Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Fat or oil is basic ingredient other than butter in emulsion...
Patent
1993-09-20
1996-07-16
Paden, Carolyn
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Fat or oil is basic ingredient other than butter in emulsion...
426601, 426602, A23D 700
Patent
active
055365230
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to compositions that can be used in the same way as butter and margarine, and to a process for their preparation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many non-butter spreads are known, in which it has been attempted to achieve the taste and spreadability of butter, but without its high saturated fat (and often also salt) content. Butter oil contains considerably more than 50% saturated fat.
Liquid vegetable oils such as rape, soya, sunflower and olive oils contain less saturated fat than butter oil. In spreads containing them, however, they are either hydrogenated or supplemented by (an often unspecified amount of) hydrogenated or other hard fats. According to Bailey's Industrial Oil Guide, the percentage of oil that has been transformed into trans-fatty acids in most margarine ranges between 20% and 40%.
Saturation or hydrogenation changes liquid oils into semi-solid materials that are spreadable. In particular, it allows a cheap oil to be turned into a semi-liquid, plastic or solid fat with particular properties of spreadability, shelf-life and texture. However, this hardening process, or the use of hard fats such as palm oil, makes it very difficult to produce a composition that can be spread easily under all likely conditions of use. The product is either too hard at refrigeration temperatures (0.degree.-5.degree. C.) or too soft at ambient temperatures (15.degree.-25.degree. C.).
Hydrogenation also destroys some of the nutritional value of a natural oil. Moreover, if hydrogenation is stopped before completion, when the desired degree of hardening has been achieved, the partially-hardened fats that are formed may be nutritionally more detrimental than fully hardened fats. The trans fatty acids that are formed by partial hydrogenation can cause very rapid increases in blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. If the diet contains cholesterol, then the effect of trans fatty acids is increased. Further, since high triglyceride levels are associated with cardiovascular diseases, it will be readily appreciated that partial hydrogenation is potentially very dangerous.
It is a fact that the incidence of death from cancer (1 in 30 in 1900 to 1 in 5 in 1980) parallels the increase in consumption of hydrogenated vegetable oils. Cancers have been associated with poor diet. While statistics do not prove that trans and otherwise hydrogenated fatty acids cause cancer, consideration must be given to the vital functions of essential fatty acids which are interfered with by trans fatty acids.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A novel butter-like spread comprises 35 to 80% w/w fat, in the form of an oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion. The fat content needs and comprises no hydrogenation, and no or a minor proportion thereof is saturated.
The novel product may contain liquid oil as the sole source of fat. Further, the level of (crystallised) fat that is solid at refrigeration temperatures (0.degree.-5.degree. C.) is particularly low. The fat preferably comprises less than 10% w/w saturated fatty acids and/or more than 80% w/w unsaturated fatty acids. Soya protein and/or whey protein can be used as substantially the sole stabilising and/or emulsifying agent.
In the context of this invention, "butter-like spread" means a product which has the plastic characteristics of butter including spreadability and sensation on the palate when eaten. The term "oil" is used herein to describe a fat which is in the liquid state. The words "fat" and "oil" are sometimes used interchangeably in this specification.
A product of this invention is useable (i.e., satisfactorily spreadable) over a wide range of temperature (0.degree.-30.degree. C.) without being excessively hard at the lower temperatures nor excessively soft at the higher temperatures. This is by contrast to the difficulty if not impossibility of producing a product in the traditional manner (namely water-in-oil emulsion) which is sufficiently soft when the level of crystallised fat is above about or sufficiently hard when the level is below about
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patent: 5151291 (1992-09-01), Tokairin
patent: 5151451 (1992-09-01), Brown
patent: 5279847 (1994-01-01), Okonogi
patent: 5288619 (1994-02-01), Brown
Article Entitled: "Studies on a Soy-Based Low-Fat Spread" 6022 Journal of Food Science 53 (1988) Mar.-Apr., No. 2 Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Blauel Friedrich
Byrne Charles M.
Murphy Matthew F.
Kondzella Michael A.
Ogam Limited
Paden Carolyn
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