Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Preparing or treating food having diverse utility
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-02
2004-11-09
Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Preparing or treating food having diverse utility
C426S496000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06814993
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a production system, program, a recording medium carrying the recorded program, a method for controlling the system in the production of just fresh-cooked food products and a method for producing just fresh-cooked food products.
2. Discussion of the Background
When it is intended to provide just fresh-cooked food products, the works in in-store kitchens are very labor-intensive. So as to provide a volume of a just fresh-cooked food product as just required on a needed basis, in particular, the food product is essentially prepared in a small portion at a high frequency; in case of a great number of bread types and daily dish types requiring complex cooking processes, the works therefor are so complicated and laborious that non-skillful workers can hardly perform such cooking processes. These products are so rapidly deteriorated or altered. Considerable times and labors are needed for such non-skillful workers to master the cooking and processing conditions therefor.
The time zone with a good product sale includes peaks at lunch time and dinner time, so that the kitchen works therefor correspondingly reach their peaks in such time zone. Thus, kitchen facilities are required to have capacities capable of simply coping with these peaks for cooking and processing in harmony with the time zone where consumers rush for such products. Additionally, the number of workers is also required to pass through the peaks.
Because the types and volumes of products to be sold differ, depending on each store and each store open day, furthermore, store managers have been likely to determine for example the types and numbers of products to be produced on the basis of their own unique judgment based on their experiences and instinct and to produce and process products by their own unique procedures and then arrange the resulting products on their store counters. Meanwhile, their kitchens are commonly apart from the stores. Hence, it is very difficult to catch what types of products consumers want to get on real-time basis.
Accordingly, products demanded from consumers are rarely arranged at needed volumes in store; additionally, the kitchen works are not leveled so the number of workers is more likely to be excess.
As the outcome thereof, each store is flooded with sale reduction and the increase of labor cost, so that the management of each store is under pressure.
The types of bakery products such as bread and doughnut and food products such as daily dishes are so numerous and are selected on dishes in an enjoyable manner.
It is well known that these bakery products comprising wheat flour as the principal ingredient and food products such as daily dishes are deteriorated or altered over time immediately after cooking, so that aging phenomena emerge therein. Although the deterioration of the quality is remarked, these products have been on market, despite the form of non-just fresh-cooked products regarded as preservable foods.
For producing just fresh-baked bread for example by scratch process comprising mixing wheat flour with other materials and baking bread dough through all the scratch steps, alternatively, the process requires 5 hours at minimum. Therefore, the preparing step should be in timing close to the time for meal as much as possible. For serving a wide variety of bread types and volumes just baked, the number of the individual steps such as preparing and baking and the timing thereof should be adjusted in a sophisticated fashion.
For the purpose of baking a wide variety of bread types in a simple and labor-saving manner, hence, a process using frozen dough has been proposed. In this case, a starting material frozen dough is thawed and taken out of final proofing chamber, which is then baked in oven.
For supplying genuinely fresh-cooked various bread types, however, complicated individual steps satisfying appropriate processing temperature and timing of each bread type are essentially demanded even in this case.
At baking step, for example, the oven preset temperature is generally changed depending on each bread type, because individual bread types traditionally require different baking temperature conditions. Due to the time required for temperature presetting, baking needs a longer time. For baking good bread, more specifically, the oven is already preset to given conditions just in timing for baking after the termination of bread dough proofing.
Meanwhile, bread dough should be placed in an oven after the dough is appropriately proofed and expanded at extents suitable for such bread type. Unless the state of dough taken out of final proofing chamber is satisfactory, high-quality bread can never be produced by baking. Nevertheless, proofing of bread dough so solely depends on yeast that bread dough is frequently at a state not appropriate for baking in oven just in needed timing. Thus, the preliminary step is to be on completion slightly before the needed timing; when the dough is satisfactorily proofed in final proofing chamber at a state suitable for baking, the dough is then placed in an oven for baking, even outside the time zone with a good bread sale. Because of such limitation from the respect of the processing steps, bread not just fresh-baked is actually in store, in spite of the label or advertisement “just fresh-baked”.
In case that a needed volume of a bread type is preliminarily determined, undoubtedly, the volume of the bread dough to be prepared is calculated on the basis of the needed volume. When the estimated volume happens to differ from the actually needed volume due to the long duration of the preliminary bakery steps, it is more difficult to supply just fresh-baked bread. Furthermore, the estimate sometimes varies, depending on the influence of weather and the variation in the number of customers. Consequently, a considerably larger estimate than actual demand has generally been established, also involving the occurrence of loss.
In such circumstances as described above, any method and supply system for producing genuinely just fresh-baked bread have scarcely been examined.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1991-241495 discloses an electric cash register apparatus which transmits a cooking instruction about a dish ordered by a guest to a cook in the food service industry. Its purpose is to make it possible to efficiently cook by controlling the timing of the cooking instruction. However, the request by the guest has to be first registered in the apparatus in each time. The cooking instruction actually means an instruction to the cook of the timing of starting the cooking, but no instruction with respect to the cooking processes thereafter will be especially made to the cook.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1992-77959 discloses an automatic cooking control system for automating a cooking instruction in a kitchen after a waiter has received an order in the food service industry. Its purpose is to make the control of the cooking instruction in the kitchen appropriate and efficient. The cooking instruction means an instruction with an information-judging gadget to the cook of the timing of starting the cooking based on the contents of cooking. No instruction with respect to the cooking processes thereafter will be especially made to the cook.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1994-139256 discloses an order control system for selecting a plural outputting apparatus installed in a kitchen on the basis of a time zone, the number of workers in the kitchen and the like and transmitting ordering data to the most appropriate apparatus. In the system, some conditions such as the numbers of the workers per business time have been preliminarily determined, and an apparatus to be used for outputting will be selected by judging to which condition the present condition shall belong.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1996-242779 discloses an invention whose purpose is to control progress in the preparation of a dish and to provide a function of informing the
Gotou Takayuki
Kaga Chifumi
Naruto Yasushi
Takahashi Kazutaka
Yamagata Mineo
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