Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – By applying fluid
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-24
2004-12-07
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
By applying fluid
C099S524000, C099S600000, C099S606000, C099S611000, C099S613000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06827008
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention of the Application relates to a manufacture technology of so-called “non-washing rice” dispensing from rice washing before cooking, that can be cooked only by adding water, and moreover, presenting a long shelf life, and more particularly, to a manufacturing method of non-washing rice for washing rice under the rice washing conditions appropriate for the polished rice to be used and an apparatus thereof.
2. Related Art
If the polished rice is washed with water by an ordinary method, water penetrates into the polished rice increasing the moisture content, provoking easily mold or putrefaction, and it can not become a non-washing rice that can be treated similarly to the ordinary polished rice. Howsoever, if a polished rice once presented a high moisture content by washing with water is dried, as the starch layer of the polished rice has a characteristic to swell upon water absorption and to shrink upon drying (refer to Japan Patent Publication HEI 3-36496), only the surface layer of the polished rice shrinks suddenly upon drying, a tensile force acts on the surface section, generating cracking. It is well known that, upon cooking, the polished rice presenting cracking swells unevenly due to infiltration of a quantity of water through the cracking, or a quantity of starch grains, resulting in a rise extremely bad in consistency and taste.
Therefore, technologies for obtaining a non-washing rice easy to conserve, and presenting a good taste, by washing within an extremely short time before almost no water infiltrates inside the polished rice, and removing immediately water adhered to the surface of the polished rice is proposed in the Japan Patent Application. Laid-Open Publication HEI 2-242647 and the Japan Patent Application. Laid-Open Publication HEI 3-154643. These technologies can manufacture theoretically a non-washing rice free from cracking, as they do no dry a polished rice once presented a high moisture content to reduce the moisture content.
However, depending on the washing water temperature, or the nature of raw material of polished rice, it is difficult to wash the polished rice and remove water adhered to the surface, within such a short time that the water infiltrating the polished rice remains within around 1 weight % of the polished rice, by applying publicly known rice washing apparatuses or dehydrating (evaporation drying) apparatuses.
For, when polished rice is cooked without washing, rice smells bran, rice becomes yellow, or rice become crumbling without consistency, mainly because a semi-liquid mixture (called ariulone residue) presenting an extremely high viscosity composed of oils, greases, proteins, or carbohydrates contained in the ariulone layer (starch layer) which is the lowest layer of the bran layer of the brown rice, adheres to the surface of the polished rice (refer to the Japan Patent Application. Laid-Open Publication HEI 3-154643), and it is necessary to remove this ariulone residue almost completely. By the way, ariulone residue is difficult to isolate from the polished rice only by floating the polished rice in water, because of its high viscosity, and it is necessary to soak the polished rice in the water and rub the surface of the polished rice to isolate. However, the polished rice reduces in strength upon water absorption, and especially, the cell structure of the surface becomes vulnerable, and the damage thereof will affect badly the taste similarly as cracking, so it is a taboo to apply a strong friction force to the surface of the polished rice.
Consequently, the conventional rice washing apparatus is composed, independent of the method thereof (there are methods for rotating an agitation wings in a washing tube and agitating water and polished rice, for inputting water and polished rice in a washing tube where an impeller is fixed inside and rotating the washing tube per se, for agitating water and polished rice transporting the polished rice by a screw conveyer, for jetting a strong water flow or air flow to the polished rice in the water for agitation, or other methods), to weaken the friction force applied to the polished rice not to damage the polished rice in any method, but to assure a sufficient washing by taking, in place thereof, a relatively long time for washing. Consequently, it is substantially impossible to remove ariulone residue almost completely, within a short time appropriate for the non-washing rice manufacture, using such a rice washing apparatus.
In addition, as for the removal of adhered water also, centrifugal dehydrater or net conveyer (evaporate adhered water by wind) or others may be conceived as publicly known apparatus; however, only by dehydrating with a centrifugal dehydrater, it takes time for further dehydration from the time point when the adhered water became about 3 weight % or less of the polished rice, and an excessive filtration of adhered water into the inside of the polished rice generates.
On the other hand, for the net conveyer, it is difficult to make the wind come into contact evenly with all over the surface of the polished rice, and there is every chance that a part of grains of the polished rice, or, a part of area of a grain of polished rice is dried excessively, causing a so-called irregular drying, and provoking the cracking. It might be proposed to evaporate by rolling the polished rice in order to prevent this, however, this will damage the structure of the polished rice surface layer softened by water absorption.
From the foregoing, it can not be said that an apparatus executable for washing the polished rice and removing the adhered water is disclosed in the Japan Patent Application. Laid-Open Publication HEI 2-242647, and, in the non-washing rice manufacture apparatus disclosed in the Japan Patent Application. Laid-Open Publication HEI 3-154643, is believed to be capable of manufacturing anyhow a non-washing rice, it should be improved further, in order to manufacture a high quality non-washing rice independently of washing water temperature, relative humidity of the atmosphere, or other conditions.
Therefore, the inventor of this Application, has previously invented a novel non-washing rice manufacture apparatus, and this non-washing rice manufacture apparatus is registered as the U.S. Pat. No. 2,141,449.
This patented invention has made possible to perform the processing from washing to evaporation for the polished rice within a short period of time and, moreover, to manufacture actually a non-washing rice dispensing from rice washing before cooking, and presenting an excellent taste and a long shelf life.
By the way, the nature of the polished rice used for manufacturing the non-washing rice varies according to the rice quality, kind, moisture content, polishing degree, age after the harvest, or others, and they don't have all the same nature. Consequently, it is necessary to adjust the washing intensity according to the conditions that the polished rice presents.
However, in the aforementioned conventional technology, no measure is taken for controlling the washing step according to the nature of the polished rice. In the course of improvement study of said non-washing rice manufacture apparatus, the inventor of the present invention has remarked that a polished rice having a better taste can be manufactured, by controlling the washing condition according to the conditions of the polished rice.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention intends to solve the aforementioned conventional problems, by a non-washing rice manufacture apparatus, comprising:
a pressure rice washing means for washing polished rice through intermediate of water and air, a rinsing dehydrating means for removing water adhered to the polished rice passed through the pressure rice washing process, a moisture adjustment means for drying polished rice passed through rinsing dehydrating to adjust the moisture content thereof to a predetermined value, and a rice washing intensity adjustment means for controlling as desire
Lipsitz Barry R.
McAllister Douglas M.
Simone Timothy F.
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