JP2024143010A - Method for producing powdered or granular food - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To improve or eliminate the deterioration of flavor and aroma caused by heat in flavor ingredients and the like during the granulation process of powdered or granular foods, to improve commercial value and provide new products by ensuring the quality of flavor and aroma, and to reduce the amount of raw materials used. Also, to provide a manufacturing method that can eliminate uneven distribution (unevenness) between granulated products and post-mixed materials that occurs during post-mixing, improve food quality such as taste and product appearance by achieving uniformity of ingredients, greatly improve handling workability such as scattering of fine powder and powder bite, and greatly improve fluidity.
[Solution] A first material obtained by granulating a first raw material component by a fluidized bed granulation method is post-mixed with a second material obtained by mixing and adhering a second raw material component to a porous starch via an oil and fat component. As the second raw material component, one that may deteriorate by heat or one that contains a flavor raw material component is selected.
[Selected Figure] Figure 1

Description

This invention relates to a method for producing powdered or granular foods such as soup foods.

For example, powdered or granular foods are known as instant food soups such as curry soup and ramen noodles, and the raw ingredients are granulated into powder or granules of uniform shape and size to improve the fluidity and solubility of the powder. A common granulation method is the fluidized bed granulation method, in which hot air is blown in from the bottom of the granulation chamber, the powder is fluidized (fluidized bed), and a binder solution is sprayed onto the powder, causing the raw ingredients to grow into granules of an appropriate size by agglomerating or coating them. In this manufacturing method, the hot air also functions as a dryer, and the drying efficiency is high, so it is widely used.

However, in the food industry, so-called flavor ingredients are often used to improve the aroma and taste of food and beverages, but most flavor ingredients are spice-based products that contain ingredients that may deteriorate when exposed to heat, and there is a risk that the flavor and aroma will be reduced by hot air. Furthermore, since flavor ingredients and spice-based ingredients often contain fine powder due to grinding, if these ingredients are added after the granulation of other ingredients, problems arise such as uneven distribution (non-uniformity) between the granulated product and the later-added ingredients.

In powdered or granular foods, uneven distribution (unevenness) of ingredients, including fine powders, can lead to unevenness in the quality of the food, such as its taste, as well as problems with handling, such as scattering of fine powder or powder bite, and a number of other problems with appearance, etc.

JP 2020-65478 A JP 2012-65593 A

The problem that this invention aims to solve is to improve or eliminate the deterioration of flavor and aroma caused by heat of flavor ingredients during the granulation process of powdered or granular foods, as described above. This ensures the quality of flavor and aroma, thereby improving product value and providing new products, and also makes it possible to reduce the amount of raw materials used. It also aims to eliminate uneven distribution (unevenness) of the granulated product and post-mixed materials that occurs during post-mixing. The present invention aims to provide a manufacturing method that significantly improves the manufacturing process, thereby achieving uniformity of ingredients and improving food quality such as taste and the appearance of the product, significantly improving handling workability such as scattering of fine powder and powder bite, and further significantly improving the fluidity (reducing sluggishness) of raw material ingredients with poor fluidity.

In order to solve the above problem, the invention of claim 1 relates to a method for producing a powdered or granular food, characterized in that, when obtaining a food product made by mixing multiple powdered or granular raw ingredients, a first material made by granulating a first raw ingredient by a fluidized bed granulation method is post-mixed with a second material made by mixing and adhering a second raw ingredient to porous starch via an oil or fat content.

The invention of claim 2 relates to the method for producing the powdered or granular food product of claim 1, in which the second ingredient contains an ingredient that may be deteriorated by heat.

The invention of claim 3 relates to a method for producing a powdered or granular food according to claim 1, in which the second ingredient contains a flavor ingredient.

Furthermore, the invention of claim 4 relates to the method for producing the powdered or granular food according to claim 1, in which the powdered or granular food is a soup food.

According to the invention of claim 1, when obtaining a food product made by mixing multiple powdered or granular raw ingredients, the first material made by granulating the first raw ingredient by a fluidized bed granulation method is post-mixed with the second material made by mixing and adhering the second raw ingredient to porous starch via oil and fat, so that uneven distribution (non-uniformity) of the granulated product and the post-added raw ingredients that occurs when mixing by post-addition can be eliminated. In particular, according to this invention, the second material made by mixing and adhering the second raw ingredient to porous starch via oil and fat is post-mixed, so that the manufacturing process of the second raw ingredient can be significantly improved to achieve uniformity of the ingredients, improve food quality such as taste and appearance of the product, and significantly improve workability such as handling, such as scattering of fine powder and powder bite. Furthermore, the fluidity of raw ingredients with poor fluidity can be significantly improved (reduction of sluggishness).

In addition, according to the invention of claim 2, raw material components that may be deteriorated by heat can be post-mixed as second raw material components, greatly expanding the options for raw material components.

Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 3, the flavor ingredient can be post-mixed as the second ingredient without being affected by heat, which greatly expands the options for ingredient and makes it possible to improve the quality of the flavor ingredient, such as its taste.

The present invention can therefore provide a method for producing the powdered or granular food, as in claim 4, that is particularly advantageous for soup food.

FIG. 2 is a schematic process diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a curry soup blend according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a cheese potage soup blend according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a soy sauce ramen soup blend according to a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a miso ramen soup blend according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a product particle size distribution diagram of the curry soup of the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a product particle size distribution diagram of the cheese potage soup of the second embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to examples. As shown in the schematic process diagram of Figure 1, when preparing a food product made by mixing multiple powdered or granular raw ingredients, the present invention is characterized in that a first material made by granulating the first raw ingredient by a fluidized bed granulation method is post-mixed with a second material made by mixing and adhering a second raw ingredient to porous starch via an oil or fat content.

As mentioned above, for powdered or granular foods such as curry soup or ramen soup, the fluidized bed granulation method has traditionally been widely used, in which a binder solution is sprayed onto a fluidized bed where powder is fluidized by hot air, and the powder grows into granules through aggregation or coating. However, in the food industry, so-called flavoring materials and spices, etc., are often used to enhance the aroma and taste of food and drink, and since these are crushed and may deteriorate due to heat, they have been added after fluidized bed granulation to produce the product. However, because there is a lot of fine powder, there is a problem of uneven distribution (non-uniformity) between the granulated product and the post-added ingredients.

In this invention, the process is divided into a step of granulating the first raw material component into a first material by a fluidized bed granulation method, and a step of obtaining the second raw material component from the raw material components as a second material in which the second raw material component is mixed and attached to porous starch via fat and oil, and then the two are mixed together. The second raw material component can be selected based on properties such as those that may be deteriorated by heat, flavor raw material components that are easily affected by heat, and fine powders and fine powders. The raw material component can be post-mixed as the second raw material component, greatly expanding the options for raw material components.

The process of granulating the first raw material component into the first material by fluidized bed granulation can be carried out by a conventional method.

The mixing and adhering process of the second raw material component is carried out on the porous starch via an oil and fat component. For example, a typical example of the porous starch is the starch hydrolyzate "Pineflow" (product name: Matsutani Chemical Industry), which is used as a powder base material, and edible rice oil, beef tallow, etc. can be used as the oil and fat component. As mentioned above, by going through the mixing and adhering process, the options for the second raw material component can be greatly expanded. In addition, the range of amounts of the second raw material component can be freely selected. An appropriate mixing device can be selected depending on the raw material components and amounts, etc.

Figure 2 is a table showing the blending ratios of the curry soup of Example 1 of the present invention. In the following example, the second ingredient is selected as the flavor ingredient. In addition to the first and second ingredients, spices and flavorings are added as additional ingredients. To the right of the blending table, a blending example of the conventional fluidized bed granulation method is shown as Comparative Example 1.

Figure 3 is a mixing ratio table for cheese potage (soup) according to the second embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a mixing ratio table for soy sauce ramen soup according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 5 is a mixing ratio table for miso ramen soup according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. To the right of each mixing table, comparative examples 2, 3, and 4 are shown examples of mixing using a conventional fluidized bed granulation method.

As can be seen from the mixing ratio tables in Figures 2 to 5, the mixing ratio of the second ingredient (flavor ingredient) in the examples of the present invention, excluding the attachment base material, is significantly reduced compared to conventional products. This indicates that it is possible to reduce the amount of the second ingredient (flavor ingredient), suggesting the possibility of improving the efficiency and flavor (taste) as well as reducing costs.

Concerning the particle size distribution of soup products, Figure 6 is a particle size distribution diagram for curry soup, and Figure 7 is a particle size distribution diagram for cheese potage. As shown in the figures, in Examples 1 and 2 of the present invention in which the second raw material component of the raw material components is mixed and attached to porous starch via fat and oil, it can be seen that there is a significant reduction in fine powder (approximately 150 μm or less in Example 1, and approximately 300 μm or less in Example 2) compared to Comparative Examples 1 and 2 of conventional products that do not use a mixed attachment product. By suppressing and reducing fine powder, it is possible to improve the appearance of the product, suppress dusting during mass filling and individual packaging, improve workability such as handling and the occurrence of sealing failures due to dusting and dusting, and significantly improve fluidity (reduction of sluggishness).

Furthermore, by using the adsorptive granulation method of the present invention, it becomes possible to use raw materials that would otherwise be used (raw materials containing a large amount of fine powder), and the increased choice of raw materials makes it possible to provide added value.

Claims (4)

In obtaining a food product by mixing a plurality of powdered or granular raw material ingredients,
A first material obtained by granulating the first raw material component by a fluidized bed granulation method is
A method for producing a powdered or granular food, comprising adhering a second raw material component to a substrate having a starch hydrolysate having adsorbed thereon fats and oils, and then mixing the resulting granulated second material. The method for producing a powdered or granular food product according to claim 1, wherein the second ingredient contains an ingredient that may be deteriorated by heat. The method for producing a powdered or granular food product according to claim 1, wherein the second ingredient contains a flavor ingredient. 2. The method for producing a powdered or granular food according to claim 1, wherein the powdered or granular food is a soup food.

Images