WO2012110972A1

WO2012110972A1 - A method of producing an extruded breadcrumb coating for food products

Info

Publication number: WO2012110972A1
Application number: PCT/IB2012/050704
Authority: WO
Inventors: Daniel Fine
Original assignee: FINECRUMB FOOD COATINGS Pty Ltd
Current assignee: FINECRUMB FOOD COATINGS Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2011-02-16
Filing date: 2012-02-16
Publication date: 2012-08-23
Anticipated expiration: 2013-08-16
Also published as: ZA201201404B

Abstract

A method of producing extruded breadcrumb coating for food products, includes the steps of making a dough mixture (12) having a predetermined amount of water; extruding the dough in an extruder-cooker to form bread-like cooked pellets (16); allowing the pellets to cool (20); and milling the pellets to form breadcrumb coating (22). The amount of water added to the dough mixture is such that the moisture content by weight of the breadcrumb coating after milling, is between 12% and 22% at room temperature. The dough mixture is made by mixing the water together with a farinaceous material, a gelling agent in a predetermined amount to form a gel with approximately 50% of the water but not all of the water, leaving some water in an ungelled state; and a thickening agent in a predetermined amount to thicken the water which is in an ungelled state.

Description

A METHOD OF PRODUCING AN EXTRUDED BREADCRUMB

COATING FOR FOOD PRODUCTS

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a method of producing an extruded breadcrumb coating for food products.

BACKGROUND TO INVENTION

Breadcrumbs are traditionally obtained by staling baked bread. Baked bread is typically produced from baked dough which includes a mixture of flour, water and yeast. Other ingredients may be mixed into the dough, such as, for example, sugars, proteins, fats, spices, emulsifiers, improvers, flavouring and other additives. The dough is typically processed in a number of well known procedures including mixing, fermenting, punching, scaling, rounding, benching, proofing and finally baking the dough. Baked bread typically has a moisture content of between 30 % and 40 %. In order to produce breadcrumbs, the baked bread is allowed to stale to a moisture content of roughly 20% or more. The stale bread is then placed into a hammer mill which breaks the bread into crumbs and the crumbs are then dried. The above described process for baking bread and for producing breadcrumb from baked bread is thus both time consuming and energy intensive.

An improvement in the production of breadcrumbs which reduces the production time and cost involves extruding the dough through an extrusion cooking apparatus (referred to as an "extruder-cooker") which extrudes and cooks the dough. The dough which is fed through a die of an extruder-cooker, typically has a moisture content of roughly 18%. After being forced through the die, the dough emerges from an output end of the extruder-cooker to form an elongate sausage-shaped product which is cut into sections to form "bread like" cooked pellets. The cooked pellets are fed into a hammer mill and broken into crumbs, in a so called "wet milling process", and then dried thereafter. Alternatively, the pellets can be dried first and then fed into the hammer mill thereafter, in a so-called "dry milling process". Once breadcrumbs have been produced by the extrusion process described hereinabove, the breadcrumbs are then used to coat food products, such as, for example, chicken breasts, to form breadcrumb coated products. The breadcrumb coated food products are then typically flash fried, deep-fried, or baked and thereafter flash frozen.

The process of breadcrumb production using an extrusion process requires far less time, energy and drying than is required in the traditional breadcrumb producing process described hereinabove and constitutes an improvement over the traditional method of breadcrumb production from baked dough described hereinabove.

A known problem with the known extrusion process described hereinabove is that the breadcrumbs are required to be dried to a moisture content of 6% or less to prevent so- called "frosting" of the breadcrumb coated products during the freezing thereof. Frosting is an undesirable result of freezing of breadcrumbs which have a moisture content of more than 6 %. Frosting typically occurs when moisture within the breadcrumb coating is unevenly distributed causing visible undesirable uneven freezing or frosting of the moisture within the breadcrumbs. The visual appearance of 'frosted' breadcrumb is undesirable and unacceptable to end users. The process for coating food products to produce breadcrumb coated products typically requires a machine known as a dry crumb enrober. A dry crumb enrober comprises a conveyor on which the food products to be coated are conveyed; an upper bin arranged above the conveyor for holding and dropping a curtain of breadcrumbs onto the food products which pass on the conveyor under the upper bin; a lower bin arranged below the conveyor for collecting excess breadcrumbs which fail to adhere to the food products; and a screw conveyor for returning the excess breadcrumbs from the lower bin to the upper bin so as to continue the crumbing process. An example of a dry crumb enrober which is extensively used in the industry is known as a "Stein J crumb enrober" supplied by JBT Corporation of 70 West Madison, Suite 4400, Chicago, IL 60602, USA.

A known problem with the use of a dry crumb enrober is that breadcrumbs having a moisture content of greater than 10% are squashed Into a "dough-like emulsion" forming blockages in the screw conveyor preventing the return of the excess breadcrumbs from the lower bin to the upper bin.

As breadcrumb coated food products are sold by weight, it is desirable for breadcrumb coating to have a high moisture content above 12%, as an increase in the moisture content of the breadcrumb coating results in an increase in the weight and therefore the profitability of the breadcrumb coated food products.

A problem associated with a breadcrumb coating having a moisture content of above 12% is that, as stated above, breadcrumbs having a moisture content of greater than 10% are squashed into a "dough-like emulsion" and cause blockages in the screw conveyor of a dry crumb enrober preventing the return of the excess breadcrumbs from the lower bin to the upper bin.

A second problem associated with a breadcrumb coating having a relatively high moisture content is that, as stated above, a breadcrumb having a moisture content of higher than 6% forms undesirable frosting when frozen.

Any reference herein to "room temperature" must be interpreted to mean ambient temperature of between 15°C to 28 °C. Any reference herein to a "gel" must be interpreted to mean a colloid mixture in which molecules of a liquid are dispersed within a solid so as to form a three-dimensional cross-linked network structure within the liquid wherein the solid is the continuous phase and the liquid is the discontinuous phase.

Any reference in the specification to a "gelling agent" must be interpreted to mean a substance or composition which forms a gel in a liquid when mixed with the liquid. Any reference herein to a "thickening agent" must be interpreted to mean any substance or composition which increases the viscosity of a solution or liquid/solid mixture but which does not by itself form a gel in a liquid.

It is an object of this invention to ameliorate the problems described hereinabove with the production of an extruded breadcrumb coating having a moisture content above 12%.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

According to the invention there is provided a method of producing extruded breadcrumb coating for food products, the method including: preparing a dough mixture by mixing together a predetermined amount of water; a farinaceous material; a gelling agent in a predetermined quantity sufficient to form a gel with a predetermined amount of the water but not all of the water thereby leaving some of the water in a ungelled state; and a thickening agent in a predetermined quantity to thicken said water in the dough mixture which is in an ungelled state; extruding the dough mixture in an extrusion cooking apparatus to form at least partially cooked pellets; and milling the pellets to form breadcrumb coating, the moisture content by weight of the resultant breadcrumb coating produced after milling, being no less than 12% and no more than 22% at room temperature and being determined by the amount of water used in the dough mixture.

More particularly, the gelling agent may be provided in sufficient quantity to form a gel with no less than 30% and no more than 70% of the water in the dough mixture.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the gelling agent may be in the form of a gelling composition comprising a gellable polysaccharide and a predetermined amount of an activation agent for activating a predetermined amount of the gellable polysaccharide to form a gel in the water of the dough mixture, the amount of the activation agent being sufficient to form a gel with the gellable polysaccharide with between 30% and 70% of the water in the dough mixture, the thickening agent comprising the gellable polysaccharide in the gelling composition which is in said ungelled state.

The method may include selecting the gellable polysaccharide from a group comprising guar gum and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose.

In a particular application, the method may include making the dough mixture by mixing water together with, by percentage of total dry weight of the dough mixture, 80% to 95% of the farinaceous material, and the gelling agent comprising 0.4% to 2% of the gellable polysaccharide and 0.05% to 0.2% of the activation agent. The balance of the total dry weight of the dough mixture may comprise one or more of: salts, sugars, proteins, fats, emulsifiers, non-fermentable gas generating agents and preservatives.

The method may include adding a predetermined amount of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose to the dough mixture.

The method may include adding, by percentage of total dry weight of the dough mixture, 0.01 % to 0.05% of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose to the dough mixture.

The activation agent may be in the form of a calcium ion salt. More specifically, the activation agent may be in the form of calcium chloride. For applications wherein the breadcrumb coating, produced by the method of the invention, is required to be used to coat food products using a dry crumb enrober, the method may further include the step of drying one of the pellets and the breadcrumb coating to obtain breadcrumb coating having not less than 12 % and not more than 16% moisture content by weight.

The invention extends to breadcrumb coating produced in accordance with the method of the invention. The invention extends also to food products including breadcrumb coating produced in accordance with the method of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further features of the invention are described hereinafter by way of a non-limiting example of the invention, with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawing. In the drawing: Figure 1 shows a flow diagram illustrating various steps in a method of producing extruded breadcrumb coating in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

With reference to the drawing, a method of producing extruded breadcrumb coating for food products, in accordance with the invention, is designated generally by the reference numeral 10. The method 10 of producing extruded breadcrumb coating for food products includes, broadly, the steps of making a dough mixture 12 having a predetermined amount of water; extruding the dough to form bread-like cooked pellets 16; allowing the pellets to cool 20; and milling the pellets to form breadcrumb coating 22, the moisture content by weight of the breadcrumb coating after milling, being no less than 12% and no more than 22% at room temperature and being determined by the amount of water in the dough mixture. The dough mixture is made by mixing together the predetermined amount of water, a farinaceous material such as wheat flour; a gelling agent which is provided in sufficient quantity to gel with approximately 50% of the water but not all of the water, thereby leaving some of the water in an ungelled state; and a thickening agent in a predetermined quantity to thicken the water in the dough mixture which is in the ungelled state (step 12).

More particularly, the dough mixture is made by mixing water at room temperature together with, by percentage of total dry weight of the dough mixture, 80% to 95% of the farinaceous material, and a gelling composition comprising 0.4% to 2% of a first gellable polysaccharide in the form of guar gum, 0.03% of a second gellable polysaccharide in the form of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), and 0.05% to 0.2% of the gelling agent in the form of a calcium ion salt, such as, for example, calcium chloride. The balance of the total of the dry weight of the dough mixture comprises one or more of: salts, sugars, proteins, fats, emulsifiers, non-fermentable gas generating agents and preservatives. The HPMC of the dough mixture, more particularly, has an ideal hydration temperature of between 25 °C and 30 °C and a 2% solution viscosity ranging from 80,000 mPars to 120,000 mPars. The Applicant has found that HPMC enhances the texture of the breadcrumb coating and in particular results in a crunchier cooked breadcrumb coated food product.

During the mixing, water at room temperature is pumped into an extruder-cooker of a type as hereinabove described, together with the dough mixture to form the dough. Alternatively, the applicant envisages that the gellable polysaccharide may be added to water along with the salt, sugar and other additives to form an aqueous solution which can then be pumped into the extruder-cooker along with the balance of the ingredients constituting the dough mixture. The dough is fed into the input end of the extruder-cooker and forced through the die. The dough emerges from the die and is released from the output end of the extruder- cooker to form an elongate rope-like structure which is cut into sections to form the bread-like cooked pellets (step 16). The pellets are then allowed to cool to room temperature (step 20).

The pellets are then fed into a hammer mill and broken into breadcrumbs in the so-called wet milling process (step 22).

The Applicant has found that the guar gum under the action of calcium chloride enables production of a high moisture containing breadcrumb coating which can be processed in various types of dry crumb enrobers. In particular applications the breadcrumb coating produced by the method 10 are required to be used to coat food products by using a Stein J crumb enrober. In such a case the amount of water added to the dough mixture, in Step 12, is regulated such that the breadcrumb coating produced by the method 10 particularly has a moisture content by weight of the breadcrumb coating of not less than 12% and not more than 16%. It will be appreciated that if too much water is added during step 12, further drying may be required. As such, if necessary, the method further includes the step of drying the pellets or the breadcrumb coating to obtain breadcrumb coating having not less than 12 % and not more than 16% moisture content by weight.

As roughly half of the guar gum remains in an ungelled state, the thickening agent comprises the ungelled guar gum which absorbs water in the dough thereby distributing the water evenly throughout the dough to form a homogeneous mixture. The Applicant has found that the homogeneous characteristics of the dough and particularly the even distribution of water in the dough is beneficial in that breadcrumb coating formed from baked pellets made of the dough have superior properties when freezing. More particularly, due to the homogeneous characteristics of the breadcrumb coating, the moisture within the breadcrumb is evenly distributed therethrough, inhibiting ice crystal growth and thus avoiding frosting. Furthermore, the thickening agent binds the water in the dough thereby preserving the dough and inhibiting growth of mould.

The Applicant believes that the other roughly half of the guar gum bonds with calcium ions of the calcium chloride thereby forming molecules which form a gel with the water in the dough mixture, resulting in breadcrumb coating having greater physical resilience than would otherwise be obtained. The Applicant believes that this greater resilience enables a breadcrumb coating, produced in accordance with the method 10 of the invention, to have properties which make the breadcrumb coating suitable to be used in a dry crumb enrober as described hereinabove. More particularly, a breadcrumb coating produced in accordance with the method of the invention, is sufficiently resilient to prevent the breadcrumb coating from causing a blockage in the screw conveyor of a dry crumb enrober.

The Applicant has found that if a gel is formed with more than 70% of the water in the dough mixture, the texture of the final breadcrumb coating produced is adversely affected. More specifically, the breadcrumb coating does not exhibit sufficient crispiness which is a critical property of breadcrumb coating.

The Applicant believes that the breadcrumb coating, produced in accordance with the method of the invention, are consequently more profitable to produce than breadcrumb coating produced by other methods, for two reasons. First, a greater profitability of extruded breadcrumb coating is obtained because the breadcrumb coating has a moisture content greater than the moisture content of breadcrumb coating produced by other methods. A greater moisture content results in greater profitability because the breadcrumb coated food products are sold by weight. Second, because the need for the drying of breadcrumb coating produced in accordance with the method of the invention is greatly reduced, much less drying and the costs associated therewith is required than is the case with breadcrumb coating produced by means of other methods.

It will be appreciated that the composition of the dough mixture, in accordance with the method of the invention, may vary while still incorporating the essential features of the invention as described above. For example, the applicant has found that a suitable gellable polysaccharide is guar gum which is used on its own. In such a case, the dough mixture provided in step 12 will not contain HPMC.

It will be appreciated that the quantities of the constituents making up the dough mixture, in accordance with the method of the invention, may vary, while still incorporating the essential features of the invention as described above. For example, calcium chloride in the range of 0.05% to 0.2% by weight of the dough mixture has been found to be effective concentrations of calcium ion salts. Furthermore, the applicant has also found that guar gum is effective when used in combination with Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HMPC), wherein the HMPC makes up 0.01 % to 0.1 % of dry weight of the dough mixture and wherein the guar gum makes up 0.4% to 2% of the weight of the dough mixture.

The applicant envisages that in another application of the method of the invention the step of making the dough mixture in Step 12, described hereinabove, may be substituted by the step of making a dough mixture by mixing together a predetermined amount of water, a farinaceous material such as, for example, flour; and a combination of two polysaccharides, such as, for example, xanthan gum and locust bean gum. The applicant envisages that one of the xanthan gum and the locust bean gum acts as the gellable polysaccharide, as hereinabove described, with the other one of the xanthan gum and the locust bean gum acting as the gelling agent, as hereinabove described. The quantities of xanthan gum and locust bean gum will be regulated such that roughly 50 % of the gellable polysaccharide is gelled, thereby leaving the remaining 50% of the gellable polysaccharide in an ungelled state. The applicant envisages that extruding the mixture through an extruder-cooker as hereinabove described, will cause the xanthan gum and locust bean gum to form a thin gel in the high temperature / pressure environment of the extruder. Once cooled to room temperature, the applicant envisages that the thin gel formed by the xanthan gum and locust bean gum will set to form a gel.

Steps 16,20 and 22 described hereinabove are then followed.

It will be appreciated that what is stated above in relation to the breadcrumb coating produced in step 12, hereinabove, applies also to breadcrumb coating wherein one of the xanthan gum and the locust bean gum acts as the gellable polysaccharide, as hereinabove described, with the other one of the xanthan gum and the locust bean gum acting as the gelling agent, as hereinabove described.

Claims

A method of producing extruded breadcrumb coating for food products, the method including: preparing a dough mixture by mixing together a predetermined amount of water; a farinaceous material; a gelling agent in a predetermined quantity sufficient to form a gel with a predetermined amount of the water but not all of the water thereby leaving some of the water in a ungelled state; and a thickening agent in a predetermined quantity to thicken said water in the dough mixture which is in an ungelled state; extruding the dough mixture in an extrusion cooking apparatus to form at least partially cooked pellets; and milling the pellets to form breadcrumb coating, the moisture content by weight of the resultant breadcrumb coating produced after milling, being no less than 12% and no more than 22% at room temperature and being determined by the amount of water used in the dough mixture.

The method as claimed in claim 1 , which includes adding sufficient gelling agent to the dough mixture to form a gel with no less than 30% and no more than 70% of the water in the dough mixture.

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the gelling agent is in the form of a gelling composition comprising a gellable polysaccharide and a predetermined amount of an activation agent for activating a predetermined amount of the gellable polysaccharide to form a gel in the water of the dough mixture, the amount of the activation agent being sufficient to form a gel with the gellable polysaccharide with between 30% and 70% of the water in the dough mixture, the thickening agent comprising the gellable polysaccharide in the gelling composition, which is in said ungelled state.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4, which includes selecting the gellable polysaccharide from a group comprising guar gum and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4, which includes making the dough mixture by mixing water together with, by percentage of total dry weight of the dough mixture, 80% to 95% of the farinaceous material, and a gelling composition comprising 0.4% to 2% of the gellable polysaccharide and 0.05% to 0.2% of the activation agent.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, which includes adding a predetermined amount of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose to the dough mixture.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, which includes adding, by percentage of total dry weight of the dough mixture, 0.01 % to 0.05% of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose to the dough mixture.

8. The method as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 7, wherein the activation agent is in the form of a calcium ion salt.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the activation agent is in the form of calcium chloride.

10. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the breadcrumb coating is required to be used to coat food products using a dry crumb enrober, the method further includes drying one of the pellets and the breadcrumb coating to obtain breadcrumb coating having not less than 12 % and not more than 16% moisture content by weight.

1 1 . A breadcrumb coating produced in accordance with the method of any one of claims 1 to 10.