Retort rice meal producing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9854825-B2
Application number	US-201114110918-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2011
Priority date	Apr 15, 2011
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

A retort rice meal producing system includes a pressurized steamer mechanism performing a steam heating process on raw rice under pressurizing, a steamed-rice single granulation mechanism removing surface-layer moisture from the steamed rice processed for single granulation as being conveyed by a conveyer, a quantitative filling mechanism of measuring the steamed rice subjected to single granulation for each pack and filling a container with the steamed rice, a packing mechanism further filling the steamed-rice-filled container filled with the steamed rice with at least an amount of a liquid such as a rice-cooking liquid required for soaking and moisture absorption and air for allocating a head space, and sealing the container, a soaking/moisture-absorbing mechanism reversing a package of the sealed container a plurality of times and causing the rice-cooking liquid to be absorbed into the steamed rice, and a retort sterilizing apparatus.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A retort rice meal producing system comprising:
a pressurized steamer device including a pressurizing and heating furnace for performing a steam heating process on raw rice under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure to form a gelatinized layer on a surface layer part of the raw rice and to make a center part thereof porous;
a steamed-rice single granulation device, including a horizontal conveyer belt in an upper part of the steamed-rice single granulation device, a motor for driving the conveyer belt to convey the steamed rice processed by the pressurized steamer device, an air filter located above the conveyer belt, a heater for heating the air provided above the air filter, a suction fan installed below the conveyer belt, a rotary vane, and a rotary pin,
wherein surface-layer moisture is removed from the steamed rice being conveyed by the conveyer belt, and the steamed rice loosened by the rotary vane is then slammed onto the rotary pin for single granulation;
a quantitative filling system including a metering machine for measuring the steamed rice subjected to single granulation by the steamed-rice single granulation device for a retort rice meal pack and filling a container with the steamed rice;
a packing device for further filling the container filled with the steamed rice by the quantitative filling system with at least an amount of a liquid such as a rice-cooking liquid required for soaking and moisture absorption,
the packing device including a plurality of sets of clamp arms disposed around a disk-shaped rotor to clamp opposed side edges of the container and to carry the container around the rotor sequentially from a steamed-rice filling part, a liquid filling part disposed downstream of the steamed-rice filling part to add the liquid to the container from a liquid filling nozzle, a gas filling part disposed downstream of the liquid filling part to fill the container with inert gas from a gas filling nozzle, and a sealing part that uses a sealing apparatus;
a soaking/moisture-absorbing device for reversing a package of the container sealed by the packing device a plurality of times and causing the liquid to be absorbed into the steamed rice; and
a retort sterilizing apparatus for performing a heat treatment on the steamed rice into which the liquid is absorbed through the soaking/moisture-absorbing device up to the center part thereof, the retort sterilizing apparatus being a furnace,
wherein the quantitative filling system has the metering machine with an upper hopper, which is at least provided with a heater for quantitative filling of the steamed rice processed by the pressurized steamer device without cooling;
wherein the soaking/moisture-absorbing device is a conveyer device with a plurality of vertical stages for reversing the package when conveying the package from an upper stage to a lower stage to cause the liquid to be absorbed into the steamed rice, and includes multiple belt conveyers, a guide cover at an end of each of the belt conveyers, and an ascending conveyer leading to a rotary table.

2. The retort rice meal producing system according to claim 1 , wherein the container is a pouch, and the quantitative filling system is configured to include a bucket conveyer conveying the steamed rice subjected to single granulation, the metering machine measuring the steamed rice conveyed by the bucket conveyer only for one pouch, and a bowl-type throwing conveyer filling the pouch with the steamed rice measured by the metering machine.

3. The retort rice meal producing system according to claim 1 , wherein the container is a tray container, the quantitative filling system is configured to include a bucket conveyer conveying the steamed rice subjected to single granulation and the metering machine measuring the steamed rice conveyed by the bucket conveyer only for one tray container and filling the tray container with the steamed rice, and a tray packing machine is used as the packing device.

Assignees

• Fukumori Takeshi
• Wakabayashi Keishi
• Harada Fuminori
• Kawamoto Toshinori
• Satake Eng Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fukumori Takeshi
• Wakabayashi Keishi
• Harada Fuminori
• Kawamoto Toshinori

Classifications

• A47J27/04

  for cooking food in steam; Devices for extracting fruit juice by means of steam {; Vacuum cooking vessels (steam-heated vessels for hotels, restaurants or canteens A47J27/16)} · CPC title

• A23L7/1965 Primary

  Cooked; Precooked; Fried or pre-fried in a non-aqueous liquid frying medium, e.g. oil · CPC title

• A23L7/10

  Cereal-derived products · CPC title

• A23L1/10 Primary

  Human Necessities · mapped topic