Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Food is surface coated with peelable or strippable nonedible...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-09
2001-05-01
Weinstein, Steven (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Food is surface coated with peelable or strippable nonedible...
C426S105000, C426S129000, C426S130000, C426S135000, C426S310000, C426S410000, C426S415000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224923
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a method for coating foods selected from long-keeping sausages having a natural or artificial sausage casing, and hard cheese, with a shellac/polyamide composition comprising shellac and polyamide in a water/ethanol solution, and to the foods coated with said shellac/polyamide composition which can be obtained by the method according to the invention.
In spite of their natural or artificial sausage casing, commercially available long-keeping sausages (=raw sausages) have the disadvantage that a measurable loss in weight occurs due to losses of juice of meat through the casing in connection therewith, these sausages are characterized by a fatty surface. In addition, the currently used casing which is insufficient in this respect causes a non-uniform coloring of the cross-section of the enclosed sausages from the interior of the sausage to the outer periphery which is clearly visible, especially when the first cuts are made in the sausages, in the form of a more or less broad discolored region formed at the interface to the casing. This formation of discolored outer regions, which is frequently perceivable without difficulty in salamis, is often even increased after the first cut is made.
Hard cheese is usually coated with a paraffin wax layer for preservation. After some time, however, the layer becomes brittle and cracked, and thus the purpose of preserving the enclosed hard cheese is no longer achieved. Further, in spite of the coating, there is often formation of discolored outer regions in the enclosed cheese.
Accordingly, it has been the object of the present invention to provide a method for coating the surfaces of long-keeping sausages and hard cheese with a coating composition which results in a uniform, smooth, transparent and sufficiently elastic coating on such foods which prevents the above described disadvantages from occurring. Further, the coating should exhibit a good adhesion to the surface of the mentioned foods.
The method should be simple and economic and enable a complete and durable coating to be provided on the above mentioned foods.
It has now been found that this object is achieved by a composition comprising, in water/ethanol solution:
(a) from 1 to 99% by weight of shellac; and
(b) from 99 to 1% by weight of at least one polyamide which is soluble in aqueous ethanol;
respectively based on the total amount of (a) and (b).
In particular, the invention relates to a method for coating foods selected from long-keeping sausages having a natural or artificial sausage casing, and hard cheese, with a durable and uniform coating of a composition comprising
(a) from 1 to 99% by weight of shellac; and
(b) from 99 to 1% by weight of polyamide;
by treating the surface of the sausages or cheese with a composition comprising, in water/ethanol solution:
(a) from 1 to 99% by weight of shellac; and
(b) from 99 to 1% by weight of at least one polyamide which is soluble in aqueous ethanol;
respectively based on the total amount of (a) and (b).
The composition may be used for coating long-keeping sausages having a natural or artificial sausage casing, and hard cheese, whereby long-keeping sausages are obtained which have a uniform, smooth, transparent and elastic durable coating comprising the shellac and the polyamide on their natural or artificial sausage casings, which coating firmly adheres to the natural or artificial sausage casing. The same applies to the coating of hard cheese; in this case, the coating is directly applied to the previously uncoated surface of the hard cheese.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention relates to the provision of a complete coating, i.e., applying the coating over the entire outer surface of the mentioned long-keeping sausages and hard cheese.
The coatable long-keeping sausages (=raw sausages) may be all kinds of soft to hard raw sausages (hard sausages), especially Ruegenwalder (Ruegenwalder Teewurst; a German soft raw sausage for spreading), salami or cooking salami (hard raw sausages).
As hard cheeses, all kinds of cheese known as hard cheese can be employed.
The shellac to be used according to the invention can be any commercially available shellac, in principle. However, dewaxed shellac decolorized with active charcoal is preferred. Shellac is very readily soluble in alcohol, especially ethanol or aqueous ethanol. As the shellacs which can be used according to the invention, there may be mentioned those, in particular, which are dewaxed and have a melting point in the range of from 65-85° C., a saponification number of 180-240, and a wax content of up to 0.5% by weight, preferably not more than 0.2% by weight.
The polyamides which are soluble in aqueous ethanol are synthetic linear. polyamides which have long been known and commercially available. Such polyamides are readily soluble in alcohols, e.g., ethanol, especially mixtures of ethanol and water (e.g., ethanol:water=80:20 parts by weight), i.e., in some cases in amounts of up to 50% by weight. “Soluble in ethanol” or “soluble in aqueous ethanol” refers to those polyamides which are soluble at a level of at least 5% by weight at the boiling temperature (1013 mbar, normal pressure) of ethanol or a mixture of ethanol/water.
In particular, the polyamides which are soluble in aqueous ethanol are polymers formed from
(a) (i) at least one C
2
-C
18
, preferably C
4
-C
12
, aliphatic, C
4
-C
18
cycloaliphatic, C
6
-C
18
aromatic or alkylaromatic di-, tri-, tetra- or pentaamine which may be substituted on at least one nitrogen atom with a straight or branched chain, cyclic or cycloaliphatic alkyl group having up to 8 carbon atoms or a C
1
-C
6
-alkylene-oxy-C
1
-C
6
-alkyl group;
(ii) at least one saturated aliphatic C
4
-C
12
or aromatic C
8
-C
20
dicarboxylic acid or C
28
-C
44
dimer fatty acid; and optionally
(iii) at least one straight chain, saturated aminocarboxylic acid, preferably &ohgr;-aminocarboxylic acid, which contains from 4 to 20 carbon atoms, wherein the amino group may be substituted with a substituent as mentioned under (a); or
(b) the aminocarboxylic acid defined under (a)(iii) alone;
or their respective derivatives which are suitable for amide formation.
“Their derivatives which are suitable for amide formation” means, in particular, the esters, nitrites, anhydrides, lactams, salts and adducts (e.g., diamine/diacid adduct) of the above mentioned compounds, provided they exist.
Typical representatives of the diamine are ethylenediamine, tetra-, penta-, hexa-, octa- or decamethylenediamine, 1,2-, 1,3- or 1,4-xylylenediamine.
Typical representatives of the dicarboxylic acid are succinic acid, glutaric acid, adipic acid, pimelic acid, suberic acid, azelaic acid, sebacic acid, nonane-, decane-, undecane- and dodecanedicarboxylic acid. However, cyclohexane-1,2-, -1,3- or -1,4-diacetic acid, isophthalic acid or terephthalic acid may also be mentioned.
Typical representatives of the aminocarboxylic acids are the &ohgr;-aminocarboxylic acids, especially 6-aminocaproic acid, 7-amino-heptanoic acid, 12-aminostearic acid or 4-aminocyclohexane-carboxylic acid.
The primary amino groups of the above mentioned compounds may be monosubstituted with alkyl or cycloalkyl groups which preferably contain not more than 6 carbon atoms. In particular, there may be mentioned methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, tert.-butyl, amyl or cyclohexyl groups.
The dimer fatty acids are those, in particular, which can be obtained by dimerizing soybean oil, linseed oil and other fatty acids obtainable from their glycerides. Preferably, the molar ratio of diamine (i) to dicarboxylic acid (ii) is 1:1, and the molar ratio of diamine to &ohgr;-aminocarboxylic acid (if any) can be between 4:1 and 1:20.
All the above mentioned types of polyamides which are soluble in aqueous ethanol, their properties and methods of their preparation are known from the literature. Reference is made, in particular, to the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,285,009, 2,320,088, 2,388,035, 2,393,972 and 2,450,940, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Partic
Stemmler Andreas
Stemmler, Jr. Heinz
Child, Jr. John S.
Weinstein Steven
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