Take a nut off of the tree and it is malleable. Take that same nut and put it in a furnace for a couple hours and you will have a roasted nut that is dry. From this you get the term Dry-Roasted Nuts. The moment the nuts come out of the oven they are absorbing moisture. Salt is added to the nuts to keep moisture from making the nuts malleable again. This added salt is not desirable to all consumers and is removed from some shipments of nuts. Removal of the preservation qualities of the salt results in malleable unsalted nuts upon consumption.
In this case our problem is un-salted nuts do not retain their dryness. An ideal case would be for the nuts to remain dry without the use of salt.
Looking through the 39 Engineering Parameters we find that #30 Harmful factors acting on object (Moisture is absorbed by the nut, Salt is an undesired factor in the nut) as well as #31 Harmful side effects (Moisture being absorbed by nut makes nut malleable).
Now that we have established what out problems are we need to ask ourselves questions about how we can change them. Using the 40 inventive principles of TRIZ we can go about this in a more structured environment then brain-storming could allow.
2. Extraction:
a. Extract (remove or separate) a “disturbing” part or property from an object, or
b. Extract only the necessary part or property
It is imperative to remove the salt or sodium content from the nuts, also important to remove the moisture from the nuts.
5. Combining:
a. Combine in space homogeneous objects destined for contiguous operations
b. Combine in time homogeneous or contiguous operations
Include some sort of desiccant material that is edible and has no harmful side effects of aftertaste.
6. Universality: Have the object perform multiple functions, thereby eliminating the need for some other object(s)
Include the desiccant material in the lining of the container of the cap of the container.
11. Cushion in advance: Compensate for the relatively low reliability of an object by countermeasures taken in advance.
Place some sort of desiccant in with the nuts or a coating on them to make them impermeable to moisture.
16. Partial or overdone action: If it is difficult to obtain 100% of a desired effect, achieve somewhat more or less to greatly simplify the problem.
Heat the nuts to a greater temperature to seal in outer coating thereby eliminating moisture absorption.
39. Inert environment:
a. Replace the normal environment with an inert one
b. Carry out the process in a vacuum
Package nuts in a vacuum with dry air and make some sort of an apparatus to reestablish the vacuum after package has been opened.
From these conclusions we can set engineers in a motion towards creating something that can reduce the absorption of moisture by the nuts after roasting.
Possible solutions could be the introduction of Potassium Chloride instead of Sodium Chloride for a desiccant in packaging. Potassium is absorbed by the human body and humans are notoriously short in Potassium supply.
A second solution would be to place some sort of potassium desiccant into the lining of the container of the lid. If some of the desiccant would leak out of the lining it would not be harmful if consumed.
Different then adding a desiccant to the container or to the mixture of nuts themselves the nuts could be heated to a higher temperature during roasting to seer the outside of the nut providing a thin layer that is impermeable to moisture.
The last solution discussed in this not, but certainly not an all-inclusive list, is a packaging system that maintains a vacuum. This would enable an inert environment to be maintained on the nuts to limit moisture absorption.
Each solution can be taken to a deeper degree by engineers in related or unrelated fields. TRIZ was used to identify the problem and possible solutions for the problem.
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