Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-16
2004-12-21
Pratt, Helen (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
C426S518000, C426S599000, C426S615000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06833148
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to vegetable purees. More specifically, the present invention relates to green vegetable purees maintaining the original flavor and taste and freshness of vegetables, a process for producing the purees and foods containing the purees.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years, it has been pointed out that vegetable intake is insufficient due to the popularization of instant foods and eating-out. Insufficient vegetable intake is said to be one of the causes of life-style related diseases such as hypertension.
In such situation, beverages such as vegetable juices are one of the means for easily taking vegetables.
The vegetable juice includes products mainly containing freshly squeezed vegetable juice prepared by squeezing vegetables and removing pulp components, and products mainly containing vegetable puree prepared by grinding whole vegetables. The squeezed vegetable juice, if used, necessitates the step of removing pulp components after squeezing the vegetables, resulting in low production efficiency. Furthermore, vegetable juice mainly containing such squeezed vegetable juice has the defect of failing to utilize effective ingredients and nutrients such as insoluble dietary fibers contained in the pulp components. By contrast, vegetable puree is free of such problems. When a puree is incorporated into a vegetable juice, the resulting juice has high nutrition and also has texture as if the vegetables per se were ingested.
Conventionally, vegetable purees are generally prepared by the process comprising the steps of washing and cutting vegetables, followed by blanching (heating in boiling water for a few minutes to inactivate enzymes and achieve pasteurization). However, the purees prepared by the above conventional method have the following defects:
1) the original flavor and taste, freshness and nutritional elements of vegetables are lost upon heating in the blanching process;
2) since the blanching for enzyme inactivation and pasteurization and the grinding are carried out consecutively (not concurrently), it takes time and trouble, thus impairing flavor and taste.
However, if raw vegetables are ground without blanching in order to preserve freshness, it is impossible to achieve bacteriostasis or inactivate enzymes, resulting in remarkable changes in flavor and taste and color tone. Such puree is unsuitable as raw material for the preparation of vegetable juices.
On the other hand, a method proposed for long-term preservation of purees comprises freezing raw vegetables after grinding. The method, however, has problems such as yellowing discoloration caused by enzymes upon thawing, and growth of microorganisms. To solve these problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 154481/1997 proposes ground vegetables prepared by heating raw ground vegetables having a pH of 3.3 to 4.5 at 60° C. to 80° C. for 30 seconds to 2 minutes so as to preserve the original flavor and texture of the raw ground vegetables at low temperatures or normal temperatures (−10° C. to 40° C.). However, since a heat treatment is carried out in the method, flavor and taste and freshness of the resulting puree are impaired.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a vegetable puree which is free of the above defects.
The present inventors carried out intensive research and found that when green vegetables are ground in the presence of an acid, or when an acid is added immediately after grinding, inactivation of enzymes and bacteriostasis are sufficiently achieved without carrying out the additional step of heating and the resulting raw puree satisfactorily retains the original flavor and taste, freshness and nutritional elements of vegetables. The present inventors further found that when the raw puree thus obtained is stored frozen, the puree substantially maintains the original flavor and taste and freshness of vegetables even after thawing. The present inventors further found that the unheated green vegetable puree as incorporated into a vegetable juice also maintains flavor and taste. The present invention has been accomplished based on these findings.
The present invention includes the following inventions listed in items 1-15:
Item 1. An unheated green vegetable puree which does not have catalase activity and contains an acid or acids and has a pH of 2.7-4.1.
Item 2. The vegetable puree according to item 1, which is obtainable by a process comprising a grinding step and an acid addition step.
Item 3. The vegetable puree according to item 2, which is obtainable by the process wherein the acid addition is performed before or during the grinding step.
Item 4. The vegetable puree according to item 2, which is obtainable by the process wherein the acid addition is performed immediately after the grinding step.
Item 5. The vegetable puree according to item 1, which is obtainable by freezing a puree prepared by a process comprising a grinding step and an acid addition step.
Item 6. The vegetable puree according to Item 5, which is obtainable by the process wherein the acid addition is performed before or during the grinding step.
Item 7. The vegetable puree according to item 5, which is obtainable by the process wherein the acid addition is performed immediately after the grinding step.
Item 8. A food containing the vegetable puree of item 1.
Item 9. The food according to item 8, which is a vegetable juice.
Item 10. A process for preparing an unheated green vegetable puree, which comprises a grinding step and an acid addition step.
Item 11. The process according to item 10, wherein the acid addition is performed before or during the grinding step.
Item 12. The process according to item 10, wherein the acid addition is performed immediately after or during the grinding step.
Item 13. The process according to item 10, which further comprises freezing the ground puree.
Item 14. Use of the vegetable puree of item 1 for preparing a food.
Item 15. The use according to item 14, wherein the food is a vegetable juice.
The vegetable puree according to the present invention is an unheated green vegetable puree which does not have catalase activity and contains an acid or acids and has a pH of 2.7-4.1. The puree of the present invention maintains high levels of flavor and taste and freshness which are similar to those of raw vegetables. These can be confirmed by carrying out sensory evaluation tests, for example, visual inspection for signs of any browning.
The vegetable puree according to the present invention is a puree of green vegetable(s). Examples of green vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, celery, lettuce (
Lactuca sativa L
.), turnip leaves, cauliflower, komatsuna (
Brassica rapa L
.), Japanese radish (
Raphanus sativus L
.) leaves, qing-geng-cai, Chinese cabbage, spinach, Brussels sprouts, kale and the like. Particularly preferred are cabbage, broccoli, celery and lettuce. Most preferable is cabbage. The puree of the present invention may be a puree of one kind of green vegetable or two or more kinds of green vegetables.
When inactivation of enzymes is insufficient, flavor and taste and color tone will change. Therefore, inactivation of enzymes is essential in the puree of the present invention. By confirming inactivation of catalase, it can be assumed that the other enzymes relating to impairment of flavor and taste and color tone have also been inactivated. The inactivation of catalase can be confirmed, for example, by adding aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution to the puree and observing that no bubbling occurs.
Since the vegetable puree of the present invention is ingested as food, the viable cell count should be suppressed within the range required of food. “The viable cell count should be suppressed within the range required of food” means that the total viable cell count in the puree may be in the range usually acceptable to foods. For example, the viable cell count may be within the range that satisfies the following conditions: the puree has a total plate count of 3,000,000 cfu/g or less and is
Escherlchia coli
negative. Such via
Suwa Makoto
Yamamoto Keiko
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Pratt Helen
Sunstar Inc.
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