JP4202304B2 - Solid food production equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a device that facilitates mass production in the state of cooling and solidifying food ingredients including roux and ingredients, such as cream croquettes, etc., by realizing the device of the present invention, by simple cooking such as heating, The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a solidified food material that can eat a food containing warm roux and utensils imparted with fluidity, and shorten the manufacturing process of the food to reduce the cost.

Sticky ingredients made mainly from roux and added with ingredients such as milk, butter, fonds, flavored vegetables, meat, etc., have a wide range of uses as core materials such as cream croquettes. .
Traditionally, when manufacturing cream croquettes, the core material wrapped in cream croquette is made with white sauce by spreading roasted roasted flour with butter and milk to make white sauce. It is made by adding a small amount of ingredients such as flowing meat chunks, etc. This is kneaded by heating to about 80 ° C with a kneader, then placed in a batch type container, stored in a freezer at about + 5 ° C and cured. Then, it was taken out and put into a mold from a hopper or the like of a molding machine to be molded.

The molded contents should be used for various purposes such as cream croquettes with clothes, or sandwiches between bread, plate-shaped white fish and chicken without attaching clothes. Can do.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-171947) discloses a method for producing cream croquettes in which white sauce prepared from butter, flour, milk, etc. is cooled to 5 ° C. in a refrigerator and filled into a metal mold. However, a method is disclosed in which this is left in a freezer for one day to freeze molding.

JP 2002-171947 A

However, in the conventional method for producing cream croquettes, since the high temperature food is molded, after cooling to near 0 ° C. and solidifying, the mold is filled and molded, so that the manufacturing process becomes complicated. In addition, a refrigerator for once cooling the heated food is necessary, and the work is complicated because it involves the work of taking out and putting the mold filled with the food into and out of the freezer.
In addition, foodstuffs are filled in a certain number of containers, and processing of each manufacturing process is performed in a batch system. Therefore, there is a problem that work efficiency is not improved and it is not suitable for mass production.

  In view of the problems of the prior art, the present invention prepares a food containing roux and ingredients used as a core material such as cream croquette, for example, simplifies the process and eliminates the batch type when solidifying and molding. It is an object to provide a manufacturing apparatus for a solidified food material that can reduce the cost by increasing the efficiency of the manufacturing process by automating, and enables mass production.

The present invention achieves such an object, and includes a filling zone in a room temperature region for filling a mold with a fluid mixed food comprising heated roux and ingredients, and roux and utensils filled in the mold. A cooling zone for cooling or freezing and solidifying by cooling or freezing the fluid mixed food comprising the above, and a zone for cleaning, sterilizing and drying the mold from which the solidified mixed food is taken out on the endless conveyor along the conveyor moving direction An apparatus for producing a solidified food disposed adjacent to
The filling zone in the normal temperature region is a non-sealed space, and immediately after the fluid mixed food is filled in the mold, before the cooling zone is transferred, vibration is applied to the fluid mixed food in a heated state. Providing a means for degassing, and in the cooling zone, after taking out the cooled and solidified mixed food material from the mold, forcibly discharging,
When the mixed food is taken out from the mold, a means for blowing warm air to the mixed food before tilting or inverting the mold is provided, and the mixed food is blown with warm air to contact the same mold. After the frozen part is softened, the same mold is tilted or inverted and taken out, and the forced discharge part is provided with sensing means for detecting poorly formed food (hereinafter referred to as defective product) and non-defective product, According to the present invention, the discharge direction of the defective molded product and the non-defective product of the mixed food can be switched based on the sensing means.

In the present invention, a mold filled with ingredients including roux and utensils heated in the filling zone is introduced into the cooling zone as it is without being once carried into a refrigerator or the like, and cooled and solidified. Thereafter, the mixed food material that has been cooled and solidified to a certain hardness or more is taken out of the mold by the take-out means and can be shipped as a product.
Incidentally means for extracting the said mixing food material, it is preferable Ru provided in the cooling zone.

  The ingredients prepared in this way are used as a core material such as cream croquette, for example, with a coat to make a cream croquette, sandwiched between bread or plate-shaped white fish and chicken, etc., or thawed or It can be used for various purposes such as heating and eating as miso soup, soup noodles, curry roux, and soup with ingredients.

In the above means of the present invention, preferably, the temperature region of the filling zone is maintained at 10 to 15 ° C, and the temperature region of the cooling zone is maintained at -40 to 0 ° C, more preferably -40 to -20 ° C. .
That is, in the filling zone, since it is a normal temperature region of 10 to 15 ° C., it is not necessary to adjust the temperature particularly in a sealed space. Moreover, it can be set as the temperature environment suitable for a worker's work. In the cooling zone, in order to cool and solidify the mixed food, it is necessary to set the temperature to 0 ° C. or lower, and the target food may be shipped not only in a cooled state but also in a frozen state. The lower limit of -40 ° C. In other words, the target food can be put on the market while frozen and eaten by simple cooking such as heating during cooking.

Also, cleaning the prior SL mixed type food has been removed, comprising means for disinfecting and drying. As a result, it is possible to carry out consistently from filling of the food material into the mold, washing, sterilization and drying, further improving the production efficiency.

The present invention, on the endless conveyor for moving, filling zone cold regions to be filled by mixing a heated Lou and ingredients into a plurality of mold mounted on the endless conveyor, filling the mold A cooling zone for cooling or freezing temperature space lower than normal temperature, a zone for taking out the mixed food that has been cooled and solidified to a certain hardness or more from the mold, and the mixed food Zones for cleaning, sterilizing and drying the removed mold are formed in this order.

In order to mix and fill the heated roux and tools in a plurality of molds attached to the endless conveyor on the moving endless conveyor, the mixed food can be continuously formed, Compared to the conventional batch method using a certain number of molds, the manufacturing efficiency is remarkably improved and mass production is possible.
Further, the steps of washing, sterilizing and drying the mold from which the mixed food is taken out are also performed on the moving endless conveyor, so that manual work is greatly reduced.

In or before Symbol filling zone and the filling mixed ingredients including a heated Lou and ingredients in a mold, by applying vibration to the mixing ingredients in a heated state immediately after effectively degassed can do.
As means for imparting vibration to the mold, conventionally known means such as mechanical vibration imparting means using a cam mechanism, means using an air vibrator, or means imparting vibration by an electric motor may be employed. .

  Preferably, the mold filled with the mixed food material cooled and solidified in the cooling zone is tilted or inverted to take out the mixed food material from the same mold. More preferably, a means for blowing warm air to the mixed food material before tilting or inverting the mold is provided, and the frozen portion of the mixed food material in contact with the same mold is softened by blowing warm air to the mixed food material Later, the same type is tilted or inverted.

Your name, ingredients of interest in the present invention is a food containing a roux and ingredients, such as cream-based foods cream croquettes, such as described above or miso soup, soup noodles, curry roux, ingredients soup, pudding acids, jellies Etc.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the filling zone in the normal temperature region and the cooling zone lower than the normal temperature or the cooling zone in the freezing temperature space are mixed with the mold and the roux heated in the filling zone. Means for cooling and solidifying the mixed food in the cooling zone, and means for taking out the mixed food that has been cooled and solidified to a certain hardness or more from the mold. As a result, it is possible to continuously produce a solidified food containing foodstuffs, and it is possible to drastically increase production efficiency and achieve cost reduction as compared with the conventional batch type.

Also, before Symbol mixed food cleaning the mold was taken out, by providing a means for sterilizing and drying, cleaning the filling of the mold ingredients, can be performed consistently to sterilization and drying, was or, transfer In order to fill and mold a food containing heated roux and tools in a plurality of molds attached to the endless conveyor on the moving endless conveyor, the mixed food is continuously formed. Compared with the conventional batch type, the manufacturing process can be shortened, the manufacturing efficiency can be improved significantly, and mass production becomes possible.
Further, by performing the mold cleaning, sterilization, and drying steps after the food is taken out together with the endless conveyor, labor saving and efficiency can be greatly improved.

Also, the prior SL-filled zone further comprising means for degassing the same mixing ingredients by vibrating the filled molds the mixed ingredients can be effectively degassed heated state.
Preferably, the mold filled with the mixed food that has been cooled and solidified in the cooling zone is tilted or inverted so that the mixed food can be easily removed from the mold without requiring a special device. More preferably, by providing means for blowing warm air to the mixed food material before the mold is tilted or inverted, the food material can be taken out from the mold more easily.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the component parts described in this example are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to specific examples unless otherwise specified. Only.
FIG. 1 is a process diagram showing a manufacturing process of a core material of a cream croquette according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial plan view of a mold filled with ingredients in the first embodiment as viewed from above. FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the forced discharge portion viewed from a direction perpendicular to FIG. 1 in the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, A is a food filling zone, B is a cooling zone, C is an automatic cleaning / sterilizing / drying zone, and the zones are provided adjacent to each other. Reference numeral 1 denotes an endless chain conveyor mounted on a plurality of support rollers 1a across the three zones A to C, and a plurality of mold holders 2 are connected at intervals as shown in FIG. ing. 3 is a mold to be mounted on the mold holder 2, and includes positioning notches (female type) 3a fitted to positioning notches (male type) 2a provided at four locations per mold holder. Even if the mold holder 2 is inverted according to the movement of the chain conveyor 1, the mold 3 is coupled to each other so that the mold 3 does not fall.

  Reference numeral 3b denotes a mold that is engraved on the surface of the mold 3 and is filled with a cream croquette core material. A plurality of molds 3b are provided in one mold 3 in two rows. 4a and 4b are material dispensing and weighing machines. The material dispensing and weighing machine 4a injects the ingredients into the mold row in the front row of the mold 3, and the material dispensing and weighing machine 4b is placed in the mold row in the subsequent row of the mold 3. Injecting ingredients.

  Reference numerals 5 and 6 are roux fillers arranged in two rows in the direction of travel of the endless chain conveyor 1, and can fill the molds 3 b in one mold 3 at a time with roux. 5a and 6a is a cam mechanism that allows the filling ports 5c and 6c of the roux filling devices 5 and 6 to move in accordance with the moving speed of the chain conveyor 1, and drops the roux while moving the filling ports 5c and 6c. As a result, the roux can be filled into the mold 3b without removing the target. 5b and 6b are conveyors for transferring the roux to the roux filling devices 5 and 6.

  7 is a vibration imparting device provided for degassing the food filled in the mold 3b on the downstream side of the filling devices 5 and 6 in the filling zone A. As described above, the specific structure of the vibration applying device 7 is conventionally known, for example, mechanical vibration applying means using a cam mechanism, means using an air vibrator, or means for applying vibration by an electric motor. A means may be adopted.

In the first embodiment, first, in the filling zone A, the plurality of molds 3b of the mold 3 are filled with the tools from the material dispensing and weighing machines 4a and 4b. The mold 3 in which all the molds 3b are filled is then heated to about 80 ° C. by the rheu fillers 5 and 6 so that the roux that is in a fluid state is molded into the mold 3b of two molds 3 at a time. Filled in.
Immediately after the luu is filled in the mold 3b of the mold 3, the vibration is imparted to the mold 3 by the vibration imparting device 7, and the food containing the roux and the ingredient filled in the mold 3 is deaerated.

Thereafter, the mold 3 filled with the food is transferred to a cooling zone B adjacent to the filling zone A. The cooling zone B is maintained in a temperature range of −40 ° C. to 0 ° C., preferably −40 ° C. to −20 ° C., and the food material transferred to the cooling zone B is cooled and solidified. Or it leads to freezing.
As shown in FIG. 1, when the chain conveyor 1 is arranged in multiple stages in the vertical direction in the cooling zone B, the means for holding the cooling zone B in the temperature region is injected with cold air at a low temperature. Adopting a cold air injection method that maintains a low temperature atmosphere. Alternatively, a freezer system proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-342580 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-166495) previously filed by the present applicant is suitable.

  The freezer system is described in the specification of the prior application, and as shown in the accompanying drawings, an outward path 17 that forms a traveling path of an object to be frozen in the freezer compartment 13 provided with a cold heat exchanger 14a. A horizontal multi-stage refrigeration apparatus 12 is disclosed in which a round-trip circulation path 41 composed of a return path 18 is formed in multiple stages, and the object to be frozen is frozen while being transported through the round-trip circulation path 41. By employing this freezer system, the mixed food can be solidified by cooling or freezing with high efficiency and stability.

When the chain conveyor 1 is arranged in one stage, the steel disclosed in the specification and drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-317470 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-130901) filed earlier by the present applicants and the like. A belt type freezer is preferred.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, this type of freezer has a tunnel type outer structure 21 made of a heat insulating material, and a soft marine product that runs through the structure 21 in the vertical direction in the direction of arrow A. A steel belt 11 that conveys a perforated tray 15 containing a workpiece 10 such as a steel sheet and carries it out in a frozen state together with the tray, a perforated tray 15, and a work placement surface that is the same as the work placement surface above the steel belt 11. For example, a plurality of impinging jet cooling sections 20 for vertically blowing a low-temperature high-speed jet of −40 ° C. over the entire belt lower surface on the opposite side.

  Now, the food in the mold 3b in the mold 3 connected to the chain conveyor 1 and conveyed in multiple stages in the cooling zone B is cooled or frozen and solidified. Thereafter, when the mold 3 reaches the press die cutting step 8, warm air such as steam is blown to the mold 3 to slightly dissolve the solidified surface of the food material, and then the mold 3 is inverted to remove the food material from the die 3b. As the mold release means, steam may be sprayed on the reverse side of the inverted mold 3 or a mechanical impact may be applied to the reverse side of the mold 3.

With reference to FIG. 3, the core material k of the die cut cream croquette is dropped onto the forward / reverse conveyor 10 in the forced discharge unit 9 and carried out of the cooling zone B. At this time, when a core material with poor molding is generated, the forward / reverse conveyor 10 is reversed, and the defective product f is dropped onto the inclined conveyor 11 with the sun having the projection (sun) 11a. It is transferred to.
The forward / reverse conveyor 10 is switched from the forward direction to the reverse direction by providing a sensor for detecting the defective product f and automatically when the sensor detects the defective product f .
The defective product f is returned to the filling zone A and molded again.

The mold 3 from which the core material k has been punched is transferred to an automatic cleaning / sterilizing / drying zone C adjacent to the cooling zone B, and subjected to automatic cleaning, sterilization and drying treatment.
The drying method may be a hot water cleaning method in which hot water is sprayed onto the mold 3 to remove dirt, or a method in which air is sprayed. The sterilization or drying method may be carried out by appropriately selecting a conventionally known method.
In the first embodiment, in order to clean the air in each of the zones A, B, and C, an air cleaner such as a plasma cluster ion air cleaner may be installed in each zone.
If it is necessary to replace the mold 3, it is replaced in an automatic cleaning / sterilization / drying zone.

According to the first embodiment, on the moving endless chain conveyor 1, the core material k of the cream croquette including the heated roux and utensils on the mold 3b of the plurality of molds 3 attached to the conveyor is filled. Therefore, the core material k can be continuously formed. Compared with the conventional batch type, heat exchanger, stirring process, etc. can be omitted, and the shape of ingredients (shrimp, asparagus, etc.) is maintained. In addition, the manufacturing process is shortened, the manufacturing efficiency is remarkably improved, and mass production is possible.
Also, the cleaning work of the mold 3 and other devices is greatly reduced. In addition, since the ingredients are distributed and introduced using the ingredient dispensing and weighing machines 4a and 4b, the ingredients are uniformly introduced into each core material.

In addition, in the filling zone A, by providing the vibration applying device 7 that vibrates the food 3 by vibrating the mold 3 filled with food, it can be effectively degassed in a heated state. It becomes possible to produce cream croquettes that are difficult to do.
Further, in the cooling zone B, by tilting or inverting the mold filled with the cooled and solidified food material, the food material can be easily taken out from the mold 3 without requiring a special device. By providing means for spraying warm air on the food before tilting or reversing, the food can be taken out from the mold 3b more easily.

  According to the present invention, for example, when preparing and solidifying and forming a food containing luo and ingredients used as a core material such as cream croquette, the batch process is eliminated and the manufacturing process is shortened, thereby producing It is possible to provide an apparatus for producing a solidified food material that improves efficiency and enables mass production.

It is process drawing which shows the manufacturing process of the core material of the cream croquette which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. In the said 1st Example, it is the partial top view which looked at the mold 3 filled with a foodstuff from the upper direction. In the said 1st Example, it is the expanded sectional view which looked at the forced discharge part 9 from the direction orthogonal to FIG.

Explanation of symbols

A Filling zone B Cooling zone C Automatic cleaning / sterilization / drying zone f Defective product k Core material 1 Endless chain conveyor 1a Support roller 2 Mold holder 2a Positioning notch (male type)
3 Mold 3a Positioning notch (female type)
3b type
4a, 4b Ingredient dispenser 5a, 6a Cam mechanism 5b, 6b Loud transfer conveyor 5c, 6c Filling port 7 Vibration imparting device 8 Press die cutting process 9 Forced discharge section 10 Forward / reverse conveyor 11 Inclined conveyor 11a with sun 12 Trolley

Claims (1)

Cooling or freezing the fluidity mixed food consisting of the filling zone in the room temperature region for filling the mold with the fluid mixed food consisting of the heated roux and ingredients, and the roux and the ingredients filled in the mold A solidified food manufacturing apparatus in which a cooling zone for cooling and solidification and a zone for cleaning, sterilizing and drying a mold from which the solidified mixed food is taken out are arranged adjacent to each other on an endless conveyor along the conveyor moving direction. There,
The filling zone in the normal temperature region is a non-sealed space, and immediately after the fluid mixed food is filled in the mold, before the cooling zone is transferred, vibration is applied to the fluid mixed food in a heated state. Providing a means for degassing, and in the cooling zone, after taking out the cooled and solidified mixed food material from the mold, forcibly discharging,
When the mixed food is taken out from the mold, a means for blowing warm air to the mixed food before tilting or inverting the mold is provided, and the mixed food is blown with warm air to contact the same mold. After the frozen part is softened, the same mold is tilted or inverted and taken out, and the forced discharge part is provided with sensing means for sensing poorly formed food (hereinafter referred to as defective product) and non-defective product, An apparatus for producing a solidified food, characterized in that it can be switched between a molding defective product and a non-defective product discharge direction based on a sensing means.

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