GB1582806A - Processes for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO PROCESSES FOR THE CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF A BUTTER-LIKE EDIBLE FAT (71) We, SVENSKA MEJERIERNAS RIKS FÖRENING U.P.A., a company duly organized and existing under the laws of Sweden, of Angbatsbron 1 c, 211 20 Malmö, Sweden, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- A process for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat is available that can be used in the same way as butter and is able to be spread at refrigerator temperature (6-8"C) and which process consists of taking a cream separated from cow's milk (generally the female of Bos taunts) to which is added a refined vegetable, tocopherol-containing triglyceride oil, preferably soy bean oil, the oil amounting to 15-30% by weight of the total fat content of the edible fat. The cream may be acidified or non-acidified; it may be temperature treated by treatment of the socalled Alnarp method (see Vol. 2 of the 14th International Dairy Congress, p. 474)or it need not be so heat treated.

Up to now, this edible fat had to be produced in batches by utilising a conventional batch type churn, the vegetable oil being added to the previously acidified and temperature-treated cream in the churn. For a long time past, it has been known to make ordinary butter by a continuous process, inter alia by the so-called Fritz process, and in recent years this continuous process has become more and more common for making ordinary butter.

There now is need of a process by which also the above-mentioned edible fat can be produced continuously in a Fritz type butter making machine. However, it is not possible simply to follow the procedure utilised in continuous butter making or in the batchwise production of the edible fat referred to above, because this technique presents several difficult problems with regard to the treatment of the cream, the method of adding and distributing the vegetable oil in the cream, the churning, the composition of the edible fat and the consistency of the freshly churned product.

The present invention aims at providing a solution of these problems in such a way that it is possible, by applying the teachings of the invention, to obtain an edible fat of high quality with undiminished churning efficiency and while maintaining the prescribed fat content of the finished product and achieving an economically satisfactory hourly capacity of the plant, all without making any changes in the technical equipment of the buttermaker proper.

The present invention thus proposes a process for the continuous production of a butterlike edible fat that is able to be spread at a refrigerator temperature of from 6 to 8"C and which process consists of taking a cream separated from the milk of a cow (generally the female of Bos taurus) to which is added a refined vegetable, tocopherol-containing triglyceride oil, preferably soy bean oil, the oil amounting to 15-30 % by weight of the total fat content of the edible fat, characterised in that the cream has first its fat content adjusted to from 36 to 38 % by weight and is then cooled to 3 to 4"C and introduced into a storage tank where it is kept for at least three hours, whereupon the cream is passed in a stream to the churning section of a continuous butter making machine of the Fritz type; all or a considerable proportion of the oil is injected into the stream at an admixture station between the storage tank and the butter making machine; that the injected oil after the admixture station but ahead of the butter making machine is finely divided and emulsified by mixing means in the stream of cream and oil; that the relative amounts of the cream and the injected oil in the mixture entering the butter making machine is so adjusted that the mixture will obtain a total fat content of more than 40 % by weight; that the cream and the injected oil are added to the stream at such temperatures that the mixture entering the butter making machine will have a temperature of from 5 to 6"C; and that churning is effected at 5 to 7"C any remaining proportion of the oil being added to the working section of the butter making machine.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the following production example and the figures of the accompanying drawing, in which :- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a plant for carrying the process of the invention into effect; Figure 2 is a lateral view, partly in section, of a static mixer comprised by the plant.

Cream that had been separated from cow's milk and had been adjusted to a fat content of 36 to 38% by weight was placed in an acidifying tank 1 and acidified bacteriologically to a pH of 4 6. In connection with the acidification the cream was also given a temperature treatment by the so-called Alnarp method in the tank 1. The acidified and temperature treated cream was then pumped by means of a positive displacement pump 2 through a plate heat exchanger 3 where it was chilled to 4"C, and from there to a storage tank 4. The acidified and chilled cream was stored in the tank 4 for four hours before it was pumped to a butter making machine. At the low temperature in the storage tank, an after-crystallisation of the cream fat occurred, whereby the degree of crystallisation of the fat was in rv ased. During the residence time in the storage tank 4, the temperature of the cream rose to 5"C, mainly because of the heat of crystallisation. After the said residence time in the storage tank 4, the cream was ready for continuous production of edible fat. The cream was then pumped by means of a positive displacement pump 6 from the storage tank 4 to a conventional balance tank 7 and from there in a constant stream generated by a pump 8 through a conduit 9 to a static mixer 10 and finally through a conduit 11 to the churning section of a buttermaker 5 of the Fritz type, a machine of the type HCT 2 A manufactured by Aktieselskabet Paasch & Silkeborg Maskinfabrikker of Silkeborg, Denmark. The cream now had a temperature of about 5"C. Oil was pumped by means of a dosing pump 13 from a cooling tank 12 containing refined soy bean oil at a temperature of about 5"C to an admixture station 14 situated on the conduit 9 between the balance tank 7 and the pump 8, at which station the oil was injected in a predetermined amount per unit of time into the stream of cream arriving from the balance tank 7 in a constant amount per unit of time. In addition to the mixing of cream and oil through an injection nozzle at the admixture station 14, a further mixing and emulsifying of the oil in the cream stream was obtained by the action of the pump 8 and by means of the static mixer 10.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the static mixer consists of a pipe 15 (see Figure 2) which is connected between the conduits 9 and 11 and contains a series of baffle plates 16 helically wound through 180 , the side edges of said baffle plates engaging the inner wall of the pipe. Every second baffle plate in the pipe is turned clockwise, while the remaining plates are turned counter-clockwise so that the mixturelemulsion of cream and oil will flow through the pipe in a helical flow path with repeated reversals of the helical direction, resulting in a turbulent flow. Static mixers of this type are manufactured by Alfa Laval AB at Lund, Sweden. Instead of such a pipe with helically wound baffle plates, it is possible to use a pipe containing screening walls through which the flow of cream and oil is allowed to pass. For maximum churning efficiency, the oil must be gently and carefully added to the cream so that the fat of the cream and the oil, respectively, will not be broken up into minute fat globules, which would diminish the churning efficiency since these globules do not participate in the formation of the edible fat and instead go directly to the buttermilk.

By controlling the pumps 6, 8 and 13, the relative amounts of cream and oil in the mixture entering the butter maker 5 will be so adjusted that the mixture will have a total amount of fat of more than 40% by weight, preferably 43-45 % by weight, and the amount of soy bean oil in the mixture will be 15-30 % by weight of the total amount of fat in the mixture. Furthermore, the cream and the oil are added to the stream through the pipe 9 at such temperatures that the mixture entering the churning section of the butter maker 5 will have a temperature of preferably 5"C and not more than 6"C. Churning is carried out at a temperature of 5-7 C.

By following the procedure outlined above, the continuous butter making machine 5 can be made to give a high quality product and to operate with high churning efficiency, i.e. a low loss of fat in the buttermilk. Owing to, inter alia, the low churning temperature, the finished product has a temperature (about 10"C) and a consistency corresponding to what is obtained in batchwise production in a conventional churn. Th edible fat discharged from the buttermaker 5 can therefore be further processed and packed in conventional manner.

The same technique regarding the treatment of the cream (time and temperature) and the addition and distribution of the vegetable oil in the cream as has been described above in connection with bacteriologically acidified cream may be employed also if the edible fat production is based upon the churning of a mixture of non-acidified cream and vegetable oil. However, the churning of such a mixture (emulsion) having a pH of about 6 7 will result in fat losses in the buttermilk that are considerably higher than with bacteriologically acidified cream of pH 4 6-4 7. When churn ing non-acidified cream, the buttermilk must therefore be separated in order to obtain a satisfactory churning efficiencyjyield. When churning a non-acidified creamloil mixture, the taste and aroma of the edible fat can be improved by adding in the working section of the buttermaker a suitable bacteriological acidification culture to the proeuct.

A butter making machine of the Fritz type has a churning section and a subsequent working section. Sometines it may be advantageous to add but a considerable portion of the oil of the product at the admixture station 14 and to add the remaining portion of the product's oil in the working section of the buttermaker, in which case the remaining oil portion should have a temperature below 7"C when added. That portion of the oil which is injected at the admixture station 14 must always be sufficient to increase the fat content of the mixture supplied to the buttermaker to a value of more than 40% by weight, preferably 43-45 % by weight.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:- 1. A process for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat that is able to be spread at a refrigerator temperature of from 6 to 8"C and which process consists of taking a cream separated from the milk of a cow (generally the female of Bos taurus) to which is added a refined vegetable, tocopherol-containing tri-glyceride oil, preferably soy bean oil, the oil amounting to 15-30 % by weight of the total fat content of the edible fat, characterised in that the cream has first its fat content adjusted to from 36 to 38% by weight and is then cooled to 3 to 4"C and introduced into a storage tank where it is kept for at least three hours, whereupon the cream is passed in a stream to the churning section of a continuous butter making machine of the Fritz type; all or a considerable proportion of the oil is injected into the stream at an admixture station between the storage tank and the butter making machine; that the injected oil after the admixture station but ahead of the butter making machine is finely divided and emulsified by mixing means in the stream of cream and oil; that the relative amounts of the cream and the injected oil in the mixture entering the butter making machine is so adjusted that the mixture will obtain a total fat content of more than 40 % by weight that the cream and the injected oil are added to the stream at such temperatures that the mixture entering the butter making machine will have a temperature of from 5 to 6"C; and that churning is effected at 5 to 70C any remaining proportion of the oil being added to the working section of the butter making machine.

2. The process according to Claim 1, wherein the total fat content of the mixture entering the butter making machine is 4345% by weight.

3. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the injected oil is finely divided and emulsified in the stream of cream and oil by conducting said stream through a pipe having turbulence-producing baffle plates.

4. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the injected oil is finely divided and emulsified in the stream of cream and oil by conducting said stream through screening walls within a pipe.

5. The process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein after the adjustment of the fat content of the cream but before the cooling of the cream to 3 to 4"C the cream is acidified to a pH of 4 6 and given a temperature treatment by the so-called Alnpar method.

6. The process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the stream of cream from the storage tank to the butter making machine is allowed to flow through a balance tank before it reaches the admixture station which is situated between the balance tank and the mixing means.

7. A process for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat, substantially as hereinbefore described.

8. A plant for carrying out the process according to any one of the preceding claims, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

9. A butter-like edible fat whenever produced by the process of any one of Claims 1 to 6.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (9)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. ing non-acidified cream, the buttermilk must therefore be separated in order to obtain a satisfactory churning efficiencyjyield. When churning a non-acidified creamloil mixture, the taste and aroma of the edible fat can be improved by adding in the working section of the buttermaker a suitable bacteriological acidification culture to the proeuct. A butter making machine of the Fritz type has a churning section and a subsequent working section. Sometines it may be advantageous to add but a considerable portion of the oil of the product at the admixture station 14 and to add the remaining portion of the product's oil in the working section of the buttermaker, in which case the remaining oil portion should have a temperature below 7"C when added. That portion of the oil which is injected at the admixture station 14 must always be sufficient to increase the fat content of the mixture supplied to the buttermaker to a value of more than 40% by weight, preferably 43-45 % by weight. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:-

1. A process for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat that is able to be spread at a refrigerator temperature of from 6 to 8"C and which process consists of taking a cream separated from the milk of a cow (generally the female of Bos taurus) to which is added a refined vegetable, tocopherol-containing tri-glyceride oil, preferably soy bean oil, the oil amounting to 15-30 % by weight of the total fat content of the edible fat, characterised in that the cream has first its fat content adjusted to from 36 to 38% by weight and is then cooled to 3 to 4"C and introduced into a storage tank where it is kept for at least three hours, whereupon the cream is passed in a stream to the churning section of a continuous butter making machine of the Fritz type; all or a considerable proportion of the oil is injected into the stream at an admixture station between the storage tank and the butter making machine; that the injected oil after the admixture station but ahead of the butter making machine is finely divided and emulsified by mixing means in the stream of cream and oil; that the relative amounts of the cream and the injected oil in the mixture entering the butter making machine is so adjusted that the mixture will obtain a total fat content of more than 40 % by weight that the cream and the injected oil are added to the stream at such temperatures that the mixture entering the butter making machine will have a temperature of from 5 to 6"C; and that churning is effected at 5 to 70C any remaining proportion of the oil being added to the working section of the butter making machine.

2. The process according to Claim 1, wherein the total fat content of the mixture entering the butter making machine is 4345% by weight.

3. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the injected oil is finely divided and emulsified in the stream of cream and oil by conducting said stream through a pipe having turbulence-producing baffle plates.

4. The process according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the injected oil is finely divided and emulsified in the stream of cream and oil by conducting said stream through screening walls within a pipe.

5. The process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein after the adjustment of the fat content of the cream but before the cooling of the cream to 3 to 4"C the cream is acidified to a pH of 4 6 and given a temperature treatment by the so-called Alnpar method.

6. The process according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the stream of cream from the storage tank to the butter making machine is allowed to flow through a balance tank before it reaches the admixture station which is situated between the balance tank and the mixing means.

7. A process for the continuous production of a butter-like edible fat, substantially as hereinbefore described.

8. A plant for carrying out the process according to any one of the preceding claims, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

9. A butter-like edible fat whenever produced by the process of any one of Claims 1 to 6.