JP2006020535A - Method for producing fine powder food, and fine powder food obtained by the method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for producing fine powder food hardly causing quality deterioration such as oxidization and/or discoloration when manufactured or stored, and having stability in quality: and to provide fine powder food obtained by the method. <P>SOLUTION: The method for producing fine powder food comprises the following processes: a process of subjecting plants to blanching treatment or steam-heating treatment; a process of subjecting the plant subjected to the above treatments to at least either of soaking or spraying with antioxidant-substance water solution; a process of drying the plant treated with the antioxidant-substance water solution; and a process of pulverizing the dried plant. The fine powder food is produced by the method. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for producing a fine powdered food using plants such as vegetables and tea leaves as raw materials, and a fine powdered food obtained thereby, and more specifically, used in various foods and beverages such as soups, instant foods and seasoned foods. The present invention relates to a process for producing a fine powdered food and a fine powdered food obtained thereby.

  In order to live a well-balanced diet, it is necessary to ingest about 30 items of food per day. However, the dietary habits of modern people tend to be biased because the emphasis is placed on ease of use and preference with the development of the restaurant industry and the spread of instant foods, and as a result, a balanced dietary life cannot be sent. There are many people at present. In such a dietary habit that tends to be unbalanced, a problem to be particularly noted is insufficient intake of vegetables. That is, inadequate intake of vegetables leads to inadequate intake of vitamins, dietary fiber, and the like, which may cause factors such as dysfunction of the human body and reduced immunity. On the other hand, although it is not a vegetable, for example, green tea and the like are not only extracted and enjoyed, but recently, powdered tea is also popular as a tea to eat, and a palatable tea is demanded.

Under such circumstances, in recent years, fine powder foods obtained by drying and pulverizing plants such as vegetables as raw materials have been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). That is, since it is in the form of fine powder, it can be easily added to all foods and drinks, and it is effective in solving deficiencies in the intake of plants such as vegetables. Furthermore, since it is in the form of fine powder, it is also effective when imparting plant flavors and pigments, which are the raw materials, to foods and drinks, and has the advantage of not impairing the mouthfeel. And since this fine powder food has almost no water | moisture content, it is excellent also in preservability and at the same time, since a bulk becomes low, it has an advantage also in terms of ingestion.
JP-A-9-187231

  However, in the conventional manufacturing method including the manufacturing method described in Patent Document 1, the fine powder food product obtained by the method has a quality problem that it is susceptible to oxidation and discoloration during storage. In other words, powdering has recently been finely pulverized to the micron level, but the finer the surface area of the fine powder particles (the contact area with air) becomes, the more this causes. However, oxidation and discoloration are likely to occur. In addition, in the production method described in Patent Document 1, there is a problem that the loss rate of nutrients (vitamins, etc.) inherent to plants is high, so some solution means is required to solve these problems. Yes.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a method for producing a finely powdered food with stable quality, which does not easily cause quality deterioration due to oxidation, discoloration, or the like during production or storage, and a finely powdered food obtained thereby The purpose is to provide

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a step of blanching a plant or a steam heat treatment, a step of subjecting the treated plant to at least one of immersion and spraying with an aqueous antioxidant solution, A method for producing a fine powdered food comprising a step of drying a plant treated with the antioxidant aqueous solution and a step of finely pulverizing the dried plant is formed as a first gist and formed by this method. Let the fine powder food be a 2nd summary.

  That is, the present inventors have intensively studied to solve the above problems. In the course of the research, plants such as vegetables were blanched or steam-heated, and then the plants were immersed or sprayed with an aqueous antioxidant solution to fully impregnate the plants with the antioxidant. It was found that when dried, oxidation and discoloration as seen in the past are less likely to occur. This is because the enzyme (peroxidase) contained in the plant is inactivated by the above blanching treatment or steam heating treatment, so that discoloration and the like are suppressed, and oxidation progresses due to the antioxidant action by the antioxidant. This is thought to be because of this. And when the present inventors finely pulverized the plant which gave such a treatment, the obtained thing can suppress the deficiency of nutrients which was seen in the conventional product at the same time that oxidation and discoloration were suppressed. I found out that I could be. This is presumably because the treatment with the aqueous antioxidant solution described above could prevent denaturation due to heat during drying and frictional heat during pulverization, and at the same time, a decrease in nutrients could be prevented. From these facts, it has been found that the production method of the present invention can efficiently obtain a fine powdered food of stable quality that hardly impairs the nutrients inherent in the plant and that is hardly oxidized or discolored. Reached.

  As described above, according to the method for producing a fine powder food of the present invention, after a plant is blanched or steam-heated, the plant is subjected to at least one of immersion and spraying with an aqueous antioxidant solution, After drying treatment, it is performed by pulverizing (powdering). As described above, since the plant subjected to the blanching treatment or the like is treated with the antioxidant aqueous solution before the drying treatment, the fine powdered food obtained by pulverizing the plant is hardly oxidized or discolored due to the production process. In addition, it is not susceptible to oxidation or discoloration during storage, and as a result, it can be produced into a high-quality powder with bright colors. And the fine powder food obtained in this way is excellent not only in color but also in nutrition, and contains the nutrients inherent to the plant with almost no damage. Therefore, by adding this fine powdered food to all foods and beverages or ingesting a combination of a plurality of types of powder, it is easy to ingest plants such as vegetables that tend to be deficient.

  In particular, the fine pulverization step is performed by fine pulverization with an airflow pulverizer until the particle size becomes 20 μm or less, and thereafter, particles having a particle size of less than 5 μm are classified and removed from the obtained fine powder to obtain average particles. When the particle size is adjusted so as to be in the range of 5 to 20 μm, it is possible to obtain a fine powder food of stable quality with less oxidation and discoloration.

  In addition, the quality is such that when the classification removal is performed by a forced air flow classifier and the ratio of particles having a particle size of less than 5 μm is 5% by weight or less of the total amount of fine powder food, the entire fine powder becomes whitish. It is possible to produce a high-quality powder with more vivid colors.

  Furthermore, when the blanching treatment is a heat treatment for 0.5 to 7 minutes with hot water at 90 to 100 ° C., inactivation of enzymes contained in the plant and removal of lye from the plant are suitably performed. Become so.

  Moreover, the loss rate of the nutrient of a fine powder food can be restrained more as the said steam heating process is a steam heating process for 20 to 60 seconds at the temperature of 95-100 degreeC.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

  As described above, the method for producing a fine powder food of the present invention, after the plant is blanched or steam-heated, the plant is subjected to at least one treatment of immersion and spraying with an aqueous antioxidant solution, Further, this is performed by drying and then pulverizing.

  The plant that is the raw material is not particularly limited. For example, leaf vegetables such as Japanese mustard spinach, spinach, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, high vegetable, radish vegetable, kale, goya, root vegetables such as carrot, burdock, lotus root, pumpkin, tomato Fruit vegetables such as cucumber and eggplant, wild vegetables such as bracken, cucumber and mushroom, flower vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli, teas such as green tea, and herbs. Among them, since carrots tend to be oxidized by β-carotene, which is a pigment component, discoloration was noticeable when pulverized according to the conventional method. Problem will be solved.

  The plant is usually washed with water, cut into an appropriate size, and then subjected to blanching treatment (immersion heating treatment) or steam heating treatment. The method of the blanching treatment is not particularly limited. However, when the heat treatment is performed for 0.5 to 7 minutes with hot water at 90 to 100 ° C., the inactivation of the enzyme contained in the plant causes the color to change. This is preferable because the vividness is improved and the lye is removed from the plant. In addition, plants that are not suitable for blanching treatment (for example, teas such as green tea) are subjected to steam heating treatment. This treatment may be performed, for example, by steaming with steam or the like, or by steaming with pressurized steam in a pressure kettle. The steam heat treatment is particularly preferably steam heat treatment at a temperature of 95 to 100 ° C. for 20 to 60 seconds because the nutrient loss ratio of the fine powder food can be kept low.

  After performing the blanching treatment or the steam heating treatment, the plant is subjected to at least one of immersion and spraying with an aqueous antioxidant solution. This treatment may be performed as it is on the plant that has been heated by the above blanching treatment or the like, but after the blanching treatment has been cooled, for example, by submerging or spraying well water. , You may go. The immersion treatment with the aqueous antioxidant solution is usually performed at a liquid temperature of 5 to 40 ° C. for 5 to 15 minutes. That is, the plant can be sufficiently impregnated with the antioxidant under such treatment conditions. The treatment with the antioxidant aqueous solution is usually carried out by the immersion treatment as described above. For example, tea components such as green tea, which have a significant elution, the antioxidant aqueous solution is used. Performed by spraying. The immersion treatment and spray treatment may be performed in combination. And the density | concentration of the antioxidant aqueous solution used for these processes is although it does not specifically limit, If it sets to the range of 0.01 to 1 weight%, the effect of this invention comes to be acquired effectively, and is preferable. . More preferably, the concentration is in the range of 0.05 to 0.2% by weight.

  Although it does not specifically limit as said antioxidant aqueous solution, Specifically, ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, erythorbic acid, sodium erythorbate, gallic acid, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid, ethylenediamine tetra Examples include sodium acetate, coffee bean extract (raw or roasted coffee bean extract), aqueous solutions of flavonoids and catechins. These aqueous antioxidant solutions can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

  After the treatment with the antioxidant aqueous solution, the plant is dried. Although the said drying process is not specifically limited, In order to reduce the defect | deletion rate of the nutrients (vitamins etc.) which a plant has originally, water content is 10 by hot air drying of 40-70 degreeC, or freeze-drying. It is preferable to carry out until it becomes less than weight%. For the warm air drying, a conventionally known dryer such as an airflow dryer is usually used.

  Subsequently, the dried plant is pulverized. Specifically, after coarsely pulverizing to a particle size of about 1 to 2 mm by a known method such as a power mill, fine pulverization (particle size by a vibration mill, ball mill, feather mill, hammer mill, freeze pulverizer, airflow pulverizer, etc. Fine pulverization to 20 μm or less). Among these, fine pulverization by a jet airflow pulverizer (collision type) is preferable in that it generates less heat during pulverization, easily adjusts the particle size, and provides a high-quality fine powder food. In addition, although the gas used for this airflow type | formula grinding | pulverization normally has air, it is preferable when inert gas, such as nitrogen gas, is utilized from the point of quality maintenance.

  By the way, if too fine ultrafine particles are mixed in the fine pulverization process, there is a problem that the ultrafine particles have a larger surface area than other particles and are easily oxidized and discolored. Moreover, when there are many such ultrafine powders, the whole fine powder becomes whitish and there exists a possibility of inhibiting the stabilization of quality. Therefore, it is preferable not only to finely pulverize but also to produce the desired fine powder food in combination with the ultrafine powder classification and removal as follows. As a specific method, the fine pulverization step is performed by finely pulverizing with an airflow type pulverizer until the particle size becomes 20 μm or less, and then the obtained fine powder is classified into particles having a particle size of less than 5 μm. It is preferable to remove and size the average particle size to be in the range of 5 to 20 μm. That is, when finely pulverized and classified and removed under such conditions, it becomes possible to obtain a fine powder food of stable quality with less oxidation and discoloration. In addition, if the above classification and removal are performed with a forced airflow classifier until the ratio of particles having a particle size of less than 5 μm is 5% by weight or less of the total amount of fine powdered food, quality deterioration during production can be further suppressed. It is preferable because the deterioration of quality such as the whole fine powder becomes whitish is effectively eliminated.

  And the fine powder food of the present invention obtained by such a process is vivid in color, excellent in quality such as storage stability, nutritional value and the like, and its average particle size is very fine as 5 to 20 μm, Another advantage is that it can be easily mixed with other food ingredients. Further, since it is in the form of fine powder, it is good in terms of digestion and absorption, and can be a useful food especially for people who are difficult to take vegetables (old people, children, sick people, etc.). Further, by adding this fine powdered food to any food or drink, or by eating a combination of a plurality of types of powders, insufficient intake of plants such as vegetables can be easily resolved.

  The use of the fine powdered food is not particularly limited. Specifically, it is commonly used for soups, instant foods, breads, confectionery, sprinkles, processed meat products, juices, soft drinks, teas, etc. Examples include foods and drinks, health foods, and seasoning foods such as spices and dressings.

  Next, examples will be described together with comparative examples.

  10 kg of commercially available ginseng was washed with water and cut into 2-3 mm widths. Subsequently, this was immersed in hot water at 95 ° C. for 5 minutes to perform a blanching treatment. Next, the carrot subjected to this blanching treatment was drained and immediately immersed in 100 liters of a sodium ascorbate aqueous solution having a concentration of 0.1% by weight (liquid temperature: about 30 ° C.) for 10 minutes. . After this immersion treatment, carrots were taken out and subjected to warm air drying (18 hours drying treatment with 60 ° C. warm air) with an airflow dryer (LC-284 type, manufactured by Tabai Espec). Then, after the water content is dried to 6.8% by the hot air drying, the air content is reduced by a jet airflow type pulverizer (Jet Omizer 304 type, manufactured by Seishin Co., Ltd.) to a supply air pressure of 0. It grind | pulverized until it became an average particle diameter of 11.0 micrometers at 6 MPa and the raw material input speed of 15 kg / h. This is further processed with a forced airflow classifier (Turboplex 50ATP type, manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation) to remove ultrafine particles of 5 μm or less, and the desired fine powder food (carrot powder with an average particle size of 11.8 μm) Got.

  Instead of sodium ascorbate, ascorbic acid was used to prepare an aqueous antioxidant solution. And the target fine powder food was obtained like Example 1 except having used this antioxidant aqueous solution. The average particle size of this final product (fine powder food) was 11.0 μm.

  Instead of sodium ascorbate, sodium erythorbate was used to prepare an aqueous antioxidant solution. And the target fine powder food was obtained like Example 1 except having used this antioxidant aqueous solution. The average particle size of this final product (fine powder food) was 10.7 μm.

  Instead of a jet airflow pulverizer, an airflow pulverizer (current jet mill CJ-10 type) manufactured by Nissin Engineering Co., Ltd. was used. And except this, it carried out similarly to Example 1, and obtained the target fine powder food. The average particle size of this final product (fine powder food) was 12.1 μm.

  Instead of a jet airflow pulverizer, an airflow pulverizer (PMJ-380) manufactured by Nippon Pneumatic Industry Co., Ltd. was used. And except this, it carried out similarly to Example 1, and obtained the target fine powder food. The average particle size of this final product (fine powder food) was 11.5 μm.

  The dried product was pulverized with a pin mill pulverizer (Fine Impact Mill, manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation), and no classification treatment was performed. Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 1, and obtained the target fine powder food (carrot powder with an average particle diameter of 34 micrometers).

  The dried product was pulverized with a micropulperizer pulverizer (manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation), and no classification treatment was performed. Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 1, and obtained the target fine powder food (carrot powder with an average particle diameter of 43 micrometers).

  10 kg of commercially available spinach was washed with water and cut to a width of 50 to 70 mm. Subsequently, this was immersed in hot water at 95 ° C. for 3 minutes for blanching treatment. Next, the blanched spinach is drained and then sprayed with well water (about 15 ° C.), and then 100 liters of a 0.1 wt% aqueous sodium ascorbate solution (liquid temperature: about 30 ° C.) Inside, it was immersed for 10 minutes. After this immersion treatment, the spinach was taken out and subjected to warm air drying (drying treatment for 16 hours with warm air at 60 ° C.) with an airflow dryer (LC-284 type, manufactured by Tabai Espec). And after drying the water content to 5.4% by the above-mentioned hot air drying, this product is supplied by a jet airflow type pulverizer (Jet Omizer 304 type, manufactured by Seishin Co., Ltd.) to a supply air pressure of 0. It grind | pulverized until it became an average particle diameter of 11.0 micrometers at 6 MPa and the raw material input speed of 15 kg / h. In this way, the desired fine powder food (spinach powder) was obtained.

  8 kg of commercially available pumpkins were washed with water, peeled and the seeds were removed, and then sliced to a thickness of 3 mm. Next, the sliced pumpkin was immersed in hot water at 100 ° C. for 10 minutes for blanching treatment. Next, the blanched pumpkin was drained and immediately immersed in 100 liters of a sodium erythorbate aqueous solution (liquid temperature: about 30 ° C.) having a concentration of 0.2% by weight for 15 minutes. . After this soaking treatment, the pumpkin is taken out, drained sufficiently, quickly frozen at -35 ° C., and further dried with a freeze dryer (FD-1 type, manufactured by Tokyo Rika Machinery Co., Ltd.). (Water content 6.2%) was obtained. Then, this was pulverized by a jet airflow pulverizer (Jet Omizer 304 type, manufactured by Seishin Co., Ltd.) at a supply air pressure of 0.6 MPa and a raw material charging speed of 15 kg / h until the average particle size was 10.4 μm. Thus, the target fine powder food (pumpkin powder) was obtained.

  5 kg of raw tea leaves were steamed for 30 seconds at 100 ° C. using steam. Next, an aqueous solution of sodium ascorbate having a concentration of 0.1% by weight (liquid temperature: about 30 ° C.) was immediately sprayed evenly on the tea leaves subjected to the steam heat treatment. Thereafter, the tea leaves were rolled (twisted) and dried to obtain dry tea leaves having a water content of 3.8%. Then, this was cut into several millimeters by a feather mill, and then averaged by a jet airflow crusher (Jet Omizer 304 type, manufactured by Seishin Co., Ltd.) at a supply air pressure of 0.6 MPa and a raw material charging speed of 15 kg / h. It grind | pulverized until it became a diameter of 8.7 micrometers. Thus, the target fine powder food (green tea powder) was obtained.

[Comparative Example 1]
No immersion treatment was performed in a sodium ascorbate aqueous solution (antioxidant aqueous solution). Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 1, and produced the fine powder food (carrot powder).

[Comparative Example 2]
No immersion treatment was performed in a sodium ascorbate aqueous solution (antioxidant aqueous solution). Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 8, and produced the fine powder food (spinach powder).

[Comparative Example 3]
Immersion treatment in sodium erythorbate aqueous solution (antioxidant aqueous solution) was not performed. Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 9, and produced the fine powder food (pumpkin powder).

[Comparative Example 4]
No spray treatment of sodium ascorbate aqueous solution (antioxidant aqueous solution) was performed. Other than that was carried out similarly to Example 10, and produced the fine powder food (green tea powder).

  The characteristics of the fine powder foods of the example product and the comparative product obtained in this way were evaluated according to the following criteria. These results are shown in Table 1 below.

[Β-carotene content]
Β-carotene content (μg / 100 g) of the fine powdered food obtained by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (silica gel column) using a predetermined eluent (ethyl acetate: hexane: acetic acid = 5: 4: 1) Was measured. In the table, “initial value” indicates the β-carotene content of the finely powdered food immediately after pulverization, and “after storage test” means that the obtained finely powdered food has a temperature of 50 ° C. and humidity. 90%, stored for 12 weeks without lighting.

〔Color difference〕
The chromaticity of the fine powdered food is measured with a spectrocolorimeter (CM-3600D, manufactured by Minolta Co., Ltd.), its initial value (the chromaticity of the finely powdered food immediately after pulverization) and after a storage test (temperature 50 ° C., humidity 90). %, The color difference (ΔE) with respect to the chromaticity of the fine powder food after storage for 12 weeks without illumination.

  From the above results, it can be seen that the Example products have a high β-carotene content, bright colors, excellent nutritional value, and a small color difference, so that quality deterioration due to storage is small. Especially, since the products of Examples 1 to 5 and Examples 8 to 10 are pulverized by an airflow pulverizer, deterioration due to heat generated during pulverization does not occur, and a higher quality fine powder food is obtained. It was. Furthermore, in the Example which performed the classification process by a forced airflow classifier, the fine powder food of the color brighter than the case where it was not performed was able to be obtained. On the other hand, the comparative product is low in β-carotene content and has a large color difference due to storage, so it can be seen that the quality is easily deteriorated (comparative product 1 to comparative example 1 and product 8). Comparative Example 2 product, Comparative Example 3 product of Example 9 product, Comparative Example 4 product of Example 10 product).

Claims (7)

  A step of subjecting the plant to a blanching treatment or steam heating treatment, a step of subjecting the treated plant to at least one of immersion and spraying with an aqueous antioxidant solution, and a drying treatment of the plant treated with the aqueous antioxidant solution And a process for finely pulverizing the dry-treated plant.   The fine pulverization step is carried out by finely pulverizing with an airflow type pulverizer until the particle size becomes 20 μm or less, and thereafter, the fine powder having a particle size of less than 5 μm is classified and removed to obtain an average particle size of The process for producing a finely powdered food according to claim 1, wherein the particle size is adjusted to be in the range of 5 to 20 µm.   The method for producing a finely powdered food according to claim 2, wherein the classification removal is performed by a forced airflow classifier until the ratio of particles having a particle size of less than 5 µm is 5% by weight or less of the total amount of the finely powdered food.   The aqueous antioxidant solution is at least one selected from the group consisting of ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, erythorbic acid, sodium erythorbate, gallic acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate, coffee bean extract, flavonoid and catechin. The method for producing a fine powder food according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the aqueous solution is one aqueous solution.   The method for producing a fine powder food according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the blanching treatment is a heat treatment with hot water at 90 to 100 ° C for 0.5 to 7 minutes.   The process for producing a fine powder food according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the steam heat treatment is a steam heat treatment at a temperature of 95 to 100 ° C for 20 to 60 seconds.   A fine powdered food formed by the method for producing a fine powdered food according to any one of claims 1 to 6.