Ambient stable beverage

Details Ambient stable beverage Ambient stable beverage

2001-05-14

2004-07-13

Weier, Anthony (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...

Treating liquid material

C426S597000, C426S331000, C426S650000, C426S654000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06761919

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ambient stable beverage, particularly a tea based beverage, that is preserved by a minimal amount of sorbic or benzoic acid.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART
In recent years there has been an ever increasing choice for consumers who wish to quench their thirst with ready made beverages. Many of those are now turning from the well known soft drinks to tea based beverages, be those carbonated or still, and the “natural” refreshment they can provide.
Tea contains a complex combination of enzymes, biochemical intermediates and structural elements normally associated with plant growth and photosynthesis. There are also many natural substances that give tea its unique taste, astringency, aroma and colour. Many of these are produced by the oxidation reactions that occur during the so-called fermentation stage of black tea manufacture. Tea production has long been driven by traditional processing methods with only a fundamental understanding of the chemistry that is involved. As a consequence manufacturers have discovered making ambient stable tea based beverages at the volumes required to compete with more traditional soft drinks is not simply a matter of flavouring a soft drink with tea.
The flavour of a tea based beverage and its stability rely on the stability of the beverage as a whole. The fungi including yeasts and moulds that can grow in tea based beverages and other soft drinks can be killed by heat treatment or at least controlled by use of preservatives. Some tea based beverages are therefore pasteurised and then bottled in glass or special heat stable PET containers. This is known as “hot filling”. Unfortunately this can be an expensive operation that creates a great deal of environmentally unfriendly waste. It has therefore become more attractive for manufacturers to pack their tea based products in standard PET containers which can range from single serve units to multi-serve packs and maintain the stability of the product using tailor made flavour and preservative systems. This is known as “cold filling”. It is also useful in that one can readily use a tea concentrate or powder.
Potassium sorbate is well known preservative. It is a mould and yeast inhibitor and one of the few legally permitted preservatives of soft drinks and fruit juices. It has been listed in the UK Preservatives in Food regulations since at least 1962. The levels of use tend to be in the range of 100-1000 ppm. That has been found to be an effective antimicrobial agent in a variety of foods including carbonated beverages in certain fruit and vegetable products, including wines. It is sorbic acid that is the effective agent.
Unfortunately even moderate levels of sorbic or benzoic acid can seriously affect the flavour of a tea based beverage. Adding a strong flavour such as lemon can offset the preservative taste. However consumers are keen to experience other flavours, often more delicate flavours. Furthermore, some of those consumers that were drawn to tea based products as a more healthy and natural alternative to soft drinks would reduce their intake of preservatives generally.
The applicants addressed a similar problem with resect to tea based beverages in U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,986. However the solution proposed there was to gradually adjust water hardness and pH and gradually add polyphosphate, benzoic acid, sorbic acid and cinnamic acid.
However there is still a need for pleasantly flavoured, ambient-stable, tea based beverages that contain minimal amounts of preservatives such as sorbic and benzoic acids. Non-tea based beverages including fruit and soft drinks can be stabilised in a similar way.
In response to that need the present inventors have now developed an ambient stable beverage that is preserved by a minimal amount of sorbic or benzoic acid.
STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
The invention can in broad terms be said to relate to an ambient stable beverage, particularly a tea based beverage, that contains a preservative system comprising 1 to 175 ppm cinnamic acid, 10 to 200 ppm sorbic acid or benzoic acid, and at least one essential oil other than cinnamic acid. When the beverage is tea based it preferably contains 0.01 to 3% tea solids, especially about 0.14% tea solids.
The beverage preferably contains 1 to 100 ppm of the essential oil.
The invention can also be said to relate to a method for preparing an ambient-stable tea based beverage suitable for cold filing comprising preserving a tea extract with a preservative system comprising 1 to 175 ppm cinnamic acid, 10 to 200 ppm sorbic acid or benzoic acid, and at least one essential oil other than cinnamic acid.
“Beverage” for the purposes of the present invention means any drink, other than water, and includes soft drinks, fruit drinks, coffee based drinks and tea based drinks.
“Essential oil” for the purposes of the present invention includes any of the volatile oils in plants having the odour or flavour of the plant from which they are extracted. It also includes one or more of the components of that oil that is or are responsible for or at least contributes to the odour or flavour of that plant.
“Tea” for the purposes of the present invention means leaf material from
Camellia sinensis
var.
sinensis
or
Camellia sinensis
var.
assamica
. “Tea” is also intended to include the product of blending two or more of any of these teas.
For the avoidance of doubt the word “comprising” is intended to mean including but not necessarily “consisting of” or “composed of”. In other words the listed steps or options need not be exhaustive.
Except in the operating and comparative examples, or where otherwise explicitly indicated, all numbers in this description indicating amounts or concentrations of material ought to be understood as modified by the word “about”.


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