METHOD FOR PACKING KIMCHI

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0012964 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jan. 29, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to a method for packing kimchi, more specifically to a method for packing kimchi that is capable of preventing a liquid existing in a packing container from flowing to the outside, exhausting the gas generated in the packing container to the outside, and preventing oxygen from entering the packing container from the outside, so that kimchi is distributed and sold, while being not sterilized.

Background of the Related Art

Kimchi is a traditional fermented food as one of the most important traditional foods in Korea, which starts upon the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is made by blending pre-brined vegetables such as cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, and the like with a variety of seasonings and fermenting the mixture for a given period of time. Up to now, a large part of daily meals is occupied by kimchi. Usually, most of kimchi is made at home and eaten, but recently, studies of quality improvement, industrialization, and scientific method of kimchi have been made according to variations of domestic and international conditions such as social participation of women, growth of dining-out industry, changes in living environments, increased group meals, improvement of kimchi export industry, and the like.

As kimchi is produced, distributed, and sold by professional production companies, consumers buy small amounts of kimchi whenever they want to eat kimchi, and as kimchi is exported to many countries in the world, further, a packing material or method for packing kimchi is actively studied and developed.

Unlike general foods, kimchi is consistently fermented, and if kimchi is filled in a packing material and then sealed, accordingly, the packing material may be unlimitedly expanded due to carbon dioxide generated during the fermentation of kimchi. Therefore, there is a definite need to develop a method for preventing a packing material from being expanded due to carbon dioxide generated in a process of packing, distributing, and selling kimchi, while avoiding kimchi from tasting bad due to the introduction of oxygen from the outside.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems occurring in the related art, and it is an object of the present disclosure to provide a method for packing kimchi that is capable of preventing a liquid existing in a packing container from flowing to the outside, exhausting the gas generated in the packing container to the outside, and preventing oxygen from entering the packing container from the outside, so that kimchi is distributed and sold, while being not sterilized.

To accomplish the above-mentioned objects, according to the present disclosure, there is provided a method for packing kimchi, including the steps of: (a) preparing a packing container whose top is open; (b) packing a given amount of kimchi in the packing container; (c) mounting a sealing part for sealing the open top of the packing container onto top of the packing container; (d) forming a ventilation hole passing through the center of the sealing part; (e) attaching a first sealing film to top of the sealing part including an area where the ventilation hole is formed, the first sealing film passing gas therethrough, while not passing liquid therethrough; and (f) attaching a second sealing film to a large area of the sealing part including an area where the first sealing film is attached, while a selective exhaust hole connected to the ventilation hole being formed on the second sealing film.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, at the step (f), an area to which an adhesive is not applied may be formed on one side of the second sealing film, so that the area to which the adhesive is not applied may serve as the selective exhaust hole.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, at the step (f), an area to which a pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied may be formed on one side of the second sealing film, and an adhesive may be applied to the remaining area of the second sealing film, so that the area to which the pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied may serve as the selective exhaust hole.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, the second sealing film may be a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 10 to 25 μm.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, the first sealing film may be a membrane made of a porous polymer on which pores having sizes of 0.2 to 1.5 μm are formed.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, the pressure-sensitive adhesive may be a silicone adhesive.

According to the present disclosure, desirably, the first sealing film may be a membrane having a plurality of layers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments of the disclosure in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 2 to 8 are sectional views showing respective steps of the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Hereinafter, an explanation of the present disclosure will be given in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure first includes the step of preparing a packing container (at step S100). As shown in FIG. 2, at the step S100, the packing container 110 whose top is open is prepared. The packing container 110 has a given internal space portion in which kimchi 120 is put.

In this case, the packing container 110 may have various shapes such as a circle, a square, and the like and is desirably made of a plastic material or a paper material having a plastic resin coated on the inner surface thereof. Further, the packing container 110 is open on top thereof, and as shown in FIG. 2, the packing container 110 has flanges 112 formed on the top thereof in such a way as to mount a sealing part 130 as will be discussed later thereon. The flanges 112 are vertically bent outward from the side walls of the packing container 110.

As shown in FIG. 1, next, the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure includes the step of packing the kimchi 120 in the packing container 110 by a given amount (at step S200). As shown in FIG. 3, at the step S200, the kimchi is picked up by the amount fillable into the internal space portion of the packing container 110 and then filled into the packing container 110. In this case, top of the kimchi 120 filled is lower than a height of the packing container 110.

As shown in FIG. 1, after that, the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure includes the step of mounting the sealing part 130 for sealing the open top of the packing container 110 (at step S300). As shown in FIG. 4, at the step S300, the edges of the sealing part 130 are located on the top flanges 112 of the packing container 110 in which the given amount of kimchi is filled at the step S200 and then attached to them. Through the step S300, the edges of the sealing part 130 and the edges of the packing container 110 are completely sealed from each other.

In this case, the attachment of the sealing part 130 to the sealing container 110 may be carried out by means of various methods such as an adhesive, heat fusion, ultraviolet fusion, and the like. According to the present invention, further, the sealing part 130 is made of a plastic film, a plastic cap, a paper material having a plastic resin coated on the underside thereof, or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, sequentially, the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure includes the step of forming a ventilation hole 132 passing through the center of the sealing part 130 (at step S400). As shown in FIG. 5, at the step S400, the ventilation hole 132 having a predetermined size is formed on the center of the sealing part 130 attached to the packing container 110.

The step of forming the ventilation hole 132 passing through the center of the sealing part 130 may be carried out before the sealing part 130 is attached to the packing container 110. In this case, that is, the step of forming the ventilation hole 132 is performed before the step of attaching the sealing part 130 to the packing container 110 (the step S300).

As shown in FIG. 1, next, the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure includes the step of attaching a first sealing film 140 to the ventilation hole 132 (at step S500). As shown in FIG. 6, at the step S500, the first sealing film 140 having a larger area than the ventilation hole 132 is attached to the sealing part 130 in such a way as to completely cover an area where the ventilation hole 132 is formed. According to the present invention, in this case, the first sealing film 140 is prepared in a state where an adhesive is applied to the edge thereof.

According to the present invention, further, the first sealing film 140 serves to prevent the liquid generated from the kimchi 120 packed in the packing container 110 from being discharged to the outside, while exhausting gas such as carbon dioxide generated from the kimchi 120 fermented in the packing container 110 to the outside, and accordingly, the first sealing film 140 is made of a material having a structure capable of passing gas therethrough, while not passing a liquid therethrough.

To do this, desirably, the first sealing film 140 is a membrane made of a porous polymer on which pores having sizes of 0.2 to 1.5 μm are formed. The membrane having such pore sizes is capable of passing gas therethrough, while not passing a liquid therethrough.

More desirably, the first sealing film 140 is a membrane having two or more layers so that the liquid is reliably sealed.

As shown in FIG. 1, after that, the method for packing kimchi according to the present disclosure includes the step of attaching a second sealing film 150 to the sealing part 130 (at step S600). As shown in FIG. 7, at the step S600, the second sealing film 150 is attached to a relatively large area of the sealing part 130 that includes the area where the first sealing film 140 is attached to the sealing part 130, while forming a selective exhaust hole 152 connected to the ventilation hole 132.

The second sealing film 150 is made of a material through which gas does not pass to prevent oxygen gas existing in outside air from entering the interior of the packing container 110, and to allow the second sealing film 150 to be attached to the sealing part 130, further, an adhesive is applied to the edge of the second sealing film 150 except a portion coming into contact with the first sealing film 140.

In this case, the entire edge of the second sealing film 150 is not attached to the sealing part 130, and as shown in FIG. 8, a portion to which the adhesive is not applied is formed on one side of the edge of the second sealing film 150, so that it is separated from the sealing part 130, while being not attached to the sealing part 130. The separated portion becomes the selective exhaust hole 152, and through the selective exhaust hole 152, the gas such as carbon dioxide discharged through the ventilation hole 132 is emitted to the outside.

In normal times, however, the selective exhaust hole 152 is kept in a state of being brought into close contact with the sealing part 130 by means of the elastic force of the second sealing film 150. Accordingly, gas, particularly oxygen gas is prevented from being introduced from the outside to the inside of the packing container 110, and if a large amount of gas is generated from the interior of the packing container 110 to cause the internal pressure of the packing container 110 to become high, the selective exhaust hole 152 is open so that the gas existing in the packing container 110, particularly carbon dioxide is exhausted to the outside through the selective exhaust hole 152.

According to the present invention, desirably, the second sealing film 150 is a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 10 to 25 μm. If the thickness of the second sealing film 150 is less than 10 μm, the second sealing film 150 has bad gas sealing performance, and contrarily, if the thickness of the second sealing film 150 is over 25 μm, the second sealing film 150 has bad flexibility and elasticity.

According to the present invention, further, the selective exhaust hole 152 is formed of a pressure-sensitive adhesive. In this case, the pressure-sensitive adhesive, not an adhesive is applied to a given area of the second sealing film 150 where the selective exhaust hole 152 is formed, and the adhesive is applied to the remaining area of the second sealing film 150, so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive serves as the selective exhaust hole 152.

In this case, the pressure-sensitive adhesive does not attach the second sealing film 150 to the sealing part 130 perfectly, so that it just attaches the second sealing film 150 to the sealing part 130 in such a way as to allow the second sealing film 150 to be repeatedly separable from the sealing part 130 by means of the application of a given force thereto.

Accordingly, in normal times, the area of the second sealing film 150 where the selective exhaust hole 152 is formed is attached to the sealing part 130 by means of the pressure-sensitive adhesive so that oxygen introduction from the outside in the packing container 110 is prevented, and if a large amount of gas is generated from the interior of the packing container 110 to cause the internal pressure of the packing container 110 to become high, the area of the second sealing film 150 attached to the sealing part 130 by means of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is separated from the sealing part 130 to allow the selective exhaust hole 152 to be open so that the gas existing in the packing container 110 is exhausted to the outside through the selective exhaust hole 152.

According to the present invention, further, the pressure-sensitive adhesive is a silicone adhesive.

According to the present invention, further, there is provided a kimchi packing container made according to the above-mentioned method for packing kimchi. As shown in FIG. 7, the kimchi sealing container is configured to have the first sealing film 140 and the second sealing film 150 attached sequentially to the top of the sealing part 130.

As described above, the method for packing kimchi according to the present invention is carried out by allowing the first sealing film to prevent the liquid existing in the packing container from flowing to the outside and exhaust the gas generated in the packing container to the outside, while allowing the second sealing film to prevent oxygen from entering the packing container from the outside, so that kimchi is distributed and sold, while being not sterilized.

While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.