Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-17
2003-06-10
Pratt, Helen (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
C426S335000, C426S534000, C426S643000, C426S658000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06576281
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for inhibiting trimethylamine formation, and more particularly to a method for inhibiting trimethylamine formation comprising a step of incorporating trehalose and/or maltitol into a product to be treated, an edible fishery product which trimethylamine formation is inhibited by the method, a trimethylamine formation inhibitory agent comprising trehalose and/or maltitol as effective ingredients, and uses thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that sound or fresh fishery products scarcely smell but they develop a bad smell due to the formation of trimethylamine, a volatile compound as a main causative of a characteristic unpleasant fish smell, formed easily when losing freshness or treated with processings of drying, grilling, boiling, etc. As a method to reduce such unpleasant smell, there has long been used a method for cooking fishery products using spices such as capsicum, pepper, wasabi (Japanese horseradish), Japanese pepper, garlic, and ginger. Such method, however, is not one of lowering the formation of trimethylamine per se as a main causative of fish smell, but one for masking unpleasant smell only by adding a strongly-stimulative taste or flavor. Thus, the know method has a drawback that it may even change a satisfactory flavor, taste, or color inherent to fishery products.
For the last few years, there has been used a method for masking smell using the enclosing action by cyclodextrins. This method, however, has the following drawbacks: Once-enclosed substances as causative of fish smell are easily replaced with other substances, that are susceptive to receive the enclosing action, to release unpleasant smell; and the masking effect of unpleasant smell is not satisfactory. Japanese Patent Kokai No. 289,206/95 discloses a method for removing unpleasant raw smell of extracts of fishery products such as stocks produced in their cooking and broths produced in their steaming, which method comprises adding and dissolving saccharides to and in the extracts, and heating the resulting mixtures at a relatively-high temperature of 125° C. or 130° C. to remove the unpleasant raw smell of the extracts. In this publication it is shown that such method has a drawback in that it easily imparts a scorched smell to the extracts because the method needs an excessively-high temperature treatment. Thus, the prior art techniques are limited as to how to mask or remove the once-formed unpleasant fish smell and have an insufficient effect with many accompanying drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the conventional drawbacks of prior arts, the present invention was made based on a completely novel technical conception, and the objects according to the present invention are to provide a method for inhibiting the formation of unpleasant fish smell per se, an edible fishery product wherein trimethylamine formation is inhibited by the above method, and a novel trimethylamine formation inhibitory agent, as well as its uses.
To overcome the above objects, the present inventors continued studying on the use of saccharides; they studied the influence of saccharides on their inhibitory effect on trimethylamine formation from trimethylamine oxide in the presence of saccharides and trimethylamine oxide as a precursor of trimethylamine. As a result they found that, as compared with other saccharides, trehalose and/or maltitol unexpectedly exert a strong inhibitory effect on the formation of trimethylamine per se, and they confirmed that the formation is strongly inhibited similarly as above by incorporating trehalose and/or maltitol into edible parts of fishery products. Thus they accomplished this invention. The present invention was made based on a technical conception that it fundamentally inhibits trimethylamine formation through the study of trimethylamine formation per se that is deemed as a main causative of the unpleasant fish smell. The technical concept has never been known, so the present technical object is novel in itself. The present invention, which comprises a step of inhibiting the formation of trimethylamine per se by incorporating trehalose and/or maltitol into products to be treated, is novel because no disclosure and no indication about the present invention is found in the prior art. In other words, all the objects and constructions of the present invention are novel, and the effect is also novel and outstanding.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The first object of the present invention is to provide a method for inhibiting trimethylamine formation, which is characterized in that it comprises a step of incorporating trehalose and/or maltitol into products to be treated; the second object is to provide an edible fishery product which trimethylamine formation is inhibited by preserving and/or processing raw fresh fishery products in the presence of trehalose and/or maltitol; and the third object is to provide a trimethylamine formation inhibitory agent comprising trehalose and/or maltitol as effective ingredients and uses thereof. Any trehalose and/or maltitol can be used in the present invention independently of their origin and property as long as they inhibit the formation of trimethylamine. The trehalose usable in the present invention includes, for example, those in the form of a syrup, hydrous crystal, and anhydrous crystal, which are produced by the methods as disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokai Nos. 170,977/95 and 213,283/95, can be arbitrarily used. In particular, “TREHAOSE®”, a high-purity hydrous crystalline trehalose commercialized by Hayashibara Shoji, Inc., Okayama, Japan, can be advantageously used. The maltitol usable in the present invention includes, for example, those in the form of a syrup and an anhydrous crystal which are produced by the methods as disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokoku Nos. 13,699/72 and 2,439/88, can be arbitrarily used. In particular, “MABIT®”, a crystalline maltitol anhydride commercialized by Hayashibara Shoji, Inc., Okayama, Japan, can be advantageously used. Mixtures obtained by mixing commercially available trehalose and maltitol in a free proportion and those obtained by hydrogenating trehalose and maltose as disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokai No. 73,482/96 can be arbitrarily used as mixtures of trehalose and maltitol. The trehalose and/or maltitol usable in the present invention should not be those with a relatively-high purity, and if necessary they can be used in combination with one or more another saccharides listed below as long as the other saccharides do not hinder the trimethylamine formation inhibitory effect; reducing sugars such as glucose, maltose, maltotriose, and maltotetraose; non-reducing saccharides such as sorbitol, maltotritol, and maltotetraitol; and cyclodextrins and their related compounds such as &agr;-, &bgr;- and &ggr;-cyclodextrins and derivatives thereof.
To effectively increase the trimethylamine formation inhibitory effect, acids can be arbitrarily used in combination with trehalose and/or maltitol to adjust edible parts of fishery products to neutral or acid pHs, preferably, pHs of around 5 to around 7, and more preferably, pHs of around 6 to around 7. Examples of the acids, conventional organic acids such as acetic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, and gluconic acid can be preferably used, and if necessary inorganic acids can be also used. If need be, one or more of the aforesaid spices; flavor-enhancers of amino acids and nucleic acids; liquors including sakes, sweet sakes, brandies, and alcohols; water-soluble polysaccharides such as pectin, alginic acid, and pullulan; and inorganic salts such as salt, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, and phosphates can be used to exert a satisfactory masking effect.
The edible fishery products according to the present invention mean edible products consisting of or comprising edible parts of fishery products, and compositions comprising edible parts of fishery products, all of which should exert a satisfactory inhibi
Chaen Hiroto
Miyake Toshio
Oku Kazuyuki
Browdy and Neimark PLLC
Kabushiki Kaisha Hayashibara Seibutsu Kagaku Kenkyujo
Pratt Helen
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