JPS6359659B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing a boxed lunch that can be stored for a certain period of time and can be prevented from deteriorating in quality, such as deterioration in taste, or from rotting or spoiling.

Technical background of the invention and its problems There are many opportunities to eat bento at work or while traveling. This bento generally consists of cooked rice, which is a staple food, and side dishes, which are side dishes. However, due to the risk of food poisoning, especially in the summer, bento boxes must be served within a certain period of time, such as within six hours, after being produced. In this way, in order to serve a boxed lunch for a meal within a certain period of time, it means that the boxed lunch must be manufactured within a certain period of time calculated from the eating time.
For example, if a bento box is to be eaten at noon, this means that the bento box must be manufactured within a certain time (for example, within 6 hours) from noon, between 7 a.m. and 12 a.m. This led to an increase in labor costs for manufacturing bento boxes and was one of the reasons for hindering mass production.

Therefore, even if bento boxes are manufactured before that day, there is no need to worry about deterioration in taste, deterioration or spoilage of bento boxes, and therefore, there is no need for food poisoning, making it possible to manufacture bento boxes extremely efficiently. Moreover, it is expected that it will save on labor costs and increase the chances of eating boxed lunches.

In view of the above points, the present inventor has discovered that even if the bento is manufactured before the day on which the bento is eaten, the taste of the bento will deteriorate,
We conducted extensive research in order to provide a method for producing bento boxes that does not have to worry about deterioration or spoilage, and therefore does not cause food poisoning.We have found that we seal the lunch box with a film and fill the unfilled space of the lunch box with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. It is sufficient to fill in an inert gas such as gas, and when filling the unfilled space of the lunch container with inert gas, it is necessary to raise the rice as a staple food served in the lunch container above the wall of the rice serving part. The present invention was completed based on the discovery that it is important not to leave the product in a loose state.

Purpose of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides a method for producing a bento box that has excellent preservability and is free from deterioration such as deterioration of taste, rot, or deterioration even if the bento box is stored for a certain period of time. The purpose is to

Summary of the Invention The method for manufacturing a boxed lunch according to the present invention includes placing cooked rice and a side dish in the cooked rice serving section and side dish serving section of a lunch container, respectively, and placing the lunch container in a concave portion of a conveyor having a concave portion corresponding to the lunch container. While storing and transporting, scrape off the raised part from the wall of the rice serving area, and then pass through a preliminary chamber where air is sucked and inert gas is blown, and then it is filled with inert gas. The lunch container is sealed with a film in the sealing chamber, and the unfilled space of the lunch container is filled with an inert gas.

In the present invention, the side dish that is a side dish for a bento box may be placed after the cooked rice is placed on the side dish serving portion of the bento container, or after the raised portion of the cooked rice is scraped off.

The bento boxed lunch obtained by the method for manufacturing a boxed lunch according to the present invention has excellent preservability, so that it is possible to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process and is also extremely hygienic. Furthermore, the inert gas filled in the sealing chamber can be used repeatedly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The manufacturing process of the boxed lunch according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the bento container 1 used in the manufacturing process of the bento according to the present invention consists of a rice serving part 2 for serving cooked rice, which is a staple food, and a side dish serving part 3 for serving side dishes, salads, etc. The main food serving portion 2 is defined by a rice serving portion wall 4 that is provided to rise from the bottom wall of the container 1, and the side food serving portion 3 is similarly defined by a rice serving portion wall 4 that rises from the bottom wall of the container 1. It is defined by a side food serving section wall 5 which is provided so as to rise from the side. The rice serving portion wall 4 and the side food serving portion wall 5 are formed at approximately the same height as the side wall 6 of the container 1.

In such a bento container 1, cooked rice 7 is placed on the staple food serving portion 2 of the container 1 by an automatic cooked rice serving device (not shown) or manually by an operator. Similarly, Korotsuke,
Serve with 8 side dishes such as grilled fish. This arrangement of side dishes may be performed by an automatic side food serving device, or may be performed manually by an operator.

The bento container 1 in which the cooked rice 7 and the side dishes 8 are arranged as described above is stored in the recess 9 of the conveyor 10 having a recess 9 corresponding to the bento container, and is transferred onto the conveyor 10 so that the surface of the cooked rice is flat. The area 11 is reached, where the portion of the rice that has risen above the wall 4 of the rice serving portion is scraped off so that there is no portion that rises above the wall 4 and side wall 6 of the rice serving portion of the lunch container 1. Make it. Regarding the side dish 8, prepare the side dish 8 in advance so that it does not rise above the wall 5 of the side dish serving part, or if it rises above the wall 5 of the side dish serving part, press it down. This prevents the side food 8 from being raised higher than the unbalanced food serving part wall 5.

In order to scrape off the rice that has risen above the wall 4 of the rice serving portion, place a spatula-shaped scraping plate 12 above the conveyor 10 at a height such that it touches the wall 4 and side wall 6 of the rice serving portion of the lunch container 1. That is, it is provided at a height such that it touches the top surface of the conveyor, and the scraping plate 12 is used to scrape off the rice that has risen from the rice serving portion wall 4 of the lunch box that has been transferred by the conveyor 10. The rice scraped off by the scraping plate 12 is returned to the rice bin by the intermittent movements of the scraping plate 12 toward the rice bin.

After serving the cooked rice 7 and the side food 8 in the bento container 1 in the above manner so as not to rise above the rice serving part wall 5 and the side food serving part wall 6, respectively,
The lunch container 1 is passed through a preliminary chamber 13 into which air is sucked and an inert gas is blown. This preliminary chamber 13 has a vacuum pump 1 for sucking air.
4 and a valved conduit 15 for introducing an inert gas into the preliminary chamber. Further, it is preferable to provide a sealing member 16 at the entrance to the preliminary chamber 13 in order to keep the preliminary chamber 13 in a sealed state.

Next, the lunch container 1 that has passed through the preliminary chamber 13 is guided into a seal chamber 17 filled with inert gas, and the unfilled space of the lunch container 1 is filled with inert gas within this seal chamber 17. With lunch container 1
The upper opening is sealed with a film 19 by a vertically movable sealing device 18. This seal chamber 17
A conduit 20 for introducing an inert gas into the sealing chamber is connected to the sealing chamber. In addition, the preliminary room 1
3 and the seal chamber 17 are continuously provided so as to be in contact with each other.

As the film 19 for sealing the lunch container 1, a film having low oxygen permeability and excellent safety is preferable, and specifically, polyethylene film, polypropylene film, polyester film, pullulan film, etc. are used. Among these, pullulan film sold by Hayashibara Biochemical Research Institute is particularly preferred. This pullulan film is composed of water-soluble, non-gel-forming viscous polysaccharides, and has the characteristics of being edible and having a low oxygen permeability. have. Furthermore, since this pullulan film can be tightly adhered to the lunch container 1, it also has the advantage of excellent sealing properties. Furthermore, if the lunch box container 1 is sealed with this pullulan film, there is an advantage that the effort of removing the film when heating the lunch box can be saved.

In the present invention, the bento container 1 includes cooked rice 7 and side dishes 8.
The rice is placed so that it does not rise above the wall 4 of the rice serving section and the wall 5 of the side dish serving section.However, if the rice 7, etc. rises above the wall 4 of the rice serving section and attempts to seal the bento container 1. Then, when the lunch container 1 is stored in the recess 9 of the conveyor 10 and transferred to the preliminary chamber 13, cooked rice may adhere to the wall surface or the seal member 16 at the entrance of the preliminary chamber 13, which is undesirable. This is not desirable because the film sealing the lunch container 1 is deformed or shrunk by the moisture contained in the cooked rice or heat, and in some cases, pinholes are formed, allowing oxygen to enter the inside of the lunch container 1.

Effects of the Invention In the bento manufacturing method according to the present invention, cooked rice and side dishes are placed in the cooked rice serving portion and the side food serving portion of the bento container, respectively, and the bento container is placed in the recess of a conveyor having a recess corresponding to the bento container. While storing and transporting, scrape off the raised part from the wall of the rice serving area, and then pass through a preliminary chamber where air is sucked and inert gas is blown, and then it is filled with inert gas. Since the lunch box is sealed with a film in the sealing chamber and an inert gas is filled in the unfilled space of the lunch box, the obtained lunch box has excellent storage stability. Therefore, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the bento manufacturing process, and it is also extremely hygienic.

In addition, the lunch containers are stored in the recess of the conveyor, which has a recess corresponding to the lunch container, and are led to the preliminary chamber where air is removed, so that oxygen does not enter the sealing chamber. The inert gas filled in the sealing chamber can be used repeatedly by simply replenishing the insufficiency, making it economically advantageous.

The present invention will be specifically explained below using test examples.
According to the present invention, cooked rice 8 and side dishes 9 are placed in the bento container 1.
After serving the food, the lunch container was filled with nitrogen and sealed with pullulan film. Similarly, after serving cooked rice 8 and side dishes 9 in the lunch box 1, the lunch box was filled with an inert gas consisting of 50% nitrogen and 50% carbon dioxide and sealed with pullulan film. On the other hand, as a comparative example, cooked rice 8 and side dish 9 were placed in a lunch container 1 and then stored.

Each of these lunch boxes was stored at 20°C, and the number of bacteria and taste of each lunch box were examined 24 and 48 hours after preparation. If nitrogen is filled in the lunch container 1, E. coli will be 2.2x after 24 hours with cooked rice.
10 There were ⁴ pieces. In addition, when nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas is sealed, the number of E. coli bacteria in cooked rice after 24 hours is 1.7 × 10 ⁴
After 48 hours, the number was 4.8×10 ⁴ . These were in a fully edible state and had no loss of taste.

On the other hand, when the lunch box was left at 20°C, the number of E. coli bacteria in the cooked rice was 1.2 x 10 ⁵ after 24 hours, and 1.9 x 10 ⁶ after 48 hours.

A similar trend was observed for side dishes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a lunch container used in the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the method of the present invention. 1...Lunch container, 2...Rice serving part, 3...Side dish serving part, 4...Rice dish serving part wall, 5...Side dish serving part wall, 6...Lunch container side wall, 7... Rice, 8...
Side food, 9... recess, 10... conveyor, 11...
Rice surface flattening area, 13...Preliminary room, 17...
Seal room, 19...film.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Serve cooked rice and side dishes in the rice serving section and the side dish serving section of the lunch container, store the lunch container in the recess of the conveyor that has a recess corresponding to the lunch container, and while transporting the rice and the side food from the wall of the rice serving section. The raised part is scraped off, and then the lunch container is passed through a preliminary chamber where air is sucked and inert gas is blown in, and then the lunch container is sealed with a film in a sealing chamber filled with inert gas. A method for manufacturing a bento box, characterized in that the unfilled space of the bento container is filled with an inert gas.