Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Measuring – testing – or controlling by inanimate means – Preparing solid product in final form by heating
Patent
1997-03-11
1999-03-30
Yeung, George
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Measuring, testing, or controlling by inanimate means
Preparing solid product in final form by heating
426521, 426523, A23B 400
Patent
active
058885668
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method of preparing a pasteurised product, especially but not exclusively a food having a long shelf life. The method comprises heat treatment and ensures a long shelf life in positive cold (between +3.degree. C. and +5.degree. C.) without affecting the main chemical, rheological and/or organoleptic qualities and characteristics, in particular the taste, compared with the corresponding non-pasteurised products, that is the same food or other products except that they have not undergone any heat treatment except that necessary for preparing them.
In order to obtain a long shelf life for pasteurised products, it is at present well-known to use a number of different methods such as bottling, sterilisation, pasteurisation, deep-freezing, ionisation by irradiation, freeze-drying or, more recently, high pressures.
Sterilisation is a conservation process which, in its conventional form, adversely affects the processed products with regard to their nutritional, rheological and organoleptic qualities, and particularly affects their taste and appearance as a result of the required treatment temperatures. Consequently this method cannot be used for producing or preparing high-quality products. As a result, the method is not usable on a large scale except for treating products which are not initially high-quality, or products which are not damaged by high-temperature treatment. It is used in particular for liquids such as milk.
Deep-freezing is a method of preservation which also causes irreversible physical and chemical damage of the processed products, inter alia by affecting the proteins and starch therein, through exposure of the processed products to negative cold. In addition the processed products, owing to the inevitable presence of internal ice crystals, will lose their texture and rheological characteristics during cooking and during any subsequent heat-treatment such as pasteurisation. For these reasons, deep-freezing is used only for preparing products which are not high quality or are not damaged by negative cold.
Refrigeration is a method of preservation which is satisfactory on the organoleptic level, provided that the refrigerated food products are preserved for a very short time. However, this process has the disadvantage of not interrupting the microbial or the enzymatic activity. In particular, spores of Clostridium botulinum type E, which are the most dangerous micro-organisms to the human organism out of those potentially present in food products, may germinate under certain temperature conditions occurring during preservation in positive cold, more particularly when the cold is interrupted or when the temperature rises above 2.2.degree. C., and grow at +3.degree. C. or above.
Freeze-drying is a method of preservation which is very difficult to work and is also restricted to a few products, for example food, or raw materials which are not of high quality. The resulting dehydration of the product causes very complex problems of texture and rehydration, which limit the process to products suitable for freeze-drying.
Preservation of fresh food in positive cold and in vacuo is a recent process which slows down or stops the growth of most aerobic microbial flora. In some cases however (high pH, high microbial burden, insufficient lactic flora or slight interruption of cold) it may favour the germination and growth of the most dangerous anaerobic micro-organisms such as Clostridium botulinum and may also result in regions such as exudates and substrates which are particularly favourable to growth of all strictly or optionally anaerobic bacteria. This known method is therefore difficult in operation.
Ionising irradiation is permitted only for certain products, at irradiation doses such as to reduce the microbial burden without destroying it completely. In addition, the sterilising doses may damage food products, and knowledge in this sector is very incomplete as regards the toxicological risk, with the result that the process is authorised only for packaging. Another disadvanta
REFERENCES:
patent: 5094864 (1992-03-01), Pinon et al.
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