JP3882122B2 - Ice cream stabilizer and production method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a stabilizer (improving agent) that is added to an ice cream stock solution to improve solution properties such as fluidity and stabilize a foaming state, and a method for producing ice cream using the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a stabilizer capable of giving a soft body feeling and texture while reducing the content of air contained in the form of fine bubbles, and a method for producing ice cream.

  In order to produce ice cream, generally, milk ingredients such as milk, skim milk powder, cream, butter or vegetable oil, sugar, emulsifier and stabilizer are mixed first to prepare a stock solution called a mix. To do. This stock solution contains a fragrance, a pigment, egg yolk and the like as necessary. Next, the ice cream stock solution is cooled to a frozen state and stirred to mix the air.

  The weight (%) of air contained in 100 parts by weight of the ice cream mix is referred to as overrun. The higher the overrun, the lower the weight ratio of the mix in the ice cream product. As a result, the raw material cost for producing the same volume of ice cream is reduced. In particular, it has the effect of suppressing excessive intake of sugar and calories. Therefore, studies on the composition and manufacturing method of ice cream are mainly aimed at stabilizing high overrun products and improving the structure.

  However, there is a strong demand for products having a low bubble content, that is, ice cream products having an overrun of 50% by weight or less. Such a product with low overrun has a high density and can provide a body feeling related to “coldness” when put in the mouth and a texture that can be eaten. In addition, high-calorie components such as fat related to a rich taste can be easily incorporated.

  However, the lower the overrun, the harder the ice cream is finished and the softness is impaired. Ice cream products distributed in the market are usually stored at −18 ° C. or lower for quality maintenance, but there are not a few cases where the hardness is too high when taken out from a frozen showcase or the like. If the temperature does not rise to a certain extent, the tissue is not sufficiently softened and a soft feeling cannot be obtained, so that the commercial value may be remarkably lowered.

  Therefore, some attempts have been made to improve the texture such as soft feeling for low overrun ice cream (Patent Documents 1 to 3).

  In Patent Document 1, it is proposed that an ice cream is once produced in the presence of a specific natural polysaccharide such as gellan gum, then mixed with an unfrozen liquid ice cream mix and then frozen again. In Patent Document 2, it is proposed to blend a large amount of jelly pieces. On the other hand, Patent Document 3 proposes that guar gum and hydroxypropyl etherified tapioca starch are blended at a predetermined ratio with the main purpose of obtaining a special texture.

On the other hand, the use of carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt has been done to improve the physical properties of high overrun ice cream products. In Patent Document 4, for the purpose of improving long-term storage in a whipped state, carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt having a food grade low degree of etherification (0.7 or less) is converted into microcrystalline cellulose as a stabilizer. It has been proposed to use a combination of small amounts added. In a specific example, the content of carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt in the ice cream stock solution is 0.1% by weight, and the content of microcrystalline cellulose is 0.45% by weight. The overrun (excess amount) is 85%.
JP-A-11-196773 JP 2000-014324 A JP 2003-199499 A JP-A-5-168415

  In order to obtain a low overrun product, the manufacturing process of the ice cream of the prior art and the stabilizer or improver therefor are complicated (Patent Document 1) or different from usual There is a problem that it can be applied only to ice cream products having a good taste and texture (Patent Documents 2 to 3). Further, if the stabilizer is composed of a plurality of components, it may be necessary to mix these components before use.

  That is, it can be said that an appropriate stabilizer that can be applied to a general low-overrun product by an ice cream manufacturing process similar to a normal one has not been known. In particular, it can be said that no stabilizer has been found which has a neutral effect on the taste and is excellent in quality stability and storage stability.

  As a result of diligent investigations in view of the above problems, the present inventor is a carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt having a higher degree of etherification than that conventionally used as a stabilizer, and the 2% aqueous solution viscosity is within a specific range. A low overrun and excellent softness could be achieved by a relatively simple method using a certain amount and employing a specific range of addition amount.

  That is, the present invention aims to provide a stabilizer for ice cream and a method for producing ice cream that can provide a low overrun and an excellent texture such as soft feeling.

  The stabilizer for ice cream of the present invention is a stabilizer used for producing an ice cream product having an air content of 50 to 200% by weight based on the weight of the stock solution, and has a degree of etherification of 0.8 to 2 0.0, a 2% aqueous solution having a viscosity of 1 to 30 mPa · s and comprising a carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt.

  Moreover, the manufacturing method of the ice cream of this invention is a carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) whose etherification degree is 0.8-2.0 and whose 2% aqueous solution viscosity is 1-30 mPa * s, It is added so that the content in the stock solution is 0.1 to 2.0% by weight, and is frozen in a foamed state so that the content of air in the stock solution is 10 to 30% by weight. And

  A soft body feeling and food texture can be obtained while reducing the air content (overrun) contained in the form of fine bubbles.

  The carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt used in the ice cream stabilizer of the present invention has an etherification degree of 0.8 to 2.0. When the degree of etherification is less than 0.8, uniform dissolution / dispersion cannot be achieved during kneading with the ice cream base material, and the fine structure of the ice cream product becomes non-uniform, giving softness. Does not work well for. When the degree of etherification exceeds 2.0, the production cost of carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt increases, which is not preferable.

  Carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt used as a stabilizer has a viscosity of 2% by weight aqueous solution (BM type rotational viscometer, 25 ° C., absolute dry weight basis) of 1 to 30 mPa · s. When the amount is less than 1 mPa · s, a sufficient soft feeling cannot be obtained even if the amount added is increased. On the other hand, if it exceeds 30 mPa · s, the ice cream product is excessively viscous and is not suitable for a low overrun product that requires smoothness, and the texture is impaired such as a soft feeling.

  The stabilizer having a thickening property is preferably composed of only the carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt as described above, or contains a small amount of other stabilizer components as a major component. If necessary, locust bin gum, sodium alginate, guar gum, carrageenan and the like can be blended in a range of less weight than carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt.

  When manufacturing ice cream, the said carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt is added so that the content rate in a stock solution (mix) may be 0.1 to 2.0 weight%. If it is less than 0.1% by weight, the effect as a stabilizer is insufficient, and if it exceeds 2% by weight, the ice cream product becomes hard and adversely affects the texture.

  When preparing the stock solution (mix) for manufacturing ice cream, the above-mentioned stabilizer is blended with the saccharide and the fat and oil component, and an emulsifier is blended as necessary. Preferable emulsifiers include glycerin fatty acid ester, sucrose fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester, propylene glycol fatty acid ester, and lecithin.

  Any sugars and fats and oils can be used as long as they are generally used in the manufacture of frozen desserts. As the saccharide, for example, it is appropriately selected from sugar, starch syrup, and isomerized sugar, and the solid content in the ice cream stock solution is 5 to 50% by weight, and the sweetness of the stock solution is in the range of 5 to 40 degrees. Blend as follows. Moreover, as fats and oils components, edible vegetable oils, such as milk fat, coconut oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, can be used individually or in combination. Under the present circumstances, the content rate of the fats and oils in an ice cream stock solution is set to 15 weight% or less. In some cases, fats and oils may be omitted.

In order to prepare an ice cream stock solution (mix), each of the above raw material components is mixed with water, and stirred at, for example, 70 to 90 ° C., preferably about 80 ° C. for about 10 minutes to obtain a uniform blend solution. . The blend is then passed through a typical dairy homogenizer. The homogenization treatment may be performed in one stage, but more preferably in two stages. When carried out in two stages, preferably, the pressure in the first stage and about 10 to 100 kg / cm ^2, and most preferably from about 50 kg / cm ^2. Further, in the second stage, to about 50 to 200 kg / cm ² pressure is preferably maintained at about 100 kg / cm ^2. The ice cream stock solution is maintained at about 60-70 ° C. during the homogenization process.

  After completion of the homogenization treatment, the ice cream stock solution is preferably cooled and held at 5 to 10 ° C. for about 2 to 24 hours. After such cooling, it is frozen in an ice cream freezer. The temperature of the ice cream product at the time of taking out is −3 ° C. to −7 ° C., and the overrun is in the range of 5 to 50%, preferably 10 to 30%.

  The ice cream product thus obtained includes lacto ice, ice milk and the like, and in some cases, milk shake and the like.

  Next, examples and comparative examples of the present invention will be described by taking the case of preparing lacto ice as an example.

  The formulation (weight composition) for preparing lacto ice is as follows.

Nonfat dry milk 16.5 (wt%)
Granulated sugar 9.5
Fructose and glucose liquid sugar 6.5
Mizuame (DE38) 4.5
Refined palm oil 9.0
Sucrose fatty acid ester 0.2
(Daiichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd. DK Ester F-50)
Stabilizer 0.5
Water 53.3
In the examples, the stabilizer in the above-mentioned formulation is carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt. Specifically, the degree of etherification of carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt and the viscosity of a 2% aqueous solution were measured as follows.

  Etherification degree: Ashing measurement method was used. Specifically, about 1 g (absolute dry weight) of the powder sample was precisely weighed, wrapped in filter paper and placed in a magnetic crucible, and sufficiently ashed at 600 ° C. Next, the produced sodium hydroxide was neutralized and titrated with 0.1N sulfuric acid using phenolphthalein as an indicator, and calculated according to the following formula.

Degree of etherification = 162 × A / (1000-80 × A)
Here, A is a value obtained by correcting the ml number of 0.1 N sulfuric acid required for titration by the titer.

  2% aqueous solution viscosity: The moisture content is measured by drying at 105 ° C. for 2 hours. Then, take a sample of about 5 g in a tall beaker, add water so that it becomes 2% by weight based on the weight after moisture content correction (absolutely dry weight), leave it for a whole day and night, and stir for about 5 minutes with a magnetic stirrer. To make a uniform solution. After standing in a constant temperature water bath at 25 ° C. for 30 minutes, the rotor was rotated at a rotational speed of 60 rpm with a BM viscometer, and the viscosity was measured from the reading after 3 minutes.

  The ice cream stock solution was prepared as follows according to the above formulation. First, fructose / glucose liquid sugar and syrup were added to water heated to 40 ° C., and skim milk powder, granulated sugar and emulsifier were sequentially added in this order while stirring and mixing. Then, refined coconut oil was added and further stirred at 80 ° C. for 10 minutes to obtain a uniform blend liquid.

Subsequently, after adding a small amount of water and adjusting so that it might become the content of the said mixing | blending prescription, the homogenization process was performed. At this time, 50 kg / cm ² at the first stage, and 150 kg / cm ² in a second stage, and to be maintained at about 70 ° C.. After homogenizing in this way, the mixture was cooled to 5 ° C. and then subjected to freezing to obtain a lacto ice product.

  And overrun was measured about the lacto ice product as follows.

  Overrun measurement method: Put ice cream obtained by freezing into a graduated container (measuring cylinder) and read the volume (ml). In this state, the weight (g) of the ice cream in the container is measured. And it computed by the following formula.

Overrun (%) = (capacity of ice cream (reading) / weight (number of grams) −1) × 100
Moreover, about the obtained ice cream, food texture was evaluated by the sensory test. The results obtained above are summarized in Table 1 below.

  As shown in the above table, by using a predetermined carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) as a stabilizer, both low overrun and soft texture could be realized. Also, no special manufacturing process improvements were required.

  On the other hand, in Comparative Example 2 in which carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt having a low degree of etherification, which has been conventionally used, was used as a stabilizer, the hardness was strong and the softness was insufficient. Further, in Comparative Example 1, which was a carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt having a similar low etherification degree and a considerably large 2% aqueous solution viscosity, the hardness was strong and the overrun was considerably larger than the desired range. .

  Moreover, in Comparative Examples 3-5 using natural polysaccharide, 2% aqueous solution viscosity may be extremely large, and all became hard and inferior in texture. It was also difficult to make a low overrun product.

Claims (1)

  Carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt having a degree of etherification of 0.8 to 2.0 and a 2% aqueous solution viscosity of 1 to 30 mPa · s is 0.1 to 2.0% by weight in the stock solution. The method for producing ice cream is characterized by freezing in a foamed state so that the content of air in the ratio by weight of the stock solution is 5 to 50% by weight.