JP2005348740A - Drink produced by using seawater and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drink containing mineral components, and the like, such as magnesium, calcium and iron and effective for improving health functions. <P>SOLUTION: A method for producing the drink comprises the desalting of seawater to separate the seawater into water and a concentrated liquid sufficiently containing essential minerals such as magnesium, calcium and iron and vitamins, and the mixing of the separated water with the concentrated liquid or essential mineral components such as water-soluble magnesium, calcium and iron obtained separately from a concentrated seawater. The invention further provides the drink produced by the method and useful for improving health functions. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a beverage that can effectively replenish mineral components and a method for producing the same.

In today's diversified society, the needs for consumer materials such as food and beverages have also diversified, and various ideas and improvements have been made against the background of health and taste, and many new products have been supplied to consumer life. Yes.
In beverages, carbonated drinks, coffee drinks, juices, etc. have been widely used in the past, but sugars and caffeine, which are the main components of these drinks, are said to have a rather adverse effect on health, and are avoided from consumers. Health green tea and sports drinks are recently gaining popularity among consumers. In the future, it is predicted that taste orientation and health orientation will become important in beverages, and health beverages that satisfy taste orientation and health orientation are expected to grow as a beverage industry.
Among these health drinks, drinks containing essential minerals and vitamins such as magnesium, calcium and iron, which are often lacking by Japanese people, are attracting attention for their excellent health functionality. is there.

Conventionally, beverages to which mineral components are added are typified by so-called mineral water, which is obtained by adding mineral components collected from ore to drinking water such as tap water. No. 164390 or JP-A-9-187777 is representative.
However, these beverages are simply added with mineral components and contain only one or several kinds of target components among the minerals required for the human body, and are essential such as magnesium, calcium and iron. Although mineral components are added, other essential trace mineral components such as iodine and copper that subtly support health are not included. Some drinks are prepared by adjusting the taste by adding sugar or acidulant, but in any case, no satisfactory drink is obtained as a health-balanced mineral.

In order to solve the problem of lack of essential mineral components and essential trace mineral components in the conventional mineral water, a method for using seawater as a mineral source has been proposed. Kaisho 60-255729 discloses a mineral nutritional reinforcing agent obtained by desalinating seawater to reduce the NaCl content in the seawater and sterilizing it. The solution obtained by removing the generated precipitate is concentrated and further cooled, and the precipitate formed by cooling and the solid obtained by removing moisture from the solution after removing the precipitate are dissolved in water. Deionized water for producing food and drink, JP-A-5-219921, beverage containing deep-sea water in drinking water, JP-A-9-57257, desalted seawater by reverse osmosis, and mineral ore Mi to contact Techniques such as Lal apparatus is disclosed.
However, most of these technologies are not suitable as beverages, and saltiness is unavoidable when seawater is added as it is, and if the addition amount is reduced by reducing saltiness, there are very few essential trace mineral components. In any case, what is commonly used as a “delicious” beverage by effectively using mineral components in seawater has not been realized. There are also products that use Dead Sea water or Great Salt Lake water as an additive for seasonings and soft drinks, but since they are natural products, their composition is not constant and must be diluted during use. In addition, since it is difficult to adjust the taste, it is only accepted by some consumers.

JP 09-164390 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-187777 JP-A-60-255729 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 03-07689 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-219921 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-057257

  Based on the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, aiming to improve mineral beverages that are important as future beverages that should satisfy taste and health consciousness, and to develop mineral beverages that are well balanced in minerals, seawater is also mineralized. It is an object of the present invention to produce a new mineral beverage as a source.

In order to improve the above-mentioned conventional beverages, the present inventor has eagerly studied such problems and aimed to develop a mineral beverage with a well-balanced mineral, and also produced a new mineral beverage using seawater as a mineral source. Made it possible to do.
The ocean is the origin of all life forms on the earth, and is a treasure trove of all mineral components and mineral resources, and occupies most of the water resources on the earth. However, it is used only for drinking water only in drought-dried areas as a drinking water because of its high cost and fresh water, and its mineral components have not been used for a long time except for the collection of salt. Absent.
The present invention obtains a new beverage by effectively using the mineral components of seawater that has not been used so far, and desalinates seawater to produce water, which is used as a raw material. To make a beverage.
The seawater used in the present invention includes surface water and deep seawater, but may be of any depth and sea area, but it should be clean seawater with few suspended matters and harmful substances.

The desalting treatment of the present invention removes sodium chloride abundantly contained in seawater. Various ordinary methods are used, and a reverse osmosis membrane method, an electrodialysis method, a distillation concentration method, and the like are preferable. It is separated into water and a concentrate by desalting, and this water is used as a raw material for beverages. On the other hand, if necessary, sodium chloride is removed from the concentrate by a heating concentration method or the like to obtain a mineral concentrate containing a large amount of mineral components such as magnesium and calcium necessary for human life. By processing this mineral concentrate, overwintered bitter juice, bitter gypsum and the like can be obtained, and these can also be used for addition.
As the seawater in the present invention, surface water can be used, but deep seawater having a depth of about 100 to 10000 m, preferably 100 to 1000 m, particularly preferably 200 to 500 m is suitable.
That is, the present invention is characterized in that a water-soluble mineral component is added to water obtained by desalting seawater to obtain a beverage, and the basic configuration thereof is as follows (1). To (12).

(1) A beverage obtained by adding a water-soluble mineral component to water obtained by desalinating seawater.
(2) The beverage according to (1) above, wherein the water-soluble mineral component is obtained from seawater.
(3) The beverage according to (1) or (2) above, wherein a water-soluble mineral component collected from the same seawater is added to water obtained by desalting seawater.
(4) The beverage according to any one of (1) to (3) above, wherein the mineral components collected from seawater are magnesium and calcium.
(5) The beverage according to any one of (1) to (4), wherein the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) is adjusted from 4/1 to 1/3.
(6) The beverage according to (5), wherein the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) is adjusted to 3/1.
(7) The beverage according to any one of (1) to (6), wherein the hardness measured by the EDTA method is 100 to 3,000.
(8) The beverage according to (7), wherein the hardness measured by the EDTA method is 250 or 1000.
(9) The beverage according to any one of (1) to (8), wherein the taste is adjusted with a sugar or a sour agent.
(10) The beverage according to any one of (1) to (9), wherein the seawater is deep seawater.
(11) The collected seawater is desalted and separated into water and a concentrated solution, and then the concentrated solution is added to the separated water, or a water-soluble mineral component obtained separately from the concentrated solution is added. A method for producing a beverage.
(12) The method for producing a beverage according to any one of (1) to (11) above, wherein the collected seawater is deep seawater.

Beverages obtained using the surface water or deep seawater of the present invention can effectively use essential minerals and essential trace minerals such as magnesium and calcium contained in seawater, and the amount of magnesium and calcium can be arbitrarily changed. Is.
In addition, since most of the sodium chloride is removed, it is not salty, it does not adversely affect the health of sodium chloride, and it can be properly seasoned, so it is suitable for drinking such as “healthy drinking water” and “soft drink” As described above, it is possible to provide a beverage that is sufficiently satisfied by consumers.

The present invention relates to an unprecedented novel beverage and a method for producing the same, and can provide a sufficient amount of daily essential minerals necessary for health and a mineral beverage with a well-balanced mineral balance capable of supplying essential trace minerals. The production of new mineral beverages using seawater, which is a treasure trove, as a mineral source.
In the present invention, a beverage can be obtained by adding and blending a water-soluble mineral component into raw water obtained by desalinating seawater. The water-soluble mineral component can be collected from ore and the like, but those obtained by concentrating the seawater are more preferable. The water-soluble mineral component used in the present invention means main minerals such as magnesium, calcium and iron and essential trace minerals such as iodine, copper and zinc, excluding sodium chloride.
More specifically, in the present invention, the raw water obtained by desalinating seawater is dissolved in the above-mentioned seawater concentrate, wintering bitter juice, bitter gypsum, etc. from which sodium chloride has been removed, so that iodine, copper, zinc, etc. The essential trace mineral components in the sea water are also melted together to obtain a beverage.

Magnesium and calcium are the most important minerals for the human body, but until now there have been few health drinks containing magnesium, and calcium is necessary in large quantities to maintain the formation of bones and teeth. Is added as a main ingredient. The mixing ratio of the two kinds of minerals may be arbitrary, but it is preferable to adjust the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) from 4/1 to 1/3. This is because when the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium is greater than 4, bitterness occurs and it becomes difficult to drink, and when the weight ratio of calcium to magnesium is greater than 3, the taste becomes harder.
In addition, the current calcium intake status is 570 mg for 600 mg per day, and the magnesium intake status is said to be 200 mg for 300 mg (Ministry of Health and Welfare data). In order to compensate for this deficiency, it is most desirable to adjust the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) to 3/1 in terms of calcium and magnesium supplementation and taste.

In beverages, hardness is also important and affects umami and ease of drinking.
The beverage hardness of the present invention is an index representing the content of magnesium ions and calcium ions in water and is expressed in terms of calcium carbonate.
In addition, the measurement of the hardness in this invention is based on EDTA method.
The beverage of the present invention preferably has a hardness of 100 to 3,000, and if it is less than 100, the content of major minerals and essential trace minerals of magnesium and calcium is very low. The taste becomes hard and difficult to drink. Hardness of 500 to 1,500 is more preferable for easy drinking and increasing the intake of main minerals such as magnesium and calcium.
Here, from the viewpoint of beverages mainly made of mineral supplementation, a hardness of 1000 is most desirable in terms of taste. Moreover, when using for general cooking, such as cooking rice, although depending on cooking, the hardness 250 is versatile and desirable.
In addition, in the present invention, in order to enhance the taste and ease of drinking as a beverage, the taste is naturally adjusted with sugar, acidulant and the like. As a result, sweetness, saltiness, and subtle flavors are born.

Furthermore, the present invention also has a novel feature in the above-mentioned beverage production method, and the basis of the production method is that the seawater is desalted and separated into water and a concentrate as described above, and concentrated in the water. It is to add a water-soluble mineral component obtained from a liquid or a concentrated liquid.
The beverage obtained by the present invention takes out water from seawater, and mineral components such as magnesium and calcium to be added are seawater concentrates, so that trace elements contained in seawater can be abundantly added. Both the water extracted from the seawater and the concentrate contain essential trace minerals, trace elements, and trace amounts of various substances, which are thought to bring about a subtle flavor as a beverage and a strange health function. .
In addition, since sodium chloride is almost removed, it is not salty, it does not adversely affect the health of sodium chloride, and it can be properly seasoned, so it is easy to drink, promotes health, and has a refreshing characteristic. Can be obtained. In addition, fruit juice ingredients and vitamins can be added as needed, functioning as a nutritional drink reinforced with nutritional ingredients, and adding even more medicinal ingredients to achieve even better health promotion functions Can do. In addition, sodium or potassium obtained from seawater can be specially added to make a drink for sweating after work or exercise.

(Example)
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described based on examples, but the present invention is not limited to these.

Seawater treatment;
Seawater was separated into water and concentrated water using reverse osmosis membrane method.
The reverse osmosis membrane separation device was separated under the following operating conditions using a small tester manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.
Operating conditions: Liquid temperature 15 ° C
Pressure: 56MPa
Water flow rate: 1.9 L / min
Concentrated water flow rate: 16 L / min
The conductivity of water separated by the above operation was as follows.

  Overwintered bitter juice was added to bitter juice adjusted with an electrodialysis machine to obtain bitter gypsum. The content of this bitter gypsum and the content of trace components were as shown in Table 2.

  Concentration of magnesium salt was obtained by heating concentrated water to remove sodium chloride and separating calcium salt and sodium chloride to obtain a magnesium salt solution. The content of the magnesium salt and the content of trace components were as shown in Table 3.

Taste test results A taste sensory test was conducted using the above-mentioned raw materials, and the taste test results are shown in Table 4. The beverage hardness and Mg / Ca weight ratio were as follows.
Mg / Ca ratio (weight ratio of magnesium to calcium)
A = 6/1, B = 5/1, C = 4/1, D = 3/1, E = 2/1,
F = 1/1, G = 1/2, H = 1/3, I = 1/4, J = 1/5
The hardness (EDTA method) was as follows.
50, 100, 200, 500, 1000,
1500, 2000, 3000, 4000

注；評価方法
５人の成人男女のモニターにより、味覚感覚によってテストした。
□：最も良好 ○：良好 △：やや不良 ×：不良

Note: Evaluation method Tested by taste sensation on a monitor of 5 adult men and women.
□: Best ○: Good △: Somewhat bad ×: Bad

Evaluation of test results It is delicious when the hardness of the beverage is less than 100, but the content of magnesium, calcium and trace minerals is very low, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of mineral reinforcement, and even if the hardness is 100 or more, the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium If it exceeds 4, the bitterness of magnesium begins to appear, which is not preferable. If the hardness is 100 or more and the weight ratio of calcium to magnesium is greater than 3, the taste becomes hard, which is not preferable.
If the beverage hardness is higher than 3,000 and the weight ratio of calcium to magnesium is greater than 4, the calcium salt will not dissolve, which is not preferable, and if the hardness is 4,000, it is not preferable because it is not delicious.
As a result, it was found that the range of Mg / Ca 4/1 to 1/3 is a delicious range with a beverage hardness of 100 to 3000.
The results of ICP-MS analysis of a beverage prepared by using the above raw materials and adjusting the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) to 3/1 and the hardness to 1000 are as follows.

Seawater treatment;
Seawater was separated into diluted water and concentrated water using an ion exchange electrodialyzer.
As the ion exchange electrodialysis apparatus, a small tester manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. was used.
○ The operating conditions were as follows.
Operating conditions: Effective membrane area 1.72 dm2 / sheet
(Using 14 cation exchange membranes and 10 anion exchange membranes)
Constant current: 8A
Flow rate: 200L / H
Liquid temperature: 14 ° C
○ Conductivity of separated water;
The conductivity of the separated treated water obtained by the above operation is shown in Table 6.

○ Content of calcium and magnesium;
Concentrated water was concentrated and sodium chloride treatment was performed to separate sodium chloride, calcium and magnesium salt solutions. The contents of the separated calcium and magnesium salt solutions were as shown in Table 7 (note that trace minerals such as copper and manganese were also contained as in Example 1).

Using the water having a conductivity of 131 μS / cm obtained by the reverse osmosis membrane treatment and the calcium and magnesium solutions shown in Table 7, a taste sensory test was conducted on the beverages having the hardness adjusted to the following a to i. Table 8 shows the taste test results.
The beverage hardness is as follows.
a = 50, b = 100, c = 200, d = 500, e = 1,000,
f = 1,500, g = 2,000, h = 3,000, i = 4,000

（注）評価方法は以下の通りである。
５人の成人男女のモニターにより、味覚感覚によってテストした。
□：最も良好 ○：良好 ×：不良

(Note) The evaluation method is as follows.
Tested by taste sensation with 5 adult men and women monitors.
□: Most favorable ○: Good ×: Bad

Evaluation of test results;
If the beverage has a hardness of less than 100, it is delicious, but the contents of calcium, magnesium and trace minerals are very small, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of mineral supplementation.
Moreover, since it is not delicious when hardness becomes 4,000, it is unpreferable.
As a result, as in Example 1, it was confirmed that the beverage hardness was 100 to 3000 and the range of Mg / Ca 4/1 to 1/3 was a delicious range.
The results of ICP-MS analysis of beverages using the above-mentioned raw materials and adjusting the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) to 3/1 and the hardness to 250 are as follows.

Using the same raw materials as in Example 1, a plum-flavored soft drink was prepared and a taste sensory test was conducted. The taste test results are shown below.
The beverage used in the test was adjusted so that the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) was 3/1 and the hardness was 1000 as a whole.

（注）評価方法は以下の通りである。
５人の成人男女のモニターにより、味覚感覚によってテストした。
□：最も良好 ○：良好 △：やや不良 ×：不良

(Note) The evaluation method is as follows.
Tested by taste sensation with 5 adult men and women monitors.
□: Best ○: Good △: Somewhat bad ×: Bad

  Rats were allowed to freely ingest a high cholesterol diet and a beverage adjusted to a hardness of 1000 in Example 1, and after raising for 4 weeks, total cholesterol and LDL-Ch in plasma were measured. The test animal used was a Wister rat rat 10 weeks old (8 per group). The results for total cholesterol and LDL-Ch are shown in Table 11.

Evaluation of test results;
It was confirmed that drinking of a mineral-rich beverage having a hardness of 1000 suppresses an increase in total cholesterol and LDL-Ch that causes arteriosclerosis.

Claims (6)

  A beverage characterized by adding a water-soluble mineral component to water obtained by desalinating seawater.   The beverage according to claim 1, wherein the water-soluble mineral component is obtained from deep seawater.   The beverage according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a water-soluble mineral component collected from the same seawater is added to water obtained by desalinating seawater.   The beverage according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the mineral components collected from seawater are magnesium and calcium.   The beverage according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the weight ratio of magnesium to calcium (Mg / Ca) is adjusted from 4/1 to 1/3.   The collected deep seawater is desalted and separated into water and a concentrated solution, and then the concentrated solution is added to the separated water, or a water-soluble mineral component obtained separately from the concentrated solution is added. A beverage production method characterized by the above.