JP2935580B2 - Storage device used for natto fermentation - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fermentation apparatus used in the production of natto and, more particularly, to a fermentation treatment of natto in a container which is preferably used to improve the productivity of fermentation and produce uniform natto. The present invention relates to a container storage device used for:

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the production of natto, generally, natto bacteria are sprayed on steamed soybeans, and the natto is spread on a styrofoam container (PSP).
Container) or a paper cup (hereinafter, these may be collectively referred to as a container), then put a natto container (not shown) in a plastic basket 10 as shown in FIG. Usually, the basket 10 is stacked on an appropriate cart 11, put into a fermentation chamber, fermented for 15 to 20 hours, and then cooled and packaged, followed by a series of procedures for production.

[0003] It goes without saying that fermentation conditions are one of the important points that determine the quality of natto produced here.

In general, the fermentation is usually carried out at about 40 ° C., but when the natto fungus grows along with the fermentation, heat is generated by the respiration of the fungus and the temperature of the fermentation chamber rises. Therefore, in order to continue fermentation at an appropriate temperature (that is, to maintain the product temperature at about 50 ° C.), a fermentation apparatus that performs cooling has been proposed. For example, the fermentation chamber is measured while measuring the product temperature using a sensor. An apparatus of a type that automatically controls the temperature at a suitable temperature has been proposed and implemented.

[0005]

However, the present inventors have
It has been found that the fermentation apparatus having the above-described temperature control apparatus has the following problems.

That is, in a fermentation apparatus that generally produces a large amount of natto, it is a common practice to put a large number of containers as described above in a basket, further stack the baskets, and put them in a fermentation chamber. However, in the case of such a high-volume processing method, there is a problem in that a part of the product which has been processed in a large amount is deteriorated in quality (uneven fermentation).

[0007] The inventors of the present invention have conducted studies on products with this reduced quality. The reduced quality is influenced by the position of the baskets stacked in multiple stages and the number of natto containers placed in the basket. It was found that the temperature was too high during fermentation. This is thought to be due to the fact that, for example, the temperature in the central container tends to be higher in the central container and in the peripheral container among a large number of containers in the basket. Can be

The problem is that the number of natto containers to be put in the fermentation chamber is limited and the air circulation in the room is increased (for example, the number of natto containers to be put in the basket is reduced, or the number of stacked natto is 15 It can be solved to some extent by limiting the amount of natto to 1 tsubo per fermentation room.
The productivity is reduced to about 1.2 bales.

Therefore, the present invention enables a large amount of fermentation to be carried out without causing a variation in the quality of natto put in the above-mentioned large number of natto containers, and maintaining a high productivity per capacity of the fermentation chamber. The purpose was to provide a container storage device used for fermentation processing of natto in a container.

Another object of the present invention is to realize a further improvement in productivity as compared with the conventional manufacturing using a cage.

Still another object of the present invention is to improve workability in fermenting a large amount of natto in a container.

[0012]

The feature of the container storage device used for the fermentation of natto (natto in a container) according to the present invention, which has been made to realize the above object, is a long hanging rod or plate. A support having a flat frame structure in which pairs of hanging bars are juxtaposed for suspending a large number of containers, and a support for the support having the flat frame structure, which is provided so as to be able to enter and leave the fermentation chamber, and which is vertically multi-tiered. And a shelf device for holding the support tool provided so that the support tool can be inserted and withdrawn from the support tool.
The support is configured so that an upper flange of a container filled with steamed soybeans inoculated with Bacillus natto is hung on the pair of hanging bars and aligned and supported.

The natto container targeted in the present invention is
For example, a flat rectangular box-shaped one having at least a pair of side edges formed with a pair of downward shoulders is preferably used. The above-mentioned shoulder portion may be formed as a flange of the container, or may be formed as a step on the side wall of the container, and its structure is not particularly limited. The point is that any shoulder suitable for being hung by the hanging bar of the support tool may be used.

The frame structure of the support may be any one having a plurality of hanging bars arranged in parallel at appropriate intervals for hanging the natto containers to be hung. From the batch processing, it is desirable to select and design and configure the material, shape, dimensions, etc. of the frame structure as having a shape and strength necessary and sufficient for suspension. In particular, the crosspiece of the frame structure is desirably formed using a rod-like body that is as thin as possible so as not to hinder the flow of air in the fermentation chamber, particularly the flow of air around the natto container. Therefore, a stainless steel bar or pipe is preferably used as a material which does not generate rust or the like and has sufficient strength when used in a fermentation chamber.

In the case of using the support having the above structure, a large number of natto containers are transported in an aligned state by, for example, a conveyor or the like, and the support is positioned downstream of the conveyor so as to stand by. Since it is possible to devise a method of automatically inserting the transport container between the hanging bars of the support tool automatically using an appropriate guide device, transport stopper means, and the like, the present invention can be suitably applied to automation of the storage device. There is an advantage. Further, since the operation of storing the support tool in the shelf device can be performed by moving the support tool horizontally, it is possible to cope with the automation of this work.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention. In these figures, reference numeral 1 denotes a support, and a plurality of hanging bars 2 are provided between a pair of side frames 3. , 2, 2,... Are arranged side by side at adjacent intervals and fixed at both ends.

4, 4,... Are vacant spaces for hanging the natto container 5 described later. In the support 1 of this embodiment, the hanging bars are formed in five rows by juxtaposition.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a natto container, which in this example is a known PSP square container (100 × 100 mm) which is hung so as to extend over the adjacent hanging bars 3 as shown in FIG. . The natto container 5 is prepared for fermentation treatment containing natto obtained by spraying natto bacteria on a predetermined amount of steamed soybeans.

After the natto container 5 containing natto is aligned and supported on the entire support 1, the support 1 is stored in a shelf device 6 as shown in FIG. The shelf device 6 has a pair of shelf receiving bars 8, 8, 8,... In which the side frames 3 of the support 1 are inserted into four columns 7 standing upright at the apexes of a planar rectangle. This is provided in multiple stages, so that a plurality of the support members 1 can be supported in a multi-stage shelf shape.
FIG. 3 shows a state in which a plurality of the support tools are supported at intervals in upper and lower stages.

The shelf device 6 has a bogie roller 9 and is configured to be able to freely enter and leave a fermentation chamber (not shown).

Using the support 1 and the shelf device 6 having the above-described structure, the natto container is filled with 55 g of steamed soybeans, and the natto container which is ready for fermentation treatment by spraying natto bacteria is supported. 9 × 5 rows = 45 pieces are aligned and supported on the utensil 1, and the shelves are stacked and stored in the shelving apparatus 6 in the form of shelves in up and down 24 stages (natto supported in the shelving apparatus). The total number of containers is 1080: the number of natto containers per m3 of the shelf device is 1,317.) Twenty of the shelves thus prepared were placed in a 5 tsubo fermentation chamber, and were placed at 40 ° C. for 15 minutes.
After fermenting for hours, it was cooled to obtain the product.

In the above description, the frame structure of the support 1 has a lengthwise direction of the hanging bar 2 of 91 cm, a width of 55 cm, and a width of the space 4 of 18 mm.

The shelf device 6 has a total height of about 154 cm excluding the bogie rollers.

When the quality of many natto products fermented in this way was examined, all the products had the same stringing and odor, and the variation among the products was extremely small.

When fermentation is performed using the same fermentation chamber and the basket-type natto container storage device shown in FIG. 4, the number of stored natto containers per 1 m 3 is at most about 80.
The effect that the batch processing rate is improved as compared with the case where the number is about 0 is obtained.

[0027]

As described above, according to the storage apparatus for natto fermentation according to the present invention, the quality of natto put in a large number of natto containers does not vary, and the productivity per capacity of the fermentation chamber is improved. And the effect that a large amount of fermentation treatment can be performed while maintaining a high level can be obtained.

Further, according to the storage device used for natto fermentation of the present invention, a further improvement in productivity (1.6 to 2 times as compared with the conventional one) is realized as compared with the production using a conventional basket. It is also suitable for automation of the operation of fermenting fermentation of a large amount of natto in a container, and its usefulness is extremely large.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration outline of a support used for aligning and supporting a large number of natto containers in the present invention in relation to a natto container,

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining the relationship between the support and a shelf device for storing the support;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the shelf device illustrating a state where a number of supports are stored in the shelf device;

FIG. 4 shows a storage device used in a conventional natto fermentation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Supporting device 2: Hanging bar 3: Side frame 4: Hanging space 5: Natto container 5a: Natto 6: Shelf device 7: Support column 8: Shelf receiving bar 9: Dolly roller 10: Basket 11: Dolly

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-51-22847 (JP, A) JP-A-2-104257 (JP, A) JP-A 52-114076 (JP, A) JP-A 55-228 77873 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model 63-28690 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23L 1/20 109

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A support having a plane frame structure in which a pair of long hanging bars each having a rod shape or a plate shape are juxtaposed for hanging a number of containers, and provided so as to be able to enter and leave the fermentation chamber. And a support device storage shelf device provided with a bar for receiving the support having the flat frame structure in a multi-tiered manner up and down, so that the support can be inserted and withdrawn. A storage device used in natto fermentation processing, wherein an upper flange of a container filled with steamed soybeans inoculated with natto bacteria is hung on the pair of hanging bars and aligned and supported. 2. The shelf device according to claim 1, wherein the side of the rectangular parallelepiped is formed of a frame-structured main body formed of a support made of a bar, and a support fitting fixing bar fixed inside the frame of the main body. A storage device used for natto fermentation treatment, comprising a forming member. 3. The natto fermentation treatment according to claim 1, wherein the natto container hung on the support having a flat frame structure has a flat rectangular shape and has overhanging flanges in the upper four sides. Storage device used for