Enriched milk with capsules containing nutrients

Details Enriched milk with capsules containing nutrients Enriched milk with capsules containing nutrients

2001-12-14

2004-09-28

Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Product with added vitamin or derivative thereof for...

C426S074000, C426S580000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06797293

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enriched milk with capsules containing certain nutrients, and more particularly to enriched milk that various nutrients are encapsulated and added to, thereby enabling easy ingestion nutrients deficient in milk.
The value of milk has been recognized since 400 B.C. and milk has been understood as a complete food that provides every component necessary for survival. Milk is also sitologically and nutritionally recognized as a food that promotes health. Milk is consumed in various forms of processed products thereof, as well as by drinking. However, milk doesn't contain sufficient amounts of some vitamins and mineral ingredients such as iron that are needed by the body. Therefore, it is required in USA that milk at a market has to be enriched with vitamin D. Ingredients deficient in milk are vitamins A, B
1
, C, D and E, folic acid, niacin and iron.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are common milk products enriched with such nutrients as vitamins A and D, iron and DHA, but, because these additives have a bad effect on taste of milk, a large amount of such ingredients can't be added. To solve this problem, it was proposed to make cows naturally produce milk containing the nutrients such as DHA etc., by feeding cows with a feed containing DHA, and so forth. However, there is a problem that much time and costs are required for these cows to produce milk after being fed the feed containing DHA. Korean Patent Disclosure No. 98-40303 proposed the production process of finely coated iron for adding a sufficient amount of iron to milk. However, this method is limited to iron, and has a demerit that the incomplete decomposition of film makes the absorption of iron in the body difficult. There is another method of directly adding vitamins such as vitamin A, folic acid and so on, which are ingredients deficient in body, to milk, but this method has a problem that these ingredients coagulate proteins in milk by reacting with these proteins. Meanwhile, in case vitamin B
1
is added to milk, there is a problem that it is degraded while passing through a pasterization process.
The inventor in this invention has endeavored to solve the conventional problems as described above, and has found a way of encapsulating ingredients deficient in milk and adding them to milk, thereby preserving the taste of milk and simultaneously enabling easy ingestion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide enriched milk with capsules containing a large amount of nutrients required by the body.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Capsules containing certain nutrients according to the invention are composed of a primary core containing hydrogenated oil which nutrients is dispersed in, a second core layer which surrounds the primary core to prevent loss of nutrients contained in the primary core, and a outer layer which covers the second core layer to maintain the shape of the capsules.
The primary core contains various nutrients that are likely to be deficient in natural milk. Examples of the nutrients include vitamins such as vitamins A, B
1
, C and D, niacin and folic acid; minerals such as iron and zinc; and functional unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA, EPA and CLA. DHA and EPA among the functional unsaturated fatty acids have beneficial effects enhancing brain function, and thus improving learning ability, and CLA has an effect of reducing body fat.
The primary core can contain one or two or more of the above nutrients. However, it should be understand that the nutrients described above are given for illustration, but are not limitative of the present invention, and that other ingredients may be provided according to functionality of milk. The nutrients are mixed uniformly, and used after being dispersed in hydrogenated oil to prevent loss thereof and enable easy encapsulation. Examples of the hydrogenated oil include a hydrogenated coconut oil and a hydrogenated cottonseed oil. The content of the nutrients of the primary core is 15 to 40% by weight, and preferably 20 to 35% by weight on the basis of weight of the primary core, and the content of the hydrogenated oil is 60 to 85% by weight, and preferably 65 to 80% by weight. The mixing ratio of the nutrients to the hydrogenated oil is 1:1.5 to 1:5.7.
The quantity of the nutrients can be specifically designed according to the age of the population who are intended to drink milk. For example, in case a standard is set as a daily intake of a 4-6 year old child, about 500 ml, the total quantity of nutrients already contained in milk is known. On the basis of this value, the quantity of supplemental nutrients that have to be provided with the diet can be calculated. That is, deficient quantities of nutrients to be supplemented are found by subtracting the daily intake of milk from the recommended daily allowances of the child. This is shown in Table 1.
According to the present invention, the deficient nutrients described in Table 1 are encapsulated and added to milk, thereby enabling easy ingestion of recommended daily allowances of required nutrients by the child.
Also, in case the present invention is applied to different age populations, the ratio of nutrients in capsules and the provided amount of capsules are adjusted by calculating nutrient deficiencies in accordance with the above method.
The present invention is also applicable to various milks such as strawberry milk, chocolate milk, vanilla milk and calcium enriched milk, as well as common white milk.
TABLE 1
Total content of
RDA* for
nutrients in
Deficient
Nutrient
4-6 year old
500 ml of milk
quantity
Vitamin A
400
&mgr;g RE
118.57
&mgr;g RE
281.43
&mgr;g RE
Vitamin B
1
0.8
mg
0.15
mg
0.65
mg
Vitamin C
40
mg
0
mg
40
mg
Vitamin D
10
&mgr;g
0
&mgr;g
10
&mgr;g
Niacin
11
mg NE
0.52
mg NE
10.48
mg NE
Folic acid
100
&mgr;g
3.09
&mgr;g
96.91
&mgr;g
*RDA: Recommended Daily Allowance for Korean
The second core layer plays a role in preventing loss of nutrients contained in the primary core when milk is stored at cold or room temperature. Also, it is preferable that material of the second core layer is in liquid phase at body temperature (37° C.) or less, for easy absorption of the nutrients into the body. It is preferable that a material that meets such requirements is not easily oxidized and can maintain it's material properties. Examples of the material include various kinds of hydrogenated oils whose meting point are 25 to 40° C., preferably hydrogenated coconut oil and hydrogenated cottonseed oil. The second core layer also contains lecithin that plays a role as an emulsifying agent to maintain the shape of the capsule.
The outer layer is formed at the outer surface of the capsule and has functions of maintaining the shape of the capsule and protecting the primary core and second core layer. It is preferable that the outer layer is formed of stomach soluble materials dissolvable in gastric acid for easy absorption of the nutrients into the body. Examples of the stomach soluble materials may include gelatin, sorbitol and agar that are dissolved easily in gastric acid at body temperature, but are not limited to those. Meanwhile, the outer layer can be formed by using gelatin and pectin, but, these materials are not dissolved in gastric acid, but are dissolved in the small intestine.
When capsules having a structure described above are added to milk, the specific gravity of the capsules have to substantially equal to that of milk. The reason for this is that when the specific gravity of the capsules is lower than milk, the capsules float and collect at the upper portion of a milk container. On the other hand, when the specific gravity of the capsules is higher than milk, the capsules are deposited on the bottom of a milk container, thereby not being available in most of milk decanted from the container.
The specific gravity of milk is generally in a range of 0.9 to 1.5, though it ma

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