METHOD FOR RAPID LOW-SALTED PICKLING OF AQUATIC PRODUCT

Abstract

A method for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products is disclosed, which includes preliminary processing of raw materials, bacteria-reducing treatment of plasma activation gas, marinade adding and plasma treatment, cyclic bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas and vacuum pickling. The marinade adding and plasma treatment include respectively injecting the marinade and plasma working gas into a tumbler, with a flow rate of ionic working gas injected into the tumbler of 1.5-2 L/min and a flow rate of a pickling solution of 0.5-0.8 L/min: and at the same time, starting a plasma power supply, and performing low-temperature plasma treatment on the aquatic products to be pickled, with a plasma treatment voltage of 12000-15000 V, a current of 60-80 mA, a frequency of 8-10 kHz, which is a second bacteria-reducing treatment, with plasma treatment time of 15-20 min.

Claims

1. A method for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products, comprising: 1) bacteria-reducing treatment with a plasma activation gas, in which the plasma activation gas is introduced to perform a first bacteria-reducing treatment on the aquatic products to be pickled before pickling; 2) marinade adding and plasma treatment, comprising: respectively injecting a pickling solution and plasma working gas into a tumbler, with a flow rate of ionic working gas injected into the tumbler of 1.5-2 L/min, and a flow rate of a pickling solution of 0.5-0.8 L/min and at the same time, starting a plasma power supply and performing low-temperature plasma treatment on the aquatic products to be pickled, with a plasma treatment voltage of 12000-15000 V, a current of 60-80 mA, a frequency of 8-10 kHz, which is a second bacteria-reducing treatment, with a plasma treatment time of 15-20 min; 3) cyclic bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which after the plasma treatment is finished, gas valves between an extraction pipe and a material pretreatment bucket are closed, an extraction fan and an exhaust fan are opened, and then the plasma activation gas extracted from inside of the tumbler is passed through the exhaust fan, a gas purification device and a gas inlet to re-enter into the tumbler to form a gas circulation, and this is a third bacteria-reducing treatment, with a treatment time of 20-30 min; and 4) vacuum pickling, in which after the third bacteria-reducing treatment is completed, a vacuum interface/gas outlet at a bucket cover of the tumbler is connected with a vacuum pump and the tumbler is vacuumized, and the tumbler is kept being rotated to vacuum pickle the aquatic products therein for 2-3 hours, with a vacuum degree of 0.05-0.20 MPa and a rotating speed of 4-10 r/min.

2. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein conditions of the first bacteria-reducing treatment in step 1) are the same as those of the second bacteria-reducing treatment in step 2).

3. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the pickling solution consists of 20-30 parts of salt, 5-8 parts of potassium chloride, 1.5-4.5 parts of citric acid, 20-30 parts of white wine, 1-2 parts of fennel powder, 3-5 parts of pepper powder and 470-500 parts of water, by weights.

4. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 3, wherein the pickling solution is in a sterile environment with final salt content less than 12%.

5. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the plasma working gas is one or any combination of air, nitrogen, oxygen and argon.

6. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, further comprising step 5) and step 6) after step 4), wherein the step 5) and the step 6) comprise: 5) sampling and cleaning, in which after the pickling is finished, the pickled aquatic products are taken out, clean water is injected into the tumbler through a marinade inlet and the tumbler is rotated to clean the tumbler; and 6) drying and packaging, in which the products is dried by a heat pump, and the products after drying are vacuum packaged to obtain dried products.

7. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the plasma activation gas bacteria-reducing treatment is performed in a pretreatment bucket, and the step 1) further comprises a step of preliminary processing of raw materials, which comprises: removing inedible parts of the aquatic products to be pickled, cutting them into pieces after cleaning, and putting the pieces into a material pretreatment bucket.

8. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the tumbler has a marinade inlet and a gas inlet for introducing the pickling solution and the plasma working gas respectively, the introduced pickling solution and plasma working gas are sprayed by a nozzle through a gas inlet pipe, and then uniformly distributed on surfaces of the aquatic products to be pickled through a plasma generating device, wherein the gas inlet pipe is a hollow pipe composed of two tubes and the gas inlet pipe extends to inside of the tumbler through a rotating roller, an outer end of the gas inlet pipe is provided with a gas inlet, and a marinade inlet is provided beside the gas inlet, and a plurality of gas outlets are provided at a part of an interior of the tumbler, the nozzle is provided at each of the gas outlets, each nozzle is directly below the plasma generating device.

9. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the plasma treatment is completed by a plasma system, the plasma system comprising a plasma generating device, a plasma power supply and a controller, wherein the plasma generating device is a low-temperature plasma generating device, and is connected with the plasma power supply and the control system by wires passing through the gas inlet pipe.

10. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein concentrations of nitrogen and oxygen, and ozone in the plasma activation gas are monitored and controlled by a gas treatment device, the gas treatment device comprising a nitrogen and oxygen adsorption device, a nitrogen and oxygen detector, an ozone decomposition device and an ozone concentration detector.

11. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 10, wherein the extraction fan is fixed at an inner position of a bucket cover of the tumbler, and is connected with the outer gas treatment device through a vacuum interface/gas outlet in a middle of the bucket cover.

12. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 1, wherein the low-temperature plasma treatment is performed while the pickling solution is added.

13. The method for rapid low-salted pickling of the aquatic products according to claim 10, wherein the exhaust fan comprises a first exhaust fan and a second exhaust fan, wherein the first exhaust fan is fixed at an inner position of a bucket cover of the tumbler, and is connected with the outer gas treatment device through a vacuum interface/gas outlet in a middle of the bucket cover, and the second exhaust fan is arranged on another side of the gas treatment device and connected with an extraction pipe, and the extraction pipe is divided into two branches, one of which is communicated with a material pretreatment bucket of the aquatic products before pickling, and the other of which is communicated with an exhaust fan at a gas inlet.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a device for rapid low-salted pickling according to the present disclosure.

[0027] Reference Number: 100. Tumbler, 101. Material Inlet/Outlet, 102. Bucket Cover, 200. Base, 201. Rotor, 202, Connecting Rod, 203, First Bearing, 204. Upright Post, 205. Supporting Frame, 206. Second Bearing, 300. Plasma Generating Device, 301. Electrode, 302. Nozzle, 400. Plasma Power Supply and Control System, 500. Gas Inlet, 501. Marinade Inlet, 502. Gas Inlet Pipe, 503. Vacuum Interface/Gas Outlet, 504. First Exhaust Fan. 600. Gas Treatment Device, 601. Nitrogen and Oxygen Adsorption Device, 602. Nitrogen and Oxygen detector, 603. Ozone Decomposition Device, 604. Ozone Concentration Detector, 605. Second Exhaust Fan. 700. Intake Valve of Material Pretreatment Bucket, 701. Gas Inlet Pipe of Material Pretreatment Bucket, 702. Material Pretreatment Bucket; 800. Gas Circulation Control Valve of Tumbler, 801. Gas Circulation Pipe of Tumbler, 802. Extraction Fan.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] The present disclosure will be further explained with reference to specific embodiments and drawings in the following.

Embodiment 1

[0029] As shown in FIG. 1, a device for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products according to the present disclosure includes a pickling device, a plasma treatment device and a gas circulation system. The pickling device includes a tumbler 100, a material inlet/outlet 101, a bucket cover 102, a base 200, a rotor 201, a connecting rod 202, a first bearing 203, a upright post 204, a supporting frame 205, a second bearing 206. The bucket cover 102 is provided with a vacuum interface/gas outlet 503, and a first exhaust fan 504 is provided at a position facing an inner side of the tumbler. The plasma device includes a plasma generating device 300 and a plasma power supply and control system 400. The plasma generating device 300 includes an electrode 301 and a nozzle 302, and the electrode 301 is connected with the plasma power supply and control system 400 by a wire passing through a gas inlet pipe 502. The gas circulation system includes a gas inlet 500, a gas inlet pipe 502, a vacuum interface/gas outlet 503, a first exhaust fan 504, a gas treatment device 600, a material pretreatment bucket 702, a gas circulation pipeline 801 of the tumbler, etc. The gas treatment device 600 is provided with a nitrogen and oxygen gas adsorption device 601, a nitrogen and oxygen gas detector 602, an ozone decomposition device 603 and an ozone concentration detector 604, so as to monitor and control concentrations of nitrogen, oxygen and ozone in the plasma activation gas. A second exhaust fan 605 is also installed in the gas treatment device 600 to guide the processed plasma activation gas into the material pretreatment bucket 702 or the gas circulation pipe of the tumbler 801, the material pretreatment bucket 702 and the plasma activation gas treatment device 600 are connected by the gas inlet pipe of the material pretreatment bucket 701 and controlled by an intake valve of the material pretreatment bucket 700. Gas circulation between a gas circulation pipe of the tumbler 801 and the gas treatment device 600 is controlled by a gas circulation control valve of the tumbler 800, and the circulating gas is introduced into the tumbler 100 by an extraction fan 802 so as to realize the gas circulation.

[0030] The pickling solution for pickling in the disclosure consists of 20-30 parts of salt, 5-8 parts of potassium chloride, 1.5-4.5 parts of citric acid, 20-30 parts of white wine, 1-2 parts of fennel powder, 3-5 parts of pepper powder and 470-500 parts of water, which are mixed evenly, with final salt content less than 12%.

Embodiment 2

[0031] A method for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products based on the device specifically includes following steps:

[0032] 1) Preliminary processing of raw materials in which inedible parts of fish meat to be pickled are removed, cleaned, cut into 5 cm×2 cm×2 cm pieces, and put into a material pretreatment bucket.

[0033] 2) bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which the plasma power supply and control system is turned on to perform low-temperature plasma treatment on the pieces to be pickled in the pretreatment bucket. A plasma treatment voltage is 15000 V with a current of 60 mA and a frequency of 10 kHz. The plasma working gas is air, and a flow rate of the air injected into the tumbler is 1.5 L/min. The exhaust fan 504 is turned on, and the plasma activation gas in the tumbler is introduced into the gas treatment device 600. The nitrogen and oxygen adsorption device and the concentration detector, as well as the ozone decomposition device and the concentration detector are used to control concentration of the nitrogen and oxygen, and ozone ranging from several hundred ppb to several tens ppm. The exhaust fan 605 and the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket are turned on, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off at the same time, and the processed plasma activation gas is introduced into the material pretreatment bucket to perform the bacteria-reducing treatment on the pieces to be pickled for 20 min.

[0034] 3) Marinade adding and plasma treatment, in which the pieces which have been subjected to the bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas are put into the tumbler for further pickling treatment. The marinade is prepared by adding salt and other ingredients to ultrapure water, with salt content less than 12% (the added salt accounted for about 5% of the total fish meat). The prepared marinade is injected into a cavity of the tumbler together with the plasma working gas through the marinade inlet, and low-temperature plasma treatment is performed at the same time, with same treatment conditions as those described in step (2). In this step, the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off, so that the pieces to be pickled in the material pretreatment bucket are subjected to the first bacteria-reducing treatment and the pieces in the tumbler are subjected to the second bacteria-reducing treatment.

[0035] 4) Cyclic bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which after the plasma treatment is finished, the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket between the gas treatment device and the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned on, and the plasma activation gas extracted from inside of the tumbler is passed through the exhaust fan and the gas inlet to re-enter into the tumbler to form gas circulation, and this is the third bacteria-reducing treatment performed on the pieces. The treatment time is 30 min.

[0036] 5) Vacuum pickling, in which after the bacteria-reducing treatment in step (4) is completed, the vacuum interface/gas outlet is connected with a vacuum pump at a bucket cover 503 of the tumbler and the tumbler is vacuumized, and when a vacuum degree reaches 0.1 MPa, the tumbler is rotated at 5 r/min for pickling for 2 h. Fish meat with salt accounting for 10% of weight thereof and direct vacuum pickling for 2 hours was taken as a control.

[0037] 6) Sampling and cleaning, in which after the pickling is finished, the pickled aquatic products are taken out, clean water is injected into the tumbler through the marinade inlet and the tumbler is rotated to clean the tumbler.

[0038] 7) drying and packaging, in which the products is dried by a heat pump, and the products after drying are vacuum packaged to obtain the dried products.

Embodiment 3

[0039] A method for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products based on the device specifically includes following steps:

[0040] 1) Preliminary processing of raw materials in which inedible parts of fish meat to be pickled are removed, cleaned, cut into 5 cm×2 cm×2 cm pieces, and put into a material pretreatment bucket.

[0041] 2) bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which the plasma power supply and control system is turned on to perform low-temperature plasma treatment on the pieces to be pickled in the tumbler. A plasma treatment voltage is 12000 V with a current of 70 mA and a frequency of 8 kHz. The plasma working gas is air, and a flow rate of the air injected into the tumbler is 1.85 L/min. The exhaust fan 504 is turned on, and the plasma activation gas in the tumbler is introduced into the gas treatment device 600. The nitrogen and oxygen adsorption device and the concentration detector, as well as the ozone decomposition device and the concentration detector are used to control concentration of the nitrogen and oxygen, and ozone ranging from several hundred ppb to several tens ppm. The exhaust fan 605 and the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket are turned on, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off, and the processed plasma activation gas is introduced into the material pretreatment bucket to perform the bacteria-reducing treatment on the pieces to be pickled for 15 min.

[0042] 3) Marinade adding and plasma treatment, in which the pieces which have been subjected to the bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas are put into the tumbler for further pickling treatment. The marinade is prepared by adding salt and other ingredients to ultrapure water, with final salt content less than 12% (the added salt accounted for about 5% of the total fish meat). The prepared marinade is injected into a cavity of the tumbler together with the plasma working gas through the marinade inlet, and low-temperature plasma treatment is performed at the same time, with same treatment conditions as those described in step (2). The intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off, so that the pieces to be pickled in the material pretreatment bucket are subjected to the first bacteria-reducing treatment and the pieces in the tumbler are subjected to the second bacteria-reducing treatment.

[0043] 4) Cyclic bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which after the plasma treatment is finished, the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket between the gas treatment device and the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned on, and the plasma activation gas extracted from inside of the tumbler is passed through the exhaust fan 605 and the gas circulation pipe of the tumbler 801 to re-enter into the tumbler to form gas circulation, and this is the third bacteria-reducing treatment performed on the pieces. The treatment time is 20 min.

[0044] 5) Vacuum pickling, in which after the bacteria-reducing treatment in step (4) is completed, the vacuum interface/gas outlet is connected with a vacuum pump at a bucket cover 503 of the tumbler and the tumbler is vacuumized, and when a vacuum degree reaches 0.05 MPa, the tumbler is rotated at 6 r/min for pickling for 3 h.

[0045] 6) Sampling and cleaning, in which after the pickling is finished, the pickled aquatic products are taken out, clean water is injected into the tumbler through the marinade inlet and the tumbler is rotated to clean the tumbler.

[0046] 7) drying and packaging, in which the products is dried by a heat pump, and the products after drying are vacuum packaged to obtain the dried products.

Embodiment 4

[0047] A method for rapid low-salted pickling of aquatic products based on the device specifically includes following steps:

[0048] 1) Preliminary processing of raw materials in which inedible parts of fish meat to be pickled are removed, cleaned, cut into 5 cm×2 cm×2 cm pieces, and put into a material pretreatment bucket.

[0049] 2) bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which the plasma power supply and control system is turned on to perform low-temperature plasma treatment on the pieces to be pickled in the tumbler. A plasma treatment voltage is 13000 V with a current of 80 mA and a frequency of 10 kHz. The plasma working gas is air, and a flow rate of the air injected into the tumbler is 2 L/min. The exhaust fan 504 is turned on, and the plasma activation gas in the tumbler is introduced into the gas treatment device 600. The nitrogen and oxygen adsorption device and the concentration detector, as well as the ozone decomposition device and the concentration detector are used to control concentration of the nitrogen and oxygen, and ozone ranging from several hundred ppb to several tens ppm. The exhaust fan 605 and the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket are turned on, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off, and the processed plasma activation gas is introduced into the material pretreatment bucket to perform the bacteria-reducing treatment on the pieces to be pickled for 18 min.

[0050] 3) Marinade adding and plasma treatment, in which the pieces which have been subjected to the bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas are put into the tumbler for further pickling treatment. The marinade is prepared by adding salt and other ingredients to ultrapure water, with salt content less than 12% (the added salt accounted for about 5% of the total fish meat). The prepared marinade is injected into a cavity of the tumbler together with the plasma working gas through the marinade inlet, and low-temperature plasma treatment is performed at the same time, with same treatment conditions as those described in step (2). In this step, the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, and the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned off, so that the pieces to be pickled in the material pretreatment bucket are subjected to the first bacteria-reducing treatment and the pieces in the tumbler are subjected to the second bacteria-reducing treatment.

[0051] 4) Cyclic bacteria-reducing treatment with the plasma activation gas, in which after the plasma treatment is finished, the intake valve 700 of the material pretreatment bucket between the gas treatment device and the material pretreatment bucket is turned off, the gas circulation control valve 800 of the tumbler is turned on, and the plasma activation gas extracted from inside of the tumbler is passed through the exhaust fan 605 and the gas circulation pipe of the tumbler 801 to re-enter into the tumbler to form gas circulation, and this is the third bacteria-reducing treatment performed on the pieces. The treatment time is 25 min.

[0052] 5) Vacuum pickling, in which after the bacteria-reducing treatment in step (4) is completed, the vacuum interface/gas outlet is connected with a vacuum pump at a bucket cover 503 of the tumbler and the tumbler is vacuumized, and when a vacuum degree reaches 0.2 MPa, the tumbler is rotated at 10 r/min in for pickling for 2.5 h.

[0053] 6) Sampling and cleaning, in which after the pickling is finished, the pickled aquatic products are taken out, clean water is injected into the tumbler through the marinade inlet and the tumbler is rotated to clean the tumbler.

[0054] 7) drying and packaging, in which the products is dried by a heat pump, and the products after drying are vacuum packaged to obtain the dried products.

[0055] A pickling speed of the above method is obviously increased, and storage experiments show that although the salt content of the pieces is obviously reduced, its shelf life is not significantly different from that of high-salted pickled pieces (Table 1).

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Salt content, total number of colonies and shelf life of samples in the embodiments 2-4 and a control sample Total number of colonies Index Salt content (CFU/g) Shelf life/d Saltiness Control sample 12.23% 29045 45 5.17 Embodiment 2  6.89% 1273 55 4.99 Embodiment 3  6.52% 1285 56 4.98 Embodiment 4  7.03% 1298 55 4.99 Note: The total number of colonies refers to results measured in a first day of storage.

Determination Method

[0056] 1. Determination of sodium chloride content, which refers to a method GB5009.44-2016 “Determination of sodium chloride in foods.” [0057] 2. Determination of the total number of colonies, which refers to a method. GB4789.2-2016 “Determination of Total Number Colonies in Food Microbiology Examination.” [0058] 3. Determination of the shelf life: According to GB 10136-2015 “National Food Safety Standard Animal Aquatic Products”, when the total number of colonies exceeds a limit value, it is considered that a storage end point has been reached. [0059] 4. Saltiness evaluation: A sensory evaluation group composed of 14 pre-trained personnel (7 males and 7 females, with an average age of 24) was used to evaluate the saltiness of the samples of the embodiments and the control sample on a seven-point scale (1=very weak, 4=medium, and 7=very strong) and get an average value.

[0060] The above description is only the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is not intended to limit the present disclosure. Any modification, equivalent substitution, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of this disclosure shall be encompassed within the protection scope of this disclosure.