GB977238A - Improvements in or relating to protein food products - Google Patents

Abstract

In making a protein food simulating natural ground or chopped meat, spun edible protein fibres are impregnated with an additive comprising a binder, a flavouring agent, a colouring agent, an oil and/or fat and/or an emulsifier, then heated, e.g. in steam or by broiling, baking or boiling in water, to set-up the fibres and then ground or chopped and lightly (partially) fried or lightly fried and ground or chopped. The fried food may then be dried. The protein food may contain fried and unfried ground impregnated fibres. Frying may be effected by partly or completely immersing the set-up fibres in cooking oil or fat at a temperature between 250 and 450 DEG F. The protein in the fibres may be a vegetable protein such as soy, safflower, maize, peanut or pea protein or an animal protein such as casein. The binder may comprise a heat-coagulable protein such as dried egg albumen and, if desired, toasted defatted soybean flour, fresh wheat gluten and hydrolysed vegetable protein. The flavouring agent may comprise meat, e.g. beef, flavouring monosodium glutamate, sodium chloride, yellow onion powder, brown sugar and spices. The colouring agent may be a red dye and liquid smoke. Specified oils for use in the additive are: soybean cotton seed, maize, coconut, palm kernel, olive, peanut, sesame, safflower and cod liver oil. Specified fats are butter and tallow. The oils and fats may be hydrogenated. Specified emulsifiers are: mono- and di-glyercides of stearic, palmitic and oleic acid, sucrose partial palmitate or oleate, dodecyl glyceryl ether sulphates, monostearin phosphate, glyceryl lactopalmitate and polyoxyethylene ethers of sorbitan monostearate and distearate. The fibres may be spun by extruding a dispersion of the edible protein, in water containing 5 to 10%, by weight, of dissolved sodium hydroxide, through dies or spinnerets into an acidic coagulating bath and then neutralized to a pH value between 4.0 and 7.0, e.g. in an aqueous solution of an alkali or alkaline earth metal sulphite or bisulphite. The fibres may be stretched to elongate them by 50 to 400% and allowed to age, e.g. for at least one week, before being neutralized. They may be heated and/or treated with a peroxide, such as hydrogen peroxide, to improve their flavour. Alkali and alkaline earth metal sulphates and bisulphites may be added during or after impregnation of the fibres to tenderize them.