FRAKTMAN KIRSTI (FI)
GILL HENRY ANAND (FI)
FRAKTMAN KIRSTI (FI)
GILL HENRY ANAND (FI)
| US20050287261A1 | 2005-12-29 | |||
| CN1078096A | 1993-11-10 |
CANTWELL, M. ET AL.: "Heat treatments control sprouting and rooting of garlic cloves", POSTHARVEST BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 30, no. 1, October 2003 (2003-10-01), pages 57 - 65, XP055557509
SANDHYA: "Modified atmosphere packaging of fresh produce: Current status and future needs", LWT - FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 43, no. 3, 6 April 2010 (2010-04-06), pages 381 - 392, XP055557513
"Storing Peeled Garlic, Garlic Cloves", ALIBABA, 11 July 2018 (2018-07-11), Retrieved from the Internet
| Claims A method to pack garlic mechanically in protective gas according to which method the loose cloves of garlic are skinned, washed and dried, characterized thereof that after this at least one gas tight, for consumers suitable disposable pack is made as follows; a. 1- 5 mentioned cloves of garlic (2) are placed inside a in itself gas tight cover (1), b. at least an essential part or air (4) inside the cover ( 1) is removed and protective gas (3) is added inside the cover, c. the cover ( 1) is closed gas tightly so that the protective gas (3) remains inside. The method according to the claim 1 characterized thereof that 4 cloves of garlic (2) are placed inside the cover (1). The method according to the claim 1 or 2 characterized thereof that the clove(s) of garlic is(are) placed inside the cover through fill opening (1.2). 4. The method according to some of the claims 1 - 3 characterized thereof that the air (4) is removed from the cover ( 1 ) by adding the protective gas (3) inside the cover using pneumatic pressure so that the protective gas pushes the air out of the cover. 5. The method according to some of the claims 1 - 4 characterized thereof that the cover is made of a transparent plastic. The garlic pack (P) that consists o the cover (1) and the garlic that is packed inside the cover in protective gas characterized thereof that the cover (1) is gas tight and there are 1- 5 skinned cloves of garlic and protective gas (3) inside the cover. 7. The garlic pack (P) according to the claim 6 characterized thereof that it contains 4 cloves of garlic (2). 8. The garlic pack (P) according to the claim 6 or 7 characterized thereof that the protective gas is a mixture of carbon dioxide (C02) and nitrogen (N), carbon dioxide (C02) or some other to the situation suitable gas. 9. The garlic pack (P) according to some of the claims 6- 8 characterized thereof that the cover (1) is a bag, bottle, can, tube, box or some other to the situation suitable object. 10. The garlic pack (P) according to some of the claims 6- 9 characterized thereof that the cover is made of plastic, glass or some other to the situation suitable gas tight material. |
The object of this invention is a method for packaging garlic and a garlic pack. The pack that is the object of the invention contains skinned cloves of garlic and it is a so called consumer pack and the method for packaging the mentioned cloves of garlic contains certain phases to make the mentioned pack.
The invention is used to portion garlic into small consumer packs to be used at home or other use of small portions. The garlic in the packages according to the invention is ready skinned cloves so that they can be taken into use with very small trouble and in suitable size portions from the point of view of the usage and thus the rest of the cloves except the used ones can be stored fresh and juicy in un-opened packs until they come into use. It is known to pack cloves of garlic into consumer packs and there are a lot of these products in the market. It is common for these products that they are not disposable. In those cases keeping the cloves of garlic usable in these packs after a part of the cloves in the pack has been taken into use it is necessary to add some fluid protective solution while packaging them, like oil or some other liquid material and the cloves of garlic are kept in this solution waiting for the next usage.
The before mentioned known technology is presented for instance in the internet site w w w . chemaj os.com. Tn the before mentioned site there has been described different clove of garlic consumer packs. In each of these packs there are at least 20- 30 skinned cloves of garlic. This big amount of cloves is hardly ever used at a time in the households so that the rest of the cloves remain in the pack to wait for the next usage time. The before mentioned site presents this size class packs where a part of the cloves is dry products and a part is stored in a liquid.
One of the greatest disadvantages of the known technology is that without this protective solution in a once opened pack there will be growth of bacteria and drying and the taste aroma divergence caused in the cloves of garlic by the air that comes into the pack. When protective fluid is used the taste of the cloves of garlic fades because the taste aromas dissolve or move otherwise to this fluid.
The intention of this invention is to get such a method to pack garlic and garlic pack that the disadvantages of the known technology are avoided. It is characteristic for the invention solution what has been stated in the characterizing part of the claim 1.
The greatest advantage of the invention in comparison with the known technology can be seen that the ready skinned cloves of garlic in consumer packs remain always fresh, juicy, and aroma rich until they are taken into use.
The invention is described more closely in the following drawings, where
fig 1 presents a garlic pack in 3D according to the invention,
fig 2 presents the before mentioned pack seen directly from side,
fig 3 presents the before mentioned pack seen directly from above,
figs 4a- 4b present diagrammatically the production phases of the before mentioned packs,
fig 5 presents a different model invention garlic pack. Next, one favorable invention solution construction and function is described referring to the before mentioned figs.
In figure 1 there has been presented the garlic pack P according to the invention in 3D and in figures 2 and 3 from side and from above. It contains a gas tight cover 1, inside it placed skinned cloves of garlic 2 and the protective gas 3 inside the cover. Tn this example the cover 1 is a small bag made of the transparent plastic, the seams 1.1 of which have been glued fixed and this garlic pack P contains five skinned cloves of garlic 2. The protective gas in this example is a mixture of carbon dioxide (C0 2 ) and nitrogen (N).
The before described garlic pack (P) is disposable and its machine production process is described in figures 4a- 4b. The process advances before the situation shown in fig 4a so that the cloves of garlic that have been loosened from the garlic are heated and thus loosening sensitive gotten skins are blown with compressed air loose from the cloves of garlic. After this the cloves of garlic 2 are washed and dried. In this example, the washing is made with water and the drying with ultra violet light. In the next stage, (fig 4a) the cloves of garlic 2 are packed by machine inside the cover 1 through the fill opening 1.2 of the cover. The fill opening can be for example an open bag side ore some smaller opening. After this, (fig 4b) protective gas 3 is injected inside the cover using pneumatic pressure so that it pushes the air 4 out of the cover. The protective gas replaces the air totally or at least essentially. Immediately after this, the cover is closed gas tightly so that the situation of the figures 1- 3 is obtained. Using the before presented machine production packing method, the garlic packs P can be obtained in serial production. The packing machine can be adopted to operate in each packing process basing on the size of the cover 1 and the size of the cloves of garlic to be packed inside the cover and the number of the cloves of garlic to be packed.
The cover 1 can be made of any to the situation suitable in itself gas tight material. It can be of one part as in the above example bag or a tetrahedral like in figure 5. It can also be composed of a number of parts like for instance a box and its cover or a bottle and its cork. If the cover is of a number of parts the joints between the parts must be gas tight.
The cover can have almost any shape and thus no cover shape is closed out from the invention application alternatives. In addition to what has been mentioned, it can also be a cylinder, rectangle, polygon or a combination shape of the mentioned shapes. The cover 1 can be made a bag, bottle, can, tube, carton etc. The cover 1 can be transparent or not transparent and it can be flexible or stiff. It is characteristic for the cover 1 that it is totally gas tight when the garlic pack is ready for use. The material of the cover 1 can be in addition to the before mentioned plastic any in itself gas tight material, like for instance glass. No such material that is suitable to be used with the invention is closed out from the applications of the invention.
A very favorable example of the cover 1 is the before mentioned transparent cover of thin plastic film that is suitable to be used with the foodstuffs, where the contents can be seen and it is easy to open. The garlic pack P can contain favorably 1- 8 pieces of cloves of garlic 2. It can also contain more cloves when its content meant to be used essentially in one usage time that is, when it is a disposable pack.
The protective gas 3 can also be some other suitable protective gas instead of the mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It can be for example carbon dioxide. An effective usage of the protective gas is possible in connection of the invention because it is question about a disposable pack when essentially the whole content of the pack is used at one time of usage and there will not remain any cloves of garlic to be protected with the protective gas, at least no considerable amount, as the protective gas 3 evaporates into the surrounding after the pack is opened.
The method in accordance with the invention includes also before the actual packing made loosening of the clove of garlic skins, washing and drying of every clove to be packed. These are in itself known handling phases of the cloves of garlic when the cloves are packed skinned and these phases can be performed in many different ways. In the before mentioned example, just one alternative has been given to perform these phases but in the method in accordance with the invention they can be replaced with any known technology method.
To remove the air 4 from the cover 1 and to add the protective gas 3 can also be done using some other method than what has been stated before. No method to replace the air with the protective gas is closed out when using the method according to the inven- tion.
To close the fill opening 1.2 gas tightly can be made for example by gluing. It can also be made using some other usable way. It should be noticed that even though this description sticks to one type for the invention favorable realization example, this does not however want to limit in any way the usage of the invention only to this type of example but, instead, many variations are possible in the scope of the inventive idea of the claims.