Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Process disinfecting – preserving – deodorizing – or sterilizing – Using disinfecting or sterilizing substance
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-22
2002-01-08
Warden, Sr., Robert J. (Department: 1744)
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Process disinfecting, preserving, deodorizing, or sterilizing
Using disinfecting or sterilizing substance
C422S022000, C422S023000, C422S028000, C422S033000, C422S186070, C422S292000, C422S300000, C422S305000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06337048
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus that can be utilized to significantly increase the solubility and dispersibility of consumer products such as food products, botanicals, cosmetic ingredients and medical products while at the same time reducing the biological load on such products. The products include those that have traditionally been treated with commercial sterilants or fumigants such as ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, methyl bromide, hydrogen phosphide, steam (heat), irradiation, and the like.
Currently, ethylene oxide (EO) is the agent of choice for virtually all of the gaseous sterilization of consumer products performed in the United States. However, as discussed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/217,581, EO has a number of properties which limit its use as a sterilant.
Over the last fifty years, a number of other gases that lack one or more of the disadvantages of EO have been tested as sterilants. These gases include, for example, hydrogen peroxide, ozone and chlorine dioxide. However, as disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/217,581, prior to the invention disclosed therein, no other gas has proven to be as efficacious as EO for use in large volume industrial sterilizers.
A number of commercial fumigants are presently used to treat foodstuffs and other stored commodities. The most widely used fumigants are methyl bromide, hydrogen phosphide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen cyanide. As disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/217,581, many of these compounds pose hazardous conditions for application personnel and can form deleterious residues in the foodstuffs and commodities that are treated. Furthermore, some of the above-mentioned traditional sterilants and fumigants have been identified with the formation of carcinogens and mutagens, thus limiting the products that can be treated.
Other procedures that have been developed to treat products utilize heat, ionizing radiation, and other chemical compounds. All of these procedures are potentially detrimental to the products' nutritional, physical and/or chemical attributes and thus make them undesirable.
U.S. application Ser. No. 09/217,581 discloses a method and apparatus to reduce biological loads in consumer products to eliminate human pathogens while maintaining product stability. The present inventors have surprisingly discovered that the method and apparatus disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/217,581 can also be used to increase the solubility and dispersibility of consumer products.
Although not limited to the following, the present invention in particular relates to method and apparatus that can be utilized to increase the solubility and improve the dispersibility of materials that are not naturally soluble in water (e.g., psyllium fiber) Ming O
X
. Thus, the present invention also relates to a highly soluble psyllium that has improved solubility and dispersibility in liquids.
Products containing psyllium seed husk (hereinafter also referred to as “psylliumn”) are known to be useful for the benefit of normalizing bowel function and Taxation. In addition, recent research has demonstrated the effectiveness of psyllium seed fiber in reducing human serum cholesterol levels and in controlling blood glucose levels in diabetics.
Psyllium seed husk contains natural mucilage. It forms a gelatinous mass on contact with water, and it exhibits poor dispersibility and mixability in water. The psyllium husk particles tend to agglomerate when mixed with water. Hydration takes place over the surface of such agglomerated aggregates to form gel-coated lumps, the interiors of which are still substantially dry. These lumps are extremely difficult to disperse.
One way of reducing these problems while improving the taste of the psyllium product has been to use high percentages of sugar in the drink mix. The dispersibility and mixability are improved, but diabetics and people on reduced calorie diets may have difficulty taking such products in view of the high sugar content.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,263 to Powell et al. discloses a method of improving the dispersibility of psyllium powder. It is described therein to wet the psyllium particles with an alcoholic solution of at least one of polyethylene glycol and polyvinylpyrrolidone and granulating the thus-coated particles.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,459,280 and 4,548,806 to Colliopoulos et al. describe improving mixability and dispersibility of psyllium mucilloid by applying a film of hydrolyzed starch oligosaccharide, a mono- or di-saccharide, a polyglucose, or a polymaltose to the psyllium. Preferred therein is agglomerating the psyllium mucilloid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,331 to Rudin describes a modified dry dietary fiber product which is said to be readily dispersible in liquids. The dry dietary fiber product (e.g., psyllium) comprises a coating of from 0.05 to 20% of a food grade emulsifier. The processes for making such products are said to comprise blending the dietary fiber product materials with the mixture of a non-toxic solvent in a food grade emulsifier follow by removing the solvent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,842 to Furst et al. discloses a fibrous, vegetable material coated with a combination of a major amount of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and a minor amount of polyethylene glycol to aid in the wetting and dispersing of the fibrous, vegetable material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,570 to Barbera discloses the use of an edible acid dispersed throughout the agglomerating coating applied to psyllium husk to improve mixability, dispersibility, and product aesthetics, for psyllium husk products having low (less than about 20%) sugar content.
Each of the methods described above require treating the psyllium product with one or more substances to increase the solubility and dispersibility thereto. Thus, while there has already been much research devoted to improving the solubility and dispersibility of products such as psyllium in liquids, there continues to be a need for improved products and processes for obtaining readily soluble, dispersible products.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide commercial products having improved solubility and dispersibility in a liquid such as water.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The method and apparatus of the present invention increase the solubility and dispersibility of consumer products during sterilization or fumigation, even while the product is in its original container (e.g., burlap bag, fiber drum, kraft paper bag, plastic bag, etc.).
The method of the present invention utilizes a gaseous mixture containing O
1
, O
2
and O
3
(hereinafter referred to as “O
X
” ) in a technologically advanced treatment system. Prior O
3
treatments of consumer products include, for example, (1) the submersion of an article in ozone-containing watered the bubbling of ozonated water over article (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,159 to Karlson, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,872 to Burleson); and (2) the static treatment of medical devices and food products with gaseous ozone (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,179,017 to Shapiro et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,880 to Karlson, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,512 to Masuda.) Systems utilizing ozone as described above have encountered several limitations. The incorporation of ozone gas into water and then submersion of item(s) or the spraying of ozone treated water onto the surface of item(s) limits the process to products that can be soaked in water. The few gaseous uses of ozone have been limited to the surface treatment of medical devices and the like due to the lack of adequate penetration into compacted products. Thus, although these past processes have proven the efficacy of ozone as a sterilant, the limitation of the use of ozone as a surface treatment has not presented ozone as a reliable sterilant or fumigant for products contained within commercial containers. Furthermore, until recently, high concentration ozone generators, which would have allowed the present invention to properly function, have not been commercially available.
The pre
Carman Gary B.
Wirtz Stephen K.
Cosmed Group, Inc.
Donnelly Laura A.
Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe LLP
Soubra Imad
Warden, Sr. Robert J.
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