Coating processes – Solid particles or fibers applied – Uniting particles to form continuous coating with...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-20
2003-07-29
Nguyen, Ngoc-Yen (Department: 1754)
Coating processes
Solid particles or fibers applied
Uniting particles to form continuous coating with...
C427S180000, C427S201000, C427S212000, C427S215000, C423S499100, C423S499400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06599565
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a common salt having the rounded-off savory taste of natural common salt and a reduced tendency toward deliquescence and coagulation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a common salt which has an improved mouth-feel realized by inclusion of the mineral fraction of seawater and is free from the objectionable tendency toward deliquescence and coagulation. The present invention further relates to a method of producing said common salt and a production apparatus for reducing the method to practice.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for effective utilization of seawater in the production of said common salt. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for fractitonally recovering a raw material or materials for said common salt from the freshwater fraction of seawater and producing said common salt from said raw material or materials.
BACKGROUND ART
The unrefined common salt available from seawater contains seawater minerals (bittern), inclusive of magnesium chloride, and has a pleasing salty taste which cannot be obtained with refined common salt. However, since bittern has the property to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and undergoes deliquescence, the unrefined common salt is hygroscopic due to the deliquescent property of the bittern and undergoes coagulation with time (coagulability) with the consequent disadvantage of a short shelf-life and difficulties in handling.
To overcome the above disadvantages, a common salt highly purified by removing bittern by an ion exchange technique and containing NaCl in a high concentration (not less than 99.4%) has heretofore been used as the table common salt. As produced by the above procedure, the table common salt has no deliquescent property and is easy to handle but has the shortcoming that it lacks the inherent savory salty taste of the bittern.
Under the circumstances, a variety of processed salts overcoming the hygroscopicity and other drawbacks of common salt have been proposed. JP 55(1980)-16625, B for instance, discloses a processed salt with said hygroscopicity reduced by depositing a sodium or potassium salt of organic acid on the surface of common salt crystals. JP 54(1979)-25105, B discloses a processed salt prepared by coating common salt crystals with a minor amount of a stevia extract to thereby augment the characteristic pleasing taste and reduce the hygroscopicity of common salt. Furthermore, JP 1(1989)-181762, A discloses a processed salt comprising a core comprised of a seasoning or flavor material hermetically enshrouded with a crystalline salt coating. In the processed salt disclosed in JP Kokai H1-181762, the salty taste has been supplemented with a savory taste derived from the seasoning material used as the core.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention has for its object to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art relating to common salt and thereby provide a common salt which is tasteful and easy to handle and a method for its production.
More particularly, the first object of the present invention is to provide a common salt which has the savory, salty taste characteristic of natural salt retained through inclusion of the mineral component of seawater and reduced in the tendency toward deliquescence and coagulation, hence having been improved in storage stability and ease of handling. The second object of the invention is to provide a method of producing said common salt and an apparatus suitable for practicing said method.
Thirdly, it is also an object of the invention to implement an effective utilization of seawater in the production of common salt by recovering a raw material for said common salt from seawater efficiently and without involving a waste of the seawater and insure an effective utilization of the byproduct freshwater. Stated differently, the invention further provides a method for effective utilization of seawater.
The inventors of the present invention made an intensive research with an aim at improving the taste and inhibit deliquescence of common salt and found that when a bittern-containing composition rich in bittern is used as a core and the surface of this core is covered with sodium chloride or a sodium chloride-containing composition optionally containing calcium sulfate or bittern, the proportion of said bittern being smaller than that of the core composition, not only the tendency toward deliquescence can be significantly inhibited but a common salt having a savory taste characteristic of natural salt can be produced.
The present invention has been developed on the basis of the above finding.
The present invention, therefore, is directed to the common salts defined in the following paragraphs (1)~(4).
(1) A bittern-containing granular common salt characterized in that each grain thereof comprises a core comprised of a bittern-containing composition optionally containing sodium chloride and, as covering the surface of said core, a coating layer comprised of a sodium chloride-containing composition optionally containing calcium sulfate.
(2) A bittern-containing granular common salt as defined in (1) above further characterized in that the coating layer is comprised of a composition containing bittern and sodium chloride and that the proportion of bittern formulated in said coating layer is smaller than the proportion of bittern formulated in the bittern-containing composition of which the core is comprised.
(3) A bittern-containing granular common salt as defined in (1) or (2) further characterized in that the proportion of bittern formulated in the bittern-containing composition of which the core is comprised is 15~90 weight % per 100 weight % of the core.
(4) A bittern-containing granular common salt as defined in (2) or (3) further characterized in that the proportion of bittern formulated in the coating layer is not more than 10 weight %, preferably not more than 5 weight %, per 100 weight parts of the coating layer.
The present invention is further directed to the following methods (5)~(8) for producing said common salts:
(5) A method of producing the bittern-containing granular common salt defined in (1) which comprises spraying the surface of said core grain comprised of a bittern-containing composition optionally containing sodium chloride with an aqueous solution of sodium chloride optionally containing calcium sulfate and drying the same to coat said core grain with a sodium chloride-containing composition optionally containing calcium sulfate.
(6) A method of producing the bittern-containing granular common salt defined in (3) or (4) which comprises spraying the surface of said core comprised of a bittern-containing composition optionally containing sodium chlorlde with an aqueous solution of sodium chloride containing a smaller proportion of bittern than the bittern content of said core grain and drying the same to coat said core grain with a composition containing both bittern and sodium chloride.
(7) A method of producing the bittern-containing granular common salt defined in (1) which comprises feeding core grains comprised of a bittern-containing composition optionally containing sodium chloride and coating grains comprised of a sodium chloride-containing composition optionally containing calcium sulfate to a spray dryer and spraying those grains with a binder to cause said coating grains to be deposited on the surface of each of said core grains to form a coating layer.
(8) A method of producing the bittern-containing granular common salt defined in any of (2) through (4) which comprises feeding core grains comprised of a bittern-containing composition optionally containing sodium chloride and coating grains comprised of a composition containing sodium chloride and bittern, the proportion of the bittern being smaller than the bittern content of said core grains to a spray dryer and spraying those grains with a binder to cause the coating grains to be deposited on the surface of each core grain to form a coating layer.
The present invention is further directed to app
Umai Masaru
Watanabe Tadaharu
Nguyen Ngoc-Yen
Umai Co., Ltd.
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