JPH02135052A - Preparation of granular food - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily obtain a granular food formable to granules without restriction on the kind of raw material, at a low cost, by uniformly dispersing an oil and an oil-soluble substance in an aqueous solution of a vehicle and dropping the dispersed liquid into liquid nitrogen, liquid air or liquid carbon dioxide. CONSTITUTION:An oil and/or an oil-soluble substance (e.g., rapeseed oil or vitamin A) are uniformly dissolved in an aqueous solution of an excipient (e.g., sodium caseinate) and the dispersed liquid is dropped through a nozzle into liquid nitrogen, liquid air or liquid carbon dioxide maintained at an ultra-low temperature to obtain a granular food useful for improving the taste and flavor of an instant food, etc., and increasing the variety of foods.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for producing a granular food product in which oil and/or an oil-soluble substance is granulated together with an excipient substance. When the granular food of the present invention is used in instant foods, frozen desserts, dessert foods, etc., it becomes possible to enhance the flavor and increase the variety of foods.

[Conventional technology]

Various capsules containing liver oil, soluble vitamins, essential oils, etc. in granular form are commercially available.

Capsules containing especially niceratin as a coating material are widely used mainly in the pharmaceutical field. In gelatin capsules,
There are two types of capsules: hard capsules and soft capsules.Hard capsules are almost limited to use in the pharmaceutical field, but soft capsules are often used in food applications, and examples of their use in health foods such as vitamin E and lecithin are also well known. As methods for manufacturing soft capsules, the punching method and the two-drop method have been put into practical use. The capsule coating agent contains not only gelatin, but also glycerin to keep the capsule soft, and other coloring agents, preservatives, and flavoring agents.

The production of soft capsules by the punching method is currently widely practiced, and involves combining two gelatin sheets and punching out each capsule shape using a mold.

On the other hand, in the dripping method, liquid core material flows out from the inner nozzle of a double nozzle, and coating liquid flows out from the outer nozzle at a constant speed.
This is a method in which the two-layered liquid stream is cut at regular intervals to form droplets, and then the outer coating layer is cured. Curing of the film layer is usually carried out by dropping or spraying droplets into a curing liquid, and edible oils and fats kept at low temperatures can be used as the curing liquid. This method has advantages over the punching method, such as not only making the film layer thinner, but also making it possible to make smaller capsules.

Film materials other than gelatin include alginate.
It has already been put into practical use as artificial fish eggs.

This is a method in which a film part in a sol state containing sodium alginate is cured with a calcium chloride curing solution.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Soft capsules made by punching are widely used in the pharmaceutical and health food fields, but they have the following problems. In other words, it is difficult to make a film with a thick film that dissolves in a short time. In addition, there are size limitations, such as the fact that it is usually not possible to make products with a size of 5 mm or less, that high melting point substances cannot be encapsulated, and that productivity losses such as gelatin film loss and content loss are large. Because of this, it looks good.

It is difficult to use it for food applications that require ease of eating and low cost.

Compared to the punching method, the soft capsules made by the dropping method are
It is also possible to make smaller capsules, making it possible to create beautiful spherical capsules. However, if the viscosity of the core liquid is too high, it will not be possible to encapsulate it properly, and the price will be high, and food applications will be limited to special products. Furthermore, when alginate is used as a coating material, the drying method is difficult and the coating is water-insoluble, which limits its use in instant foods and the like.

In view of the above, in order for soft capsules to be actually used in many applications, an inexpensive manufacturing method with a wide range of selection of coating materials and core materials is required.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present inventors have completed the present invention as a result of intensive research into a method for producing inexpensive capsule-like granular foods using a method that is more convenient than the conventional encapsulation method.

That is, the present invention provides a granular material characterized by uniformly dispersing oil and/or an oil-soluble substance in an aqueous solution of an excipient substance, and dropping this dispersion liquid into liquid nitrogen, liquid air, or liquid returned acid to form granules. It is a food manufacturing method.

The oil used in the present invention may be any edible oil or fat, such as rapeseed oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, vegetable oils such as coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil, beef tallow, Pork fat, milk fat, chicken oil, egg yolk oil,
Examples include animal oils such as fish oil.

The oil-soluble substances used in the present invention are substances that have the property of dissolving in animal and vegetable oils and fats, such as oil-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A and vitamin E, polar lipids such as lecithin, and substances obtained from various plants. Examples include oil-soluble pigments such as essential oils, β-carotene, and annatto pigments.

The excipient used in the present invention is a substance that envelops oil and/or oil-soluble substances and keeps them in a granular form, and in the present invention, hydrophilic polymer substances and mono- and oligosaccharides can be used. For example, proteins such as sodium caseinate, gelatin, whey protein, soy protein, carrageenan, and agar.

Examples include polysaccharides such as pectin, xanthan gum, guar gum, tamarind gum, dextrin, and starch, and mono- and oligosaccharides such as sucrose, glucose, and lactose.

As a method for dispersing oil and/or oil-soluble substances in an aqueous solution of excipient substances, a method of preparing a normal O/W type emulsion can be used, and if necessary, glycerin fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester, or chocolate may be used. Food grade emulsifiers such as sugar fatty acid esters can also be used.

This dispersion liquid can be made into granules by dropping it in liquid form into an ultra-low temperature curing liquid from a nozzle. Regarding the shape of the nozzle, in the present invention, since a uniform dispersion liquid is dropped, there is no need for a double nozzle, and a single-port nozzle is used. The particle size can be adjusted from 1 mm or less to 7 to 8 mm by adjusting the nozzle diameter and/or the viscosity of the dispersion according to the required particle size.

In the present invention, liquid nitrogen, liquid air, and liquid carbonic acid are used as the curing liquid. When the dispersed droplets come into contact with the ultra-low temperature liquid, they harden in a short time and are formed into particles. The hardened particles can be separated from the hardening liquid by a method such as filtration, and dried if necessary to obtain a dry granular food. As a drying method, natural drying, aerated drying using dehumidified air, freeze drying, etc. can be used, but it is preferable to use the freeze drying method, which allows drying to be carried out in the shape at the time of hardening, regardless of the type of excipient material. preferable.

[Effect]

Because it is cured using ultra-low temperature liquid, it is possible to make it into capsule-like granules without being limited by the raw materials used.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples.

Example 1 Gelatin (Taiyo Kagaku Co., Ltd. Neosoft 200GS) L
og, starch (soluble starch manufactured by Wako Tsumugi Kogyo Co., Ltd.)
70 g of olive oil is added to an aqueous solution prepared by heating and dissolving 2.5 g of carboxydimethylcellulose sodium (manufactured by Wako Tsumugi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) in 120 g of water, and the mixture is stirred while maintaining the liquid temperature at 70°C. The obtained uniform dispersion was
The solution was taken into a 5 mP resin syringe (outlet diameter: 1 mm), dropped without a needle, and dropped into liquid nitrogen to harden the droplets. The frozen grains were taken out from liquid nitrogen and freeze-dried. The obtained granular food has a diameter of 4
mm and was almost perfectly spherical.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The method for producing granular foods of the present invention has fewer restrictions on excipients than conventional methods, and the method for producing granular foods is simple, making it inexpensive and suitable for a variety of uses. It becomes possible to manufacture products.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A method for producing a granular food product, which comprises uniformly dispersing oil and/or an oil-soluble substance in an aqueous solution of an excipient substance, and dropping the dispersion liquid into liquid nitrogen, liquid air, or liquid carbonic acid to form granules.