MXPA02010577A - Production of improved cereal grain or cereal flour. - Google Patents

Abstract

Cereal flours, in particular wheat flour and maize flour with good properties for application in chapati, respectively in ugali can be made by a heat treatment at 100 to 350 C for 10 120 sec, while agitating it slightly. The grains so obtained can be milled and the flour resulting from the milling can be blended with conventional flours. Applying the process to maize grains results in novel products.

Description

Production of improved cereal grains or improved cereal flour Description of the invention The present invention relates to improved grains and cereal flour and, in particular, to a synergistic mixture of flour and flour obtained from cereal grains treated with high temperatures, suitable for particular, but not exclusively, use for flat breads, such as the preparation of "chapati", and a process to obtain it. According to another embodiment of the same invention, the corn products can be obtained with an improved yield for use in "ugali". The cereal grains are conventionally converted into flour for the preparation of various food products such as breads, cakes, biscuits or cookies, and flat breads such as "tin plate" and so on. The flour is obtained by passing the grains through different types of mills such as a horizontal mill, hammer mill, disk mill, and so on. The improvement of the water absorption capacity of the flour helps to make the finished product softer and to improve the attraction towards the consumer. Other applications for these flours, in particular maize flour, are their REF: 142509 use in: porridge; "ugali"; snacks (such as "pumplings"); knódels; french fries, torillas; Enchiladas or tacos. The "chapati" is a well-known product in the Asian culture which nowadays becomes more and more popular outside Asia too, a "chapati" needs to fulfill a variety of quality requirements in order to be considered as acceptable by the consumer. For example, the "chapati" needs to be soft and the softness (flexibility) and the ease of tearing or splitting (ripping value) of a "chapati" (as a criterion for stiffness) must be correct to provide the "sheet metal" "the desired product characteristics. In addition, the known production processes for preparing a "t-sheet" frequently lack the ease of kneading the dough, while the manner in which the dough resulting from these known processes can be layered is also often very difficult. In addition, inflating the layered mass resulting from these known processes is also often insufficient. In addition, it would be very beneficial if the softness (flexibility) and ease of tearing (ripping value) of the "veneer ti" could be increased in a period of 4 hours after baking. In this way, the basic objective of the present invention is to improve the water absorption capacity of the wheat flour while maintaining the texture and taste of the final product in an economical way. The "ugali" is a traditional food product in the region of Africa. This is based on corn and is done by adding approximately 20 to 50% by weight of a corn flour to cooking water after which the cooking continues for approximately 30 minutes until the product is well cooked. So far for the preparation of "ugali" traditional corn flours were used. However, these traditional corn flours have a variety of disadvantages. For example, the appearance (color) and flavor of traditional corn flour are not very attractive, their structure is very thick, which leads to non-homogeneous areas in the final product, which results in insufficient smoothness and uniformity of the "ugali", its water absorption capacity is not very high, which leads to a less easy processing of the corn flour during the preparation of "ugali" (in particular, agitation problems will occur due to the high resistance during the agitation), while also the cooking times are a bit long. In addition, the known corn flours have a limited shelf life, in particular due to their sensitivity to oxidation, which leads to rancidity problems during storage.

Another objective of the invention is to obtain an improved corn flour and a process to make it possible to overcome the above problems. Another objective of the invention is to obtain a synergistic mixture of flour, which would provide especially flat breads having good flavor, softness / flexibility, ease of tearing, aroma and related characteristics when mixing flour obtained from cereal grains treated with high temperatures. Another objective of the present invention is to provide a process for treating cereal grains at high temperatures in a controlled manner and obtaining a flour from the heat-treated grains that would be suitable for mixing with cereal flour to improve its water absorption capacity. and in this way obtain a superior final product. According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for the preparation of an improved flour comprising flour together with 1 to 40% by weight of flour obtained by a treatment with high temperatures of one or more cereal grains in particular of grains that have a bulk density of up to 0.75 kg / 1. Therefore, the invention deals, in the first instance, with a process for the production of improved grains or cereal flour where i) the cereal grains are heated to a temperature of 100-350 ° C for a period of 10 to 120 seconds under light agitation ii) and, optionally, to grind the grains obtained. Blends of cereal flours can then be made by mixing 1-40% of the grains / flour obtained above with ordinary cereal grains or flours, which have not been subjected to heat treatment. According to a preferred aspect of the invention, there is provided a process for obtaining improved grains or flour comprising the heat treatment of the grains at a temperature of 100-350 ° C using a solid, in particular sand and / or salt as a heat conductor, for a period of 10 to 120 seconds under light agitation and optionally grinding the grains; These products can be mixed with ordinary cereals as described above. According to a more preferred aspect of the invention there is provided a process for obtaining improved grains or flour comprising pre-soaking the grains in water and / or other liquids before heat treating the grains at a temperature of 100-350 ° C during a period of 10 to 120 seconds under light agitation and optionally grinding the grains; Naturally, the products thus obtained can be mixed again with ordinary cereals as described above. The pre-soaking conditions are typically: soaked in a quantity of water, which is 2-3 times the amount of the grains at 20-60 ° C, for 1-6 hours. According to a more preferred aspect of the invention, there is provided a process for obtaining improved grains or wheat flour that are suitable for preparing flat breads comprising heat treating wheat grains at a temperature of 200-350 ° C using sand as a heat conduit, for a period of 10 to 75 seconds under slight agitation optionally followed by the grinding of the grains. The products thus obtained can be mixed in amounts of 5-15% with ordinary cereals. In the above mixing processes it is beneficial to subject the mixed product to the milling to produce the flour of the mixed grains / flour and the cereals. Normal grains and grains treated with high temperatures can be mixed and ground or the flours obtained from these grains can be mixed. Alternatively, anyone's flour and grains from the other can be mixed and ground.

The treatment with high temperatures of the grains is carried out in any suitable roaster, fluidized bed and preferably in a sand roaster where the grains are heated together with the sand. A very suitable equipment for roasting sand is a rotating drum, filled with sand, which can be heated. Treatment with high temperatures can cause starch damage. This will happen, for example, to a degree of 25-80% when wheat is used, while the degradation of gluten will be almost 100%. The cereal grains that can be selected for heat treatment are wheat, barley, corn, rice, sorghum, pearl millet or other millets or a mixture thereof. The application of the process of the invention to the corn grains leads to new maize grains which are characterized by a seed density measured according to the subsequently described method of 0.9-1.1 kg / 1 and which are substantially free of seed formation. rosettes The preparation of rosettes is a well-known process. Here the grains of corn are heated and the intention of the heat treatment is that the seeds of the grains explode (that is, that they open violently). However, in the processes it is desired to prevent the corn kernels from bursting and therefore the products are substantially free from the formation of rosettes.

Substantially free means that 5% by weight, preferably less than 2% by weight and more preferably less than 0.5% by weight of the corn explodes in rosettes. The density of corn seeds has been measured by carrying a volume of corn seeds (V) in a graduated cup, filled with ethanol. The beaker graduated with ethanol has been weighed before and after the addition of the corn seeds. In this way, the mass (M) of the corn seeds is known, even as the volume (V) of the corn seeds.

DENSITY corn seeds = M / V = g / 1 The corn product obtained in this way can be milled by applying a standard grind and thus a novel corn flour is obtained which can be characterized by a particle size of 20 to 1500 microns and a water absorption capacity measured by the method described in copending patent application EP 00203401.5 of 150 to 250% by weight, in particular 150 to 250% by weight. The corn flour obtained will contain a certain, but not limited, amount of damaged starch. In general, this amount will be less than 7.5% by weight and in particular this amount will be limited to 1.5 to 7.5% by weight. This damaged starch can not be completely absent because a certain amount is required to obtain the capacity of water absorption desired. The damaged starch content can be measured by the enzymatic method described in the above EP patent application. The corn flour obtained in this way can be made with ordinary corn flour (in this way with a corn flour obtained without using the heat treatment). Suitably, 1 to 40% by weight of the novel corn flour is therefore mixed with 99 to 60% by weight of the ordinary corn flour. The use of this mixture makes it possible to prepare a "ugali" with a similar performance as the "ugali" known however using less than corn flour or preparing an "ugali" with the same content of corn flour as the traditional "ugali" however with improved performance compared with the traditional "ugali". Therefore, the invention also deals with "ugali" comprising 25 to 50% by weight of a gelatinized mixture of the corn flours according to the invention and the rest of water. The details of the invention, its objectives and advantages will be more apparent from the following description made in relation to exemplary non-limiting modalities.

EXAMPLES 1 - . 1 - 4. The preparation of wheat grains treated with high temperatures: The wheat grains were fed into the sand roaster which was maintained at a temperature of 250 ° C for 40 seconds under continuous agitation. The roasted beans are cleaned and ground in a disc mill. The flour obtained in this way was mixed at 10% (example 1) and 20% (example 2) by weight with ordinary wheat flour. Wheat grains having a moisture content of 15-20% were fed into the sand roaster which was maintained at a temperature of 250 ° C for 60 seconds under continuous agitation. The roasted beans were cleaned and ground in a disc mill. The flour obtained in this manner was mixed at 10% (example 3) and 20% (example 4) by weight with ordinary wheat flour.

Evaluation of the final product: The flour obtained from the mixture of roasted wheat and ordinary wheat (10% + 90% and 20% + 80%) was compared with the flour obtained from ordinary wheat. The characteristics of the "chapati" obtained were studied.

Table 1 The data show that the mixture of roasted wheat flour obtained by roasting the grains either dry or with a previous soaking to increase the moisture level gives a higher benefit to the obtained paste and the quality of the "Tin plate" made of it. - . 5-12. Inflated corn and sorghum were obtained by heating the beans in a commercially available rosette machine. The apparent density of the grains before and after the treatment is given in table 2.

Table 2: Apparent density of untreated and treated grains The grains were then ground, Properties of the mixed flours The corn flour obtained in this way was mixed at 5% (example 5), 10% * (and 6), 15% (example 7) and 20% (example 8) by weight of the flour of ordinary wheat. The data is shown in table 3.

Table 3: The absorption of water is therefore improved by adding the flour of the heat-treated grains. The sorghum flour obtained by the heat treatment and the milling was mixed at 5% (example 9), 10% * (example 10), 15% (example 11) and 20% (example 12) by weight of wheat flour Ordinary. The data is shown in table 3.

Table 4: Sensitive analysis of the "Chapati" The characteristics of the "chapati" made from example 8 and example 12 were studied and compared with the "chapati" made from the control wheat flour. The data are shown in table 5. One expert group of 14 members evaluated the "chapati" and gave a record on the 0-10 scale. For sensitive attributes of flexibility and flavor, higher logs are desirable and indicate more flexibility and a sweeter flavor. For attributes sensitive to chewability and tear, a higher register is not desirable and indicates that the product is difficult to chew and tear.

Table 5: The "chapati" made from the flour of the invention in this way has sensitivity attributes superior to the "chapati" made from ordinary wheat flour. The data presented show that the mixing of wheat flour with flour obtained from cereal grains having a bulk density of 0.03 to 0.75 kg / 1 with wheat flour gives a higher benefit to the pasta and the quality of the "chapati" obtained . 13. The process of example 1 was repeated, however using Kenyan corn grain as cereal. The heating was carried out as indicated in table 6 (temperature / time). The properties of the products obtained are also indicated. The corn flour was mixed with untreated corn flour (conventional corn flour) in an amount of 25% by weight. The "ugali" was prepared from this mixture, using 30% by weight of corn flour and 70% by weight of water. The processing was easier than when conventional corn flour was applied only, while the flour and ugali yield was better than for traditional products.

Table 6 The results after soaking the corn grains for 2 hours and drying overnight.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (13)

1. Claims Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A process for the production of an improved cereal grain or improved cereal flour, characterized in that: i) the cereal grains are heated from 100 to 350 ° C for 10 to 120 seconds while stirring slightly in the presence of a solid heat conductor which is sand and / or salt, ii) and optionally the grains obtained are milled.
2. 2. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the grains are previously soaked with water or other liquid before the heat treatment.
3. 3. A process for the production of an improved cereal grain or improved cereal flour, characterized in that: i) the cereal grains are heated from 100 to 350 ° C for 10 to 120 seconds while stirring slightly, ii) optionally the Grains obtained are milled, and where the grains are previously soaked with water or other liquid before heat treatment.
4. 4. The process according to claim 3, characterized in that the cereal grains are heated in the presence of a solid heat conductor.
5. 5. The process according to claim 4, characterized in that the solid heat conductor is sand and / or salt.
6. 6. The process according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the heating is carried out in a sand roaster. The process according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cereal grain is selected from wheat, corn, rice, barley, sorghum, pearl millet or other millets. 8. The process according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the process is carried out at a temperature of 200-350 ° C using sand as a heat conductor, for a period of 10 to 75 seconds while stirring slightly . 9. The process according to any of the preceding claims for the production of an improved cereal flour, characterized in that 1 to 40% by weight "of the product obtained as a result of the process according to any of the previous claims is mixed with 99 to 60% by weight of a cereal flour that has been obtained from a grain of cereal that has not been subjected to heat treatment according to any of the preceding claims. 10. A corn kernel, characterized in that it has: i) a seed density of 0.9-1.1 kg / 1 ii) and which is substantially free of rosette formation. 11. A corn flour, characterized in that it has: i) a particle size of 20 to 1500 microns. ii) a water absorption capacity of 150 to 350% by weight. iii) an amount of damaged starch less than
7. 7.5% by weight, preferably 1.5 to 7.5% by weight. 12. A mixture of corn flours, characterized in that it comprises 1 to 40% by weight of the corn flour according to claim 11 or obtained by the process according to any of claims 1 to 9 and 99 to 60% in weight of ordinary corn flour, which is not treated with heat. 13. An "ugali", characterized in that it comprises 25 to 50% by weight of a gelatinized mixture with the composition according to claim 12 and the rest of water.