Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Gels or gelable composition
Patent
1992-03-11
1994-10-18
Hunter, Jeanette
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Gels or gelable composition
426577, A23L 10532, A23L 10524
Patent
active
053566548
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a gelling system and more particularly to alginate and/or pectate gelling systems.
The application of calcium alginate gels is widespread in the food and textile processing industries. The ability to control gel formation by the metered addition of calcium ions to a alginate solution or vice versa gives a variety of products such as dental moulds, moulded products and structured foods.
The literature teaches that conventional alginate reforming techniques depend on a balanced interplay between three principle components, namely alginate, calcium ions, and optionally sequestrant. Judicious balancing of the components will give a range of setting conditions and product opportunities.
The literature describes what is known in the art as "coldforming" techniques and it is generally considered that calcium alginate and calcium pectate gels can only be formed in the temperature range 0.degree.-50.degree. C. Indeed it has been reported in the technical literature of alginate manufacturers that the mechanisms responsible for calcium alginate gel formation are thermodynamically unstable at temperatures much above 50.degree. C.
Many processes for the production of alginate gelled products by contracting shaped pieces of alginate containing material with calcium ions are known.
GB-A-1,328,263 for example, teaches that drops of fruit puree containing alginate can be fed into a stream of yoghurt containing calcium ions such that gelled drops of simulated fruit pieces in the yoghurt are formed.
Fruit pieces are also described in NL-A-7, 7302, 275. Gelled fruit pieces are obtained by extruding alginate containing fruit puree into a calcium solution and preferably cutting the extrudate into small pieces whilst in the calcium solution. The patent also mentions that heating the pieces to 70.degree.-100.degree. C. in an aqueous sugar syrup containing 0.1-0.5% calcium salt prevent gelation of the core.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,766 describes the formation of reformed onion rings from minced onion and sodium alginate extruded into a spray of calcium chloride and then cut off into pieces. The pieces can then be coated with a batter containing calcium ions and fried.
Another method of producing a foodstuff is described in GB-A-2,170,092 and comprises bringing together two or more slurries, one of which contains alginate and the other contains a soluble calcium salt in such a way that randomly shaped pieces of gelled alginate foodstuff are formed in the calcium phase by continually exposing an ungelled surface to calcium ions. This method can be used to make simulated meat and fruit pieces.
In each of the above processes rapid gelling occurs only on the surface of the product on contact with the calcium ions and complete gelling is only achieved over a period of some hours probably as a result of calcium ion migration.
GB-A-1,525,123 describes the formation of a calcium pectate gel on cooling of a heat processed system consisting of a mixture of sodium pectate and calcium ions and optionally a calcium ion sequestraint. In this process gelling occurs throughout the product as the mixture cools. From the literature it appears that cellulose ethers are the only major group of materials that will form a gel on heating but such gels liquefy again on cooling.
For may applications, it would be desirable to have a gelling system that can be formed at ambient temperature and that is stable for a considerable length of time without substantial gel formation until it is heated above a threshold temperature, above which temperature a gel is rapidly formed throughout the product, the gel structure being retained on cooling.
This invention is based on the surprising observation that such properties can be produced in gelling systems based on alginate and/or pectate and calcium ions if a thermolabile calcium ion sequestrant is present in the system, a sparingly soluble calcium ion source is used and the amounts of sequestrant and calcium ion are suitably chosen.
By "thermolabile sequestrant" is meant a sequestrant that will
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patent: 4347261 (1982-08-01), Challen et al.
patent: 4560570 (1985-12-01), Rausing
Speirs Charles
White Karen E.
Hunter Jeanette
Mars G.B. Limited
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