Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2002-12-17
Pratt, Helen (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
C426S573000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06495190
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a cellulose-containing composite. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cellulose-containing composite which comprises a particular fine cellulose and a low-viscosity water-soluble dietary fiber and which is superior in feeling when taken into the mouth, and which is also superior in shape retainability, and fluidity when made into a liquid food, etc. and further in effects as dietary fiber or as oil and fat substitute.
BACKGROUND ART
Cellulose has been used in foods for various purposes of, for example, imparting suspension stability, emulsion stability, shape retainability or cloudiness, or for adding dietary fiber. However, when cellulose is used alone as a stabilizer or the like, there have been cases that the addition effect is insufficient or the cellulose-added food gives slightly rough feeling to the tongue. Natural dietary fibers are ordinarily a composite of a water-insoluble dietary fiber and a water-soluble dietary fiber and these two kinds of dietary fibers differ in action in the intestinal tract. Therefore, the dietary fiber material used in food is preferred to be a combination of the above two kinds of dietary fibers. However, neither dietary fiber material nor combined dietary fiber material is currently available which has a low viscosity suitable for use in food, which has good feeling when taken into the mouth, and which has high stability.
In JP-B-57-14771 is described a composite comprising a microcrystalline cellulose, a dispersing agent (a gum) and a disintegrating agent in particular proportions. The composite has a high viscosity depending upon the kind of gum used and, therefore, it has given paste-like viscous feeling when taken into the mouth, in some cases. For example, Avicel RC-591 (trade name) (a product of Asahi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.), which is a commercially marketed crystalline cellulose preparation, comprises a microcrystalline cellulose and, as a dispersing agent, sodium carboxymethylcellulose and, when dispersed in water in a 3% concentration, gives a high viscosity of 1,200 mPa·.
In JP-B-6-75474 is described a composition comprising a microcrystalline cellulose and galactomannan gum. The galactomannan gum used in this composition is an ordinary gum not subjected to any decomposition treatment and acts as a binder for the microcrystalline cellulose. Therefore, when the composition is stirred in water, the composition only swells, causes no disintegration into particles, and maintains the original state. Therefore, the composition has low suspension stability in water although it gives in-mouth feeling similar to that of fat and is suitable as a fat substitute for use in food.
In JP-A-6-135838 is described an oral or tube fed nutritious composition comprising a microcrystalline cellulose (as a water-insoluble dietary fiber) and an enzymatically hydrolyzed guar gum (as a water-soluble dietary fiber). In this composition, the microcrystalline cellulose and the enzymatically hydrolyzed guar gum are not in a composite form but in a simple mixture; therefore, the rough feeling of the microcrystalline cellulose is not sufficiently suppressed and the in-tube flowing-down property has not been sufficient.
In JP-A-7-173332 and JP-A-7-268129 are described composites comprising a fine cellulose and a hydrophilic substance and/or a water-soluble gum, which contain particles having particle diameters of 10 &mgr;m or more, in an amount of 40% or less and which have a colloidal content (which is a yardstick for the amount of fine particles) of 65% or more. In the literature, polydextrose is shown as an example of the hydrophilic substance, and xanthan gum is shown as an example of the water-soluble gum. These composites, however, have a high colloidal content and accordingly high viscosity; therefore, when used in a food such as a drink or the like in an amount of 1% or more, they give viscous feeling and, when used in a tube fed liquid diet, it has been difficult to allow them to flow down at a sufficient speed.
In the above-mentioned JP-A-7-173332 and JP-A-7-268129 are shown dextrin as an example of the hydrophilic substance. Dextrin is a group of intermediates formed when starch is subjected to partial hydrolysis by the action of acid, enzyme, heat or the like, and it is often referred to in industry, as pyrodextrin obtained by dry method (Sogo Shokuhin Jiten (6th edition), pp. 617-618 (1989), edited by Yoshito Sakurai and published from Dobun Shoin). In the above literature, hydrolyzed starch is also mentioned; therefore, the dextrin mentioned in the literature refers to pyrodextrin. Incidentally, as is well known in the art, pyrodextrin includes white or yellow dextrin obtained by subjecting starch to pyrolysis using an acid catalyst, and British gum obtained by subjecting starch to pyrolysis using no acid, and each dextrin contains an indigestible component. However, the content of the indigestible component is at most about 40%, and more than half is digestible (K. Ohkuma et al., Denpun Kagaku, 37 (2), pp. 107-114 (1990)). That is, substances generally known as dextrin have been digestible. In contrast, the dextrin usable in the present invention which is indigestible as mentioned later, is different from the dextrin mentioned in the above literature, and has a meaning as a dietary fiber material in the present invention because it is indigestible.
In JP-A-7-70365 is described a composite of a fine cellulose and a polydextrose, which contains particles having particle diameters of 10 &mgr;m or more, in an amount of 40% or less and which has a colloidal content of 50% or more. This composite has a low viscosity but contains no stabilizer such as gellan gum or the like; therefore, it has no long-term suspension stability. Moreover, in the composite, the cellulose particles are fine and tend to interact with milk protein, etc., and the polydextrose has no sufficient effect for reducing of the interaction; therefore, the system using the composite has tended to cause flocculation. In the literature is also described the use of dextrin. This dextrin, however, is different from the indigestible dextrin used in the present invention, for the same reason as mentioned above.
In WO 98/33394 is described a texture agent for food, obtained by mixing a microcrystalline cellulose and a polydextrose in water and drying the resulting mixture. The polydextrose is used only in the claims of the literature, and only maltodextrin is used in the Examples, etc. Therefore, the effect of the composition using a polydextrose is unclear from the above literature alone. However, the composition using a polydextrose is presumed to have insufficient stability at a low concentration, because the composition is thought to have the same effect as the composition using maltodextrin and because it is shown in the literature that the composition using maltodextrin gives a low viscosity at a low concentration but gives rise to precipitation of cellulose and resultant separation into two layers. The literature also has a description regarding a composition using xanthan gum in combination. Since the amount of xanthan gum used is 3% or more, the composition has a high viscosity of 525 mPa·s or more when made into a 2% suspension. In WO 98/33394 is disclosed neither data nor technical idea of cellulose-containing composite of low viscosity and high stability.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to provide a cellulose-containing composite which has a low viscosity and excellent suspension stability when dispersed in water, which is good in feeling when taken into the mouth, superior suspension stability, shape retainability, and fluidity when made into a tube fed liquid diet, etc., and which has an effect of water-insoluble dietary fiber and an effect of water-soluble dietary fiber; and a food composition containing the composite.
The present inventors found out that a composite comprising a particular fine cellulose and a low-viscosity water-soluble dietary fiber has a low viscosity when
Enatsu Kouichirou
Kamada Etsuo
Mochihara Nobuyoshi
Yaginuma Yoshihito
Asahi Kasei Kabushiki Kaisha
Pennie & Edmonds LLP
Pratt Helen
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