Package making – Methods – With contents treating
Patent
1988-10-05
1989-10-03
Sipos, John
Package making
Methods
With contents treating
53510, B65B 3104
Patent
active
048708011
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a process of inerting airtight packagings for liquid, pasty, solid and pulverulent products; and an installation for using it.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
Liquid, pasty or solid food products in contact with the ambient air are subject to numerous risks of biochemical or microbiological changes which are reflected by darkening, loss of taste, even of vitamins, disagreeable tastes, etc. These degradations, consequences of the presence of oxygen, are a function of the time of contact between the product and ambient air.
If these degradation phenomena are rather well controlled today, during production of the products up to the bulk storage, the risks of changes which appear during or after packaging of the finished products are still not completely eliminated; this is essentially due to difficulty of control of the parameters of handling and storing of liquid or pasty products.
To limit the risks of degradation of food products and thereby to increase the preservation period, it is essential to avoid the presence of oxygen in the product in the form of dissolved oxygen, and in its packaging in the form of gaseous oxygen. The use of an inerting technique thus seems well suited to packaging of food products.
If the present techniques of deoxygenation of food liquids by nitrogen bubbling or placing under vacuum considerably reduce the dissolved oxygen concentration, they prove insufficient at times. Actually, the action of the oxygen present in the gaseous medium is considerable and can cause degradation of products sensitive to oxidations, in particular during prolonged storage periods, particularly in the case of products intended for export.
Inerting of a packaged pasty, liquid or solid product requires elimination of the oxygen contained in the gaseous medium of the airtight packaging and of oxygen possibly dissolved before or after filling.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Research has been conducted to find a process making it possible, after packaging, to limit to less than 2% the residual oxygen content in the gaseous medium of the packaging: it is essential to attain this result to guarantee the absence of degradation of the food product.
The objective set, corresponding to residual gaseous oxygen content below 2%, is very difficult to attain on industrial packaging equipment.
A process has been found whose inerting effectiveness on industrial packaging equipment is excellent and responds to the requirement of a residual gaseous oxygen content below 2% in the packaging medium.
According to this process using together or separately a deoxygenation of the empty packagings in a packaging zone, and a deoxygenation of the packagings after filling, each of these deoxygenations is performed under inert atmosphere by means of two simultaneous injections of inert fluid. The deoxygenation or purging of the empty or filled packagings is performed by means of a network for distribution of said fluid with vertical injection of the fluid in the top part of the packaging, directed toward the bottom of the packaging, and the inert atmosphere is created by injection of the inert fluid distributed above the packagings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an inerting device according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a purging and inerting device;
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-section of a distribution network;
FIG. 4 shows a feed circuit; and
FIG. 5 shows a variant of a distribution network according to the invention.
The packagings can be subjected to a double gas purging before filling and after filling.
Depending on the nature of the product to be packaged, it is possible to proceed to a deoxygenation of the package by an inert gas, followed by a phase of decanting of the gas bubbles.
The fluids, liquids or gases used for deoxygenation of the product to be packaged or inerted are designated as inert gases, i.e. fluids whose action opposes biochemical or microbiological alterations caused by oxygen.
The ine
REFERENCES:
patent: 3477192 (1969-11-01), Brown
patent: 3566575 (1971-03-01), Lisiecki
patent: 4140159 (1979-02-01), Domke
Amen Jean
Mizandjian Jean-Luc
Pean Jean-Louis
L'Air Liquide
Sipos John
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