JPH0316B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to artificially ripen the pulp of harvested unripe bananas (all green) so that they can be eaten and to suppress the color development of the peel, resulting in a fresh color (yellow green) with no black spots. ) and a device for maintaining it for a long time.

Conventionally, as a means of artificially ripening unripe bananas, they are cured in a dry cellar and then ripened after 5 to 6 days while adding ethylene such as a ripening hormone, temperature, humidity, oxygen, etc., or ripened after 5 to 6 days. It is done by immersing it in an astringent aqueous solution and aging it.
This method requires frequent labor to remove astringency from the soaking means using an aqueous solution, has the risk of explosion, is uneconomical as it requires a large amount of processing agent, and is even more difficult to remove astringency from inside the pulp. Because the penetration of the agent was incomplete, it took a relatively long time for the astringency-removal ripening process, and black spots appeared on the skin within a short period of time after ripening, resulting in disadvantages such as the product could not be kept in stores for a long time.

The present invention eliminates the disadvantages of the conventional means and provides a method and device for economical astringency removal treatment and for evenly penetrating the astringency agent into the inside of the fruit pulp.
This method involves creating a negative pressure in a sealed processing chamber containing unripe bananas with a degree of vacuum depending on the degree of ripeness of the processed bananas, to perform appropriate deaeration and evaporation of moisture to the inside of the banana pulp. The highest negative pressure state in the deaeration process is maintained for a certain period of time, and then an alcohol-based deastringent is sent in a gaseous state into the processing chamber under that negative pressure, allowing the deastringent to sufficiently permeate into the inside of the fruit pulp. After that, the processed bananas are taken out from the room and are kept at an appropriate temperature indoors or outdoors for ripening treatment.

According to the method of the present invention, as a pretreatment for permeating the astringent, the sealed processing chamber containing unripe bananas is subjected to a negative pressure depending on the degree of ripeness of the unripe bananas. The astringency remover evaporates and removes excess moisture, so when the next treatment is performed with an astringent agent, the astringent permeates evenly and easily to the inside of the pulp. The acid is drawn out to the skin of the fruit, and the tannic acid is reliably neutralized in the next percolation treatment with a deastringent, which completely removes the astringent and harsh taste characteristic of bananas and promotes saccharification of the pulp starch. This combination enhances the edible taste, and you can expect the same taste as if it were naturally aged on logs.

Furthermore, since the astringency removal process is carried out in a negative pressure chamber, the color development of the fruit skin is delayed and the appearance of black spots during subsequent ripening can be delayed, and experiments have shown that compared to conventional methods, shelf life in stores can be reduced by 3 days. It could have been extended for about a day.

Furthermore, since the deastringent is permeated into the treated banana in a gaseous state, the permeated molecules are much smaller than in the conventional soaking method, and it permeates evenly throughout the inside of the fruit pulp. Since the molecules are large, it takes a long time to percolate into the inside of the pulp, but permeation in a gaseous state has the effect of being performed much more quickly and reliably.

Next, examples of the present invention will be shown.

After storing unripe bananas with a temperature of 13° to 22° in a processing chamber in a box (bananas may be stored in pieces without using a box, handling is troublesome), the processing chamber is sealed. A vacuum pump is used to create negative pressure in the room according to the quality of the banana, the hardness of the pulp tissue, and the ripeness of the banana. After degassing for a certain period of time, the highest degree of negative pressure in this process Maintain this state for 10 to 30 minutes, then add 58% alcohol such as ethanol, 10% ethylene, etc. while maintaining the negative pressure state.
When a mixture of 2% moisture and 30% ozone air is sent into the processing chamber, and this is vaporized by the negative pressure in the room to actually permeate the banana in a gaseous state, the permeation action will progress. At the same time, the negative pressure in the room decreases, so the reduced pressure is maintained for about 30 minutes, and after the processing gas has sufficiently penetrated into the inside of the banana pulp, the processed bananas are taken out of the processing chamber and placed in a processing chamber for ripening. As in the past, ripening is done by adding ripening hormones, oxygen, etc. under constant temperature conditions, or in a shady place indoors or outdoors without using maturo.
The ripening process is completed by leaving it at a temperature of 17° to 22°C to fully ripen.

Next, an example of an apparatus for implementing the astringency removal method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 designates a closed treatment chamber, in which a large number of jet nozzles 2 are arranged at appropriate locations around the ceiling or floor or on the side walls, and this is communicated with a tank 4 for an astringent agent through a pipe 3. The astringent agent may be filled in the tank 4 in advance as a gas or as an aqueous solution in the tank 4', or both may be juxtaposed and selected appropriately, and a sol-formed agent may also be used.

The piping path 3 is provided with an on-off control valve 5 that can close the delivery of the deastringent from these tanks 4 and adjust the amount of delivery.

Further, a vacuum pump 6 of a suitable type is installed in the processing chamber 1 so as to communicate with the suction side thereof.

In the above apparatus, after storing unripe bananas in the processing chamber 1 and sealing the chamber 1, the vacuum pump 6 is driven to make the chamber a negative pressure to a predetermined degree of vacuum, and the bananas are degassed. By maintaining the maximum negative pressure during processing for a certain period of time, and then opening the on-off control valve 5 to send out the appropriate amount of the astringent agent in the tank 4, the astringent agent will be distributed evenly from each spout nozzle 2. Since the inside of the banana has been deaerated by creating a negative pressure in the room through pre-treatment, the deastringent permeates evenly into the pulp as vaporized gas. Even if a liquid is sent, when it is ejected from each nozzle 2 into the chamber 1, it immediately vaporizes due to the negative pressure ratio in the chamber and becomes gaseous, which acts on the banana. By performing the astringency removal process in the processing chamber 1 as described above, the negative pressure in the chamber gradually decreases, but
After being left in this state for a certain period of time, the treated bananas are taken out of the chamber 1 and subjected to ripening treatment.

According to the apparatus of the present invention, the vacuum treatment as a pre-treatment for the astringency removal treatment and the subsequent percolation treatment using the astringency removal agent can be performed continuously, and the method of the present invention is characterized in that it is extremely simple and easy to carry out.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the astringency removal processing apparatus according to the present invention. 1... Closed processing chamber, 2... Spray nozzle, 3...
...Pipe line, 4...Deastringent tank, 5...Opening/closing control valve, 6...Vacuum pump.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A sealed processing chamber containing unripe bananas is subjected to negative pressure at a degree of vacuum corresponding to the degree of ripening of the processed bananas, thereby causing appropriate deaeration and evaporation of water to the inside of the banana pulp. After that, the highest negative pressure state in the deaeration process is maintained for a certain period of time, and then an alcohol-based deastringent is sent in a gaseous state into the processing chamber under the negative pressure, and the astringent is delivered into the inside of the fruit pulp. A method for removing astringency from ripening unripe bananas, which comprises taking out the treated bananas from a room after sufficiently permeating the bananas, maintaining them at an appropriate temperature indoors or outdoors, and carrying out a ripening process. 2 A large number of jetting nozzles are installed inside the sealed processing chamber that accommodates the unripe bananas, and these are connected to the deastringent tank via piping via an on-off control valve, and a vacuum pump is connected to the sealed processing chamber. A device for removing astringency from unripe bananas.