Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Surface coated – fluid encapsulated – laminated solid...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-08
2003-09-30
Wong, Leslie (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Surface coated, fluid encapsulated, laminated solid...
C426S103000, C426S277000, C426S573000, C426S580000, C426S583000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06627236
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to dairy product capsules comprising an envelope inside which said dairy product is confined, and to a process for manufacturing these capsules.
The coating of yogurt in a dietary polymer (sodium alginate) by the technique of dripping yogurt into alginate solution is already known (Japanese patent application in the name of Meiji Milk Prod. Co. Ltd., published under No. 62-130 645): it is indicated in said document that spherical capsules (yogurt beads) are thus obtained.
However, the yogurt capsules obtained according to said Japanese patent application have many drawbacks which considerably limit their possibilities for industrial and commercial exploitation:
it is difficult to coat a fluid dairy product in capsules: all the examples mentioned in the above-mentioned Japanese patent application recommend using a yogurt whose viscosity is high, greater than 2000 mPa·s at 10° C.;
their alginate envelope, which is readily deformable, does not allow their spherical shape to be maintained. They are also very fragile; they break so easily that their handling, in particular during manufacture and packaging, is made very difficult, if not impossible, at an industrial scale;
they are subject to the phenomenon of syneresis, i.e. the exudation of liquid at the surface of the capsule. This phenomenon results in surface irregularities, and also creates an environment that is favorable to microbial growth, which is detrimental to the storage of the beads.
To overcome these drawbacks, it is proposed, in patent application 62 -130 645, to immerse the capsules, as they are formed, into an aseptic or antiseptic solution or a sugar solution, and to leave them therein in order to preserve their spherical shape.
The Inventors thus set themselves the aim of providing strong, stable dairy product capsules which do not need to be immersed in a storage solution, and which are also found by consumers to have a pleasant mouthfeel, and investigated coating polymers which would allow this aim to be achieved.
They have thus found that the selection of coating polymers on the basis of their breaking force makes it possible to obtain capsules that have the desired properties.
One subject of the present invention is thus a capsule comprising an envelope comprising at least one polymer for dietary use, which is reactive with multi-valent ions, inside which is confined a dairy product, characterized in that said capsule has a breaking force of greater than 0.5 N and preferably between 0.5 N and 1.5 N.
For the purposes of the present invention, the expression “polymer which is reactive with multivalent ions” means a polymer for dietary use which can react chemically with multivalent ions (in the present case, these are ions which have lost more than one electron) to form a crosslinked network (irreversible chemical crosslinking) in the form of a gel. In particular, such polymers comprise guluronic, galacturonic or glucuronic units, more generally uronic units, allowing the chelation of multivalent ions, in particular calcium ions which are present in large amount in dairy products.
Polymers for dietary use which may be used to prepare capsules in accordance with the invention include, for example, alginates, gellans and pectins, or mixtures of these polymers.
The capsules in accordance with the invention advantageously comprise at least 40%, preferably at least 45% and advantageously at least 60%, by weight of dairy product relative to the total weight of the capsule.
The dairy product encapsulated in the polymer envelope for dietary use described above may be a fermented or unfermented dairy product, and may be chosen in particular from yogurts, drinking yogurts, fermented milks, fromages frais, dessert creams and/or dairy mousses. Its texture may be very fluid (dairy product such as a drinking yogurt) or viscous (dairy product such as a stirred yogurt).
The capsules in accordance with the invention are prepared by placing the dairy product to be encapsulated in contact with a bath comprising, in aqueous solution, at least one polymer for dietary use which is reactive with multivalent ions as defined above. The capsules formed are then recovered and may optionally be rinsed and then dried.
Depending on the nature of the dairy product which it is desired to encapsulate, two main variants of the process for preparing the capsules in accordance with the invention may be carried out.
According to a first variant, the placing in contact is carried out by dripping the dairy product to be encapsulated into the bath of dietary polymer.
To obtain capsules having the desired properties, the polymer which will be chosen in this case is one which has, as an aqueous 1% solution, a viscosity (measured at 25° C. and at 60 rpm) of less than 200 mPa·s and preferably less than 100 mPa·s.
Said polymer is advantageously selected from the group consisting or:
highly gelling alanates with a molecular weight of less than or equal to 100 000 (commonly referred to as depolymerized alginates); these alginates are preferably selected from the group consisting of sodium alginates and potassium alginates;
weakly acetylated gellans, and
pectins with a degree of esterification of less than or equal to 20.
For the purposes of the present invention, the expression “highly gelling ” means alginates whose guluronic acid content is greater than 50%, and the expression “weakly acetylated” means gellans whose maximum degree of substitution with acetyl groups is 0.03. As regards the degree of esterification of pectins, this corresponds to the percentage of galacturonic units of the pectins which bear a methoxyl group.
By way of example of implementation of this first variant of the process in accordance with the invention, the drops of dairy product may be formed using a rigid tube, the aperture diameter of which governs the diameter of the drops (typically from 2 to 15 mm) and which is located a few centimeters above the bath, for example 5-10 cm above it, the drop height of the drops being adjusted so that the dairy product fully enters the bath and so that the drops have a substantially spherical shape. To do this, the viscosity of the bath should be relatively low, preferably less than 200 mPa·s at 50 rpm.
The dairy product is advantageously at a temperature of from 4 to 10° C. and the bath is at a temperature of from 5 to 50° C. approximately. However, the bath temperature should not exceed 45° C. in the event that the dairy product is a yogurt, so as not to degrade the bacteria present in the yogurt.
The drops of dairy product are maintained in the bath for a time which is sufficient for a film of gel to form around these drops, by diffusion of the multivalent ions, in particular of the calcium ions present in the dairy product, this gel film being rigid enough to allow the capsules thus formed to be handled. The thickness of this gel film is typically from 0.1 to 0.5 mm and is set by the time of immersion in the bath (from 2 to 20 minutes approximately).
According to a second variant, the placing in contact is carried out by coextruding the dairy product with a solution of said polymer for dietary use. This variant allows the use of polymer solutions of high viscosity for which the technique of dripping the dairy product into the polymer solution can no longer be used. The viscosity of these solutions may be greater than 200 mPa·s.
Any one of the coextrusion techniques that are known per se for encapsulating food products, in particular pasty food products, may be used. By way of example, mention will be made of the techniques disclosed in patent DE 3 432 923, in international patent application WO 92/14544, in patent DE 2 402 415 or in the book:
Microcapsule Processing and Technology
, Marcel Dekker, Inc., Ch. 7, 59-63 (1979).
A jacketed tube is used: the dairy product is conveyed in the center, and the solution comprising at least one polymer for dietary use which is reactive with multivalent ions is conveyed at the periphery. Once they leave the inner tube, the drops of dairy product are immediately recovered from
Barbeau Jean-Yves
Gauthier Pierre
Lam David
Noble Olivier
Compagnie Gervais Danone
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Wong Leslie
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