Showa Sangyo Co., Ltd.

Howa Sangyo Co., Ltd.

Tomoyuki Miyagawa

Takashi Tanaka

Yoshio Ishii

To provide an apparatus for producing frozen cooked-rice in an appropriately individuated state without needing complicated and special apparatus constructions, and without breaking down the individual grains of rice, cooked rice is primary-frozen as an entire block by cold air blown from air blast supply devices into the state where the individual grains of rice are not frozen up to their cores. The cooked-rice thus partly primary-frozen is brought by compressed cold air blown by a compressed-cold-air intermittent supply tube and/or by a rotary disjointing device comprising a rotary comb and a stationary comb into the form of appropriate-size blocks or small lumps which are then secondary-frozen by cold air blown from air blast supply devices into a state where the individual grains of rice are frozen completely up to their cores.

Method for freezing boiled rice in separate small-lump form

Disclosed is a method and apparatus adaptable for various kinds of raw rice and a variety of finally cooked rice, which comprises a combination of a steaming line constructed of a single endless conveyor and a settling and/or cooling line constructed of a plurality of combined endless conveyor belts arranged downstream of the steaming line. The settling and/or cooling line is combined with the rice continuously steaming line which comprises the steps of placing rice, that has finished preliminary water absorption, on a carrying surface of a single conveyor belt evenly, moving the carrying surface while blowing steam to the rice placed on the carrying surface, and effecting primary steaming of the rice, sprinkling of hot water to absorb water into the rice, and secondary steaming of the rice having absorbed water successively during movement of the carrying surface without agitating the rice, the above steps being performed within a sealed housing. Hot water is sprinkled to absorb water into the rice at the same time as when steam is blown to the rice. The variety of cooked rice include rice steamed in a state completely changed into .alpha.-starch, the steamed rice being selected from the group consisting of white rice, Sushi rice, seasoned rice, red rice, glutinous rice, sake rice and rice cakes. The variety of cooked rice may include rice steamed in a state partly changed into .alpha.-starch for quick cooking.

Rice processing apparatus with continuously steaming and boiling

A method for continuously steaming rice includes the steps of evenly placing rice on a moving carrying surface of a single conveyor belt after the rice absorbed water, primarily steaming the rice by blowing steam to the rice placed on the carrying surface, sprinkling of hot water to be absorbed into the rice, and secondarily steaming the rice by blowing steam into the rice. These steps are performed successively without agitating the rice on the single conveyor belt within a sealed housing. The apparatus has a housing (4, 5) made up of a lower housing member (4) and an upper housing member (5) capable of moving vertically relative to the lower housing member (4). The boundary between the upper and lower housing members (5,4) is sealed by drained water during a steaming step.

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Tokyo, Japan

Tomoyuki Miyagawa