Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Basic ingredient is starch based batter – dough product – etc.
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-16
2001-06-05
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Basic ingredient is starch based batter, dough product, etc.
C426S619000, C426S621000, C426S440000, C426S446000, C426S448000, C426S449000, C426S458000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06242033
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a high protein food product and a method of making a high protein food product.
Traditional high protein food sources such as meat, dairy products, legumes and the like have been used by nutritionists to establish consumption levels needed to meet the minimum daily requirements (MDR) for protein in varied diets for adults and children. However, changing work and health patterns of consumers have brought on either the need to lose weight or to gain weight by managing diet through appropriate nutritional intake.
There has been a focus on the need for more exercise for a population that is increasingly latent and the importance of exercise for good health has spawned an increase in interest in sports nutrition as a way to manage body health. Managing body health through appropriate nutritional intake and exercise is accomplished by selective intake of metabolites such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals so that goals such as sustained energy availability for intense performance (such as running) or for maximizing muscle mass in bodybuilding goals are achieved.
Maximizing protein intake has been an accepted way for maximizing muscle mass in bodybuilding. A market has been established for products which maximize protein content while minimizing other essential metabolites without putting body health at risk. Products presently on the market include formulated high protein drinks (powdered or a liquid) that are tailored nutritionally for the bodybuilding market. A need for concentrated sources of protein in a convenient form has expanded beyond bodybuilding and other markets have emerged. The expanded interest comes from participants in other sports, children and senior citizens looking for quick energy fixes and sustained muscle builders and muscle repairs.
High protein drink delivery systems have their drawbacks. One is the monotony of consuming a liquid, meal after meal, day after day. In addition, the high protein drink delivery systems on the market today are costly. What is needed is an alternative for delivering a high protein food source that either replaces or supplements the present high protein drink delivery systems.
It has been known to use breakfast cereals as a vehicle to deliver more protein. For example, the Schwab U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,748 describes a method to make a high protein (up to 25%) ready to eat flake breakfast cereal by cooking, extruding, drying and grinding a basic cereal matrix and then blending the resulting product with sodium caseinate, rewetting the mixture and extruding to form pellets, and finally using high pressure rolls to create the flakes.
The Malzahan U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,491 describes the use of high temperature/high pressure (HTHP) extrusion to produce an expanded cereal containing up to 55% protein. Soy protein isolate having up to 90% protein was processed at temperatures in a range of 220° to 355° F. and at pressures in the range from 1000 to 3000 psig. However, it was noted that as the temperature of the extruded dough mass reached 355° F. or higher, a stringy protein fiber-like texture developed. A more cereal-like texture was observed at lower temperatures.
Sander, Bennett and Austin also proposed the use of recently developed twin screw extrusion to prepare breakfast cereals and snacks containing up to 50% protein by combining a farinaceous source such as rice flour with a concentrated protein source such as soy protein isolate (90% protein).
Fabrication of Low Moisture, High Protein Foods Using Soy Isolates and HTST Twin Screw Extrusion
, Chemistry of Foods and Beverages, Academic Press, Inc. (1982) p. 251.
HTHP extrusion has received much attention as a means of physically changing vegetable proteins particularly soy into textured particulates which when rehydrated with water resemble ground beef. Numerous patents have been issued covering such technology to produce meat analogs. This technology has been commercialized, and textured soy proteins are commonly used for ground beef extenders and in such products as meatless vegetarian burgers.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes an expanded cereal-type product and a method for making such a product wherein the cereal-type product has a high protein content. A starch derived from a tuber is used to aid in expanding the extrudate. In addition, denatured protein is used to aid in producing a high protein cereal-type product having mouth feel characteristics of a typical low protein expanded cereal.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present invention includes an expanded cereal product having a high protein content. Utilizing the process of the present invention, an expanded cereal-type product is made having a protein content of at least 50% and even up to 70%. Except where otherwise noted, all percentages recited herein are by weight.
It has been surprisingly found that the use of a tuber starch provides sufficient expanding capabilities to a high protein blend process through HTHP extrusion such that a cereal-type product having a loose pack bulk density similar to popular cereal products presently in the marketplace, such as CHEERIOS (General Mills, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn.), is produced. By loose pack bulk density is meant the density of cereal pieces that when placed in the container would flow freely from a container when the container is tipped. A suitable range of loose pack bulk densities for use in the present invention is 0.13-0.38 gms/cc.
For purposes of the present invention, high protein means a cereal having a minimum of 20% protein and preferably 50% or greater. Exemplary protein sources include but are not limited to soy protein concentrate and isolate, pea protein, corn protein (zein), rice protein or dairy proteins such as lactalbumin, casein, whey solids, whey protein concentrates and isolates, non-fat dry milk, or protein from any recognized cereal sources as well as mixtures thereof. It has been surprisingly found that the use of denatured protein concentrates provides a product having mouth feel characteristics similar to a low protein expanded cereal. Through manipulation of relative amounts of functional protein and denatured protein cereal texture characteristics of a low protein expanded cereal can be achieved. Functional protein is protein whose naturally occurring properties and characteristics are not substantially changed during purification processing. By denatured is meant that the molecular structure of the protein is modified or changed by heat treatment or chemical treatment such as by an acid or alkali or by ultraviolet light to change the appearance or change some of the original properties such that performance (gelling ability dispersability, or biological activity) of the treated protein is changed or modified.
The expanded cereal-type product is produced through the use of high temperature high pressure (HTHP) extrusion. Such extrusion is well known in the art, and is described in the following U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,996, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The starch derived from a tuber supports expansion of the cereal product exiting the die such that the extruded expanded product resembles a typical expanded cereal product. Exemplary starches include starches derived from potatoes (
Solanum tuberosum
), sweet potatoes (
ipomoea batatas
), cassava (
manihot esculenta
), edible canna (
canna edulis
), dasheen (
Colocasia esculenta
), tanier (Xanthosoma sps.), taro (
Colocasia esculenta
), yam (Dioscorea spp.), and Jerusalem artichoke (
helianthus tuberosus
). Especially suitable for the present invention is starch derived from the cassava plant which is commonly referred to as tapioca or starch derived from potatoes.
Other texturizing shaping carbohydrate sources not derived from tubers may also be used in the present invention to supplement the tuber starch. Such starches include flours derived from rice, oats, corn barley, and buckwheat.
Other nutritive additives that can be added to the present invention include betaglucans from oats, isof
Bhat Nina
Kinney & Lange , P.A.
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