Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Carbohydrate containing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-24
2002-06-04
Wong, Leslie (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Carbohydrate containing
C426S548000, C536S128000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06399142
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to products containing inulin having novel molecular weight ranges, processes for making such products, and food products containing such inulin products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Inulin, which has been extracted from plants for nearly 100 years with difficulty, belongs to the polysaccharide family of compounds. Inulin is composed of a mixture of polysaccharides having various molecular weights or degrees of polymerization (DP). In general, inulin consists of fructose units with &bgr; 1-2 bonds and end in a glucose unit. The addition or subtraction of fructose units affects inulin's molecular weight or degree of polymerization (DP). Typical inulin properties are set forth in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1
Typical Inulin Properties
Properties
Assay
Description
After drying a fine white powder
Taste
Bland, with slight sweetness
Carbohydrate content on dry solids
>99.5%
basis (ds)
Ash (sulfated) on ds
<0.2%
Heavy metals (as Pb) on ds
<0.5 mg/kg
Caloric content on ds
≦1 kcal/g
Inulin is the main carbohydrate in a variety of plants. Table 2 lists common inulin sources and the inulin concentrations therein.
TABLE 2
Common Sources of Inulin
Source
Inulin %
Artichoke
2-6
Asparagus Root
10-15
Banana
0.3
Chicory Root
15-20
Dahlia Tuber
15-20
Dandelion
15-20
Edible Burdock (root)
16
Garlic
15-25
Jerusalem Artichoke
15-20
Leak
10-15
Onion
2-6
Rye
0.7
Salsify
15-20
Wheat
0.4
Yacon
15-20
Chicory continues to be grown extensively throughout Europe, and its many varieties are harvested and processed into an assortment of products from salad greens and cattle feed to fructose and recently to inulin. Because of its ease of cultivation and harvesting, chicory has become the principal source of inulin today.
As inulin comes from the field in the chicory plant, its molecular weight depends on many factors such as time of planting, time of harvest, amount of stress, variety type, amount of time which elapsed between harvest and processing, amount of damage at harvest and other factors.
Today, inulin is approved for use as a food additive by the governments of nine European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) and Japan, and its applications are varied.
Despite the approval of inulin as a food additive in many countries, the use of inulin has been limited, because, among other things, of the limited solubility and/or miscibility of inulin in water at ambient temperature, for example, at temperatures from about 10° C. to about 25° C.
One publication reports the solubility in water of inulin derived from chicory roots to be less than about 3% (% weight/volume) at 30° C., and less than about 5% (% weight/volume) at 40° C. See E. Berghofer et al., PILOT-Scale PRODUCTION OF INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOTS AND ITS USE IN FOODSTUFFS, CROPS, Elsevier Science Publishers, B.V., A. Fuchs, Editor, 1993 (pp. 77-84).
Caloric concerns have long played a significant role in the food choice of the U.S. public, and low calorie foods have been popular for years. Foods of this category have been dominated by those products where fructose and sucrose have been replaced by an artificial sweetener which can add sweetness without the caloric impact. In particular, the success of the artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and more recently sucralose, should be noted.
Most artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin and aspartame, have 180 to 300 times the sweetness of an equivalent dose of sucrose. Sucralose is a sweetener 600 times sweeter than sugar. Therefore, food processors will obviously use a much lower volume of these artificial sweeteners in their low calorie foods than the volume of sugar which they replace. With dry goods (such as baked products), food processors are forced to “back fill” the volume of the removed sugar which the artificial sweeteners do not replace. This back fill product is referred to as a “bulking agent.” Bulking agents are found in a variety of products, including chewing gums, confectioneries, baking mixes, meat products, and packets containing the artificial sweetener in amounts equivalent of one or more teaspoons of sugar. The optimal bulking agents should bring the physical and chemical characteristics of sugar back to the food without adding back calories or contributing significantly to product cost.
Bulking agents are evaluated against the following criteria:
1. Significantly fewer calories than sucrose, glucose or fructose.
2. Physical and chemical properties that match those of sucrose in all food applications
3. Mouthfeel comparable to sugar.
4. Freedom from adhesion to lips and tongue.
5. Freedom from toothpack (freedom from packing into crowns of teeth).
6. Preferrably, demonstrate existence of secondary health benefits
7. No negative side effects and completely safe at reasonable levels of consumption
8. In the dry product, freedom from caking and clumping.
9. In the wet product no settling out or fractionation upon standing.
More specifically, in order to effectively replace sucrose and fructose and their organoleptic qualities, potential bulking agents must display the following characteristics:
Safe
Stable
Low calorie
Minimal gastrointestinal side effects
Low cost
No off-flavors
High solubility
Low viscosity
Crystalline
Ability to brown
Protein/Starch interactions similar to sucrose
A major obstacle to the use of inulin as a bulking agent in foodstuffs despite its many advantages is its rather low solubility in water at ambient temperatures.
Another major obstacle to the use of inulin as a bulking agent is the presence of various amounts of glucose and fructose, which are naturally contained therein, and which have made inulin difficult to dry and difficult to handle and store. In the drying of inulin, the presence of glucose and fructose, which are hygroscopic, interferes with the drying process, unless there is a large proportion of high molecular weight inulin which dries more readily than the lower molecular weight inulin compounds. Even after drying, the hygroscopicity of glucose and fructose tends to reintroduce moisture into the product.
In the case of dry inulin products, the hygroscopic activity of glucose and fructose tends to cause undesirable caking and clumping. Due to the caking and clumping the dry inulin products containing glucose and fructose are difficult to handle, store, and blend.
In addition, most inulin products used as bulking agents with artificial sweeteners heretofore have contained significant amounts of fructose and glucose and also contained high molecular weight inulin compounds, for example, molecular weights above 2288. When such inulin products are taken by mouth, there is a formation of sticky, hard substance in the mouth caused by the insolubility of such high molecular weight inulin in the saliva at body temperatures. This sticky substance may adhere to the lips and tongue, and may pack on the crowns of the consumer's teeth. In some cases, the sticky substance forms a crusty insoluble mass in the mouth which must be chewed in order to break up.
In the case of liquid inulin products, there is tendency for higher molecular weight inulin fractions to “settle out,” or fractionate, upon standing which has made it difficult to provide a satisfactory liquid product.
Inulin comprises polysaccharides, fragile polymers, which are difficult to extract by classical prior methods. European Patent 787 745 illustrates one method for extraction of inulin from Jerusalem artichokes using the classical sugarbeet extraction, and then clarifying the inulin rich extraction liquid by ultrafiltration. Silver U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,893 discloses a process and apparatus for extracting inulin in a manner which does not degrade the inulin or allow the inulin to be broken down.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to design novel fractions of inulin which have improved properties for use in foodstuffs, in particular, improved solubility at ambient temperatures.
It is a further object of the invention to p
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Wong Leslie
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