Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Foam or foamable type
Utility Patent
1999-04-06
2001-01-02
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Foam or foamable type
C426S583000, C426S586000, C426S588000, C426S591000, C426S596000, C426S594000, C426S471000, C426S443000
Utility Patent
active
06168819
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Particulate creamers, i.e. particulate products for whitening coffee, tea and other beverages, have been known for many years and are in wide use. Particulate creamers include a lipid, a carrier, and protein and are usually made by spray drying an aqueous slurry.
Particulate creamers are also used for whitening of beverages, such as hot cappuccino, which are characterized by a surface foam. Particulate non-foaming creamers produced by conventional spray drying methods, when dissolved in hot water, coffee, or the like, will cause the formation of negligible surface foam. The amount of foam produced by dissolution of the creamer particles can be increased by injecting an inert gas during spray drying. Foam may also be obtained by utilizing chemical carbonation reagents with the particulate creamer. Gas-injected particulate creamers are described, for example, in Hedrick, U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,147, Kuypers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,257, and Kuypers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,040. Chemical carbonation systems suitable for use with particulate creamers are described, for example, in Agbo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,780,092 and Zeller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,003. A chemical carbonation system may also be employed with a gas-injected creamer.
Hot cappuccino beverages may be prepared from brewed coffee or from instant hot cappuccino dry-mix compositions containing instant coffee such as those described in the Agbo et al. and Zeller et al. patents mentioned above.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a particulate creamer which, upon reconstitution in a hot coffee beverage, provides a thick, creamy foam having a semi-solid texture similar to that of the surface foam provided by steamed milk in conventional brewed hot cappuccino beverages.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a particulate creamer which provides such foam when reconstituted in a hot brewed coffee beverage.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a particulate creamer which contains chemical carbonation reagents which augment the amount of such foam.
It is a further object of the invention to provide particulate, dry mix, instant hot cappuccino compositions which contain such particulate creamers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a spray drying method for preparing such particulate creamers and to provide a spray-dryable aqueous composition useful in the spray drying method.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing and other objects which will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the detailed description which follows are achieved in accordance with the invention by providing:
a particulate creamer comprising protein, lipid, and carrier, in which more than 50% by weight of said protein is partially denatured whey protein, said partially denatured whey protein being from 40 to 90% denatured;
a particulate creamer as just described further comprising chemical carbonation reagents;
a method of preparing a particulate creamer which comprises
providing an aqueous spray-dryable slurry which comprises protein, lipid and carrier, more than 50% by weight of said protein being whey protein, heating said aqueous slurry at a temperature and for a time sufficient to denature said whey protein such that the whey protein is 40 to 90% denatured, and spray drying said aqueous slurry to provide a particulate creamer comprising protein, lipid, and carrier wherein more than 50% of said protein is whey protein which is from 40 to 90% denatured; and
a particulate, dry mix, instant hot cappuccino composition comprising water soluble coffee and a particulate creamer in accordance with the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
A particulate creamer in accordance with the invention include, as essential constituents, protein, lipid, and carrier.
The major constituent of the protein component of the present creamers is whey protein. More than 50% by weight, preferably at least 67% by weight, and more preferably at least 75% by weight, of the protein is whey protein. The whey protein is from 40-90% denatured, preferably 50-80% denatured, and more preferably 60-75% denatured. If the whey protein denaturation is less than 40%, the semi-solid foam texture is not realized. Denaturation in excess of 90% will produce an amount of functional undenatured whey protein which is insufficient to adequately emulsify and incorporate the oil in the creamer slurry.
The total protein content of the creamer, as well as the content of partially denatured whey protein by weight, is suitably about 3-30%, preferably 5-20% and more preferably 10-15% by weight. These percentages and others set forth hereinafter are on a dry weight basis and are based on the solids content of the composition in question.
The extent of protein denaturation may be determined by the well established technique of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in which the amount of heat absorption during complete thermal denaturing of a whey protein creamer is compared with heat absorption during complete thermal denaturing of a completely undenatured reference. A suitable reference is freeze-dried whole milk (FDWM) having the same lipid and moisture content as the whey protein creamer. The whole milk reference is appropriate because whey protein powders which do not contain encapsulated lipid do not have the mobility to be properly and completely denatured during the DSC scan. The DSC technique is further described in connection with Example 1.
The partially denatured whey protein component of the creamer can be obtained from any source of whey protein, but is preferably obtained from a whey protein concentrate or a whey protein isolate.
Whey protein concentrate (WPC) powder is prepared from liquid whole milk by separating the fat from the milk, acid-precipitating casein from solution, subjecting the solution to ultrafiltration to remove a portion of the lactose from solution, and spray-drying. WPC powders generally contain 25 to 80% protein by dry weight. Whey protein isolate (WPI), on the other hand, is WPC from which a greater amount of lactose has been removed by ultrafiltration. WPI powders contain over 80% protein by dry weight. WPC and WPI are both prepared under mild conditions to prevent protein denaturation. Any denatured proteins which do form during processing are excluded from the product during ultrafiltration. The result is an undenatured whey protein powder which retains excellent water solubility, protein functionality, and nutritional quality. A wide variety of whey protein powders are commercially available which have been designed to provide special characteristics such as improved damage from high temperature thermal processing or from acidic environments.
The heat-sensitive globular protein &bgr;-lactoglobulin accounts for more than 60% of the protein in whey powders. &bgr;-lactoglobulin can undergo time- and temperature-dependent denaturation when solutions of whey protein are heated to over 65° C. During denaturation, its structure partially unfolds, exposing hydrophobic groups and reactive sulfhydryl groups which can enter into polymerization reactions resulting in gelation and reduced solubility. Other protein fractions in whey protein also undergo denaturation, but most of the functionality of whey protein is derived from &bgr;-lactoglobulin.
The objective of the present invention is to utilize in the creamer slurry whey protein which has been partially denatured to an extent sufficient to reduce its solubility and such that it will provide a considerable amount of hydrated uniformly dispersed insoluble protein to act as an effective gas entrapping medium, foam texturizer, and stabilizer when the spray-dried creamer is reconstituted in a beverage, particularly when combined with a chemical carbonation system. The product of the invention contains buoyant, hydrated, insoluble, non-colloidal, irregularly shaped, whey protein particles, approximately 10-200 microns in size, with an average particle size of about 60 microns, which would not provide coffe
McGarvey Raymond Martin
Schulok James Anthony
Zeller Bary Lyn
Kraft Foods Inc.
Marcoux Thomas A.
Paden Carolyn
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