Aseptic Canning Sequence for Faster Sterilization of Solid Foods
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional canning methods involve slow heat transfer and long sterilization times, affecting food flavor and nutrition preservation, especially for foods with a pH greater than 4.5, which require high temperatures.
Innovation Solution
Aseptic canning method where food is directly cooked in a sterilization pot using various cooking methods like steaming, baking, or stir-frying, followed by cooling and canning in an aseptic environment, ensuring fast heat transfer and short sterilization times while preserving nutrition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional sterilization method is used with soup or oil as heat transfer medium, then food can be sterilized, but heat transfer is slow and sterilization time is long
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the heat transfer medium (soup or oil) from the sterilization process. Instead of using indirect heat transfer through can walls and media, the invention directly exposes food to high-temperature steam environment, eliminating the intermediate heat transfer steps and achieving rapid sterilization without long cooking times.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the traditional sterilization sequence by performing sterilization before canning. Traditionally, food is canned first then sterilized; this invention sterilizes food in bulk first, then cans it in a sterile environment, thereby reducing sterilization time while maintaining food quality and safety.
2Reliability
If traditional sterilization method is used with soup or oil as heat transfer medium, then food can be sterilized, but heat transfer is slow and affects food flavor and nutrition
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the heat transfer medium (soup or oil) that causes prolonged heating. By directly exposing food to high-temperature steam without intermediate media, the process achieves rapid sterilization that minimizes the time food is exposed to heat, thereby preserving nutritional content and flavor while ensuring thorough sterilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the temperature parameter dramatically, using high-temperature steam (significantly higher than traditional sterilization temperatures) for a very short duration. This parameter change enables instantaneous sterilization that kills microorganisms effectively while minimizing thermal damage to food nutrients and flavor compounds.
3Reliability
If cooking is done before canning in traditional method, then food can be sterilized, but sterilization time is long and food quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional sequence of operations by performing sterilization before canning. Food is sterilized in bulk using high-temperature steam, then transferred to sterile cans in a controlled environment. This inversion reduces cooking duration from tens of minutes to just seconds while maintaining sterilization effectiveness and improving food quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary sterilization of food before canning. By sterilizing food in advance in a bulk process, the subsequent canning step only requires maintaining sterility rather than performing prolonged cooking, thereby dramatically reducing the duration of thermal processing and preserving food quality.
4Reliability
If high-temperature sterilization is used for food with PH greater than 4.5, then food can be sterilized effectively, but sterilization time increases and nutrition is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dramatically changes the temperature parameter, using extremely high-temperature steam (much higher than traditional 121°C sterilization) for a very short duration. This parameter change enables the sterilization of high-PH foods to be completed in seconds rather than minutes or hours, achieving effective sterilization while minimizing nutrition loss and time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses periodic or pulsed high-temperature steam exposure rather than continuous low-temperature heating. This periodic action delivers intense thermal energy in brief bursts that effectively sterilize food while minimizing total exposure time, thereby preserving nutrition and reducing sterilization time for high-PH foods.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Achieves fast heat transfer, short sterilization time, and maximum nutrition preservation, resulting in canned food with better taste and longer storage life without preservatives, using aseptic canning devices that maintain an aseptic environment.
Implementation Method 1
cooking the first solid-state food by increasing a temperature of an interior of the sterilization pot
Implementation Method 2
The processing method of aseptic canning adopts cooking for sterilization first... to achieve fast heat transfer, a short sterilization time
Implementation Method 3
sterilizing the first solid-state food to obtain a second solid-state food... in an aseptic environment inside the sterilization pot
Implementation Method 4
cooling the second solid-state food in the sterilization pot
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A process method for sterile canning and a sterile canning system. The process comprises the following steps: placing a first solid-state food item into a sterilization pot, closing a pot lid of the sterilization pot; warming the interior of the sterilization pot, cooking the first solid-state food item, and sterilizing the first solid-state food item to produce a second solid-state food item; cooling the second solid-state food item in the sterilization pot; and in the sterile environment within the sterilization pot, placing the cooled solid-state food item into a can and sealing the can. The system applying the process also is provided with a transfer apparatus used for transferring the first solid-state food item and/or the second solid-state food item.