Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Poultry egg is basic ingredient
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-02
2001-05-22
Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Poultry egg is basic ingredient
Reexamination Certificate
active
06235336
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to egg yolk compositions with improved functionality and to methods of preparing such egg yolk compositions. Such compositions confer improved functionality to the food products in which they are incorporated.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In an industry wherein thousands of pounds of food product may be generated in a manufacturing process for public sale and consumption, there is a desire on the part of the food processing industry to identify methods to reduce the cost of preparation of such food products. Such food compositions include, for example spoonable dressings, mayonnaise compositions, pasta products such as egg noodles, baked goods, desserts such as cakes, custards, puddings and pies, frozen desserts, sour cream preparations, cream cheese spreads, and the like.
Eggs are often used in conventional spoonable food products such as, for example, mayonnaise spreads, certain types of salad dressings, desserts such as custards and puddings, frozen dessert products, sour cream products, and cream cheese products. Although many food compositions can be made by simply eliminating eggs, especially the yolk, from the recipe, the resulting food compositions are generally adversely affected. For example, the elimination of eggs often results in poorer flavor, texture, and odor. Thus, such egg-free or reduced level egg food products have generally not received high acceptance by consumers.
Numerous attempts have been made to provide such foods with acceptable organoleptic properties and/or to treat eggs or egg products to make them more acceptable in generating food products with desirable organoleptic properties. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,911 to Saitou et al. relates to a process for modifying the properties of egg yolk wherein egg yolk is treated with phospholipase D, resulting in the conversion of phospholipids contained therein into phosphatidic acid and thereby improving the emulsifying characteristics of the treated egg yolk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,202 to Wenger et al. relates to a process for sterilizing egg yolk wherein an aqueous slurry of egg yolk is acidified to a pH of less than 6.0 and then treated under ultra high temperature processing conditions for a time sufficient to sterilize said egg yolk.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,706 to Colarow et al. relates to an egg yolk composition fortified with exogenous soybean lysophospholipids (an emulsification agent used in oil and water emulsions). The lysophospholipids may be obtained by hydrolyzing phospholipids derived from soybeans with phospholipase A2, deactivating the phospholipase A2, and then heat treating the resulting lysophospholipids. The use of lysophospholipids in egg yolk compositions is reported to increase the emulsification characteristics of the egg yolk compositions.
Palmer et al., “Salted Egg Yolks: 2. Viscosity and Performance of Acidified, Pasteurized and Frozen Samples,”
Food Technology,
Vol. 23, pp. 1486-1488, reports that acidification treatment of salted egg yolks, alone does not affect the formation of stable mayonnaise. Acidification in combination with pasteurization, however, damages the emulsifying characteristics of such treated egg yolks.
Chung et al., “Heat Denaturation and Emulsifying Properties of Egg Yolk Phosvitin”,
Journal of Food Science,
Vol. 60, pp. 906-908, states that heat treatment of phosvitin, the major phosphoprotein in egg yolk, decreased the emulsion-stabilizing ability of egg yolks to which such treated phosvitin is added.
There remains a need for a source of egg yolk compositions for use in emulsion-containing food products which permits use of less egg yolk, oil, and/or other ingredients in the emulsion-containing food products, thereby significantly reducing the cost of such food products, while at the same time, not significantly affecting the textural, organoleptic and flavor-containing properties of the food product. There is likewise a need for methods for the generation of such egg yolk compositions which significantly reduce the amounts of eggs, oil, and/or other ingredients (e.g., thickeners, gums, starches, and other emulsifiers) that are required for the manufacture of egg yolk-containing emulsion-based food products. The present invention provides such compositions and methods.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides egg yolk compositions with significantly improved functionality. Such compositions are provided for by the treatment of aqueous egg yolk with an alkali component, heating the alkali-treated egg yolk, cooling the alkali-treated egg yolk and adding an acidic component to the alkali-treated egg yolk to neutralize it prior to use in food products. The resulting egg yolk compositions may be used in a wide variety of food products.
The egg yolk compositions of the present invention confer to food products in which they are incorporated increased functionality as compared to similar food products prepared using untreated egg yolk (fresh or salted). This increased functionality provides increased yield stress and viscosity in spoonable products and improved textural properties in baked goods. The compositions of the present invention are particularly useful because (1) they permit the use of less egg yolk in the preparation of food products described herein to achieve the same texture, mouthfeel, stability, flavor intensity, and rheological characteristics as is achieved using higher levels of untreated egg yolk in food products; (2) they permit the use of reduced amounts of oil and/or other ingredients (e.g., thickeners, gums, starches, and other emulsifiers) in the preparation of food products described herein to achieve the same texture, mouthfeel, stability, flavor intensity, and rheological characteristics achieved using untreated egg yolk in food products; (3) they provide significant cost savings in the preparation of food products for mass consumption because of the reduced amount of oil and egg yolk required to achieve food products with satisfactory organoleptic and flavor characteristics comparable to those of food products produced using conventional amounts of untreated egg yolks and oil; and (4) the food products generated using the egg yolk compositions of the disclosure exhibit characteristics of higher functionality and robustness under harsh conditions when than do food products made with untreated fresh or salted egg yolk.
The present invention provides an egg yolk composition with improved functionality. The alkali- and heat-treatment conditions (i.e., the pH, temperature, and duration of treatment) should be sufficient to provide an egg yolk composition which confers increased functionality to the food products in which the egg yolk composition is incorporated. That is, spoonable food products exhibit increased viscosity and yield stress and baked food products exhibit improved textural properties, when compared with similar food products generated using similar amounts of untreated fresh or salted egg yolk. The alkali- and heat-treated egg yolk compositions of this invention have only a slightly increased viscosity as compared to their untreated egg yolk counterparts.
To achieve the egg yolk compositions of the present invention, egg yolk diluted in aqueous solution is treated with an alkali component to adjust the pH of the aqueous egg yolk solution to about 7.5 to about 12 and preferably to about 8 to about 10. The alkali-treated egg yolk solution is then treated at an elevated temperature. Generally the elevated temperature is in the range from about 40° C. to about 80° C. and continues for about one-half hour to about five hours; preferably, treatment is about 50° C. to about 75° C. for about one-half hour to about four hours; and more preferably treatment is about 60° C. to about 70° C. for about one hour to about three hours. The resulting egg yolk solution is then cooled to a temperature in the range from about 10° C. to about 40° C.; preferably about 20° C. to about 30° C.; and most preferably about 25° C. The pH of the resulting cooled egg yolk solution is then neutralized with an edible
Akashe Ahmad
Zayas Maria Teresa
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Kraft Foods Inc.
Weier Anthony J.
LandOfFree
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