JPH0735161B2 - Vacuum packaging device for packaged items impregnated with seasoning juice - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum packaging apparatus suitable for vacuum packaging a product to be packaged in a state in which it is impregnated with seasoning juice such as seasoning frying for Inari sushi.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Taking the case of seasoning fried food as an example, the processing is performed as follows. That is,
First, the oil is removed from the deep-fried oil by rinsing with hot water, then the water attached by rinsing with hot water is removed, and then the seasoning juice is impregnated and vacuum-packed to obtain a product. Although various steps have been taken for each step in such processing, there are many problems particularly in impregnation of seasoning juice and vacuum packaging.

One conventionally used processing method is to separate the seasoning juice impregnation step and the vacuum packaging processing step, and to process the frying liquid impregnated with the seasoning juice by a predetermined number in a vacuum packaging apparatus. .

[0004] Although such a treatment method has an advantage that the seasoning juice can be sufficiently and uniformly impregnated, since the fried seasoning juice is a thick and viscous soup having a high sugar concentration, the impregnated fried oil is fried. There was a problem that handling of was very troublesome. In other words, in the vacuum packaging process, it is necessary to transfer a predetermined number of impregnated fried foods to a container, but when transferring to this container, sticky juice adheres to the container, which makes the operation troublesome.

[0005] In order to avoid such troublesomeness, a treatment method has also been adopted in which the fried food, which is not impregnated with seasoning juice, is subjected to vacuum packaging together with the seasoning juice. This processing method makes use of the features of deep-drawing type vacuum packaging processing, that is, vacuum packaging processing in which the bottom film is deep-drawn and the flavored juice is put in a container and vacuum-packaged. The seasoning juice is impregnated by natural impregnation in the container in the step and the subsequent heat sterilization step.

However, with this method, the impregnation of the seasoning juice is not performed sufficiently or uniformly. As a result, it is necessary to increase the sugar concentration of the seasoning juice in order to maintain the sugar concentration value that influences the taste of the seasoned fried food at a predetermined value, resulting in an increase in cost. Also, the amount of residual seasoning juice in the final packaged product increases, but this residual seasoning juice poses a problem of treatment especially for those who consume a large amount, and leads to waste of resources and pollution of waste water. Become.

In addition, in such a method, it is difficult to increase the deaeration rate of the vacuum packaging due to the spilling of the seasoning juice, so that the amount of residual bubbles is increased and the quality of the product is deteriorated. Also, there is a drawback that the deaeration time in the vacuum packaging process becomes long and the overall processing efficiency is lowered.

In addition to the impregnation of the seasoning juice and the vacuum packaging as described above, the frying process has a problem of openness. That is, the thicker the fried food is, the more delicious the sushi becomes, but the opening property when opening the fried food for filling the sushi rice is worse when the fried food is thicker, and thus the workability is poor. This is also related to the removal of water content after washing with hot water as described above, and a press is applied to remove the water content, but crushing by this press causes a decrease in openability.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the present invention, while the advantages of the deep-drawing type vacuum packaging can be utilized, the impregnation of seasoning juice can be carried out efficiently and uniformly, and a high-speed treatment with a sufficient degassing rate can be achieved. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vacuum packaging device that is capable of improving the opening property of a product to be packaged when it is frying.

[0010]

In a vacuum packaging apparatus according to the present invention, a lower film is molded to form a lower film container, while a lower film container filled with an object to be packaged is covered with the upper film. The inside of the container is deaerated and the upper and lower films are sealed, and a juice impregnating section for impregnating the packaged object with seasoned juice is provided before the vacuum packaging process.

Such a juice impregnating section is provided with a juice impregnating mechanism having a vertically movable pressing means in an airtight processing chamber capable of airtight processing, and a predetermined amount of seasoned juice and a predetermined amount of articles to be packaged. The filled lower film container is positioned in the airtight processing chamber, and in this state, the airtight processing chamber is degassed to a predetermined depressurized state while allowing the object to be packaged to freely expand, and then the object to be packaged by the pressing means. Press to compress the whole soaked in the seasoning juice, blow air into the airtight processing chamber to promote impregnation of the seasoning juice into the packaged object, release the pressure, and then seal the lower film container. It should be taken out from the processing chamber.

The soup impregnating mechanism of the soup impregnating section is provided with an upper chamber having a vertically movable pressing means and a butt opening formed in the lower portion, and a butt opening formed in the upper portion so as to be vertically movable. A lower chamber, and a lower film container filled with a predetermined amount of seasoning juice and a predetermined amount of an object to be packaged is positioned above the lower chamber, and the lower chamber is lifted to form the lower chamber and the upper chamber. Are closely contacted with each other by pressing the butt openings together to form an airtight processing chamber.

[0013]

[Operation] This vacuum packaging device is equipped with a juice impregnation unit,
The soup impregnation unit degass the packaged object and at the same time efficiently impregnates the degassing trace with seasoning juice. By replacing the degassing trace with this seasoning juice, the next vacuum packaging is performed. The deaerated state is maintained during the process. The treatment in such a juice impregnating portion is performed as follows.

In the case of using the juice impregnation mechanism having both upper and lower chambers, first, the lower film container filled with a predetermined amount of seasoning juice and a predetermined amount of objects to be packaged is positioned in the upper chamber of the lower chamber. This is to put the lower film container with a predetermined depth in the lower chamber, and to lower the lower film container according to the depth of the lower film container that is transported while maintaining a constant transport level. The chamber is raised and lowered.

Next, the airtight processing chambers formed in the upper and lower chambers are depressurized to a predetermined pressure to deaerate the air contained in the object to be packaged. In the case of an object to be packaged, such as frying, this treatment attempts to expand by the internal air, but is performed in a state in which this expansion is performed freely. The reason for allowing free expansion in this way is to increase the degassing efficiency and shorten the degassing time, and firstly, to dip the packaged item in seasoning juice. This is to prevent the spilling of the seasoning juice that accompanies the discharge of air by reducing the volume that is present.

In other words, in the case of in-line impregnation of seasoning juice, it is necessary that the impregnation treatment of seasoning juice does not cause a decrease in the overall processing speed. It is possible to meet this demand by shortening the time taken.

The allowance of this free expansion has great significance for improving the openability, especially in the case of frying. That is, the frying that has been once crushed in the pressing step for removing water during hot water washing can be recovered by the free expansion promoted by the pressure reduction, so that the openability is greatly improved.

It should be noted that if the lower film container is made deep enough, spouting of seasoning juice will not occur even if rapid degassing is performed, but if it is done so, the final packaging state will be obtained. There is a relationship that the appearance of the product will be greatly deteriorated due to many wrinkles and the alignment of the items to be packaged. Therefore, the above-mentioned free spilling prevention by the free expansion works significantly. It will be.

After the deaeration is completed, the expanded product is pressed by the pressing means to be compressed to a predetermined thickness, and by this compression, the product to be packaged is soaked in the seasoning juice and at the same time the air is removed. Impregnate with seasoning juice. This impregnation can be promoted by blowing air into the airtight processing chamber and applying atmospheric pressure to the seasoning juice while the packaged object is sufficiently immersed in the seasoning juice.

By impregnating the seasoning juice into the traces of the air thus obtained, not only can the impregnation be carried out more efficiently, but also the air can be prevented from easily re-entering the object to be packaged. In processing, the processing speed and the degassing rate can be increased. That is, in the vacuum packaging process, the degassing speed is limited depending on the bubble-containing state of the packaged item due to the relationship with the spilling of the seasoning juice due to the occurrence of the boiling state, and the possible reduced pressure level is also limited. However, by discharging the air in the packaged object by deaeration in the juice impregnation part, the deaeration speed can be increased and the decompression level can be increased. In particular, re-entrapment of air is prevented by impregnation of seasoning juice, and it is possible to sufficiently maintain the degassing state in advance from the soup impregnation section to the vacuum packaging processing section, so that degassing in vacuum packaging processing is prevented. It is possible to increase the air speed and improve the degassing rate.

Further, during the impregnation, pressing is performed by the pressing means, but this pressing is such that the article to be packaged is sufficiently immersed in the seasoning juice, and there is sufficient space for the seasoning juice to be impregnated. Since it is made, it does not affect the securing of the opening property.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The vacuum packaging device 1 according to this embodiment is used for packaging of seasoned frying for Inari sushi, and as shown in FIGS.
It is provided with a lower film supply unit 2, a molding unit 3, a filling unit 4, a juice impregnation unit 5, an upper film supply unit 6, and a vacuum packaging unit 7.

The molding unit 3 uses the lower film supplied from the lower film supply unit 2 as a lower film container C as shown in FIG.
, Four in this example (only two of which are shown in FIG. 8), lower film containers C, C, ...
... are processed so as to be in an integrated state.

Although the filling section 4 is shown in a shortened form in the drawing, it is provided as a space for filling the oil in the lower film container C which is being conveyed. The film container C is filled with the oil frying M so that, for example, five blocks of the oil frying M divided in half are regarded as one block B (FIG. 1) to form 40 blocks of 8 blocks.

The soup impregnating section 5 is for impregnating the seasoning juice for frying in the lower film container C, and is provided with four soup filling means 10, 10 ,. First, the juice filling means 10, 10, ... Fills each of the four lower film containers C, C, ... Integral with a predetermined amount of seasoning juice, and then the juice impregnation mechanism 11 seasons the frying. It is designed to impregnate juice.

More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the juice impregnation mechanism 11 includes an upper chamber 13 having a butting opening 12 formed below and a lower chamber 15 having a butting opening 14 formed above. And the upper chamber 13 has
A pressing plate 16 serving as a pressing unit is attached to the tip of the rod 18 of the pressing cylinder 17, and the lower chamber 15 is moved up and down by a height corresponding to the depth D of the lower film container C. There is.

Then, in a state where the lower film container C filled with the frying M in the filling section 4 and filled with the seasoning juice in the juice filling means 10 is positioned above the lower chamber 15 in the lowered state (FIG. 1), The lower chamber 15 rises, and the sealing target edge Cs of the lower film container C is moved to the lower chamber 15
The lower chamber 1 is sandwiched between the edge 14e of the butting opening 14 and the edge 12e of the butting opening 12 of the upper chamber 13.
The airtight processing chamber 20 is formed by the close contact between the upper chamber 13 and the upper chamber 13.

Next, the airtight treatment chamber 20 is degassed through the degassing ports 13p and 15p to a predetermined depressurized state, specifically, the depressurized state immediately before boiling of the seasoning juice is included in the frying M. Deaeration of the air is performed.
At this time, the frying M is in a state prior to the discharge of air,
A part of the block B freely expands to a state where it enters the upper chamber 13 and the internal air is easily discharged, that is, a state where deaeration can be performed in a shorter time.
In addition, this expansion reduces the volume of the frying block B immersed in the seasoning juice, so that the spilling of the seasoning juice accompanying the discharge of air can be prevented, and the meat of the frying M that has been crushed more firmly can be prevented. By loosening, the opening of the sushi rice can be improved (Fig. 2).

When the deaeration process for a predetermined time is completed, the pressing plate 16 descends to press the frying block B to compress it to a predetermined state, that is, a state where it has a predetermined thickness (FIG. 3). By this compression, the fried M is sufficiently dipped in the seasoning soup, and at the same time, the deflated M is impregnated with the seasoning.

At this time, with the pressing plate 16 kept pressed, the upper chamber 13 is blown to the atmosphere to apply atmospheric pressure to the seasoning juice to accelerate the impregnation into the frying M for a predetermined time. As a result, the fried food M is sufficiently impregnated with the seasoning juice, that is, after the degassing traces of the fried food M are sufficiently replaced with the seasoning juice, the pressing plate 16 is raised, and then the lower chamber 15 is also blown to the atmosphere ( (Fig. 4). Finally, the upper and lower chambers 13 and 15 are opened, and the lower film container C is sent to the next vacuum packaging unit 7. As a result, the fried food M is again exposed to the air, but the impregnation of the seasoning juice replaces the escape traces of the air with the seasoning juice, making it difficult for air to enter again. The degassed state of the fried M thus prepared is sufficiently maintained until it reaches the vacuum packaging unit 7. 1 to 4, the juice impregnation mechanism 11 is
For clarity, one lower film container C is shown in simplified form for processing.

The vacuum packaging unit 7 covers the lower film container C with the upper film Fu supplied from the upper film supply unit 6 to seal the upper and lower films, and at the same time, the lower film container C is evacuated to obtain a vacuum. The package is processed, and includes a pair of front and rear sealing means 21, 21 for performing impulse type sealing, a first vacuum chamber 22, and a second vacuum chamber 23.

Then, the sealing means 21 and 21 first seal the front and rear sealing edges Cs of the lower film container C with the upper film Fu, and then the four lower film containers C, C ,. The first of the rear two inside
The processing is performed in the vacuum chamber 22 and the two front chambers are processed in the second vacuum chamber 23. In each of the vacuum chambers 22 and 23, the remaining of the lower film container C is parallel to the vacuum processing. The planned sealing edge Cs, that is, the planned sealing edges Cs on the left and right sides are sealed. In FIG. 5 to FIG. 7, reference numeral 24 is an operation panel, 25 is a control box, and 26 is a cutting section for cutting a film for finishing.

[0033]

As described above, in the vacuum packaging apparatus according to the present invention, the product to be packaged is impregnated with seasoning juice after being deaerated while allowing free expansion, and at the time of this impregnation, atmospheric air is used. Since the pressure applied by is used, the seasoning juice can be impregnated at high speed and uniformly, and the degassing state is maintained by this impregnation. If the object to be packaged is deep-fried, the openability can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a simplified soaking mechanism of a soup impregnating section of a vacuum packaging device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which an article to be packaged expands by deaeration in the juice impregnation mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the object to be packaged is pressed by the pressing means in the juice impregnation mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the pressing of the pressing means is released in the juice impregnation mechanism in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the vacuum packaging device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view seen from the X direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a side view as seen from the direction of the arrow Y in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of a lower film container.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum packaging device 5 Soup impregnation part 11 Soup impregnation mechanism 12 Butt opening 13 Upper chamber 14 Butt opening 15 Lower chamber 16 Pressing plate (pressing means) 20 Airtight processing chamber C Lower film container M Oil frying (packaged object)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A lower film container is formed by molding a lower film, while a lower film container filled with an object to be packaged is covered with the upper film to deaerate the lower film container, and both upper and lower films are formed. In a vacuum packaging device configured to perform the above-mentioned sealing, the airtight processing chamber capable of airtight processing is equipped with a juice impregnating mechanism having a vertically movable pressing means, and a predetermined amount of seasoned juice and a predetermined amount of packaged products are packaged. The lower film container filled with the object is positioned in the airtight processing chamber, and in this state, the airtight processing chamber is degassed to a predetermined depressurized state while the packaged object is allowed to freely expand, and then the pressing means is used. Press the package to compress it until it is completely immersed in the seasoning juice, and then blow air into the airtight processing chamber to accelerate the impregnation of the packaged product with the seasoning juice, then release the pressure, and then lower the fill. Vacuum packaging apparatus for the packaged articles seasoning juice impregnation, characterized in that the juice-impregnated portion of the vessel was taken out from the airtight treatment chamber. 2. The juice impregnation mechanism comprises an upper chamber having a vertically movable pressing means and a butt opening formed below, and a lower chamber provided with an butt opening upward so as to be vertically movable. Then, the lower chamber and the upper chamber are butted against each other by raising the lower chamber with the lower film container filled with the prescribed amount of seasoning juice and the prescribed amount of the object to be packaged positioned above the lower chamber. The vacuum packaging device for an article to be packaged impregnated with seasoning juice according to claim 1, wherein the airtight processing chamber is formed by closely contacting the opening.