JP2022161730A - Fermentor - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a fermentor which can produce a small amount of a fermented food and preserve the produced fermented food in small amounts, improving a convenience.SOLUTION: A fermentor includes: a bottom case 10; a heating vessel 20 accommodated in the bottom case 10 and provided with a heater (heating means); and a holding vessel 40 accommodated in the heating vessel 20. The holding vessel 40 holds a plurality of fermentation vessels 50 in which a fermented food is stored. Thereby, the fermented food can be produced in each of the plurality of fermentation vessels 50 and the produced fermented food can be preserved in each of the fermentation vessels 50, improving a convenience.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to fermenters.

Conventionally, attention has been focused on adjusting the intestinal environment. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique of acquiring data about a user's intestines and proposing a life improvement plan based on this data (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
Fermented foods such as yogurt and amazake are also being made at home using a fermenter.

JP 2019-041625 A

The present disclosure provides a fermenter capable of producing a small amount of fermented food, storing the produced fermented food little by little, and improving convenience.

In order to achieve the above object, the fermenter of the present disclosure includes a bottom case, a heating container housed in the bottom case and equipped with heating means, and a holding container housed in the heating container, wherein the holding container is characterized by holding a plurality of fermentation vessels in which fermented foods are accommodated.

According to the present disclosure, fermented food can be produced in each of a plurality of fermentation containers, and the produced fermented food can be stored in each fermentation container, thereby improving convenience.

Overall perspective view showing a fermenter according to Embodiment 1 1 is an exploded perspective view of a fermenter according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a heating container according to Embodiment 1. FIG. Cross-sectional view of the fermentation vessel in Embodiment 1 FIG. 2 is a front view showing a holding container holding a fermentation container according to Embodiment 1; Schematic cross-sectional view of a cap member showing a modification of the fermentation vessel of the present invention Schematic cross-sectional view showing a modification of the fermentation vessel of the present invention

(Knowledge, etc. on which this disclosure is based)
At the time when the inventors came up with the present disclosure, attention was focused on improving the intestinal environment, and a technique for acquiring data on a user's intestines and proposing a life improvement plan based on this data was developed. there were.
In addition, fermented foods such as yoghurt are also prepared at home using a fermenter.

However, in the conventional technology, when making fermented food in a fermenter, a certain amount of fermented food is made, and it is necessary to transfer the made fermented food to another container or subdivide it for storage. The inventors discovered the problem that there was a problem and was troublesome, and came to constitute the subject of the present disclosure in order to solve the problem.
The present disclosure provides a fermenter capable of producing a small amount of fermented food, storing the produced fermented food little by little, and improving convenience.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, more detailed description than necessary may be omitted. For example, detailed descriptions of well-known matters or redundant descriptions of substantially the same configurations may be omitted. This is to avoid the following description from becoming more redundant than necessary and to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.
It should be noted that the accompanying drawings and the following description are provided to allow those skilled in the art to fully understand the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the claimed subject matter thereby.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[1-1. Constitution]
FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing a fermenter according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the fermenter of Embodiment 1. FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fermenter 1 includes a bottom case 10, a heating container 20, a holding container 40 that holds the fermentation container 50, and a lid member 60.
The bottom case 10 has a substantially elliptical planar shape, and is formed in a shape having an opening 11 on its upper surface.
Approximately U-shaped engagement grooves 12 that are open at the top are formed in upper edge portions on both end sides of the bottom case 10 .
The bottom case 10 and the lid member 60 are made of a material with high heat retention such as ceramics.

A heating container 20 is housed inside the bottom case 10 . The outer shape of the heating container 20 is formed in a substantially oval shape that can be inserted inside the bottom case 10 , and an opening 21 is formed in the upper surface of the heating container 20 .
Engagement projections 22 to be engaged with the engagement grooves 12 are formed on both ends of the heating container 20 so as to protrude sideways. By inserting the heating container 20 inside the bottom case 10 and engaging the engaging protrusions 22 with the engaging grooves 12, the heating container 20 is positioned and fixed to the bottom case 10. .
Moreover, the heating container 20 is equipped with a heater (not shown) as a heating means inside.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of heating container 20 in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 3, the upper end surface of the heating vessel 20 is provided with a display operation section 30 along one side.
The display operation unit 30 includes, for example, a time operation unit 31 for setting the heating time, a temperature operation unit 32 for setting the heating temperature, and an UP unit for increasing the heating time or the heating temperature when setting the heating time or the heating temperature. An operation unit 33 and a DOWN operation unit 34 for operating to lower the heating time or heating temperature are provided.
The display operation unit 30 also includes a temperature display unit 35 that displays the current set temperature, a start operation unit 36 that starts the heating operation, and a cancel operation unit 37 that stops the operation.

Moreover, although not shown, a control device (not shown) is incorporated inside the heating vessel 20 . The control device has, for example, a processor such as a CPU and a storage unit such as RAM and ROM. Data such as a predetermined control program is stored in the storage unit, and the operation of the heating container 20 is controlled by the processor of the control device executing the control program.
A power cord 38 that is connected to an external power source is connected to the heating vessel 20 . It is configured to supply power to the heater, the control device, and the display/operation unit 30 with power from an external power supply.

A holding container 40 is detachably accommodated inside the heating container 20 .
In the present embodiment, the holding container 40 is configured to accommodate and hold six fermentation containers 50 arranged in a row.
The holding container 40 is configured to have an open top surface and an open bottom surface. An inclined portion 41 inclined at a predetermined angle is formed at the lower end of the holding container 40 .

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of fermentation vessel 50 in this embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 4 , the fermentation vessel 50 has a vessel body 51 and a cap member 52 . The container main body 51 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape with an open top, and a male threaded portion 53 is formed on the outer periphery of the upper end portion of the container main body 51 .
The cap member 52 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape with an open bottom, and a female threaded portion 54 to be screwed into the male threaded portion 53 of the container body 51 is formed on the lower inner peripheral surface of the cap member 52 . .
A downwardly extending spoon member 55 is attached to the inside of the upper surface of the cap member 52 .

[1-2. action]
Next, the operation of Embodiment 1 will be described.
In the present embodiment, when fermenting food, the heating container 20 is inserted into the bottom case 10 and the engaging protrusions 22 are engaged with the engaging grooves 12, so that the heating container is attached to the bottom case 10. 20 is positioned and fixed.
Subsequently, the holding container 40 is accommodated inside the heating container 20 .

A fermentation container 50 is filled with a food 70 to be fermented, the spawn 71 is scooped with a spoon member 55, the spoon member 55 is inserted into the container body 51 as it is, and the female screw portion 54 of the cap member 52 is screwed onto the male screw portion of the container body 51. The cap member 52 is closed by screwing it onto 53 .
For example, when fermenting yogurt, milk is used as the fermented food 70 and lactic acid bacteria are used as the inoculum 71 . When amazake is fermented, water is used as the fermented food 70 and koji mold is used as the starter 71 .
After that, the fermentation container 50 is shaken to agitate the fermented food 70 and the inoculum 71 in the container body 51 . As a result, it is possible to suppress the intrusion of extra surrounding germs and the like.

After the food to be fermented 70 and the inoculum 71 in the fermentation container 50 are agitated, the fermentation container 50 is placed in the holding container 40 . In this case, the food to be fermented 70 and the inoculum 71 can be arbitrarily selected for each fermentation vessel 50 .
By operating the time operation section 31, the UP operation section 33, and the DOWN operation section 34, the heating time is set. Similarly, by operating the temperature operation section 32, the UP operation section 33, and the DOWN operation section 34, the heating temperature is set.
By operating the start operation unit 36, the food to be fermented 70 is fermented for the set heating time and heating temperature.
Fermentation is performed with the lid member 60 covering the bottom case 10 , the heating container 20 and the fermentation container 50 . Therefore, since the heating container 20 and the fermentation container 50 are covered with the bottom case 10 and the lid member 60 which are excellent in heat insulation, the temperature adjustment required for fermentation is prevented from being affected by outside air, and failure of fermentation is prevented. can be prevented.
After the heating time has elapsed, the heating is automatically terminated.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing the holding container 40 holding the fermentation container 50 in this embodiment.
The fermentation container 50 containing the fermented food is stored, for example, in a refrigerator. The fermentation vessel 50 can be removed from the heating vessel 20 together with the holding vessel 40 and installed only with the holding vessel 40 holding the fermentation vessel 50 .
In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, since the bottom surface of the holding container 40 is formed with an inclined portion 41, by installing the inclined portion 41 on the shelf board of the refrigerator, the holding container 40 and the fermentation container 50 can move forward. Can be installed in a tilted state.
This facilitates removal of each fermentation vessel 50 . Further, for example, by color-coding the cap member 52 or providing a name plate on the upper surface of the cap member 52, it is possible to easily identify the fermentation vessel 50 in a tilted state.

Note that the bottom case 10 may be used when the fermentation vessel 50 is sterilized. In this case, the container main body 51, the cap member 52, and a small amount of water are put into the bottom case 10, and in this state, the whole bottom case 10 is heated in a microwave oven for sterilization.

[1-3. effect]
As described above, in the present embodiment, the bottom case 10, the heating container 20 that is housed in the bottom case 10 and has a heater (heating means), and the holding container 40 that is housed in the heating container 20 are provided. In addition, the holding container 40 holds a plurality of fermentation containers 50 containing fermented foods.
Thereby, the fermented food can be produced in each of the plurality of fermentation vessels 50, and the produced fermented food can be stored in each fermentation vessel 50, thereby improving convenience.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, the holding container 40 holds a plurality of fermentation containers 50 in a row.
As a result, the plurality of fermentation vessels 50 can be efficiently stored by holding the plurality of fermentation vessels 50 in a row by the holding vessel 40 .

In addition, in the present embodiment, an inclined portion 41 is formed on the lower surface side of the holding container 40, and the holding container 40 is installed at the inclined portion 41 to hold the plurality of fermentation containers 50 in an inclined state. do.
Thus, by installing the holding container 40 at the inclined portion 41, the plurality of fermentation containers 50 can be held in an inclined state, and the stored fermentation container 50 can be easily taken out.

[2. Modification]
Next, a modified example of the fermentation vessel 50 of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a cap member 52 showing a modification of the fermentation vessel 50 of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a modification of the fermentation vessel 50 of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 6, in the present embodiment, an inoculum 71 for fermentation is previously sealed in the cap member 52 of the fermentation container 50 .
That is, the inside of the cap member 52 is filled with the spawn 71 and sealed with the inner seal 56 . An outer seal 57 is attached to the lower end of the cap member 52 . The inner seal 56 is made of resin or the like that is thinner than the outer seal 57 .

Then, as shown in FIG. 7, when the cap member 52 is used, the food to be fermented is placed inside the container body 51, the outer seal 57 is peeled off, and the inner seal 56 is exposed.
By screwing the female threaded portion 54 of the cap member 52 onto the male threaded portion 53 of the container body 51 , the distal end portion of the male threaded portion 53 of the container body 51 contacts the inner seal 56 . Furthermore, by screwing the cap member 52 , the inner seal 56 is destroyed at the tip of the container body 51 , and the seed bacteria 71 enclosed in the cap member 52 flows into the container body 51 .
In this state, by shaking the container main body 51 to stir the inside, the food to be fermented 70 and the inoculum 71 can be mixed.

By sealing the inoculum 71 in advance in the cap member 52 in this way, when the food to be fermented 70 and the inoculum 71 in the container main body 51 are mixed, external germs are prevented from entering the inside of the container main body 51.例文帳に追加can be suppressed.

The first embodiment has been described as an example of the technology disclosed in the present application. However, the technology in the present disclosure is not limited to this, and can also be applied to embodiments with modifications, replacements, additions, omissions, and the like.

As described above, the fermenter according to the present invention can produce fermented food in each of a plurality of fermentation containers, and can store the produced fermented food in each fermentation container, improving convenience. It can be suitably used as a fermenter that can be used.

1 fermenter 10 bottom case 11 opening 12 engagement groove 20 heating container 21 opening 22 engagement projection 30 display operation unit 31 time operation unit 32 temperature operation unit 33 UP operation unit 34 DOWN operation unit 35 temperature display unit 36 start operation unit 37 Cancel operation part 38 Power supply cord 40 Holding container 41 Inclined part 50 Fermentation container 51 Container main body 52 Cap member 53 Male screw part 54 Female screw part 55 Spoon member 56 Inner seal 57 Outer seal 60 Lid member 70 Food to be fermented 71 Inoculum

Claims (3)

a bottom case;
a heating container housed in the bottom case and provided with heating means;
and a holding container housed in the heating container,
A fermenter, wherein the holding container holds a plurality of fermentation containers each containing a fermented food. 2. The fermenter according to claim 1, wherein said holding vessel holds a plurality of said fermentation vessels in a row. An inclined portion is formed on the lower surface side of the holding container,
3. The fermenter according to claim 2, wherein the holding vessel is installed at the inclined portion to hold the plurality of fermentation vessels in an inclined state.

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