Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Fermentation processes – Of farinaceous cereal or cereal material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-05
2001-01-23
Hendricks, Keith D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Fermentation processes
Of farinaceous cereal or cereal material
C426S028000, C426S027000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06177109
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing food products of wheat capable of maintaining freshness for a long period of time.
2. Description of the Related Art
The quality of food products of wheat such as bread deteriorates over time after the production. For example, in the case of bread, the retrogradation after baking and the reduction of a moisture content by evaporation are responsible for the deterioration of the quality of bread over time.
In the prior art, for the purpose of preventing the quality deterioration over time, a larger amount of water within a defined acceptable range or an emulsifier such as monoglyceride (MG) is added to bread dough; the retrogradation of starch contained in wheat flour is controlled through partial breakdown of starch by &agr;-amylase or the like; and the like.
Effects of addition of water to dough vary depending on the difference between the lots of wheat flour used as a raw material. When using wheat flour of the kind having a large water-absorbing ability, the dough becomes so sticky that ease of handling, production yield and the like may be reduced.
The added emulsifier does not have so much effect on the prevention of the retrogradation. The addition of a large amount of the emulsifier results in an emulsion odor, which impairs preferable aroma and flavor inherent in bread that are obtained by fermentation and baking. The addition of the emulsifier is likely to cause bread to become like a gum, which leads to bad mastication.
It has been confirmed that the addition of an enzyme for breaking down starch, such as &agr;-amylase, provides increased volume which makes soft crumb, and prevents the retrogradation through partial breakdown of amylose. In this case, however, there are still problems that the dough is slack and that the retrogradation of crumb texture is not satisfactorily prevented. An addition of various hydrolyzing enzymes for improving the quality of bread, such as the starch hydrolyzing enzyme, break down ingredients of wheat flour such as starch. However, excessive breakdown of the ingredients of wheat flour is damaging thereto. Thus, the use of the hydrolyzing enzymes requires a large amount of know-how and strict control of the production process, and/or other optional additives for preventing excessive breakdown of the ingredients of wheat flour.
Examples of other hydrolyzing enzymes include lactase (&bgr;-galactosidase) (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 4-207143). However, the use of lactase is not usual (see D. Every, Food Technology in New Zealand, May 1990, p. 19). Lactase splits lactose into glucose and galactose. Glucose is fermentable, and thus may increase product volume. On the other hand, galactose is non-fermentable, but it is believed that it is available for Maillard reactions, and thus improves flavor and color.
Wheat flour naturally contains glycolipids in small amounts, some of which are useful for improving the quality of food products of wheat such as bread. Examples of glycolipids of which the usefulness has been known include monogalactosyldiglyceride (MGDG) and digalactosyldiglyceride (DGDG). These glycolipids are called glyceroglycolipid.
The above-described glycolipids are coupled, for example, in bread to both starch and gluten which form the skeleton of the bread, forming barriers and improving gas and moisture retention properties. The utilization of the above characteristic feature of the glycolipids might enable bread and the like to maintain its freshness for a long period of time. However, the amounts of such glycolipids in wheat flour are very small, and vary among different types or lots of wheat flour. Accordingly, it is difficult to improve the quality of food products of wheat such as bread by utilizing such a characteristic feature of glycolipids naturally contained in wheat flour.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is provided for solving the above-described problems. We place importance on the role of glycolipids in the quality improvement of food products of wheat. We believed that if glycolipids could be enhanced in the producing process of food products of wheat such as bread, it would have provided the food products with satisfactory properties. Subsequently, a method for enhancing glycolipids has been studied by us. As a result, we found out that when certain enzymes activating a transfer of sugar to lipid (e.g., lactase), and optionally sugar such as lactose and lipid such as glycerides, are added to a raw material of a food product of wheat such as bread, glycolipids useful for maintaining freshness of the food product of wheat is generated and enhanced, and a very satisfactory food product of wheat can be therefore obtained. Then, we achieved the invention.
According to the present invention, a method for producing a food product of wheat includes the step of adding an enzyme having activity for transferring sugar to lipid to raw material of the food product of wheat, where the food product of wheat produced by the method maintains its freshness for a longer period of time than a food product of wheat produced by a method including no step of adding the enzyme to the material.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the enzyme having activity for transferring sugar to lipid is lactase.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the lactase is derived from a microorganism of the genus Bacillus.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the microorganism of the genus Bacillus is
Bacillus circulans.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the step of adding lipids to the raw material of the food product of wheat.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the step of adding lactose to the raw material of the food product of wheat.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the food product of wheat is selected from the group consisting of breads, noodles, confectioneries, fried products with breadcrumbs, and fried products with tempura flour.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the food product of wheat is a bread.
Thus, the invention described herein makes possible the advantage of providing a method for producing food products of wheat capable of maintaining freshness for a long period of time.
This and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying figure.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4237230 (1980-12-01), Iida et al.
patent: 4522832 (1985-06-01), Morrison
patent: 2511847 (1976-09-01), None
patent: 3-58141755 (1983-08-01), None
patent: 04207143 (1990-11-01), None
patent: 431853 (1974-11-01), None
Database Fsta ‘Online!’ International Food Information Service (IFIS) Frankfurt/Main, DE Drobot V I et al.: “Use of Nb-galactosidase for treating dried skim milk in baking.” Database accession No. 83 - 4 - 08-p1257 XP002123183 *abstract* & Pishchevaya Promyshlennost, 1982, KTIPP, USSR.
Hidaki Yumiko
Shimizu Yasuhiro
Tani Hirokazu
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Daiwa Kasei Kabushiki Kaisha
Hendricks Keith D.
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