JPS6126349B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a method for preserving food, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a method for preserving food, and more specifically, a method for storing food to be preserved in which a mixture of ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids is adsorbed in a liquid state or is adsorbed onto a suitable adsorbent and then placed in a container or bag. By placing the ethanol and volatile fatty acids in a container so that they do not come into direct contact with the food in their liquid state, and vaporizing the ethanol and volatile fatty acids in their gaseous state into the container,
Concerning methods for preserving food by preventing the growth and proliferation of mold, bacteria, and insects. A method of preserving food using gaseous ethyl alcohol was previously disclosed by one of the inventors (Japanese Patent No. 1046326).
However, in the present invention, it has been found that a more significant synergistic effect is exhibited by adding volatile fatty acid gas to ethyl alcohol gas. Currently, there are many cases in which alcohol is mixed in liquid form to preserve food, and alcohol and other food preservatives are also used to adjust the water activity while at the same time adjusting the pH to the acidic side to prevent bacterial growth. There are many ways to preserve food, and they can be effective depending on the target. However, all of these methods involve mixing not only food preservatives and water activity regulators, but also various acids for pH adjustment into the food itself. Therefore, this is not desirable in terms of food quality. For example, it is well known that lowering the pH of bread, rice cakes, etc. accelerates aging. As mentioned earlier, the present inventor discovered in Patent No. 1046326 that the preservability of foods is extremely excellent in an ethyl alcohol gas atmosphere that is vaporized from adsorbed substances selected depending on the target, and It has become widely used as a method of preservation. However, in order to completely prevent the growth of bacteria with a short eclipse time in foods with high water activity, especially fresh meat and fish, it is necessary to use adsorbent substances with a faster evaporation curve. A large amount of ethyl alcohol had to be adsorbed. As a result, the odor of ethyl alcohol was transferred to foods such as fresh meat and fish, resulting in an undesirable phenomenon in terms of taste, even if there were no hygiene problems. Therefore, the inventors of the present invention fully recognize the effectiveness of ethyl alcohol gas, and as a result of searching for many substances or mechanisms that have a synergistic effect with ethyl alcohol gas, they found that even though ethyl alcohol gas does not show any effect when used alone.
The addition of volatile fatty acids does not change the pH of the food, and has a synergistic effect with alcohol gas, suppressing the growth of mold and bacteria over a long period of time in foods with a water activity of 0.97 to 0.99, such as fresh meat and fish. The present invention was completed by discovering the fact that Furthermore, when bread, sweets, etc. were preserved by the method of the present invention by adding volatile fatty acids to ethyl alcohol, mold growth was inhibited for a much longer period of time than when the same amount of ethyl alcohol was used alone. That is, in the present invention, ethyl alcohol and one or more volatile fatty acids are mixed in a storage body such as a container or a bag containing food to be preserved, and the mixture is adsorbed on an adsorbent, and the liquid is directly applied to the food. This is a method of preserving food by placing it in a container or bag that allows ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids to evaporate into the storage body without contact. The volatile fatty acids used in the present invention are lower fatty acids, preferably acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, isobutyric acid, valeric acid, isovaleric acid, etc., and these may be used alone or in a mixture of two or more. I can,
Lower fatty acids are 0.01 to ethyl alcohol
It is preferable to use a mixture of 20%, especially 0.1 to 5% from the viewpoint of smell. Foods to be preserved according to the present invention are not limited to agricultural, marine, or livestock foods, and may be either unprocessed or processed. In general, food preservation involves preservatives, mold prevention,
Although the main effects are insect repellent and oxidation prevention, the food preservation of the present invention focuses on antiseptic, mold and insect repellent effects. The adsorbent for ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids in the present invention is the same as the adsorbent for ethyl alcohol in the above patent, and includes powders such as starch, sugar, dextrin, cellulose powder, methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose, gelatin, etc. Silicon, aluminum silicate, and talc are used, and ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids are adsorbed, and non-toxic materials are preferred from the viewpoint of food hygiene. In the present invention, since ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids are in liquid form and are not brought into direct contact with food, it is possible to prevent changes in taste, flavor, color, pH, etc. of food and deterioration of quality. The material and form of the container or bag, and the method of storing the mixture of ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids, which do not come into direct contact with the food in a liquid state but are gaseous and can be vaporized into the food container, are as described in the above patent. Similarly, the use of metallic materials is not preferred. The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Example 1 Preservation of tuna sashimi 500 g of lean tuna was sliced into 50 g x 10 pieces.
Place each piece on a plastic plate with a diameter of 12 cm, and place each piece in a commercially available polyethylene bag (thickness 0.03 mm: 28 cm x 42 cm).
The samples were numbered from 1 to 10. Separately, a Japanese paper bag (5 cm x 6
cm; weight 0.21 g), heat-seal the solution with the composition shown in Table 1 adsorbed on absorbent cotton (adsorbent), and fix this to the polyethylene bag containing the tuna with double-sided tape. The bag was filled with about 500 ml of air, the opening was sealed with a rubber band, and the bag was placed in a thermostat at 37°C. Changes in the surface of the tuna were observed over time, and the results shown in Table 1 were obtained.

[Table] The upper row of results in the table shows the surface condition of fish meat based on the following criteria. -: No change +: Occurrence of Neto =: Occurrence of Neto and bacterial colonies The lower number is the pH of the surface of the fish meat. As seen in Table 1, the combination of ethyl alcohol gas and volatile fatty acid gas is more effective than ethyl alcohol gas alone in any case. Since the results were based on raw tuna sashimi kept at 37°C, the difference in one day can be said to be remarkable. Also, as is clear from the table, volatile fatty acid gas has no effect on the pH of fish meat. Example 2 Preservation of tuna sashimi 14 pieces of lean tuna sashimi each weighing 5 g were prepared, and propionic acid was used as the volatile fatty acid.
The results shown in Table 2 were obtained by testing in the same manner as above. The criteria for surface condition are the same as in Table 1.

【table】

[Table] As shown in Table 2, ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acid (propionic acid) have a clear synergistic effect in the method of the present invention. In particular, even when it contains only 0.01% propionic acid (Sample No. 7 in Table 2), it is more effective against bacterial colony development than ethyl alcohol alone (Sample No. 1 in Table 2). When ethyl alcohol and propionic acid exceed the same amount (sample number 3 in Table 2), the synergistic effect appears to decrease (sample number 2 in the same table), which is thought to be the result of suppressing the vaporization of ethyl alcohol. . A similar tendency is observed for volatile fatty acids other than propionic acid. Example 3 Ten loaves of eight slices of bread were prepared. Place each piece in a commercially available polyethylene bag (thickness
0.03 mm; 28 cm x 42 cm) and numbered from 1 to 10. Table 3.
Add a solution with the composition of 0.5 g of silicon dioxide powder (adsorbent) and heat seal the bag. This was placed in the bag containing the bread and fixed with double-sided tape, and each bag was filled with about 500 ml of air, the opening was sealed with a rubber band, and placed in a thermostat at 25°C. In this example, mold growth was not observed for a very long period of time when the amount of the mixed solution used was normally used, so the test was conducted using a smaller amount than the amount normally used.

[Table] The criteria for judging the results in the table are as follows. -: No change +: Scattered mold colonies: mold all over As is clear from the table, the combined use of volatile fatty acid gas showed a more pronounced anti-mold effect than the use of ethyl alcohol gas alone. Example 4 Preservation of tuna sashimi 100 g of lean tuna was sliced into 2 x 50 g pieces. Place each piece on a plastic plate with a diameter of 12 cm,
Each commercially available polyethylene bag (thickness 0.03mm: 28cm x
42 cm), one side is used as a control, and the other side is 2 cm x
1 ml of ethyl alcohol and 0.01 ml of acetic acid were placed in a 2 cm x 2 cm plastic box-shaped container, and the container was fixed with tape to a plastic dish containing tuna pieces to prevent it from tipping over, and this was used as an experimental area. With approximately 500ml of air in the bag, the bag's opening was tightened with a rubber band, placed in a thermostat at 37°C, and changes in its surface were observed over time.

[Table] The changes in surface condition in the table were based on the following criteria. -: No change +: Neto occurrence =: Occurrence of Neto and bacterial colonies As can be seen from the table, similar results can be obtained even if ethyl alcohol and fatty acids are not adsorbed to an adsorbent. Example 5 Prevention of eclosion of the single grain moth in rice sugar. 50g of commercially available rice sugar in a commercially available polyethylene bag (thickness
Two bags (0.03 mm: 28 cm x 42 cm) were prepared, and 20 pupae of the Itsutenkoku moth collected from a farm warehouse in Isehara City were placed in each bag, and one was used as a control. Separately, put 2 g of silicon dioxide powder (adsorbent), 2 ml of ethyl alcohol, and 0.02 ml of butyric acid into a Japanese paper bag (6 cm x 9 cm) to which perforated polyethylene was glued, and heat-seal it. This was placed in the other bag and fixed to the inside of the bag with double-sided tape to serve as the experimental group. Each bag contains approx.
With 500 ml of air in it, the bag was closed with a rubber band and placed in a thermostat at 28°C. After 8 days, 17 tails had emerged in the control group, but none in the experimental group had emerged even after 6 months. Example 5 A commercially available cut rice cake (6 cm x 5 cm x 1 cm) was prepared.
Place each slice in a commercially available polyethylene bag (thickness 0.03
mm: 28cm x 42cm) and numbered from 1 to 5. Separately, in a Japanese paper bag (5 cm x 6 cm, weight 0.21 g) with perforated polyethylene glued on, put the liquid with the composition shown in Table 5 adsorbed on 0.5 g of silicon dioxide powder (adsorbent), and heat seal the bag. . Place this in the bag containing the cut rice cake and secure it with double-sided tape.
Each bag was filled with about 500 ml of air, the opening was sealed with a rubber band, and the bag was placed in a thermostat at 25°C to observe its surface. The results are shown in Table 5.

[Table] The criteria for judging the results in the table are as follows. -: No change +: Mold colony occurrence =: Mold growth on all surfaces As shown in Table 5, compared to the use of ethyl alcohol alone, the use of acetic acid or propionic acid in combination significantly suppresses the growth of mold.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Ethyl alcohol and one or more volatile fatty acids are mixed in a storage body such as a container or bag containing food to be preserved, and the mixture is adsorbed on an adsorbent to preserve the food in liquid form. A method for preserving food by placing it in a container or bag in which ethyl alcohol and volatile fatty acids can be vaporized in a gaseous state without coming into direct contact with the food. 2 Volatile fatty acids include acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid,
Isobutyric acid, valeric acid, isovaleric acid and/or
The method according to claim 1, wherein the caproic acid is caproic acid. 3 Volatile fatty acids relative to ethyl alcohol
The method according to claims 1 to 2, wherein the amount is 0.01 to 20%. 4 Volatile fatty acids relative to ethyl alcohol
A method according to claims 1 to 2, wherein the content is 0.1 to 5%.