Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-20
2003-06-17
Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
C426S614000, C426S801000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06579551
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to food compositions and, more particularly, to novel baby-food compositions comprising egg yolk and to methods of making and using the compositions.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Semi-solid baby-food compositions containing egg-yolk solids are currently available commercially in the United States and a number of other compositions not currently available are known to have been available in the past. However, all of these compositions have contained either a small amount of egg-yolk solids, i.e. less than 5%, or a large amount of egg-yolk solids, i.e. about 29% to 30% or more, neither of which is entirely satisfactory as a food source. The compositions containing less than 5% egg-yolk solids do not provide the amount of nutritional components available in the compositions having higher percentages of egg yolk, whereas, baby-food compositions with the higher percentages of egg yolk have had extremely poor taste and, as a result, they are no longer commercially available. Indeed, it is well known that infants typically reject cooked egg yolk, apparently because of its strong taste and gritty, mealy texture. Nevertheless, because egg-yolk solids are known to contain substantial levels of nutrients, there remains a continuing need for a semi-solid baby-food composition containing moderate to high levels of egg-yolk solids in a composition suitable for feeding to babies.
Among the nutrients which can be added to the infant diet in egg-yolk solid are the polyunsaturated fatty acids. One such polyunsaturated fatty acid, the &ohgr;-3 fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), has been shown to be a required nutrient for optimal maturation of visual and cortical function in human infants (See, for example, Hoffman et al.,
Am. J. Clin. Nutr.
57(suppl.):8075-12S, 1993; Makrides et al.,
Lancet
345:1463-1468, 1995). Although the minimum dietary amount of DHA required by infants has not been unequivocally established, the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization recommend 40 mg/kg body weight for preterm infants and 20 mg/kg for term infants (
FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Fats and Oils in Human Nutrition,
FAO 1994, Rome, pp. 52-55). For term infants this is about 70 mg at birth in about 420 calories and 140 mg at 6 months of age in about 700 calories.
Breast-fed infants receive DHA in their mother's milk, which contains a full-complement of both &ohgr;-6 and &ohgr;-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Hoffman et al, supra; Makrides et al., supra; Innis et al,
Am. J. Clin. Nutr
60:347-352, 1994). However, the concentration of DHA in breast milk can vary substantially depending upon the amount of preformed DHA from meat and fish in the mother's diet. Id. In addition, many infants are not breast-fed or are breast-fed only for a few weeks and must rely on infant formula and solid baby food for their nutritional requirements.
Current infant formulas available in the United States do not contain DHA (Jensen et al.,
J. Pediatr
131:200-209, 1997). Furthermore, solid foods fed to babies generally have little or no DHA so that the intake of fat from such solid foods does not increase plasma DHA levels as does breast feeding (Luukkainen, supra). Thus, it would be desirable to increase the dietary intake of DHA in babies and one way to accomplish this would be to increase the amount of DHA either in infant formula or in solid baby-food compositions.
Sources of DHA that have been added to infant formula to increase the content of DHA include marine oil, extracted egg-yolk lipids and lipids derived from animal tissue phospholipids (U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,285, Uauy, et al., .J Pediatr. 134:612-620, 1994; Makrides et al., supra; Carlson,
J. Nutr.:
126:10925-10985, 1996). However, marine oil tends to have a strong fishy taste and odor and thus is unsuitable for adding to infant formula or solid baby food. In addition, lipids extracted from egg yolk and animal tissue are susceptible to oxidative deterioration. Also, with respect to solid baby-food preparations, production of fish and/or animal oils requires extensive processing, so that the use of such processed oils in a baby-food composition would diverge from the “whole food” and “natural food” concepts of baby food which is popular among caregivers.
One possibly suitable source of DHA that might be incorporated into a solid baby-food preparation is whole egg yolk. Although, hens' eggs ordinarily contain only very low amounts of DHA, hens fed a diet enriched with DHA or DHA precursor can contain about 80 mg/egg yolk or about 10 mg/gram of egg-yolk solids. See Table 1, infra. Such DHA-enriched eggs have been developed as sources of DHA for human consumption (Herber et al.,
Poultry Sci
75:1501-1507, 1996; Oh, U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,879). Nevertheless, this earlier work provided no suggestion as to how such DHA-enriched eggs might be incorporated into an acceptable semi-solid baby-food preparation. Thus, there remains a continuing need for a semi-solid baby-food composition containing egg-yolk solids including egg-yolk solids from eggs enriched with a natural source of DHA, in a composition suitable for feeding to babies.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the inventors herein have succeeded in discovering how to produce acceptable baby-food composition containing 5 to 25% egg-yolk solids. Because egg yolks contain substantial levels of nutrients such as high quality protein with all of the essential amino acids, many vitamins and minerals, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, the baby-food compositions of the present invention are useful in contributing to the nutritional quality of the infant diet. Furthermore, egg-yolk solids can serve as delivery vehicles for nutrients such as the polyunsaturated fatty acid, DHA, if the eggs are produced by chickens fed diets high in DHA or DHA precursors.
Thus, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a novel baby-food composition containing from about 5% to about 25% egg-yolk solids. In one aspect of this embodiment, the egg-yolk solids are high in DHA content so as to provide nutritionally significant amounts of DHA in the infant diet in only one or two servings. As a result, the baby-food composition, preferably, contains at least 1 mg DHA per gram of the composition. Because the DHA in the baby-food compositions of the present invention is provided by egg yolk rather than by adding refined oils or fats, the compositions are whole food preparations. Furthermore, eggs containing high amounts of DHA have been consumed by humans for a number of years so that one would not anticipate encountering any unexpected adverse effects upon feeding compositions containing the DHA-enriched egg yolks to babies.
The new compositions are in an acceptable baby-food formulation which further comprises an acidulant selected from the group consisting of citric acid, phosphoric acid, vinegar or combinations thereof. As an alternative to or in addition to such acids, the acidulant can be comprised of a cultured food substance containing lactic acid as illustrated below in Examples 11 and 16 or one or more fruit or vegetable components which contribute acidity to the composition as illustrated below in Examples 4, 14, 15 and 16. Moreover, the compositions can contain additional ingredients including a zinc salt, a spice, an additional fruit or vegetable component which contributes organoleptic qualities such as flavor or aroma to the composition and a filler substance, such as starch or flour.
In another embodiment, the present invention comprises a method for increasing the nutritional intake of an infant. The method comprises feeding to the infant, a baby-food composition containing from about 5% to about 25% egg yolk. In one aspect of this embodiment, the composition contains at least 1 mg DHA per gram of the composition. The new compositions are in an acceptable baby-food formulation which further comprises an acidulant selected from the group consisting of citric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid o
Cool Mary Beth
Rocklin Terry L.
San Fanandre Virginia A.
Shaul Gerald E.
Theuer Richard C.
Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation
Harness & Dickey & Pierce P.L.C.
Weier Anthony J.
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