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
2000-05-25
2002-10-01
Weier, Anthony J. (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
C426S634000, C426S580000, C426S658000, C514S909000, C514S866000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06458409
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is directed to a method for producing an easily digestible protein concentrate, a protein-rich food obtainable by means of the method, and use thereof.
Human beings require a supply of essential amino acids for a well-balanced metabolism. The body cannot synthesize these amino acids by itself and, therefore, suitable quantities of these amino acids must be taken in by way of balanced nutrition. Nutritional deficiency in one or more of the essential amino acids leads to metabolic disturbances, e.g., hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, etc., and accompanying hypertension. These disturbances are also a cause of diet-related overweight.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, in a balanced diet, it must be ensured that the essential amino acids are present in food in sufficient quantities and in correct proportion. This can be achieved, for example, by consuming animal protein such as fish, meat, sausage, cheese, and so forth. It is disadvantageous in this regard that, in addition to the proteins, large quantities of animal fat are also usually absorbed; this is undesirable especially for overweight persons.
Therefore, consumption of vegetable protein has been recommended as an alternative. In this connection, soy and soy products have proven particularly suitable. According to § 14a of the Nutritional Guidelines, soy protein is equated in value to animal protein. However, a disadvantage of soy is that it is hard to digest. It causes flatulence, a feeling of fullness, and discomfort of the stomach and pancreas, as well as eructation. For this reason, it is necessary for soy to be treated before it is consumed in order to make it more digestible. This can be accomplished by boiling, baking or roasting. Because of the sensitivity of amino acids to heat, however, this results in a loss of amino acids.
Another criterion for assessing the value of a food is its bioavailability. This is assessed on the basis of how easily the amino acids can be absorbed by the body; that is, the proteins obtained through food must first be digested. In so doing, they are broken down into smaller fragments which are then resorbed by the body. The ability of the body to digest the food varies widely between different food items.
As was already mentioned, unprocessed soy is very difficult to digest. For this reason, it has been attempted to make soy more digestible by mixing it with honey. Mixing with honey is suggested in DE 28 53 194. The mixture is allowed to stand, while an increase in the volume of the starting material is observed. The product that is obtained in this way is powdery to granular and can be used directly as a food or can be further processed by adding flavoring, dyes, and so on. The proposed method is disadvantageous in that it can only be carried out with small quantities of soy products (up to about 1 kg). With larger quantities, mixing of the components is impossible because the substance forms tough lumps. Numerous attempts have been made with a variety of mixers, but no successful results were obtained. Attempts to mix soy powder and honey in a drying tower have also failed. A hard candy-like substance is deposited on the inside wall of the tower and can only be removed with great difficulty. This substance had a honey proportion of more than 40% and corresponded to around 30% of the amount of starting products used. The residual product contained a honey proportion of only 15%. The soy isolate used was merely coated with a sugary substance. An intimate mixing of soy isolate and honey, as is described in DE 28 53 194, could not be achieved. The digestibility of the obtained product was not satisfactory. Also, the mixing times and drying times were very long, which eliminated the method from industrial application because of the high costs entailed.
The addition of honey for preserving foodstuffs is known, for example, from DE 30 49 380. It is suggested therein that bee products such as flower pollen, bee bread, propolis or honey are mixed homogeneously with concentrates of milk, whey or other byproducts of the dairy industry, evaporated, dried and, where appropriate, comminuted. The therapeutic effects of the bee products are prominent in the products obtained in this way. Therefore, they have a high proportion of carbohydrates. The amino acid proportion is under 20%, so that the preparations are unsuitable as a protein-containing food concentrate.
Similar considerations apply to a food concentrate described in DE 32 07 505. In order to produce it, honey or honey mixed with other bee products is mixed with a high-value albumin product, minerals and possibly dietary fiber and/or carbohydrates in such a way that the end product contains at least 40 percent-by-weight honey. Examples of high-value albumin products are milk albumins, milk globulins, the residue from ultrafiltration of milk, blood serum albumins and blood serum globulins from freshly slaughtered livestock, egg white, fresh whole eggs, freeze-dried or spray-dried ovoalbumin, ovoglobulin and ovovitellin, yeast extract, meat juice and fish juice. The proportion of carbohydrates is also very high in these preparations. Therefore, additional nutrients with high calorific value are absorbed when albumin is supplied. This is undesirable when the preparation is consumed as a nutritional supplement, for example, in the case of a weight-reducing diet.
A honey-containing food concentrate is likewise suggested in PCTNVO 95/29252. However, the product is heated to over 80° C. during production, so that a considerable proportion of amino acids is deactivated.
Therefore, it is the object of the invention to provide a method for the production of an easily digestible protein concentrate and a protein-rich food concentrate which can be obtained by means of this method, is easy to produce and process in industrial quantities and has a high biological availability.
To meet this object, a method comprising the following steps is suggested:
saturating a protein-rich starting product with an emulsifier;
stirring honey into the saturated protein-rich starting product.
Surprisingly, it has been shown that no lumps are formed when mixing the saturated protein-rich starting product. A fine powder is obtained which can be immediately packed as food or which can easily be processed to make other products. The starting components mix intimately together within a short time. This also enables a fast reaction to its ingredients. The temperature and volume of the mixture increase during the mixing. It appears to undergo a fermentation process in which the proteins of the starting product are broken down and are therefore more easily digestible. Surprisingly, considerable proportions of free amino acids and short-chain peptides were detected in the food concentrate.
Lecithins have turned out to be suitable emulsifiers. Lecithins have already been used for a long time in the food industry. Therefore, there exist no reservations with respect to physiological effect, in particular with respect to their ability to be broken down during digestion. Further, lecithins are obtained from biological sources, e.g., soy or egg yoke. The food is accordingly produced only from materials of biological origin. Addition of stabilizers or preservatives is not required.
In order to keep the proportion of fat and carbohydrate low, it has proven advantageous when the protein-rich starting product is of vegetable origin, and is preferably a soy or soy product. Soy has a very high protein content which can be equated to animal albumin with respect to biological value. A preparation is obtained whose high biological efficacy was proven in different medical tests. The digestion problems normally observed after consumption of raw soy products do not occur.
However, the protein-rich starting product can also be of animal origin and is preferably milk or a milk product. In this case, the food concentrate also advantageously contains a multitude of vitamins and minerals which are contained in the animal starting products. Dry powdered milk is
Striker Michael J.
Weier Anthony J.
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