FI76677C - FOERFARANDE FOER FRAMSTAELLNING AV EN AETBAR OLJE- OCH VATTENHALTIG EMULSION. - Google Patents

Description

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Method for preparing an edible oily and aqueous emulsion. - Förfarande för framställning av en ätbar olje- och vattenhaltig emulsion.

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of an edible oily and aqueous emulsion, in particular for the preparation of margarine-type or low-calorie spreads.

Such products are conventionally prepared from an aqueous phase and a fat phase which are combined to form a pre-emulsion, which in turn is subjected to cooling and structural treatments to produce a soft product such as a stick or tube margarine. The soft fat product is automatically packed on a packaging machine. Quite often the packaging machine breaks or has to be stopped for some reason. In this case, the product is normally remelted and recycled or discarded.

There are clear disadvantages to these operations, as this sometimes results in the loss of large quantities of products or in the case of the preparation of two types of emulsions, i.e. oil / water / oil type emulsions from cream containing fatty proteins and thickeners, in sensitive or sensitive dispersed structures (e.g. changes in the phase particle size) strongly affect the properties of the emulsion and phase inversion can occur, resulting in different emulsions than originally intended (oil / water emulsions instead of water / oil emulsions). Further loss of oil from the dispersed cream may occur. Likewise, varying amounts (10-100%) of the recycled product found in conventional margarine treatment can be a problem.

The applicant has invented a method by which the above-mentioned problems can be greatly alleviated.

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The process according to the invention for preparing aqueous and oily edible emulsions comprises the following steps (i) treating individual emulsion component streams, - from which a water-containing stream is passed through one or more heat exchangers, and - a fat phase stream is passed through a heat exchanger to crystallize fat; (ii) separately recycling at least a portion of each component stream of the emulsion, and (iii) mixing the treated components of the emulsion to form a final emulsion comprising a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase.

The individual component streams of the emulsion may include an aqueous phase or a fat phase or an oil-in-water emulsion, preferably an oil-in-water emulsion (cream).

At least one single component stream of, for example, the aqueous phase is treated through one or more heat exchangers in which pasteurization or cooling takes place to achieve a temperature slightly higher, equal to or lower than the temperature at which the fat used to make the emulsion begins to crystallize. Cooling is preferably performed to a temperature between -10 and 15 ° C.

One or more aqueous phases may contain a viscosity enhancing agent such as a gelling agent, thickener or protein, while the other aqueous phase may be non-gelling.

At least one of the individual component streams consisting of the fat phase is treated via a heat exchanger and / or a fat treatment system in which fat crystals condense and fat crystals grow. One of these individual component streams may be an aqueous and oily emulsion treated through a heat exchanger (where inversion may occur).

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the following steps are performed (i) separately treating the single component stream consisting of the oil-in-water emulsion and the single component stream consisting of the fatase; (ii) recycling at least a portion of the oil-in-water emulsion and at least a portion of the fat fat; (iii) mixing the treated oil-in-water emulsion and the fat phase to form an oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion.

The individual circulating streams are usually continuously operated at a low recirculation rate to keep the mechanism ready.

The device used in the method of the invention, in its simplest form, comprises: means (A) for processing individual component streams of the emulsion; means (B) for recycling each component of the emulsion separately; means (C) for mixing the treated individual component streams of the emulsion.

The members (A) may consist of one or more heat exchangers and / or one or more fat treatment systems in which fat crystals condense and grow. The members (A) preferably consist of one or more surface-mounted heat exchangers and / or one or more crystallization units, such as Votator A and C units, described in "Margarine", Andersen and Williams, Pergamon Press, 1965.

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The members (B) may be valves that direct individual streams either through a recirculation channel (which may be a heat exchanger) to separate tanks or members (C), which may include a static mixer, surface scraper heat exchanger, crystallization unit, optionally a high pressure hydraulic pump or a combination thereof. The members (B) are preferably valves connected together.

The members (C) are preferably connected to a sensor unit, e.g. an electrical conductivity meter, which allows the quality of the finished emulsion to be checked, and furthermore the members are connected to a valve which controls said emulsion or rejects it.

The mixing unit (C) is preferably a low-power mixer (0.5 to 20 l) in order to minimize material loss if the material has to be discarded.

The advantages of the method and apparatus according to the invention can be summarized as follows: (1) by arranging the recycling of the oil phase (s) and the aqueous phase (s) as a single separate stream (s) followed by a relatively small volume mixing device, constant due to batch over-treatment in Votator material loss is eliminated or at least greatly limited.

(2) the potential problems caused by the variable amounts (10-100%) of the recycled (recycled) product encountered in the standard treatment are eliminated because the present invention recycles individual product component streams instead of the product itself.

(3) structurally sensitive products (e.g., thixotropic aqueous phases) can be processed.

(4) can also be used to treat products made from many differently formed aqueous phases that cannot be mixed with each other.

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The invention will now be explained in the following examples and drawing.

Example 1 This example describes the device used in the method according to the invention. Reference numerals refer to those in the accompanying drawing by reference numerals.

In its simple form, the device comprises: (A) a tank 1 from which e.g. the aqueous phase w can be dispensed, a valve 2 for directing the aqueous phase flow to a 5 l mixing unit 7 or a recirculation path 4 leading to the tank 1; (B) a tank 5 from which, for example, the fat phase can be dispensed, a valve 6 for directing the fat phase flow to the mixing unit 7 or the recirculation path 8 leading to the fat phase tank 5.

In a suitable, more advanced device for the production of spreads, the tank 1 and the tank 5 are preferably connected to a common dosing pump 10.

The aqueous phase is treated through a heat exchanger (s) 9, while the fat phase is treated through a series of Votator A and C units 12, in which the fat is pre-crystallized.

Valves 2 and 6 are interconnected valves. Recycling routes 4 and 8 have heat exchangers 3 and 13, respectively.

The mixing device 7 is connected to the electrical conductivity meter 11. Through the valve 14, the emulsion is directed either to the packaging machine or to be discarded.

Example 2 This example describes the preparation of an oil / water / oil emulsion using the process of the invention.

6 76677 Using the apparatus described in Example 1, an oil / water / oil emulsion was prepared from cream (i) containing: 11.0% fat, 0.08% K-sorbate, 2.43% whey protein, 1.0% carboxymethylcellulose and 56.49% water , pH 5.2; and fatase (ii) containing 28.37% fat, 0.6% mono-glyceride and 0.03% dye.

The fat phase (ii) was cooled to 0 ° C and the cream phase (i) to 5 ° C before being finally mixed at 1000 rpm in a rotating Votator C.

The individual component streams in the emulsion were continuously recycled at a low rate.

The resulting emulsion was of the oil / water / oil type, with an average diameter of cream droplets of about 8 μιη and dispersed in a continuous fat base. Very little or no loss of oil from the dispersed phase had occurred.

_ 1 The electrical conductivity was about 0.2 microScm

Claims (10)

A process for preparing an edible oil and aqueous emulsion, which contains a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase, characterized in that: (i) treating individual emulsion component streams, through which the water containing stream is passed one or more heat exchangers; and - the fat phase comprising the stream is passed through a heat exchanger for crystallization of the fat; (ii) separately separates at least a portion of the respective emulsion component stream, and (iii) mixes emulsion-treated components to provide the final emulsion, which contains a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the individual component streams of the emulsion is an aqueous phase. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the individual component streams of the emulsion is an oil and aqueous emulsion. Process according to claim 3, characterized in that the oil and aqueous emulsion is an oil in water emulsion. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the aqueous phase is pasteurized. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the aqueous phase is subjected to a heat exchanger.