Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Specific dye or pigment per se or compositions containing same
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-20
2001-12-11
Nessler, Cynthia L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Specific dye or pigment per se or compositions containing same
C426S655000, C426S250000, C008S438000, C008S646000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06329010
ABSTRACT:
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The invention currently put forward consists of a procedure for obtaining a food colorant, as well as this colorant itself and food substitutes obtained using it, from among black food colorants, based on the stabilisation of a natural colorant such as cephalopod ink and carrying out in two stages, a microbiological stabilisation and a chemical stabilisation.
The process of microbiological stabilisation is a cleaning and termination treatment between 80 and 90° C. of this natural ink, while the chemical stabilisation requires mixing with chemical absorbents such as vegetal carbon and a cellulose hydrolisate, as well as a previous stabilisation time prior to packaging.
Its composition is as follows: 15-35% of a mass of stabilised ink; 2-10% of common salt (sodium chloride); 2-7% of medicinal vegetal carbon; 1-3% hydrolised cellulose. (carboxymethyl cellulose) and water to 100%.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The colorants, which are considered the least indispensable additives, are used mainly to normalise the colour of a foodstuff or drink.
However, this tendency has changed with the appearance of the agro-food market of natural food substitutes, increasing its application to the decoration of prepared proteins, to make them more attractive and similar to the original product.
Traditionally, vegetable extracts have been used as colorants of natural origin &bgr;-carotenes, beetroot juice, fruit juices . . . ) and synthetic colorants, which are subject to very extensive toxicological studies.
Within this latter class of colorants, there are very few black coloured ones. More exactly, the only ones that are admitted for use in the European Union are those of vegetal carbon itself, Brilliant Negro BN and Black 7984, these last two being subject to strong restrictions both regarding their use (in the case of Black 7984 it can only be used with certain types of product) and in the daily admitted dose (D.A.D.) of less that 0.75 mg/Kg of bodyweight for Brilliant Negro BN that, furthermore, cannot be used in foods that may be heated during their preparation.
On the other hand the use of the secretary glands of the cephalopod (inks) in the whole of the North of Spain is widely known, being extensively used in the nouveau cuisine or miniature cooking, that use large quantities of “small cuttlefish ink”.
However, the natural product is not stable and is quickly degraded making its use not a viable option as an industrial food colouring. This degradation is due mainly to the high microbiological load that the natural product contains and the enzymatic/toxic activity derived from the repellent nature of the cephalopod ink.
On the other hand black colorants of animal origin have not been used in general in the agro-food industry due to the fact that the consumption of food of this colour is limited to the northern half of Spain, the Levantine coast (black rice) and some Asian countries.
The applicant is unaware of the existence of black food colorant, obtained from cephalopod ink by means of a double stabilisation process with the microbiological and chemical stages.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention object of the present specification relates to a procedure for obtaining a food colorant and substitutes obtained with it, from among black food colorants, based on the stabilisation of a natural colorant such as cephalopod ink, that will be denominated cephalopod black hereinafter, this procedure allowing the natural ink originating from these species, generally of commercial use, to be stabilised in such a way that it can be used as a food colorant.
For these ends, the bags of ink or secretary glands of cephalopods such as cuttlefish, pota, octopus or any species of cephalopod that has secretary glands, are cleaned by hand, strained and mechanically ground, until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
The mass so obtained is submitted to a thermal treatment, then allowed it to cool to room temperature in the same container, conveniently covered.
Simultaneously water, vegetal carbon of medicinal quality (activated carbon), cellulose hydrolisate and common salt (sodium chloride) are mixed in a homogenising apparatus.
The homogenate of the mass is kept for a time lying between one and three hours and, then, the two masses are mixed in a mixing/cutting machine until a homogenous product is obtained. From this moment the product is now stable and can be packaged.
Most of the existing food colorants of vegetal or synthetic origin and derived from those of other colours. Those of animal origin do not exist. Apart from this, the black colour only has the three cited sources, and hence their enormous interest.
On one hand, and with respect to the three black colorants, it has the advantage that its consumption, in a natural form, has been practised on a massive scale for generations, without observable accumulative toxic effects and the only cases of known intoxication are those in which the natural product has not be treated thermally, an aspect that is addressed in the present invention.
Thus the product so obtained, cephalopod black, is homogeneous and perfectly applicable in industrial machinery for colouring the surface of food masses.
It has the important advantage compared to the natural product, that of chemical stability, as it does not form salts, lose its colour and the activated carbon neutralised the possible toxic substances. Its microbiological stability is assured by the thermal process that reduces the populations of micro-organisms and their enzymatic activity. All this is achieved without loss of organoleptic properties.
Finally, this is a very important innovation in the area of food colorants of industrial application, as it is a colorant that is neither of vegetal origin nor of synthetic origin, but rather stabilised animal origin. There is no reference in the agrofood market.
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Nessler Cynthia L.
Schwartz Robert M.
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