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
2001-06-01
2003-10-07
Paden, Carolyn (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,...
C426S618000, C426S044000, C426S459000, C426S460000, C426S461000, C426S465000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06630193
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to germinated brown rice which can be easily boiled by a household rice cooker and is high in shelf-life stability. The present invention also relates to a process for treating brown rice, by which occurrence of cracked rice kernel or broken rice after drying is reduced.
2. Description of the Background Art
Germinated brown rice is evaluated as functional food because it is good in digestion and uptake and contains nutrient components such as &ggr;-aminobutyric acid and ferulic acid in plenty compared with ordinary brown rice. However, cooked germinated brown rice is rough in mouth feel and unpleasant in flavor though the germinated brown rice may be cooked by an ordinary household rice cooker. Germinated brown rice subjected to, for example, steaming for at least 20 minutes, cooling, packaging as it is and heat sterilization, in order to facilitate boiling is broken or cracked in rice kernel because it contains water in plenty and moreover has been subjected to the heat treatment twice. Therefore, such germinated brown rice involves such problems that its appearance after boiling is impaired, it gives stink of bran and sticky feel upon eating and the cooked brown rice becomes quickly hard in mouth feel when it cools. So the use of the germinated brown rice is not always popular. In order to improve its mouth feel, it is possible to apply a process of cooking brown rice by an existing pressure rice cooker, which is performed as a method of cooking the brown rice, to the germinated brown rice. However, such a process involves a demerit of destroying rich nutrients of the germinated brown rice, such as vitamin B.
The germinated brown rice itself absorbs water in plenty in a germination process thereof, and so its shelf-life stability becomes poor and a problem arises from the viewpoint of distribution. Therefore, it has been necessary to cope with such a problem by, for example, vacuum packaging a small amount of heat-treated germinated brown rice, such as an amount of one meal, and further heat sterilizing it. When the germinated brown rice is vacuum packaged, however, a problem of handling arises when it is used in processed food of the germinated brown rice or for business purpose. Therefore, such treated germinated brown rice involves a problem that it is lacking in general-purpose properties from the viewpoints of processability and distribution property.
It is considered to dry germinated brown rice as a means for enhancing the shelf-life stability and distribution property of the germinated brown rice. However, the germinated brown rice, in which water has been contained in plenty in the germination process, involves a problem that cracking or breaking of rice kernel is often caused and its yield after the drying is lowered. On the other hand, it is also conducted to slow the drying speed to prevent the occurrence of cracked rice kernel and broken rice. However, it takes a considerably long time to dry the germinated brown rice to an ideal water content for improving shelf-life stability. There has thus been a demand for an effective means for industrially drying germinated brown rice.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide germinated brown rice which can be easily and deliciously cooked even by a household rice cooker without impairing its original nutritive value, and at the same time, is not accompanied by marked deterioration of mouth feel even when cooked germinated brown rice cools and moreover has excellent shelf-life stability.
A second object of the present invention is to provide germinated brown rice which can be cooked easily and has excellent shelf-life stability and is reduced in occurrence of cracked rice kernel or broken rice.
The present inventors have carried out an extensive investigation. As a result, it has been found that the first object can be achieved by controlling the water content, degree of gelatinization and preferably water absorption upon immersion in water of germinated brown rice. It has also been found that the second object can be achieved by controlling the water content and degree of gelatinization of germinated brown rice by subjecting the germinated brown rice to a steaming treatment or heat-moisture treatment and drying the treated germinated brown rice.
According to the present invention, there is thus provided germinated brown rice the water content of which is 10 to 18% by mass and the degree of gelatinization of which is 5 to 50%.
The germinated brown rice according to the present invention may preferably have a water absorption rate of 110 to 140% upon immersion in water.
According to the present invention, there is also provided germinated brown rice obtained by subjecting germinated brown rice to a heat-moisture treatment and drying the treated germinated brown rice to a water content of 10 to 18% by mass and a degree of gelatinization of 5 to 50%.
According to the present invention, there is further provided a process for treating germinated brown rice, which comprises removing water attached to the surface of the germinated brown rice to an extent that the germinated brown rice becomes an almost single kernel state, subjecting the germinated brown rice of the almost single kernel state to a heat-moisture treatment and then drying the treated germinated brown rice to a water content of 10 to 18% by mass and a degree of gelatinization of 5 to 50%.
According to the present invention, there can be provided germinated brown rice which can be cooked easily and has excellent mouth feel and shelf-life stability. According to the present invention, there can also be provided a treating method of germinated brown rice which can be cooked easily and has excellent shelf-life stability and is reduced in occurrence of cracked rice kernel or broken rice.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The water content in the germinated brown rice as referred to in the present invention may be generally 10 to 18% by mass, preferably 12 to 18% by mass, more preferably 13 to 16% by mass. If the water content is lower than 10% by mass, each kernel of such germinated brown rice tends to cause cracking or breaking, and so such germinated brown rice involves a problem that the taste of cooked germinated brown rice is impaired. If the water content exceeds 18% by mass on the other hand, mold, bacteria and the like are easy to gather, and so a problem arises from the viewpoint of shelf-life stability.
The degree of gelatinization as referred to in the present invention means a value determined in accordance with the &bgr;-amylase.pllulanase method (BAP method). The BAP method is an excellent method for distinguishing gelatinized starch from raw starch or retrograded starch. The degree of gelatinization of the germinated brown rice according to the present invention may be 5 to 50%, preferably 5 to 30%, more preferably 10 to 20%. If the degree of gelatinization of the germinated brown rice is lower than 5%, such germinated brown rice involves problems that it is rough in mouth feel when boiled together with polished rice and that an incidence of cracked rice kernel or broken rice becomes high upon its drying. If the degree of gelatinization exceeds 50% on the other hand, blocking among rice kernels occurs, and so handling in the drying process becomes hard, and drying efficiency also becomes poor. In addition, when the germinated brown rice is blended with polished rice to boil the blend, only the germinated brown rice becomes too soft, and so balance of mouth feel after the cooking becomes poor.
The degree of gelatinization can be controlled to the desired value by, for example, suitably adjusting conditions of the heat-moisture treatment and drying in the production of the germinated brown rice. For example, when drying speed is made mild like solar drying to subject the germinated brown rice to no heat treatment, the degree of gelatinization amounts to about 5 to 15%. When the germinated brown rice is steamed at 98°
Aoto Hiromichi
Ishiwata Ken-ichi
Kise Mitsuo
Mizukuchi Aya
Shinmura Hiroto
Fancl Corporation
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Paden Carolyn
LandOfFree
Germinated brown rice does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Germinated brown rice, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Germinated brown rice will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3162592