to evaporate the free water in the food at the initial stage of feeding the food (pretreatment zone), a zone to heat the food (heating zone), reduce the temperature of superheated steam to reduce the food The tunnel portion can be continuously divided into a plurality of zones under different processing conditions so that the characteristics of the food material can be utilized, such as a zone for cooling below (cooling zone).

In the present invention, the transfer means and the changing means may be chain conveyors.
Alternatively, hydrogen water containing hydrogen may be used as the water used to generate the superheated steam.

There is no limitation on the food material targeted by the present invention.
For example, when rice such as brown rice and white rice is heat-treated by using this processing apparatus, it is easy to make powder as rice flour, and by using such rice flour, fluffy bread can be obtained as brown rice bread or rice bread.
Also, when beans such as soybeans are processed, they are baked fragrantly.
Those that can be taken in the mouth, such as herbs that are herbal medicines and tea leaves that are tea, are included in the foodstuff according to the present invention.
In addition, the storability of the food becomes high.

In the food processing apparatus according to the present invention, the containers containing the food in the tunnel portion are sequentially fed, and the processing conditions can be controlled by the plural superheated steam generators and the plural heating heaters. The heat treatment suitable for each food material can be performed under reducing conditions.

The structural example of the processing apparatus which concerns on this invention is shown. The structure of a tunnel part is shown. The layout of the drum in a tunnel part is shown. A sectional view of a tunnel part is shown. An example of a drum is shown. The structural example of a superheated steam generator is shown. (A)-(c) shows the movement of the drum. The external view of an apparatus is shown. The layout of a heater and a superheated steam generator is shown. An example of a tray type container is shown. The state which makes a tray type container pass through a tunnel part is shown (a, b).

A structural example of the processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The structure is schematically shown in FIG. 1, and the structure of the tunnel portion is shown in FIG.
A tunnel portion 12 is formed on the pedestal 11, and inside the tunnel portion 12, as shown in FIG. 4, a rail 12d for the transfer chain 13 and a rail 12e for the variable chain 14 are arranged in parallel with the tunnel portion. ..
A transfer chain 13 for sequentially transporting the containers 20 along the rails and a fluctuation chain 14 for applying fluctuations to the containers 20 are stretched.
The transfer chain 13 is stretched around a stretched sprocket 13c and a guide sprocket 13d, and is moved by a drive unit 13a via a transmission sprocket 13b.
As shown in FIG. 7, the transfer chain 13 is provided with claw portions 13e and 13e, and the shaft portion 24 of the container is housed between the claw portions so that fluctuations such as rotation and vibration can occur in the container. Transfer while giving.
The embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 7 is an example in which the container 20 is a drum.
The fluctuating chain 14 is for rotating the drum 20, is stretched around the guide sprocket 14c, and is moved by the transmission sprocket 14b and the drive unit 14a.
A sprocket 23 provided on the drum 20 meshes with a groove portion of the variable chain 14, and the movement of the rotary chain 14 causes the drum 20 to rotate.

The drum 20 is for putting foodstuffs, and as shown in FIG. 5, it is composed of a cylindrical main body portion 21 and a lid portion 22, and sprockets 23 are attached to both sides thereof.
The drum 20 rotates with the shaft portion 24 placed on the transfer chain 13.
Vent holes 21 a and 23 a are provided around the main body portion 21 of the drum 20 and on the side surface of the sprocket 23.

A plurality of heating heaters 15 and 16 are disposed above and below the inside of the tunnel portion 12, and superheated steam for ejecting superheated steam into the tunnel portion is provided between the pair of upper and lower heating heaters 15 and 16, respectively. Each generator 17 is provided.
As shown in FIG. 6, the superheated steam generator 17 has a substantially L-shaped structure including a water storage portion 17a storing water W and a steam superheating portion 17b.
The water reservoir 17a is provided with a heater 17c for heating water, and the steam superheater 17b is provided with a heater 17d for superheating steam to a temperature exceeding 100°C.
The superheated water vapor is ejected from the ejection port 17e into the tunnel portion.
Note that hydrogen water in which hydrogen is contained in water can also be used.

The external view of the apparatus is shown in FIG. 8, and the layout of the heaters 15 and 16 and the superheated steam generator 17 is shown in FIG.
By using such a processing apparatus, each superheated steam generator and heaters 15 and 16 can be individually controlled.
Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a zone suitable for foodstuffs, such as a pretreatment zone Z ₁ for evaporating water and the like attached to foodstuffs, a zone Z ₂ for heating foodstuffs, a zone Z ₃ for cooling foodstuffs in a reducing atmosphere, etc. Can be divided into
Further, although the drum 20 is also transferred in parallel in this embodiment, when the rotation shaft is tilted to the left and right and obliquely, the food material can be put in and rotated without providing a lid portion.

10 and 11 show examples of tray type containers 120 and 220.
The tray-type container 120 shown in FIG. 10 has a pair of rotatable links 122 connected to the front side of a box-shaped container body 121 having a hole 121b at the bottom via a rotating part 122a. The upper end of the link 122 is connected by the shaft portion 124.
As shown in FIG. 11A, the container body 121 is placed on the fluctuating chain 14 so that the shaft portion 124 is housed between the claw portions 13e, 13e of the transfer chain 13.
Then, the rear end 121a of the container main body hits the fluctuating chain 14 and hits the rear end when the fluctuating chain 14 moves or moves, so that the tray-shaped container 120 is vibrated, and the foodstuff contained therein moves. Therefore, superheated steam hits uniformly.
In addition, when the tray type container 220 is provided with the shaft portions 124 on both sides as shown in FIG. 11B, the tray type container 220 can be transferred without applying vibration.

11 Frame 12 Tunnel 13 Transfer Chain 13a Drive 14 Variable Chain 14a Drive 15 Heating Heater 16 Heating Heater 17 Superheated Steam Generator 20 Container (Drum)

Claims (2)

It is equipped with a container for putting foodstuffs and a tunnel part for the container to pass through,
A transfer means for transferring the container in the tunnel portion, and a changing means for applying a rotational movement to the container,
The tunnel portion has a plurality of superheated steam jetting portions and a plurality of heaters ,
The plurality of superheated steam jetting units and the plurality of heating heaters are independently controlled for each superheated steam jetting unit and each heating heater, and the transfer means is a chain conveyor including a transfer chain,
The food processing apparatus, wherein the changing means is a chain conveyor including a changing chain arranged separately from the transfer chain . A heat treatment method for foodstuffs, which comprises heat-treating foodstuffs with superheated steam under reducing conditions using the foodstuff treatment apparatus according to claim 1 .

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