Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Protein – amino acid – or yeast containing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-07
2001-11-20
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Protein, amino acid, or yeast containing
C426S448000, C426S449000, C426S450000, C426S452000, C426S516000, C426S057000, C099S367000, C099S368000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06319539
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention is generally in the field of food product and concerns fibrous food product, method for its production and device and assembly therefor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There have been many attempts in the food industry to produce food products with high contents of plant proteins, having a fibrous appearance and texture.
Israel Patent No. 80207 proposes a small-batch process for producing a meat analog from vegetable proteins, wherein a dough comprising at least 20% vital wheat gluten is prepared, the dough is heated and allowed to expand in three dimensions such that the swelling increases by at least 35% and then the dough is oriented by allowing it to expand only in one direction in which there is a reduction in a cross-sectional area of the expanding mass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,040 proposes a continuous process, which is alleged to yield a protein product having aligned fibers. In this process a dough is prepared, and then pushed by a screw feeder through a first cylindrical passageway where the dough is allowed to relax, a second passageway with a decreased cross-sectional area and then through a third elongated passageway. In this third passageway the dough is heated to set the food product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,507 proposes a process for the production of food products from potato materials and protein. Similarly as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,040, the dough is pushed, by a screw feeder with a decreasing cross-sectional area and then through an additional elongated passageway in which the mass is heated so as to set the food product.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following are meanings of some terms use of which will be made in the description below:
The term “food product” is used herein to denote both processed or semi-processed food products. A semi-processed food product may be subject to further processing stages in order to yield the final product For example, in accordance with the invention, a fibrous product is produced, which is a “foodproduct”, and may thus either be consumed as such or it may be further processed, e.g. flavored, colored, mixed with other ingredients, shaped, cut minced, fried, etc., to yield a finished food product.
The term “fibrous food product” is used herein to denote a food product comprising fibers, particularly such which are macroscopic and thus affect the texture and appearance of the food product. A food product of the invention comprises continuous bundle of fibers, which are made of or comprise food proteins. These fibers were newly formed and fixed in the food product during its preparation and were thus not present in the dough from which the food product was prepared. The fibers in the food product of the invention resemble those of meat. In addition, in a fibrous food product of the invention, at least immediately after it is prepared, the fibers are substantially axially oriented and aligned. Obviously, if the food product is further processed, e.g. by cutting, mincing, flattening etc., the aligned orientation of the fibers may be altered.
The term “dough” is used herein to denote a mixture of food ingredients including protein, carbohydrate source and water, optionally in combination with one or more of oil, textured inert food product, flavoring agents (salt, spices, etc.) coloring agents and others. The dough is plastically deformable and is used for the preparation of the fibrous food product.
In accordance with the present invention a novel fibrous food product is provided. The fibrous food product of the invention is produced from a dough, which may be processed by forcing it through a passageway having a decreasing cross-sectional area towards a relatively narrow opening at the end of the passageway. (This passageway will be referred to herein at times as “the forming passageway”). During its passage through the forming passageway beat is transferred to the moving dough mass. It may be transferred to the entire dough in the passageway or only to that portion of the dough contained within a section of the forming passageway, typically a section adjacent the opening. The movement and the heat transfer in the forming passageway, yields the formation of aligned substantially axial fibers present in the food product egressing through the opening. The novel fibrous food product egressing through the opening thus comprises substantially axially aligned fibers. These fibers in the formed fibrous food product are newly formed and fixed fibers, not present in the dough from which the food product was prepared.
This novel fibrous food product comprises aligned bundles of fibers. Said bundles in the food product are continuous in that many of them, typically the majority, extend between two ends of the food product. In fact, the food product has a structure, resembling that of meat in that many of the fibers in the bundles are themselves comprised of a bundle of sub-fibers, and at times, each such sub-fiber may be comprised of a bundle of sub-fiberlettes. The fibers show some cohesiveness in that they stick to one another, but are nevertheless separable. As a result of its unique fibrous structure, the food product has a textural eating quality, including its chewiness, juiciness and its bite resistance, resembling that of meat.
The present invention thus provides, by a first of its aspects, a food product comprising continuous aligned bundles of formed fibers extending between ends of the food product.
The term “formed fibers” should be understood as meaning fibers in the food product which did not exist as such in the starting food ingredients, e.g. the dough, from which the food product was prepared.
The food product of the invention is produced from dough with the fibers being newly formed and fixed during the production of the product. By one embodiment, the food product of the invention is an elongated food product having an essentially uniform cross-section throughout its length. Particularly the elongated food product may be formed initially as a long continuous product egressing from an opening of a device where it is formed. Such an elongated food product may have theoretically an infinite length; but from practical production may be cut into sections for further processing. For example, the elongated food product may be allowed to elongate to a length above 20 cm, at times above 50 cm and at times even above 100 cm or even longer, before being sectioned, and then cut into stretches, e.g. having each a length within the range of 10-100 cm, for further processing. In accordance with another embodiment, the food product is a product obtained by processing said elongated food product Such processing may be cutting, (lengthwise or transverse), flattening, chopping, mincing, shaping, etc.
In accordance with another of its aspects the present invention provides a process for preparing a fibrous food product comprising:
(a) preparing a dough;
(b) forcing the dough to move along an axis extending through a passageway towards an axial opening at a far end of the passageway, the passageway having walls converging from a proximal end to said opening at said far end;
(c) transferring heat to at least that portion of the moving dough proximal said second end and controlling the heat transfer and speed of movement of the dough such that a fibrous food product with essentially aligned axial fibers egresses through said opening; and
(d) collecting said food product.
In step (b), the dough is preferably forced to move in a uniform smooth manner.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for preparing a fibrous food product, comprising:
(i) a passageway extending along an axis and being defined by walls converging from a proximal end of the passageway to an opening at a far end of the passageway;
(ii) a forcing mechanism for forcing the dough to move through said passageway between said proximal end to the opening at said second end; and
(iii) a heating unit for dough contained in at least a portion of said passageway;
the movement and the heating of the doug
Arad Yoel
Arbel Gil
Bait-Halachmy Israela
Shemer Michael
Bhat Nina
Goldberg Joshua B.
Nath Gary M.
Nath & Associates PLLC
Tivall (1993) Ltd.
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