JP2015089357A - New gelatinizer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new gelatinizer capable of instantly gelatinizing various drinks such as a carbonated drink, a fruit drink, a vegetable drink, a sports drink, and an alcoholic drink.SOLUTION: Use of a new gelatinizer formed of a one pack type solution which contains low methoxyl pectin and/or sodium alginate and a calcium salt, having a pH of 6.0 or more, allows an acidic or weakly acidic carbonated drink, a fruit drink, a vegetable drink, a sports drink, and an alcoholic drink to be instantly gelatinized. The calcium salt includes a tertiary calcium phosphate and/or calcium carbonate. As long as a drink is acidic or weakly acidic, the liquid food can be reliably gelatinized into a uniform state by anyone. Consequently a jelly having a carbonated taste or alcoholic taste can be easily handmade, which has not been conventionally achievable at home. In addition, a person having difficulty in swallowing a carbonated drink or an alcoholic drink can easily eat the gel made from the drink with suitable adjustment for swallowing.

Description

  The present invention relates to gelation of beverages, and more particularly to a gelling agent suitable for instantly gelling carbonated beverages, fruit beverages, vegetable beverages, sports beverages, alcoholic beverages and the like.

  Conventionally, polysaccharides such as sodium alginate and low methoxyl pectin are known as materials for gelling liquid food without requiring heating or cooling treatment. This is based on a mechanism in which the polysaccharide is gelled by a divalent metal ion such as calcium. In this method, since the gelation rate depends on the concentration of divalent metal ions such as calcium ions, the gelation rate can be easily adjusted by adjusting the concentration of calcium ions.

  Since polysaccharides are widely used as food materials, various gelling agents using polysaccharide materials such as low methoxyl pectin and sodium alginate that gel with metal ions have been proposed.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, as a kit for gelling a liquid food to an appropriate firmness, a solution containing one or more thickeners selected from low methoxyl pectin, sodium alginate, and carrageenan, and calcium A swallowing supplement in combination with a solution has been proposed. However, since this gelation kit is composed of two liquids, a thickener solution and a calcium solution, it is necessary to prepare each solution in advance and fill it in separate containers. Further, since a special sealed solution is required, the cost is high, and there are drawbacks such as bulky containers, and further improvement is required.

  In Patent Document 2, gelled powder characterized by containing sodium alginate and anhydrous dicalcium phosphate, and neutral or alkaline characterized by containing sodium alginate and dicalcium phosphate. A gelled powder for liquid food has been proposed. However, this gelled powder needs to be prepared in complicated steps such as wet granulation with alcohol and adding glycerin to increase solubility, and the texture of the gel prepared by this method is very It was hard and brittle and melted in the mouth.

  On the other hand, in gelation of carbonated beverages, gelling powder overflows from the container with intense foaming when added and mixed, making gelation difficult, and alcoholic beverages are difficult to completely dissolve gelled powder, The above patent document does not mention gelation of carbonated beverages or alcoholic beverages.

  Patent Document 3 includes a sodium alginate-containing solution and a calcium salt-containing solution that are separately packaged, and the pH of the sodium alginate-containing solution is 3.8 to 4.2, and the calcium salt-containing solution An instantaneous gelling agent for liquid foods having an AW of less than 0.94 and a pH of less than 6.0 and an organic acid content of less than 0.5% is disclosed, and when this gelling agent is used, the pH is 6.0. If it is less than and less than 0.5% organic acid liquid food, regardless of the type of beverage, such as carbonated beverages and alcoholic beverages, anyone can surely form a uniform gel, In addition, the production does not require pressure heat sterilization at 100 ° C. or higher, so that no special equipment is required, and long-term room temperature storage is possible while maintaining quality.

  However, since this method is also a gelling agent composed of two solutions consisting of a sodium alginate-containing solution, a calcium salt-containing solution, and an organic acid, which are separately packaged, as in Patent Document 1, in order to cause gelation. Requires a complicated procedure, and a simpler gelation method has been demanded.

JP 2000-325041 A JP 2003-79325 A JP 2006-333803 A

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and the object of the present invention is one liquid suitable for instantly gelling carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, vegetable drinks, sports drinks and alcoholic drinks. It is in providing the gelatinizer which consists of.

  As a result of intensive studies on a gelling agent that instantly gels beverages such as carbonated beverages, the present inventors have determined that the pH of a solution comprising a polysaccharide such as low methoxyl pectin and a calcium salt is a pH at which the calcium salt does not dissolve, It has been found that gelation can be achieved instantaneously by mixing a liquid gelling agent with an acidic to slightly acidic beverage, and the present invention has been achieved.

  That is, the present invention relates to a gelling agent comprising a solution containing low methoxyl pectin and / or sodium alginate and calcium salt and having a pH of 6.0 or higher. As the calcium salt, tricalcium phosphate and / or calcium carbonate can be suitably used.

The instant gelling agent of the present invention is very easy to use because it is in a liquid state, and it can be added and mixed only if it is an acidic to slightly acidic beverage, regardless of the type of beverage such as a fruit juice beverage and an energy beverage. Since it can be gelled, it is not necessary to become familiar with the addition and mixing to liquid foods, anyone can surely make liquid foods homogeneously gelled, and there is a carbonic feeling that could not be made at home in the past Jelly and alcoholic jelly can be easily handmade and eaten.
Moreover, since the carbonated drink and alcoholic beverage which a person with difficulty in swallowing cannot eat can be adjusted to a gel suitable for swallowing, it becomes possible to eat easily.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.
Pectin is roughly classified into two types, high methoxyl pectin (HM pectin) and low methoxyl pectin (LM pectin). This is determined by the content of methoxylated galacturonic acid, with a degree of esterification (DE) of 50% or more being high methoxyl pectin, and less than 50% being low methoxyl pectin. Low methoxyl pectin has the property of reacting with divalent metal ions such as calcium to gel. Any pectin used in the present invention can be used as long as it is a low methoxyl pectin. Low methoxyl pectin generally has different reactivity with calcium depending on DE. The lower the DE, the higher the reactivity with divalent metal ions such as calcium and the higher the gel forming ability. In the present invention, it is desirable to use LM pectin having a DE of 3 to 38, more preferably a DE of 3 to 12.

  Sodium alginate is a kind of polysaccharide mainly contained in brown algae. It is used in a wide range of applications such as thickeners and gelling agents as food additives, gastric mucosa protecting agents, dental impression agents, pastes for dye printing, and paper coating agents. Like a low methoxyl pectin, sodium alginate gels when a divalent metal ion such as magnesium ion or calcium ion is added, and thus can be suitably used in the present invention. Also, it can be suitably used in combination with low methoxyl pectin.

  The calcium salt preferably used for gelling pectin in the present invention is tricalcium phosphate and / or calcium carbonate. These calcium salts are characterized by very low solubility in water (20 ° C.) of 0.0025 g / 100 g and 0.0014 g / 100 g, respectively. This salt dissociates and releases calcium ions as the pH of the solution decreases. Therefore, since it is hardly dissolved in the solution having a pH of 6.0, the low methoxyl pectin solution or the sodium alginate solution does not gel. When this gelling agent solution is mixed with an acidic to slightly acidic beverage, the pH of the entire solution is lowered, so that calcium ions are dissociated to cause pectin gelation. However, according to the Food Sanitation Law, the calcium salt needs to be blended so as to be 1% by weight or less in the weight of the gelling agent.

  In the present invention, the pH and reactivity of the gelling agent can be adjusted by further adding a sodium salt. Examples of the sodium salt that can be used in the present invention include sodium citrate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium polyphosphate, and sodium metaphosphate, and the addition amount is preferably 0.01 to 0.5% by weight. By adjusting the kind of sodium salt and the amount added, a gelled food product having a desired texture can be prepared.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described based on examples.
<Investigation of calcium salt>
Gelling agents composed of various calcium salts were prepared with the formulations shown in Table 1 below. In addition, all gelatinizer mix | blends are weight%. The ingredients in the table were dispersed in water, dissolved by heating, and then cooled to room temperature.
30 g of this gelling agent was mixed with 300 g of carbonated beverage (commercially available cola), and the properties of the gel formed were observed. Example 1 using calcium carbonate and Example 2 using tricalcium phosphate formed gels with very good texture. On the other hand, in Experimental Example 3 and Experimental Example 4 using primary calcium phosphate and secondary calcium phosphate, a good gel was not formed. This is probably because some calcium salts were dissolved and gelled. In order to use these calcium salts in the present invention, it is necessary to adjust the pH by adding sodium salts or the like.

<< Examination of sodium salt >>
Gelling agents composed of various sodium salts were prepared with the formulation shown in Table 2 below. 30 g of the prepared gelling agent and 300 g of carbonated beverage (commercial cola) were mixed. As shown in Experimental Example 5 to Experimental Example 14, any sodium salt formed a gel with good texture, although the gelation rate was slightly different. From these examples, it was revealed that the gelling agent can be used for the gelling agent of the present invention if the gelling agent pH is 6.0 or more. In addition, the viscosity shown in the table is the viscosity of the gelling agent, and is a measurement result at a B-type viscometer (rotor No. 2, 12 rpm) and a measurement temperature of 20 ° C.

<< Experimental Example 15 to Experimental Example 17 >>
Preparation of sodium alginate as shown in Table 3 below, and a gelling agent of a combined system of sodium alginate and LM pectin, and observation of gel formation when 30 g of this gelling agent solution and 300 g of carbonated beverage (commercial cola) were mixed. did.
With any formulation, the carbonated beverage could be instantly gelled. The texture of the gel was slightly hard with sodium alginate and soft and smooth with the LM pectin combination system.

Example 16
A gelling agent solution was prepared with the formulation shown in Table 4 below, filled in 30 g of a retort pouch, and retort sterilized (120 ° C., 10 minutes).
300 g of various beverages were mixed with 30 g of the prepared gelling agent, and the gel forming property and texture were examined. The results are shown in Table 5. Carbonated drinks, vegetable juices, sports drinks, nutrition drinks, and energy drinks could be instantly gelled.

From the above results, the gelling agent of the present invention was able to gel all carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, vegetable drinks, sports drinks and alcoholic drinks within 300 seconds. Moreover, the dispersibility of the gelling agent was good, and various beverages could be uniformly gelled. The gelled state is a physical property suitable for swallowing in the mouth with a spoon, and the flavor retains the flavor of the original beverage, especially for cola and beer, the carbonic and alcoholic feelings are retained . The color tone also did not detract from the original beverage.
The preservability of the gelling agent of the present invention was good, and neither discoloration nor rot odor occurred even after storage at room temperature for 12 months.

Claims (3)

  A gelling agent comprising low methoxyl pectin and / or sodium alginate and calcium salt, and having a solution pH of 6.0 or more.   The gelling agent according to claim 1, wherein the calcium salt is tricalcium phosphate and / or calcium carbonate. The gelling agent according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a sodium salt.