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
2001-06-20
2003-08-12
Paden, Carolyn (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
C426S590000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06605311
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to insoluble, denatured, heat-stable protein particles and their use in food and beverage products. In particular, the present invention relates to a process for making insoluble, denatured, heat-stable proteins derived from both undenatured protein and partially denatured protein sources.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to supplements and replacements for fats and oils in food and beverage products. In particular, the present invention relates to supplements and replacements for fats and oils that are capable of withstanding exposure to conventional treatments for food and beverage products that reduce biological activity and/or promote microbial stability. These processes are hereinafter referred to as “sterilization treatments.” Additionally, the present invention relates to supplements and replacements for fats and oils that have similar smoothness and other organoleptic properties to the fats and oils they are intended to supplement and replace.
Foods rich in high-calorie fats and oils enjoy considerable popularity and make up a significant proportion of the diets of many people. However, food and beverage products made exclusively from these high-calorie fats and oils may be undesirable from a nutritional viewpoint. These foodstuffs also present many challenges in ensuring consistent product quality. Most notably, ensuring fat stability against oxidative reactions, preventing the development of off-flavors, and the potential instability of fat-water emulsions. Considerable effort, therefore, has been expended in an attempt to address the nutritional and processing deficiencies of these high-calorie food and beverage products.
One such approach has been simply to reduce the amount of high-calorie fats and oils used in food and beverage products. However, this approach has significant disadvantages. While reducing the level of high-calorie fats and oils may be beneficial from a nutritional standpoint, their simple reduction is subject to consumer acceptance limitations. High-calorie fats and oils contribute both to a product's taste and texture. Often, the amount of fat or oil removed to achieve a significant nutritional benefit adversely impacts the product's overall flavor and texture perception. In particular, reduced fat and oil products tend to lack the creamy mouthfeel, richness impression and flavor impact desired by consumers.
An alternative approach to the simple reduction in the level of high-calorie fats and oils has been their replacement with suitable, low-calorie compositions. To be widely acceptable, however, any replacement for such high-calorie fats and oils must closely approximate the organoleptic characteristics of the oil or fat to be replaced, of which mouthfeel is recognized as being among the most important.
Yet another approach to creating nutritionally beneficial foodstuffs has been the fortification of conventional food and beverage products with nutritionally beneficial components. However, if the conventional food or beverage product lacks the organoleptic attributes desired, the product may not gain consumer acceptance.
It has been found that the supplementation of foods containing normal levels of organoleptically preferred fats and oils with nutritionally beneficial compositions that can deliver the creamy mouthfeel, richness impression and flavor impact desired by the consumer leads to greater overall consumer acceptance of nutritionally beneficial food and beverage products. It has also been found that heat-stable, denatured, insoluble protein particles can replicate the texture and other organoleptic properties of high-calorie fats and oils for use in products which provide the desired nutritional benefits.
Denaturation, in the context of protein chemistry, covers a wide range of changes in the molecular structure (i.e. conformation) of proteins. These conformational changes may be induced by heating a protein solution beyond the point which is characteristic for each protein and/or by exposing it to heat, acids, alkalis or various detergents. An irreversibly denatured protein has a reduced solubility relative to its undenatured or native state. In the broadest sense, the denaturation process involves the rupture of inter-molecular hydrogen bonds such that the highly ordered structure of the native protein is replaced by a more random structure. While denaturation is usually irreversible, there are some instances, depending on the protein being treated and the treatment to which the protein is subjected, which are reversible.
As stated, protein denaturation can occur according to a variety of mechanisms at the molecular level. At some point towards the end of a denaturation process, though, changes occur which are directly perceivable by unaided human senses. In particular, these changes involve gelling, thickening and the development of opacity. This stage of the process is hereinafter referred to as “coagulation.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,705 discloses micellar whey proteins, which comprise casein micelle-like molecular aggregates formed by association and coagulation, and their use in food products. These micellar whey proteins exhibit the properties of being irregular in shape, soluble in water whereby they form a milky white solution, and associate, or “clump,” when exposed to an acidic environment. The micellar whey proteins are obtained by hydrolyzing the whey protein in solution in the presence of heat and one or more proteolytic enzymes. The micellar whey proteins are then aggregated by exposure to an acidic environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,287 discloses fat substitute compositions of proteinaceous water-dispersible, macro-colloids of dairy whey protein. These compositions are produced by concentrating naturally occurring levels of undenatured whey protein, forming an aqueous dispersion of the undenatured whey protein containing 35%-55%, on a dry weight basis, of the undenatured whey protein, and then applying shear, in the presence of heat, in an acidic environment. The proteinaceous, water-dispersible, macro-colloids produced are denatured and partially soluble. Unfortunately, however, they are susceptible to further aggregation upon exposure to heat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,550 discloses fat substitute compositions comprising porous particles consisting of carbohydrates, polysaccharides and proteins derived from seed grains. It is further disclosed that the fat substitute particles of these compositions can have sizes well in excess of 12 microns.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,778 discloses the preparation of undenatured microparticles of hydrophobic proteins that can be used as substitutes for fat. The microparticles are prepared from plant protein sources, such as prolamines, that are insoluble in water in their undenatured state, but soluble in aqueous alcohol.
Although conventional protein based fat and oil replacements have various known utilities, there are significant difficulties in using these proteins in food and beverage products that require long term shelf stability. Additionally, conventional protein-based fat and oil replacements are not suitable for use in all food and beverage products.
First, conventional protein based fat and oil replacements of the type described in the art are limited in their application. Conventional proteins, despite processing, are only partially denatured. These partially denatured proteins also have an unacceptably high degree of protein solubility. It has now been found that it is the partial denaturation and resulting partial solubility of the processed proteins that makes them susceptible to further agglomeration upon exposure to heat, thereby limiting their use to food and beverage products that are not subjected to high temperature sterilization procedures.
Food and beverage products that contain conventional protein based fat replacements have now been found to produce off flavors and an undesirable texture and appearance during exposure to high temperature sterilization procedures. This problem has now been
Baughman John Michael
Chen Jing
Dria Glenn James
Villagran Francisco Valentino
Young Herbert Thomas
Chuey S. Robert
Hemm Erich D.
Paden Carolyn
Roof Carl J.
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