CA1087026A - Multi-curdled milk product and the process for the preparation thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

MULTI-CURDLED MILK PRODUCT AND THE PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION THEREOF Abstract of the Disclosure This invention relates to a milk product produced by a process that breaks down the disaccharide sugar present in milk more effectively by an unhindered multi-curdling process while enriching the milk product with nutritional and thera-peutic advantages by superimposing cultures of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, acidophilus, bifidus, and colostrum to produce a new palatable and tasteful milk product which will be symbiotic with the human body.

Description

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Background of the Invention This invention relates to food products and a pro-eess for their preparation to produee a multi-curdled milk proauct with an acceptable and palatable flavor. More specifically, this invention relates to a unique multi-curdled milk product that employs a process that reduces `
the disaccharide sugar or lactose more completely than heretofore thought possible thereby increasing the amount :
of glucose and galactose. Prior milk products that have been prepared by multiple fermentation have used either alcohol or heat during the preparation which have the effect ::
of hindering the enzymatic transformation of iactose to ~,;
glucose and galaetose. The use of alcohol in a milk pro~
duct through some form of fermentation with yeast inhibits ¦ :.
some of the enzymes normally present in milk and produces food of lessened nutritional content. Moreover, some people are allergie to the lactose in milk itself and are, there-fore, denied the benefits of a milk produet. For millions .~
of people, intoleranee develops during the life cyele sueh j;
that they are unable to " ~:

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easily digest lactose, a condition that is believed to arise from the defieiene~ of B-galaetosidase in the intestinal micro-ville. `
Previously, bacteria u~sed as starters for culturing various types of milk base products have included spherieal types such as Streptococcus lactis, streptococcus cremoris, Leuconostoc ~ -~
citrovorum, streptococcus diacelelaetis, and Streptococcus durans which are used primarily for buttermilk and sour cream while rod-shaped types such as Laetobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobaeillus laetis, Laetobaeillus aeidophilus, Actinomyees bifidus, and Doderlein's bacillus are used primarily for yogurt like pro-duets. However, such milk base products generally have a lact- ~ -ose content after one culturing still higher than it need be. -;
In previously developed processes, the lactose was broken down by various fermentation processes converting the lactose into lactic aeid as when milk with or without non-fat milk solids, partly skim milk or skim milk is ehanged into yogurt or buttermilk; however, over 80 pereent of the disaechar-ide sugar may remain unspent after the buttermilk and sour eream fermentation is completed. Further efforts to remove the laet-ose have resulted in the past in lowering the nutritional value o-f the milk produet or produeing produets that are unpalatable.
It has also been ineorrectly assumed that cultures must be balanced when used together. One eulture will reach a peak at which eurd starts to separate from the whey. At this point, the addition of different varieties of souring cultures will produce new curdling as though no souring had oceurred when the produet is brought to a temperature suitable for optimal growth. ~ere, temperature is the controlling factor. L. bifidus and L. acidophilus, however, will culture separately at the same

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1 temperature if introduced at differen~ times, especially when 2 the first culturing is cooled and blended,

3 An inexpensive process to produce ~ilk products di-gestable to the multitude of persons who cannot drink lt would ha~e far-reaching effects, particularly if substantial quantities of lactose can be transformed without altering the nutritional ~alue of the milk product, except to impro~e it.
~he therapeutic value of inoculating milk with various i~
strains o~ microorganisms has been reported by numerous autho-1 rities and this is particularly true for maintaining a good 1 intestinal metabolism and health. ~hree species of such micro-12 ¦ organism cultures include 1. b~du4, L.ac~doph~u~, and l~
13 ¦ ~.bu~a~u4. L.bu~ga~cu~ is used in the production of yogurt 14 ¦ and is believed to prolong human life by inhibiting the growth 15 ¦ of proteolytic microbes in the intestinal tract; however, the 1G ¦ culture will not survive in the digestive tract for prolonged 17 ¦ periods of time. L. ac~doph~u~ and L . b~du~ ~ on the other 18 handj are known to be able to retain their viability through the ¦ ~;
19 ¦ digestive tract, displacing proleolytic bacteria completely, thus affording a means of implantation in the lower intestinal 21 ¦ tract. Both cultures have the faculties of maintaining a normal 22 ¦ microbiological balance, particularly in the intestinal flora, ¦
23 ¦ suppressing many undesirable organisms while promoting a bene-24 ficial metabolism. L.ac~doph~u~ i~ completely non-pathogenic 25 ¦ and offers an entirely safe, therapeutic regimen.
26 ¦ Until a few years ago~ the beneficial effects result-27 ¦ ing from the ingestion of L. ac~doph~u4 in cases of gastoin-2$ testinal disturbances were attributed to the s~mple outgrowth 29 ¦ of the offending pathogen by the lactobacilli. Recently, a number of workers established that there is more to the reaction 7~

than just competition between strains. A by-product produced by L. a~dophil~ has been called variously antagonist (White and Hall, J. Dental Res. 48272, 1949); lactobacillin (Wheater et al., ATE Nature 168, 659, 1951); lactocidin (Vincent et al., J. Bact.
78, 479, 484, 1959); and antibiotic (Shahani et al., U.S. Patent 3,689,640). ~ ^~
The form in which L. acidophilus has been usually employed to obtain its therapeutic effect has been as fermented milk. The number of viable organisms in acidophilus milk was usually in the order o~ 250 million per milliliter which produced a highly distasteful and for many a completely unpalatable prod-uct. In addition, the product had a relatively short useful life, usually limited to less than two weeks, which often created problems in distribution and handling. Moreover, the processing of such fermented milk as compared with ordinary milk was ex-tremely expensive.
The beneficial effects of L. bifidus have also been recently reported (The Milk Industry, September, 1973). Here, it has been established that L. bifidus forms a substantial pro portion of the intestinal flora of babies and performs an ;
inhibiting effect on pathogenic bacteria and the growth of aerobic putrefactive microoganisms in the intestinal tract.
In efforts to improve the quality of my milk product, I have discovered that the milk initially secreted durlng the first few days after parturition, more commonly known as colos-trum, can also be combined and made into a palatable milk prod-uct. Colostrum is known to contain high protein content which ;~
when added to milk provides a highly nutritional product without the need for any condensation. However, the possible ` ~L~87026 :

1 benefit~ that could be gained from colostrum have been largely 2 ignored because of its bitter taste.
3 Various processes that have been developed to prepare

4 a multi-cultured milk product of ~his type have involved using ;
S yeast or alcohol which must necessarily interfere with the 6 antibiotic eff~t of the bacteria since alcohol destroys bacteria.
7 ~arious yogurt type products, as distinguished from ordinary g dairy yogurt, have beèn produced by either a mixing together of -9 separate fermented products such as in U.S. Patent 1,899,817 (Matt) issuing on February 28, 1933, high heat treatment as in 11 U.S. Patent 2,119,599 (~ordsiek) issuing on June 7, 1938; or 1 `
lZ alcoholicfermentation as in U.S. Patent 2,82~,80~ (Mishima) issu- i' 13 ing on February 25, 1958. None of these processes, however, l ~;
1~ produce a palatable product and attempts to improve the flavor ¦ ;~
have not been satisfactory. ~he addition of flavors and sugar, l I
16 ¦ particularly fresh fruits and berries, to the mixes undergoing , ~ -17 I the incubation stage has met with disflavor in that the incuba-¦ tion conditions have caused loss of flavor and color in the ~-'9 i flavoring additives. Moreover, because the digestion of fruits 2~ and milk involve different enzymes and different digestive -21 processes, such mixing may involve enzymatic and other con-22j flicts ruining any such mixture as a health food. Milk should 23 ¦ be consumed alone and not mixed with other foods. Other pro-24 ¦ cessing attempts have resulted in poorly controlled growth 25 ¦ conditions which yield inferior guality taste, poor shelf life, 2G ¦ as well as substantially alteri~g the nutritional value of the 27 ¦ milX prbduct.
Z8 ¦ It is the purpose of this invention to provide a new 29 ¦ nutritional and therapeutic milk product made by a multi-curdling 30 ¦ process that will significantly reduce the unspent lacto~e after ~ ~;P87~Z~ii :

1 ¦ a buttermilk or sour cream type fermentation is completed or 2 ¦ even yogurt fermentation and produce a product that is tasteful 3 ¦ and can be digested by persons h~ing an intolerance for lactose 4 ¦ besides being more easily digested by anyone.
Another purpose of this invention i9 to improve upon 6 the nutritional and therapeutic value of a milk product when 7 transforming the lactose content by using various ingredients 8 that individually are unpalatable but when combined in this in-9 vention produce an inexpensive tasteful milk product.
It is still another ob~ect of this invention to provide 11 a food product with better flavor, consistency, and palatability 12 than previously obtained when culturing a milk product with 13 L.ac~duph~e~ or L . b~dub microorganisms.
14 In addition, the ingredients used in this invention not only produce a more desirable milk food product but provide 16 for an inexpensive process that transforms the percentage of ¦ ;
17 lactose into glucose and galactose by an amount heretofore 18 thought impossible, thereby providing a food product that is 19 more easily digestable by anyone and particularly by the multi-tude of people who cannot normally drink milk.
21 Other ob~ects of the invention will be apparent from 22 the following discussion and description of this invention.
23 .
24 Description of the Invention ~5 This invention comprises a buttermilk-like or yogurt-26 like food product high in nutritional and therapeutic value but 27 low in lactose content. According to the instant invention, 28 ordinary milk, cream, or skim milk is raised to a temperature 29 suitable for the culturing process and inoculated with lactic acid forming bacteria cultures used in ordinary commercial . , .

~ 6 -~0870;~6 1 ¦buttermilk, such as Streptococcus lactis, stxeptococcus cremoris, 2 ¦Streptococcus diacetilactis, and Leuconostoc citrovorum. Typi-3~ cally, the mixture is allowed to ferment at approximately 70 F. t 4l The curdling is allowed to continue until the lactose is hydro~
51 lyæed as fully as possible into glucose and galactose. While 61 this forms a product similar to ordinary bu~termilk, approximately ~`
7 ¦ 80 percent of the lactose remains. The mixture may then be inoc-81 lated a second time with an L.bulgaricus strain of bacteria 9¦ and Streptococcus thermophilus and allowed to ferment at 105 F.
10¦ to 114F. The second curdling further reduces the lactose and 11¦ the ermentation is allowed to continue until curd starts to 12 ¦ ~eparate from the whey, at which point both flavor and texture 13 ¦ change. Upon cooling, small amounts of colostrum derived from 14 ¦ cow's milk is then added and the resulting mixture thoroughly 15 ¦ agitated. It has been found that for every 100 parts of milk, 16¦ up to 10 parts of colostrum may be added without unreasonable 17¦ changes in flavor. If desired, the mixture can be aged for 18¦ about twenty-foux (24) hours without affecting the nutritional 19¦ value while further improving the palatability of the mixture 20 ¦ as the bitter taste associated with colostrum is largely elimi-21 ¦ nated. Attempts to add colostrum at a later stage of the process 22 ¦ have shown that its unpleasant flavor cannot be readily masked.
23 ¦ The combination described therein offers a means of masking such ~ ;
24 ¦ flavor. The mixture is then inoculated a third time by using 25 ¦ L.acidophilus or ~.bifidus strains of bacteria and the mixture 26 ¦ allowed to ferment at approximately 98F. Typically, the pre-27 ¦ ferred acidophilus bacteria agent is a commercial culture 2~ ¦ marketed under the designation of Fargo 405, although other 29 ¦ well-known cultures may be used. The fermentation process as 30 ¦ before is allowed to be completed in order to ~ransform the ~r~cl æ n~ ~, ., 1 ~702~; ~;

1 ¦ lactose con~ent o the mixture as fully as possible and producing ~:
2 ¦ a mixture with the therapeutic advantages o~ the acidophilus 3 ¦ antibiotic. The ~ultiple curdling signifi~antly transforms the 4 ¦ amount of lactose while increasing the amount o~ lactase to pro-

5 ¦ duce as much of the enzyme as ma~ be produced thr~ugh multiple

6 ¦ curdling without processing inter~erence. While thi~ last

7 ¦ inoculation with L.acidophilus affects the lactobacillus that

8 ¦ ~oured the milk initially, it does not overwhelm the flavor that

9 ¦ has been previously imparted to the buttermilk. Alternatively,

10 ¦ L.hifidus, which can be purchased commercially as Eugalan Forte,

11 ¦ can also be used to effect the second or third curdling or can be

12 ¦ used to inoculate the mixture for a fourth curdling process.The

13 ¦ final culturing should involve symbiotic bacteria that will sur-

14 ¦ vive the human body temperature. It is important that no alcohol

15 ¦ or heat treatment occurs which would reduce the amount of lactase

16 ¦ being developed during the third and fourth curdling operations.

17 ¦ The resulting product is then agitated to provide a smooth con-

18 ¦ sistency to the multi-curdled milk product. The product has been ~:

19¦ found to have a pleasing, palatable taste similar to buttermilk

20¦ but with enhanced nutritional and therapeutic characteristics.

21 ¦ At various points during the process, suitable flavor-

22 ¦ ing and food enrichment material such as potassium salts and

23 ¦ vitamin ingredients can be added. The flavor of the end product

24 ¦ of this invention is suficiently palatable that it need not be

25 ¦ disguised with alcohol, fruit juices, or sugar, although such

26 ¦ additives may be added at the completion of the several fermen-

27 ¦tation processes.

28 ¦ An important feature of this invention is that a milk

29 ¦product with a good flavor can be produced through a multi-

30 ¦curdling process to provide a highly nutritional fo~d with a low ¦ ~ -rr~l d e \)~

~ 1~870~6 ~ , 1 lactose content with bacteria which will survive within the di-2 gestive tract. The presence of L.acidophilus has the faculty of 5 maintaining a normal microbial balance, suppressing many undesîr-4 able organisms and promoting a beneficial metabolism as there are 5 no known harmful side effects associated with its presence.
6 When a commercial culture of L.bulgaricus and 7 Streptococcus thermophilus bac~eria is used, 1 percent of cul-8 ture is the usual amount and a time for fermentation of five to 9 seven hours may be expected. If a finished product is used as 10 a starter, the time required may be cut by o~e half or more.
11 In the event L.acidophilus i8 used without a yogurt producing 12 culture, approximately 10 parts of this culture is required as 13 a starter with commercial buttermilk. Incubation should occur 14 at body temperature with complete curdling occuring within three 15 to five hours. The same requirements and time apply when the 16 third culturing occurs with L.bidifus. While L.bifidus has been 17 used to curdle the milk product after inoculating with h.acido-18 philus, it has been found that L.bididus may also be used before 19 inoculating with L.acidophilus.
It should be understood that the foregoing disclosure 21 relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that 22 numerous modifications or alterations may be made therein with-23 out departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as 2 set forth in the appended claims.
2 The product descxibed therein can also be started by 2 inoculating raw, certified milk which would require no pre-2 heating before inoculation and results in a readily available `
2 safe, unpasteurized whole milk or skim milk product as that term 2 is used by the U.S. Public Health Code.

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Claims (7)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method for producing a multi-curdled food product which comprises:
(a) effecting a first fermentation of milk, skim milk, or cream with a lactic type, acid-producing culture for a period of time sufficient to pro-duce buttermilk;
(b) effecting a second fermentation of the product resulting from step (a) with a yogurt culture wherein said culture is selected from the group consisting of lactobacillus bulgaricus, lacto-bacillus helveticus, lactobacillus lactic, and streptococcus thermophilus between a temperature range of 105°-114°F. until the curds start to separate;
(c) adding small amounts of colostrum to the product resulting from step (b); and then (d) effecting a third fermentation of the product resulting from step (c) with a lactobacillus culture wherein said culture is selected from the group consisting of L.acidophilus and L.bifidus at a temperature of approximately 98°F. for a period of time sufficient to pro-duce a symbiotic product high in lactase con-tent.

2. The method of claim 1 where for every 100 parts of mixture up to 10 parts of colostrum are added.

3. The method of claim 2 where the mixture is agitated and aged for up to twenty-four (24) hours after the addition of colostrum.

4. The method of claim 1 where a fourth fermentation is effected with an L.bifidus culture.

5. The method of claim 1 where an acidophilus culture is used for the second fermentation and a bifidus culture is used to effect the third fermentation.

6. A multi-curdled food product produced by the method claimed in claim 5.

7. A method for producing a multi-curdled food product that avoids use of alcohol or sterilization heat for producing a tasteful milk product with increased therapeutic and nutri-tional value by multiple culturing of the same milk which comprises:
(a) effecting a first fermentation of milk, skim milk, or cream with a lactic type, acid-pro-ducing culture for a period of time sufficient to produce buttermilk;
(b) effecting a second fermentation of the product resulting from step (a) with a yogurt culture wherein said culture is selected from the group consisting of lactobacillus bulgaricus, lacto-bacillus helveticus, lactobacillus lactic, and streptococcus thermophilus between a tempera-ture range of 105°-114°F. until the curds start to separate; and then (c) effecting a third fermentation of the product resulting from step (b) with a lactobacillus culture wherein said culture is selected from the group consisting of L.acidophilus and L.bifidus for a period of time sufficient to hydrolyze the remaining lactose as fully as possible.