초록 ▼

A cooking control method and a cooking control system for a food extruder used for producing direct-puffed snacks includes a material supply mechanism, a hydration mechanism, a processing mechanism including an extruder, and a control computer. The control computer determines a specific power consum

A cooking control method and a cooking control system for a food extruder used for producing direct-puffed snacks includes a material supply mechanism, a hydration mechanism, a processing mechanism including an extruder, and a control computer. The control computer determines a specific power consumption value from the electric energy consumed by the extruder and the supplied amount of the dough material, at the time of producing snacks having excellent quality, to designate this value as a reference value, compares this reference value of the specific power consumption value with the actual specific power consumption value, and when the difference is small, controls the number of revolutions of the extruder, and when the difference is large, controls not only the number of revolutions of the extruder, but also the amount of water added and the feed amount of materials, to thereby stabilize the snack quality.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A control method for a food extruder, comprising:determining a specific power consumption value by dividing electric energy consumed by the food extruder in a unit time by an amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder in the unit time;a specific power consumption value predetermined a

1. A control method for a food extruder, comprising:determining a specific power consumption value by dividing electric energy consumed by the food extruder in a unit time by an amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder in the unit time;a specific power consumption value predetermined at a time of producing snacks having desired qualities as a reference value, and controlling the number of revolutions of the food extruder, when a difference between the reference value and the specific power consumption value is small; andwhen the difference between the reference value and the specific power consumption value is large, controlling the number of revolutions of said food extruder, an increase or decrease of an amount of water to be added to the food extruder, and an increase or decrease of amount of dough material to be supplied to the food extruder. 2. A control method for a food extruder according to claim 1, whereinthe reference value corresponds to a value at which a snack having the desired qualities can be obtained,the snacks are evaluated based on eating texture, color tone and volume of the snacks,the eating texture is expressed by an evaluation value based on measured values of a bubble size of the snack and a cutting stress of the snack,said color tone is expressed by an evaluation value based on a value measured using a spectrophotometric colorimeter,the volume is expressed by an evaluation value based on a weight of the snack when placed in a container having a predetermined capacity,when there exists one or more defective evaluation values for the eating texture, the color tone and the volume, the snack is given a defective evaluation value,when there are no defective evaluation values for each of the eating texture, the color tone and the volume, each of the eating texture evaluation value, the color tone evaluation value and the volume evaluation value is multiplied by a weight coefficient, anda quality evaluation value is obtained from the sum of the eating texture evaluation value multiplied by said weight coefficient, the color tone evaluation value multiplied by said weight coefficient and the volume evaluation value multiplied by said weight coefficient. 3. A control method for a food extruder according to claim 1, whereineach of an upper limit, a lower limit and an adjusting value is determined for each of the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder, and amount of water added to the food extruder at the time of production, using as central values the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder at the time of producing snacks having desired qualities,a central value serves as said reference value and is compared with the specific power consumption value, anda result of the comparison is inputted into a set of rules based on a fuzzy theory, so as to control each of the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder. 4. A control method for a food extruder according to claim 3, whereineach of an upper limit zone, a central zone and a lower limit zone is set in accordance with the central value, an upper limit and a lower limit of the specific power consumption value, each of the upper limit zone, the central zone and the lower limit zone having positive/negative adjusting values, andthe set of rules based on the fuzzy theory comprises adding or subtracting an adjusting value consisting of a predetermined value to or from the number of revolutions of the food extruder within a range between the upper limit and the lower limit, in such a manner that:when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists in the central zone formed of the reference value of the specific power consumption value, being the central value, a djusted with the positive/negative adjusting values, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are kept constant;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit plus the adjusting value, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the central values;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is present at the lower limit plus the adjusting value, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the central values;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the lower limit and when amount of water added is at the upper limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the upper limits;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists at the upper limit or above, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit minus the adjusting value, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the central value;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the upper limit minus the adjusting value, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the central value;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions is at the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit plus the adjusting value, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the lower limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are at the lower limits, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit minus the adjusting value, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and the amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the lower limits; andwhen the specific power consumption value of the extruder exists at the lower limit or below, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the lower limits. 5. A control method for a food extruder according to claim 2, whereineach of an upper limit, a lower limit and an adjusting value is determined for each of the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder, and amount of water added to the food extruder at the time of production, using as central values the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder at the time of producing snacks having desired qualities,a central value serves as said reference value and is compared with the specific power consumption value, anda result of the comparison is inputted into a set of rules based on a fuzzy theory, so as to control each of the number of revolutions of the food extruder, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder. 6. A control method for a food extruder according to claim 5, whereineach of an upper limit zone, a central zone and a lower limit zone is set in accordance with the central value, an upper limit and a lower limit of the specific power consumption value, each of the upper limit zone, the central zone and the lower limit zone having positive/negative adjusting values, andthe set of rules based on the fuzzy theory comprises adding or subtracting an adjusting value consisting of a predetermined value to or from the number of revolutions of the food extruder within a range between the upper limit and the lower limit, in such a manner that:when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists in the central zone formed of the reference value of the specific power consumption value, being the central value, adjusted with the positive/negative adjusting values, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are kept constant;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit plus the adjusting value, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the central values;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is present at the lower limit plus the adjusting value, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the central values;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between said central zone and the upper limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the lower limit and when amount of water added is at the upper limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the upper limits ;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists at the upper limit or above, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the upper limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit minus the adjusting value, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the central value;when the specific power consumption value of the extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder is at the upper limit minus the adjusting value, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the central value;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions is at the lower limit, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the lower limit plus the adjusting value, the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder is set to be the central value, and amount of water added to the food extruder is set to be the lower limit;when the specific power consumption value of the food extruder exists between the central zone and the lower limit and when the number of revolutions of the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are at the lower limits, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit minus the adjusting value, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and the amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the lower limits; andwhen the specific power consumption value of the extruder exists at the lower limit or below, the number of revolutions of the food extruder is set to be the upper limit, and the amount of dough material supplied to the food extruder and amount of water added to the food extruder are set to be the lower limits.