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...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-14
2003-02-11
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
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...
C426S662000, C426S811000, C106S243000, C106S244000, C554S079000, C554S080000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06517884
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a food product which is a water and oil containing emulsion which comprises an anti-spattering agent. The emulsions are pourable or squeezable products as evidenced by a Bostwick value of equal to or more than 7, preferably more than 10 at 15° C. Preferred food products are water in oil emulsions.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pourable or squeezable food products of a water phase and a fat phase are for example known as liquid frying products which are pourable or squeezable water in oil emulsions at ambient temperature.
These products are for example used in shallow frying. Pourable and squeezable products are considered to be more easily dosed than plastic products for example packed in a wrapper or a tub, and are therefore desired frying products.
The pourability or squeezability of these products is evidenced by a Bostwick value of at least 7 at 15° C. For pourable products, a Bostwick value of at least 9 is preferred, even more preferred is a Bostwick value of at least 15, most preferred from 15 to 23.
The method to determine this value is illustrated in the examples.
The invention especially relates to pourable or squeezable water in oil emulsions.
The physical storage stability of pourable or squeezable products is considered an important characteristic.
For example squeezable or pourable emulsions may show formation of an oil layer on top of the emulsion after storage at temperatures between 5 and 25° C. The formation of such an oil layer is referred to as oil separation. Pourable products such as liquid frying products preferably show oil separation of less than 7 vol %, more preferred less than 5 vol %, on total product after storage at 25° C. for 4 weeks.
As many known water in oil emulsions are often used for frying of food stuff these products usually comprise an anti-spattering agent. Anti-spattering agents are often included in frying products like margarines to improve uniform release of water during heating.
Spattering of a water in oil emulsion is believed to be caused by superheating of water droplets. At a certain point after heating the water droplets explosively evaporate, whereby the product can be spread all over the surroundings of a frying pan in which the emulsion is heated. This may cause danger to the person who fries foodstuff in the heated emulsion and it also often causes a mess in the kitchen.
For example lecithin, especially the phosphatidylcholine component of lecithin, is a well known anti-spattering agent.
Especially pourable or squeezable water in oil emulsions comprising native lecithin as anti-spattering agent are susceptible to undesired oil separation upon storage.
Therefore a desire exists for pourable/squeezable water in oil emulsions that comprise little or no native lecithin.
A further desired characteristic of water in oil emulsions used for frying is that they show the desired signal function. With signal function is meant that during heating the user of the frying medium desirably gets a specific signal at the moment the frying medium is heated sufficiently to temperatures of about 160 to 190° C., to put the meat or other foodstuff in.
Foaming of the frying medium as caused by heating, may be one element of a signal function. During heating usually a foam slowly develops. This foaming can be described as the formation of a blanket of gas bubbles on top of the melted frying medium, which is easily identified by eye. The amount of foam that exists is expressed in terms of surface coverage, i.e. in percentage of frying medium surface that is covered by the foam.
The moment at which the maximum surface coverage with the foam is reached, is generally perceived by consumers as the moment to put the food stuff that is to be fried in the hot frying medium.
Desirably foaming is such that a foam with small average gas bubble size of about 0.05 to 1.5 cm develops when the product is heated. Preferably this foam covers 80 to 100% of the frying pan surface. Also preferred is that the foam is not fading immediately but lasts at maximum surface coverage for several seconds, preferably about 15 to 30 seconds, to give a user the time to put frying stuff like meat in the hot frying medium.
Moreover there is a desire among a group of consumers for frying products which do not show browning upon heating but which maintain their yellow-gold colour, even at increased temperatures of for example 160 to 190° C.
The colour of a food product, used as a frying medium, can be determined by eye or any other suitable method that is available.
In view of increased awareness among some consumers regarding health and naturalness, these consumers seem to appreciate the maintenance of the yellow colour during frying, in contrast to the often resulting brown or even brown-black colour of many known frying products at increased temperatures.
The increased desire for natural products is also demonstrated by the wish of consumers for food products which are essentially free of additives. Known products like margarine often contain on their packaging material a list of added ingredients such as emulsifiers, flavour components, acidifying agents, stabilisers and the like.
The identification on a product package of these components as additives is often required by national law. In an ingredient list all added ingredients; i.e. those not present naturally in the basic ingredients are summarised. Such law for example exists in Germany, France, The Netherlands.
Ingredients mentioned on this list alert the consumer to the presence of non-natural ingredients. Therefore it is considered that a commercial benefit can be obtained for products that do not have many non-naturally present additives listed on the package.
In summary there is a desire for squeezable or pourable food products which are suitable for shallow frying and which show all the above-indicated characteristics i.e.
a) physical storage stability
b) low spattering
c) foaming as a signal function
d) gold-yellow colour even when heated to high temperatures
e) as little added ingredients on the package as possible.
The prior art discloses products which fulfil part of these characteristics, however none of the products disclosed in the art relates to products which show all these characteristics.
For example GB-A-1,333,938 discloses that oil separation of a water in oil emulsion can be at least partly overcome by incorporating in the emulsion an emulsion-stabilising amount of gas bubbles. However the disclosed products comprise skim milk and it is taught that the optimum stability is obtained by the addition of emulsifiers. These products are believed to show strong browning upon heating and to be less attractive for certain groups of consumers who do not appreciate products with added emulsifier on the package.
Also the spattering and foaming behaviour of these products is believed to be unsatisfactory as these products do not comprise anti-spattering agents.
NL-A-7112119 relates to pourable margarines which have improved stability against oil separation and comprise phosphatides or derivatives thereof to improve spattering behaviour in frying.
According to the examples and the teaching of the description, emulsifiers such as monoglycerides in an amount of about 0.2 wt %, are added to further increase the stability of these products. Nothing is disclosed about the foaming properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,142 discloses a squeezable spread comprising lecithin.
EP-A-253,429 relates to a surface active composition comprising phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine and at least 3% lysophosphatidylethanolamine and the phosphatide containing composition is further characterised by a specific degree of hydrolysis. The compositions disclosed in the example comprise 1 wt % whey solids which will lead to considerable, undesired, browning.
Furthermore commercial products are known which comprise Bolec ZT
(tm)
as anti-spattering agent in amounts of for example 0.35 wt %. This amount of a native soy lecithin was found to lead to products which showed considerable oil separation of about
Bauer-Plank Christina
De Vries Isabella Christina
Fabian Juergen Heinz
Van Den Berg Ton
Van Dieren Frank
Lipton division of Conopco, Inc.
McGowan, Jr. Gerard J.
Paden Carolyn
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