JP6591856B2 - Novel gelling agent - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a gelling agent suitable for instantly gelling not only milk but also soy milk.

  Conventionally, “dessert base” is commercially available as a product for gelling milk or the like without requiring heating or cooling treatment. This is based on the mechanism that polysaccharides such as low methoxyl pectin and sodium alginate that gel with divalent metal ions gel with divalent metal ions such as calcium. Since the gelation rate depends on the concentration of divalent metal ions such as calcium ions, it is necessary to adjust the concentration of calcium ions to adjust the gelation rate. However, the solution mixed with the gelling agent is limited to milk.

  On the other hand, soy milk is gaining popularity as one of the healthy drinks. Milk is an animal food whereas soy milk is a vegetable food, both of which are excellent in amino acid balance. The main difference is energy, soy milk energy is 70% of milk rich in fats and carbohydrates. If you want to get enough protein, but you want to lose calories, soy milk is drunk.

  There are roughly three types of soy milk on the market. In other words, soy milk that has been squeezed soy, “unregulated soy milk (more than 8% soy solid content)”, sweetened sugar such as sugar, oils and fats, calcium, etc. added to soy milk to make it easier to drink “prepared soy milk (soy solid content 6 %)), And “soy milk drinks”, “soy milk drinks” are “soy milk drinks (soybean solids content 4% or more)” further flavored with coffee, tea, fruits, vegetables, etc. It is subdivided into a soymilk drink containing fruit juice (soybean solid content of 2% or more).

  Soymilk has significantly less divalent metal ions such as calcium than milk. Milk contains about 114 mg / 100 g of calcium, but soy milk (unregulated soy milk) has a calcium content of about 6 mg / 100 g to 17 mg / 100 g. In the prepared soymilk, it is about 20 mg / 100 g to 60 mg / 100 g. In such a system with little calcium, a dessert base for milk such as LM pectin and sodium alginate cannot prepare a homogeneous gel because the gelation reaction is too early.

  Therefore, a gelling agent for soy milk only, that is, a dessert base for soy milk has been proposed (Patent Document 1). The gelling agent disclosed in Patent Document 1 defines the DE (degree of esterification) and galacturonic acid content of LM pectin. That is, there is a limit on the amount of calcium in the soy milk to be gelled, and the target soy milk is a prepared soy milk in which the calcium concentration range is specified.

  Moreover, in patent document 1, although milk is not included as the object of gelatinization, reaction will be too early with the amount of calcium of milk, and it will be in the state where a partially granular gel called what is called a pregel will be made, and favorable uniform It is considered that a gel with a good texture cannot be prepared.

  On the other hand, as a dessert base for milk and soy milk, a gelling agent that regulates the amount of iota carrageenan and inorganic ions such as sodium and potassium has been proposed (Patent Document 2). This gelling agent is a neutral liquid dessert base for preparing dessert that does not harden immediately when mixed with milk or soy milk, but becomes a gel when cooled. However, this gelling agent has a drawback that gelation takes 2 hours or more in a refrigerator and immediate eating is not possible. In addition, the texture of iota carrageenan gel is slightly harder than pectin.

Japanese Patent No. 4931155 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-8688

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a situation, The place made into the objective is to provide the gelatinizer which consists of one liquid suitable for gelatinizing milk and soy milk instantaneously. .

As a result of intensive studies on a gelling agent that instantly gels milk and soy milk, the present inventor prepared a solution composed of LM pectin and HM pectin and adjusted its pH to 4.0 so that gelation was instantaneously performed. The present invention has been found to be achieved.
That is, the object of the present invention is achieved by a gelling agent comprising a single solution having a pH of 4.0 or less with a solution containing LM pectin and HM pectin.

Embodiments of the present invention are as follows.
(1) A dessert base composed of low methoxyl pectin and high methoxyl pectin, and an acid, the pH of which is adjusted to 4 or less.
(2) The dessert base according to (1) having an apparent DE of 34 to 54.
(3) The dessert base according to (1) or (2), wherein the acid is at least one of citric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, malic acid, gluconic acid, succinic acid, and tartaric acid.

  Since the gelling agent of the present invention is liquid and in one liquid, it is very easy to use, and can be gelled uniformly by simply adding and mixing it with milk or soy milk, and can be easily handmade and eaten. Moreover, since it can adjust to a gel suitable for swallowing, the soy milk drink which the person with difficulty in swallowing could not eat can be eaten easily.

Overview of capillary electrophoresis equipment Measurement results of capillary electrophoresis of HM pectin and LM pectin mixed system Outline of texture measuring device Typical texture measurement results

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

<About pectin>
Pectin is a polysaccharide extracted from apple pomace and citrus peels such as lemon and lime. Pectin has a structure in which a galacturonic acid having a carboxyl group and a galacturonic acid methyl ester in which the carboxyl group is methyl esterified are linearly bonded. Pectin is characterized by galacturonic acid content, chain length, and number of substituents other than sugars. The degree of esterification (DE), which indicates the percentage (%) of methyl esterified galacturonic acid, is most commonly used as an index that defines the quality of pectin. In general, there are two types of pectin: high methoxyl pectin (HM pectin) having a degree of esterification of 50% or more and low methoxyl pectin (LM pectin) having a degree of esterification of less than 50%, and the gelation conditions and gel properties differ greatly.

  LM pectin has the property of reacting with a divalent metal ion such as calcium to gel. LM 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. On the other hand, HM pectin is a pectin having a DE of 50% or more, and has a property of gelling under acidic conditions (pH 3.5 or less) and at a high sugar content (soluble solid content 55% or more). As the pectin used in the present invention, any of LM pectin and HM pectin can be preferably used. In the present invention, it is desirable to use LM pectin having a DE of 3 to 38, more preferably 3 to 12, and a high methoxyl pectin using DE of 60 to 70. Moreover, the mixing ratio of LM pectin and HM pectin is a wide ratio from 2: 3 to 6: 4, and a gel having a homogeneous and preferable texture of milk and soy milk can be prepared.

The “apparent DE” of the present invention is an index value of the mixing ratio when HM pectin and LM pectin are mixed, and is defined by the following equation.

Apparent DE = Σ (DE of pectin × pectin content) / (total content of pectin)

  Sodium alginate is a kind of polysaccharide contained in brown algae. It is a thickener and gelling agent as a food additive, a gastric mucosa protecting agent as a pharmaceutical, a dental impression agent, a paste for dye printing, a paper It is used in a wide range of applications such as coating agents. Like a low methoxyl pectin, sodium alginate gels when a divalent metal ion such as magnesium ion or calcium ion is added. Therefore, sodium alginate can be preferably used in combination with LM pectin in the present invention.

<About acid>
The acid used in the present invention is a food additive used mainly for improving and improving the taste by acidity, such as imparting / enhancement of acidity and acidity, or harmony / adjustment of taste quality in the process of food production or processing. Product and its preparation. Citric acid (crystal), citric acid (anhydrous), gluconic acid, succinic acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, DL-malic acid, etc. Itaconic acid, α-ketoglutaric acid as additives other than chemically synthesized products And phytic acid. Among these, in the present invention, at least one acid selected from citric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, malic acid, gluconic acid, succinic acid, and tartaric acid can be preferably used.

<Quantification method of mixed system of HM pectin and LM pectin>
By capillary electrophoresis, it is possible to easily measure what kind of HM and LM pectin are mixed in the gelling agent of the present invention. Capillary electrophoresis is a method of performing electrophoresis in a capillary tube (made of fused silica). After filling the electrophoresis solution into the capillary tube and injecting the sample solution, electrophoresis is performed by applying a voltage (-30 to +30 kV) at both ends, so that the components can be differentiated by mobility difference based on charge, size, shape, etc. It is a technique to separate. When a voltage is applied to the solution, the cation component moves to the negative electrode side, the anion component moves to the anode side, and the neutral component does not move. However, when silica capillaries are used, electroosmotic flow is generated by surface negative charge, and this electroosmotic flow is faster than the rate at which charged components move to the positive and negative electrodes. Migrate to the negative electrode side in order. FIG. 1 shows a capillary electrophoresis apparatus. FIG. 2 shows typical measurement results of capillary electrophoresis of a solution containing HM pectin and LM pectin. The horizontal axis is the migration time, and the vertical axis is the absorbance. The HM pectin having a small negative charge moves first, and the LM pectin having a large negative charge moves thereafter. Sample 1-1: The peak around 6.8 minutes is HM pectin, and the peak around 9.3 minutes is LM pectin. Two peaks are clearly detected, and HM pectin and LM pectin can be quantified.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described based on examples.

<Texture measurement with a rotational viscometer (texture quantification)>
〔Measuring method〕
(1) Pour 50 g of dessert base solution and 50 g of milk or soy milk into a 100 ml beaker and stir for 30 seconds with a spatula.
The temperature of the dessert base is 20 ° C., and the temperature of milk or soy milk is 10 ° C.
(2) After standing for 1 minute, insert a 6-blade sensor into a 100 ml beaker mixed with this dessert base and milk or soy milk, and apply torque (stress) applied to the sensor when it rotates at a constant rotation of 4.78 rpm. taking measurement.
〔Measurement result〕
FIG. 3 shows the measuring apparatus used in this measuring method, and FIG. 4 shows the result. A vertical axis | shaft shows a hard food texture, so that a value is large with a viscosity (mPa * s). The horizontal axis is the rotation time (seconds) of the sensor. If it is gel, when the sensor is inserted and rotation starts, the stress increases until the gel breaks, and the stress decreases at the point where the gel breaks. As a result, stress appears as a peak. The height of the peak was taken as the gel strength.

<< Gel preparation with HM pectin or LM pectin alone >>
Gelling agents were prepared when the various HM pectin or LM pectin shown in Table 2 was used alone with the gelling agent composition shown in Table 1. In addition, all gelatinizer mix | blends are weight%.

  Table 3 shows the results of mixing these gelling agents with milk and prepared soymilk. In the case of milk, LM pectin formed a gel with good texture, but HM pectin did not form a gel. In the case of prepared soymilk, LM pectin with a very low DE could form a slightly heterogeneous gel, but most pectin failed to form a gel.

<< LM pectin and HM pectin mixed system >>
Table 4 shows the properties of the gel when various gelling agents prepared by mixing HM pectin: LM pectin in a ratio of 2: 8 to 2: 8 and mixed with cow's milk, prepared soymilk, or non-adjusted soymilk. The composition in the table is% by weight, and the unit of gel strength is the apparent viscosity (mPa · s). The “apparent DE” determined by the weight ratio of the mixture of HM pectin and LM pectin is also shown in the table. In the milk system, except for the blending (g) and the blending (h), it was possible to prepare a gel having a very high strength with any gelling agent. A homogeneous gel could not be prepared with formulation (g) and formulation (h). In the prepared soymilk, a homogeneous gel could not be prepared by blending (g) and blending (h) as in the case of the milk system, but a gel with good texture could be prepared with other gelling agents. In the unadjusted soymilk system, a gel having a good texture could be prepared except for the blend (g). That is, it was found that milk, prepared soy milk, and unadjusted soy milk can be prepared with a gelling agent having an apparent DE of 34 to 54.

  From the above results, the gelling agent of the present invention can gel cow's milk, prepared soymilk, and non-adjusted soymilk by using both HM pectin and LM pectin in combination.

Claims (2)

A dessert base comprising a low methoxyl pectin with a DE of 3-12, composed of low methoxyl pectin and high methoxyl pectin, and an acid, the apparent DE of which is adjusted to a pH of 4 or less, of 34-54 . The dessert base according to claim 1, wherein the acid is at least one of citric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, malic acid, gluconic acid, succinic acid, and tartaric acid.