METHOD FOR PRODUCING DRY EDIBLE PRODUCT BY USING HEATED OIL

Abstract: The present invention discloses a method for producing dry edible products which can be used as snacks, filler added to foods , coloring agent, components of medicine, nutritious agent. The method comprises charging meat, internal organs, bones of animals or fish, or vegetables, which are boiled preliminarily with steam into a cooker which contains a preheated animal or vegetable oil, closing the cooker in an air-tight manner, heating the raw material by the heat of the oil while reducing the pressure in the cooker in two stages, removing the raw material from the oil in a pressure reduced condition,and pulverizing the removed raw material, thus producing the dry edible products. This dry edible product can be produced in an inexpensive manner while preserving the valuable components of the raw material therein and has little oil therein so that it can be preserved for a long period.

Description: Background of the Invention Conventionally, there have been developed various methods for producing dry edible products from meat, the internal organ, the bone of the animal or fish or the vegetables and these dry edible products are eaten in the original shape or pulverized into a powdery form and are utilized as filler added to foods, components of medicine, nutritious agent, or coloring agents. In these methods, however, during the grinding process or heating process , the valuable components such as vitamines, proteins, calcium contained in the raw material is destroyed and final products contain no such valuable components. Although the dry-freezing method may be able to maintain the valuable components to some extent in the final products, the method requires an extremely expensive installation or equipments. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method which can easily produce the dry edible products which are rich in valuable components such as vitamines from the raw material such as the meat, the internal organ, the bone of the animal, fish or the vegetables. Summary of the Invention For achieving the above object, in the present invention, the raw material is processed such that the animal or vege­ table oil is heated in the cooker, the raw material pre­ liminarily boiled with steam is fed into the heated oil, the cooker is subjected to two sequential reducing of inner pressures, namely first at a low reduced pressure and sub­ sequently at a high reduced pressure, and the oil is ex­ tracted from the raw material also in the reduced atmosphere by squeezing so as to produce dry edible product. When the squeezing is effected by the centrifuge, the dry edible product can maintain the original shape of the raw material and when the squeezing is carried out by the pulverizing screw, the dry edible product in a powdery form can be obtained. Such dry edible product in either original shape or in the powdery form has no odor, tastes well and contains a considerable amount of valuable components such as protein and calcium. And, the dry edible product in powdery form can be used as filler added in all kinds of food products, or coloring agents, or nutritious agents or components of medicine. Brief Explanation of Drawings Fig. 1 is an elevational view of the apparatus with a part broken away of the apparatus employed for carrying out the method of the present invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged partial view of the apparatus of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus taken along the line I-I of Fig. 2. Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments The method of the present invention for producing dry edible product is explained in detail in conjunction with attached drawings. Firstly, the construction of the apparatus for carrying out of the present invention is disclosed. In Fig. 1, A indicates an apparatus which substantially is made of an elongated horizontal steam drum which works as a cooker. The steam drum comprises a pair of concentric inner and outer tubes 1, 2 which define an annular steam space 3 therebetween. End plates 4, 4a are provided at both ends of the steam drum for rotatably receiving the both ends of an elongated rotary shaft 6 which passes through in the steam drum. The steam drum is provided with a raw-material feeding opening 16 and a product take-out opening 5 at the upper and lower surface thereof which are communicated with the inside of the inner tube 1. The steam drum is further provided with a manhole 17 which has one end conneced with the inside of the inner drum 1 and the other end connected with a vaccum device for making the inside of the innner drum 1 at a reduced pressure condition. Numeral 18 indicates a steam supply opening formed on the outer tube 2 for supplying the steam to the annular steam space 3, while numeral 19 indicates a steam supply opening fomed on the outlet of the elongated hollow rotary shaft 6. A plurality of hollow circular discs 7 are mounted on the outer surface of the hollow elongated rotary shaft 6 in an axially-spaced-apart manner and each hollow circular disc 7 consists of a pair of opposed conical disc plates 8,9. As can be understood from Fig. 2 and Fig.3, a support strut 15 has the proximal end thereof fixedly connected to the outer surface of the hollow circular disc 7 and such support strut 15 extends in a radial direction. An agitating plate 13 is connected to the support strut 15 by means of a connecting plate 14 for agitating the raw material charged into the inside of the inner tube 1. A cylindrical tube 10 which extends outwardly and radially is secured to the agitating plate 13 or the connecting plate 14 and such tube 10 encases a scraper-mounting shaft 11 which extends outwardly from and retract to the inside of the tube 10 against th spring contained in the tube 10. A scraper plate 12 is fixedly secured to the extremity of the scraper-mounting shaft 11 for scraping the residue of the raw material fixed to the inner surface of the inner tube 1. The manner in which the the method of this invention is carrried out with the above-mentioned apparatus is explained hereinafter. [First Embodiment] An animal or vegetable oil is fed into an air-tight innner tube 1 having a capacity of 4.5 m³. The animal oil may be the sardine oil, Tallow or the greese, while the vegetable oil may be the rapeseed oil or the corn oil. The amount of animal or vegetable oil charged into the inner drum 1 is 900 kg. Subsequently, the pressurized steam is supplied to the annular steam space 6 of the steam drum to heat the animal or vegetable oil to a temperature of more than 80°C and less than 150 °C. Then 3000 kg of the raw material is charged into the heated animal or vegetable oil in the steam drum 1. The raw material comprises the meat, internal organs, bones of animals such as cows, horses or pigs or those of fish. The raw material is preliminarily boiled with steam before being charged into the inner tube 1 of the steam drum. The juice is also charged into the animal or vegetable oil in the steam drum along with the raw material. Since the raw material is pre-boiled with steam, the tissue of the raw material is softened, and the efficiency of the thermal dehydration is enhanced. Furthermore, the water-­ soluble protein and gelatine which are contained in the raw material are coagulated, thus facilitating the ensuing oil-­ removing and pulverizing operations. After charging the raw material into the steam drum in the above manner, the drum is closed air-tightly, and the raw material is agitated together with the pre-heated animal of vegetable oil in the inner tube 1 for about 30 minutes after charging the raw material in the inner drum 1, the pressure in the inner tube 1 is reduced to -10 to 20mmHg and thereafter the pressure is reduced to -740 to 750 mmHg. When about 3 hours lapse after charging the raw material into the steam drum, the raw material is taken out together with the oil from the product exit 5 of the bottom of the steam drum which is preferably held in a reduced pressure condition of -740 ∼750 mmHg. Subsequently, the animal or vegetable oil is squeezed from the raw material by any conventional squeezing means such as a centrifuge or a mechanical pulverizing screw feeder under a reduced pressure condition of -740∼750 mmHg. The raw material after the above squeezing operation contains only 20 % of oil and 6 % of moisture. This means that the raw material is processed almost in a dry states. In the above squeezing operation, when the squeezing is effected by the centrifuge, the dry edible product can maintain the original shape of the raw material and when the squeezing is carried out by the pulverizing screw, the dry edible product in a powdery form can be obtained. Such dry edible product in either original shape or in the powdery form has no odor, tastes well and contains a considerable amount of valuable components such as protein and calcium. And, the dry edible product in powdery form can be used as filler added in all kinds of food products, or used as coloring agents, or nutritious agents or components of medicine. If the amount of oil is to be further reduced to 20%, the organic solution such as normal-hexane is added to the dry edible products and the oil component is evaporated together with the normal-hexane thus reducing the oil component to 6 %. To recapitulate the above embodiment, the raw material is preliminarily boiled with steam so that the water-soluble protein and the gelatinous substance is co-agulated to some degree. The raw material is dehydrated to the moisture-contact of about 50 to 60 %. This dehydrated raw material is subjected to the pressure reducing operation at two stages while heated by the heat of the oil in the cooker. In the first pressure-reducing operation, the water-­ soluble protein and the gelatinous substance are completely coagulated thus preventing the dissolving and flowing out of the protein and gelatinous substance into the oil. In the ensuing pressure-reducing operation, the pressure is further reduced to render the specific gravity of moisture contained in the tissue of the raw material smaller than that of the animal or vegetable oil. Accordingly, the moisture and the oil in the tissue of the raw material is displaced providing the uniform and fast evaporation of the moisture throughout the portions of the raw material. This prevents the protein and the calcium con­ tained in the raw material from carbonization. Subsequently, the oil is squeezed from the raw material in the pressure reduced atmosphere so that the oil infiltrated into the raw material in the steam drum is separated from the air thus preventing the oxidizing of the oil as well as the adhering of the odor to the raw material. Furthermore, the squeezing under the reduced pressure enables the prompt and easy extracting of the oil which is immersed into the core of the tissue of the raw material. The product produced in the above method contains protein and calcium of high quality and exhibits either an original shape of the raw material or a powdery form. Furthermore, the product is free from smell of the oil or the odor and shows the low hygroscopic property. Still furthermore, the product shows the low oil content as well as low moisture content so that, even when the product is pre­ served for a long period, the contained oil is not oxidized and does not absorb the moisture in the air. When the vegetable oil is used as the oil in the cooker, the taste of the vegetable oil is added to the dry edible product. For example, when the taste of corn is to be added to the dry edible product, the corn oil is fed into the steam drum. In the above embodiment, the vegetables can be added to the meat, the inner organs or bones or the animal or fish as a part of the raw material to provide a suitable color to the dry edible product since the pigment of the vegetables remains in the dry edible product even after the treatment with the heated oil. For example, for coloring the dry edible product, it is preferable to use following vegetables along with other raw materials. Namely, a red pepper provides a reddish color to the final products, a Chinese cabbage provide a whitish color to the final products, spinach provides a greenery color to the final products and pumpkin provides a yellowish color to the final products. Still furthermore, in the above experiment, some of the pigment contained in the meat of the animal or fish dissolves in the heated oil in the oil and such pigment can be easily recovered or collected by any conventional methods and used as coloring agent. [Second Embodiment] The raw material which comprises the vegetables exclusively is processed almost in the same manner as the above-­ mentioned raw material which comprises the meat, the internal organ or bones of the animal or fish, provided that the temperature of the heated oil is to be held between 60 and 90 °C and the second reduced condition is to be continued to about 60 minutes. In this embodiment, the vegetables mean not only vegetables per se but also fruits such as apples, bananas or oranges.

Claims: 1. Method for producing dry edible products by using heated oil comprising: a) preliminarily boiling a raw material such as meat, internal organs, bones or skins of animal, fish or vegetables with steam for softening the tissue of said raw material, b) charging said raw material into an animal or vegetable oil contained in a cooker and preheated to a temperature of more than 80°C to 150 °C, c) heating said raw material with said animal or vegetable oil in said cooker under a low reduced pressure d) continuing said heating in said cooker under a high reduced pressure and e) squeezing oil from said raw material to produce said dry edible product. 2. Method for producing dry edible product according to claim 1, wherein an organic solvent is added to sai dry edible product and the oil conponents contained in said dry edible product are evaporated with said organic solvent. 3. Method for producing dry edible product according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said low reduced pressure in said heating is -10∼20mmHg. 4. Methld for producing dry edible product according to one of preceding claims 1 to 3, wherein said high reduced pressure in said heating is -740∼-750mmHg. 5. Method for producing dry edible product according to one of preceding claims 1 to 4, wherein said squeezing is carried out at a high reduced pressure and said high reduced pressure in squeezing is -740 ∼-750mmHg.

Inventors: NAKAZONO, SHUZO
Applicants: NAKAZONO, SHUZO
Application year: 1986
Main classification: A23L1
IPC codes: A23L1