JP2816296B2 - Method and apparatus for producing granular butter from frozen lump butter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing granular butter from frozen bulk butter in retrofitting frozen bulk butter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, butter production tends to be maximum in summer, while consumption tends to increase in winter. For this reason, some of the butter produced in the summer is 20-30k
It is stored in the form of bulk butter (block butter) wrapped in cardboard boxes of about g and is refurbished for home butter (eg, 225 g small package) in winter. At this time,
This block butter is cooled to -20 ° C or less to prevent oxidation, and is extremely hard. When retrofitting, it is necessary to increase the temperature to adjust the butter to a softness suitable for a filling and packaging apparatus. Therefore, in a conventional refurbishment method using a kneading device such as a butter homogenizer or an auger screw, the butter cooled to about -20 ° C is put into a heating chamber and heated to about + 5 ° C over about 30 days. Has been renovated since. The reason why it takes a long time to raise the temperature is that the heat conductivity of butter is low, the phase transition of water contained in the butter is about 16%, and the heat transfer of corrugated paper is not good. If the temperature of the heating chamber is too high, part of the butter will melt and the quality will deteriorate. Further, such a long-term heating operation not only restricts production and sales plans but also involves a risk of causing problems such as deterioration of butter and microbial contamination during the heating period. As a method of renovating this butter in a short period of time, a method of raising the temperature by microwave (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 50-14275) has been used.
No. 6) and a method and apparatus for retrofitting butter (JP-A-3-25
No. 1142) has been proposed.

[0003]

The former method has the advantage that the temperature of the butter can be raised instantaneously. However, it is necessary to change the microwave wavelength and the irradiation time depending on the size of the butter, and the butter is large. In this case, there is a disadvantage that the temperature difference between the vicinity of the surface and the center becomes large, and it is difficult to make the temperature distribution uniform. In addition, there is a disadvantage that the production cost is high because large power is required. The latter method enables continuous butter temperature rise by a modified method of kneading, degassing, heating and extruding while compressing the butter, but the temperature of the butter is low (about −20 ° C. in the example). Therefore, heating is performed in the extrusion step. In this case, once the melted butter is cooled and solidified, the quality deteriorates significantly. Therefore, there is a problem that the temperature control of the surface of the heater in contact with the butter becomes complicated in quality control. As described above, the conventional method of raising butter requires a long period of time, and has disadvantages such as microbial contamination, control of product quality, and production cost. In particular, butter is important not only in its flavor but also in physical properties such as hardness and spreadability, which depend on the temperature history of the butter as described above. Is the most important factor above. Therefore, it is necessary to consider not only the final temperature but also the temperature history during the whole process when raising the butter. The present invention considers the above problems, particularly the temperature history during this heating step, maintains the physical properties of butter before renovation as much as possible, and provides a quick, sanitary and low-cost method for producing granular butter. And an apparatus therefor.

[0004]

The present invention provides the following method and apparatus for achieving the above objects.
That is, as a method for producing granular butter from the frozen massive butter of the present invention, the surface of the massive butter whose moisture is frozen at -10 ° C or less is scraped and ground with a cutting blade, and the temperature is raised simultaneously with the grinding, It has a configuration in which granulated butter having a temperature in the range of -7 ° C to + 3 ° C is granulated by transferring the same while maintaining the temperature, and as a device for producing granular butter from frozen bulk butter, A frozen bulk butter crusher in which a cutting blade is arranged on the surface of a cylindrical carrier rotating in the circumferential direction or the surface of a reciprocating carrier, and the crusher reduces butter particles to a temperature in a range of -7 ° C to + 3 ° C. And a grinding butter temperature control device configured to supply a cooling heat medium for controlling temperature to a power device and / or a grinding device for controlling the driving of the device, and the frozen bulk butter is supplied to the grinding device at a constant speed. Butter feeder pressed in, preferably adopts a configuration comprising a discharge device for discharging to the outside the butter was ground at a constant flow rate. And a configuration including a sterile dehumidified air generator for supplying aseptic dehumidified air, preferably cooled, sterile dehumidified air from the butter input port, except for the inlet of the frozen lump butter and the outlet of the crushed butter. Has taken.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments shown in the drawings will be described below.
In the present invention, the temperature is preferably −10 ° C. or less,
Particles that scrape the surface of a lump of butter in which the water at ℃ is frozen with a cutting blade, raise the temperature at the same time as the crushing, and transfer the crushed butter having a range of -7 ° C to + 3 ° C while maintaining the temperature. A method and an apparatus for producing butter, the apparatus comprises: a crushing apparatus for frozen bulk butter in which a cutting blade is arranged on the surface of a cylindrical carrier rotating in the circumferential direction or the surface of a carrier reciprocating; It comprises a butter feeding device for pressing frozen bulk butter against the device at a constant speed, and a discharging device for discharging preferably ground butter to the outside at a constant flow rate. FIG. 1 shows a crushing apparatus having a sterilized dehumidified air generator for supplying aseptic dehumidified air from the butter input port with a closed structure except for the inlet of the frozen lump butter and the outlet of the crushed butter. . (1) shows a sterilization air production unit, in which compressor air is dehumidified by an air dryer (3) through a regulator (2), and sterile dehumidified air is cooled by an air cooler (5) through a filter (4). Then, the mixture is supplied to the pulverizer (A) having a closed structure except for the frozen lump butter input port (6) and the discharge port (7) of the pulverized butter. The crushing device (A) is a device in which a cutting blade (10) is arranged on the surface of a circular carrier in the length direction thereof, and the frozen butter (a) is used.
There is a butter feeder (8) for pressing the powder at a constant speed into the crusher (A). This butter feeder (8) is a belt conveyor (9) that rotates left and right by a motor.
The device (13) for pressing the butter (a) against the cutting blade (10) of the crushing device (A). The crusher (A) also has
Discharge device (1) that constantly discharges the crushed butter to the outside
There is 1). In (14), a jacket is provided so that the refrigerant at −15 ° C. is supplied from the inlet (12) and discharged from the outlet (15), thereby cooling the crushed butter.

In the method for producing granular butter from frozen lump butter according to the present invention, the temperature of the frozen lump butter is raised by pulverizing the frozen lump of butter with a moisture content of about -10.degree. At this time, the shape of the cutting blade and the operating conditions of the crusher are adjusted to generate appropriate frictional heat at the contact surface between the cutting blade and the butter. The temperature is raised to about + 3 ° C. About 16 for normal butter
% Of water, and causes a large endothermic at around 0 ° C. due to the phase transition of water as shown in the butter specific heat curve shown in FIG. Therefore, as seen from the energy characteristics required for increasing the temperature of the butter shown in FIG. 3, if the temperature of the butter cooled to 0 ° C. or lower exceeds 0 ° C., a large amount of energy is required. On the contrary, even if there is a certain amount of energy coming and going near this temperature, the temperature does not change much. Therefore, the adjustment of the temperature of the scraped butter to around 0 ° C. is relatively easy in terms of control and can be stabilized. That is, butter at about 0 ° C. can be relatively easily and stably produced. On the other hand, the butter scraped so as to have a temperature near 0 ° C. is usually granulated in a crusher or discharger of the butter,
Particles having a diameter of about 5 mm to about 30 mm are formed, and the shape and the hardness are suitable for the subsequent process. As described above, in the present invention, a change in mechanical energy during pulverization and kneading to heat energy is used for raising the temperature,
The butter is not in direct contact with the surface of a heating device that is heated by contacting a hot object. In such a temperature rise by pulverization, since the thickness of the butter scraping is usually 0.1 mm or less in the pulverization, unlike the temperature rise utilizing heat conduction performed by a heating device, the temperature distribution has a uniform temperature distribution. Such heating can be performed. As described above, in the pulverization of the frozen butter, utilizing the phase transition of the water in the butter, the melting that leads to quality deterioration does not occur, and the granular butter that is easy to handle in the subsequent process is stably generated. Is a feature of the present invention.

FIGS. 4 to 8 show the results of experiments using the apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows the results obtained by determining the relationship between the butter flow rate and the average butter particle size at rotation speeds of 800 rpm and 900 rpm. It can be seen that it changes with the butter flow rate. FIG. 5 shows the relationship between butter flow rate and outlet butter temperature in FIG.
The results obtained at 00 rpm and 900 rpm are shown.
It can be seen that the outlet butter temperature changes depending on the butter flow rate. FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 show the particle size distribution at a rotation speed of 900 rpm and a butter flow rate of 226 kg / h, 320 kg / h, and 429 kg / h.
It can be seen that the frequency of mm is large. And -20
When about 30 kg of block butter cooled to 0 ° C. was pulverized at 900 rpm using a scraping type rotary pulverizer, butter particles having a diameter of about 5 mm to 30 mm were obtained. At this time, the temperature of the resulting butter particles was about -1 ° C. That is, about 1
A 9 ° C. heating was achieved.

[0008]

According to the method and apparatus of the present invention, the physical properties of butter before renovation are maintained as much as possible without taking into account the temperature history during the temperature raising process caused by the cutting and grinding of frozen bulk butter. And produce a fast, hygienic and low cost granular butter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a butter heating device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 Butter specific heat curve diagram

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing energy characteristics required for raising the temperature of butter.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between butter flow rate and butter particle size.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between butter flow rate and outlet butter temperature.

FIG. 6: 900 rpm, butter flow rate 226 kg /
h distribution map

FIG. 7: 900 rpm, butter flow rate 320 kg /
h distribution map

FIG. 8: 900 rpm, butter flow rate 429 kg /
h distribution map

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Aseptic dehumidification air production unit 2 Regulator 3 Air dryer 4 Filter 5 Air cooler 6 Butter inlet 7 Butter outlet 8 Butter feeder 9 Belt conveyor 10 Cutting blade 11 Ejector 12 Refrigerant inlet 14 Jacket 15 Refrigerant outlet

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-259072 (JP, A) JP-A-2-265432 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23C 1/00-23/00 A01J 1/00-27/04

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A by scraping grinding the surface of the bulk butter in the water frozen at -10 ° C. or less at the cutting edge, at the same time lift was raised and the grinding, grinding with a temperature in the range of + 3 ° C. from -7 ° C.
By transferring butter while maintaining its temperature
A method for producing granular butter from frozen butter to be granulated. 2. A surface of a cylindrical carrier rotating in a circumferential direction,
Or frozen lumps placing the cutting blade on the surface of the carrier to reciprocate
Device for crushing butter, and the crushing device
7 ° C. from + 3 ° C. in the range cold for temperature control in the power plant and / or grinding device for controlling the drive of the apparatus so that such a temperature
Pulverized butter temperature control device configured to supply retirement heating medium, butter feeder pressing the frozen bulk butter to the milling apparatus at a constant rate, preferably from a discharge device for discharging to the outside the butter was ground at a constant flow rate generator granular butter from frozen bulk <br/> butter Do that. 3. An aseptic dehumidified air generator for providing a sterilized dehumidified air, preferably a cooled, sterile dehumidified air from the butter input port, except for the inlet of the frozen lump butter and the outlet of the crushed butter. The apparatus for producing granular butter from frozen bulk butter according to claim 2, comprising: