JP6802027B2 - Beverage - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vegetable juice and / or a beverage containing fruit juice in which a natural vegetable juice / fruit juice feeling is enhanced without causing an unpleasant taste or an unpleasant taste.

Beverages containing vegetable juice and fruit juice are sold as various products such as soft drinks and alcoholic beverages so that they can enjoy the characteristic taste among the beverages. In recent years, as can be seen from the commercialization of beverages that emphasize the feeling of fresher vegetable juice and fruit juice, there is an increasing need for beverages that emphasize the taste of vegetable juice and fruit juice.

However, beverages distributed on the market have a problem that the feeling of vegetable juice and fruit juice is impaired because various treatments are performed in order to improve the storage stability and transportation efficiency. For example, various additives such as antioxidants, stabilizers, and pH adjusters added to improve storage stability may make the vegetable juice / fruit juice feeling and flavor somewhat uncomfortable, and also efficient. In terms of good transportation and storage stability, concentrated and reduced vegetable juice / fruit juice that has been concentrated once and then rehydrated may be used, but when concentrated, not only the water content but also the flavor components decrease or change. There was a problem that the juice would be different from the juice before concentration.

Various studies have been conducted as a method for improving the feeling of vegetable juice / fruit juice in a beverage containing vegetable juice / fruit juice (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). In Patent Document 1, galactooligosaccharides and fructose represented by the general formula Gal- (Gal) n-Glc (where Gal is a galactose residue, Glc is a glucose residue, and n is an integer of 1 to 4) are 8 in the formula. A fructose-containing food and drink sweetener mixed in a weight ratio of 2: 2 to 2: 8 is disclosed, and it is described that high-quality sweetness can be imparted and flavor can be stabilized for a long period of time. Patent Document 2 discloses a flavor enhancer peculiar to fruits, which is characterized by containing clear lactic acid bacteria / yeast fermented whey liquid as an active ingredient, and even a beverage having a low fruit juice content has a fruit juice feeling comparable to that of a high fruit juice beverage. Is stated to be obtained. However, there is still a demand for something that gives a more natural feeling of vegetable juice and fruit juice.

On the other hand, β-glucan, which is attracting attention as a material having functionality such as cholesterol lowering action and immunopotentiating action, has been reported to be used as a beverage (for example, Patent Documents 3 and 4). However, in all the documents, β-glucan was used for the purpose of functionality, and the lower limit of the addition amount was substantially 0.1% by mass.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-238862 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-75521 JP-A-2002-306124 JP-A-2009-142184

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obtain a vegetable juice and / or a beverage containing fruit juice, which has an enhanced natural vegetable juice and fruit juice feeling without causing an offensive taste or an unpleasant taste.

As a result of various studies to solve the above problems, the present inventors have obtained a feeling of vegetable juice and fruit juice by using β-glucan, which is attracting attention as a material having functionality, with a small amount of addition which has not been assumed in the past. It was found that it can be improved and a natural and lasting taste can be achieved. Beta-glucan has a strong aspect as a functional material, and it is a surprising effect while its use at low concentrations has hardly been expected.

The present invention has been made based on the above findings, and is a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice containing 0.0001 to 0.1% by mass of β-1,3-1,4-glucan. ..
The present invention also provides a method for improving the taste of a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice, which contains 0.0001 to 0.1% by mass of β-1,3-1,4-glucan. is there.

According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice in which a natural vegetable juice / fruit juice feeling is enhanced without causing an unpleasant taste or an unpleasant taste.

Hereinafter, the beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or the fruit juice of the present invention will be described in detail.
First, β-1,3-1,4-glucan, which is an essential component of a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention, will be described.
The β-1,3-1,4-glucan contains a glucose polymer mainly composed of 1-3-β-D-glucopyranose bond and 1-4-β-D-glucopyranose bond as a main component. is there.
Grains are mainly cited as the origin of the above β-1,3-1,4-glucan, and among them, gramineous plants are preferable. Examples of gramineous plants include cereals such as rice, wheat, corn, morokoshi, barley, millet, millet, barley, oats (crow barley), and rye. it can. In particular, water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan obtained by extraction from these gramineous plants is preferable.
Β-1,3-1,4-glucan can also be obtained from monocotyledonous plants other than grains. In addition to extraction, β-1,3-1,4-glucan can also be obtained by a method such as classification.

In the present invention, 50% by mass or more, particularly 50 to 100% by mass of the above β-1,3-1,4-glucan is derived from the gramineous plant extract, so that the effect of the present invention can be further enhanced. It is preferable in that it can be used.

The water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan extracted from the above-mentioned grasses is not particularly limited in the extraction method, and a known method is used to apply an extraction solvent to the grasses as an extraction raw material. It may be added and extracted. Further, the solid-liquid separated extract itself, a liquid or solid obtained by concentrating water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan extracted from the extract by a known method, or known from the extract. It can be used by any production method, such as a liquid or a solid which has been purified by a method to increase its purity, in any form, or in any purity. Of course, a mixture of extracted components other than water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan can also be used.

Although the whole plant can be used as a raw material for extraction, it is preferable to use seeds having a relatively high β-glucan content. As the seed, any of bran, bran, malt, germ or endosperm portion obtained in the grain purification step can be used, including crushed whole seeds (whole grain flour). Preferably, the whole grain flour of barley or oats, the endosperm portion obtained by fermenting the grains from the outer periphery, or the bran generated at that time; rice bran; wheat or corn bran or germ, and more preferably barley. Whole grain flour of class or barley, or endosperm portion obtained by fermenting those grains from the outer periphery, or bran generated at that time.

To explain in more detail the method for extracting β-1, 3-1 and 4-glucan from grasses, β-1, 3-1 and 4-glucans in grasses can be added to water as a water-soluble polymer. It can be dissolved, for example, in gramineous grain powder, using water, warm water, hot water or salt solution, acidic or alkaline aqueous solution, organic solvent, etc., to a solvent 2 to 100 times the amount of powder. It can be extracted at any time and at any temperature. Further, the extract can be solid-liquid separated to obtain β-1,3-1,4-glucan. Among these, water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan extracted with water, warm water or hot water is preferable, and water-soluble β-1,3 extracted with warm water having a temperature of 4 ° C. or higher and 80 ° C. or lower is preferable. -1,4-Glucan is more preferable. Further, an extraction accelerator or the like can be added at the time of extraction.

Specifically, for example, as a method for obtaining high molecular weight β-1,3-1,4-glucan from barley or oats, a method of producing by water extraction using multi-wax barley as a raw material (for example, Tokushu 4). A method for obtaining a water-soluble β-glucan having a weight average molecular weight of 100,000 to 1,000,000 by alkaline extraction, neutralization or alcohol precipitation using barley or oats as a raw material (see, for example, JP-A-6-83552). (Refer to Gazette, etc.), a method of extracting water-soluble β-glucan in hot water at 80 to 90 ° C. using barley bran with an oat yield of 82% or less as a raw material (see, for example, JP-A-11-225706). Be done.

Further, the obtained water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan can be further reduced in molecular weight by a known method. As a method for lowering the molecular weight of β-1,3-1,4-glucan, any of the known hydrolysis reactions of polysaccharides can be used. For example, it is known that water-soluble polysaccharides are hydrolyzed by pressurization and heating in the presence of an acid, and this can be used to reduce the molecular weight. Further, it is also effective to reduce the molecular weight by utilizing a hydrolysis reaction by an enzyme, and 1,3-β glucanase or the like can be used as such an enzyme. Further, the molecular weight can be reduced by containing cellulase in the extraction solvent at the time of extraction. Furthermore, low-molecular-weight water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan can be directly extracted from the raw material grain by the method described in International Publication No. 98/13056 or JP-A-2002-97203. It can also be obtained by extracting. Further, the extraction accelerator or the like described in JP-A-2002-105103 can also be used.

In the present invention, β-1,3-1,4-glucan having any weight average molecular weight can be used, but since the water solubility increases as the molecular weight decreases, the weight average molecular weight is 3 million or less, preferably 500,000. Below, more preferably 100,000 or less is preferable. In order to obtain such a molecular weight range, for example, water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan obtained by extracting from a gramineous plant is described above so as to improve the water solubility. The molecular weight can be reduced by a known method as described above, and a low molecular weight water-soluble β-glucan can be directly extracted.

In the present specification, the weight average molecular weight and the molecular weight used for the ratio of the specific molecular weight region described later are standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan (MegaSime) measured by GPC (gel permeation chromatography). The molecular weight is converted to (manufactured by), and specifically, the value measured by the following apparatus and column is adopted.
・ Equipment EcoSEC HLC8320GPC (Tosoh Corporation)
・ Column TSK GEL G6000PWXL (Tosoh Corporation) -Shodex Sugar SB-802 (Showa Denko)
As the conditions of GPC, for example, the following conditions can be adopted.
・ Isocratic elution with eluent Milli-Q water ・ Flow velocity 0.5 ml / min
-Measurement temperature 60 ° C (column, inlet, RI)
-Detection RI and UV (280 nm) detection (45 ° C)
・ Analysis time 20 minutes ・ Sample concentration 1 mg / ml
・ Sample injection volume 50 μl
・ GPC analysis software (HLC8320GPC, EcoSEC data analysis Ver.1.07, Tosoh Corporation)

The content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan in the beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention is 0.0001 to 0 as the pure content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan. .1% by mass, more preferably 0.001 to 0.09% by mass, still more preferably 0.006 to 0.08% by mass, and most preferably 0.01 to 0.07% by mass. If it is less than 0.0001% by mass, the taste improving effect is not observed, and if it exceeds 0.1% by mass, the effect of the present invention is sharply lowered, and an off-flavor or an unpleasant taste may occur.

In the present invention, the McClary method (enzyme method) can be used for measuring the β-1,3-1,4-glucan content. Specifically, it can be measured by the following procedure using a β-1,3-1,4-glucan content measurement kit (model number K-BGLU) (manufactured by Megazyme). First, the water content of the measurement sample sieved by 500 μm (30 mesh) is measured in advance (infrared moisture meter, model number FD-230, manufactured by Kett), and the amount of anhydrous substance W (mg) is calculated. Separately, 10 mg of this measurement sample is taken in a 17 ml tube, and 200 μl of a 50% (v / v) ethanol solution is added and dispersed. Next, 4 ml of 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 6.5) is added, mixed well, and then heated in a boiling water bath for 1 minute. Mix well and heat in a hot water bath for another 2 minutes. The supernatant is obtained by centrifugation, cooled to 50 ° C., left for 5 minutes, and then placed in a tube with a lichenase enzyme solution (the vial included in the kit is diluted with 20 ml of 20 mM phosphate buffer, and the remaining amount is cryopreserved. ) To 200 μl (10 U) and react at 50 ° C. for 1 hour. Add 5 ml of 200 mM acetate buffer (pH 4.0) to the tube and mix gently. Leave at room temperature for 5 minutes and centrifuge to obtain supernatant. Take 100 μl of the supernatant in three tubes, one with 100 μl of 50 mM acetate buffer (pH 4.0) and the other two with 100 μl (0.2 U) of β-glucosidase solution (vial included in the kit). Is diluted with 20 ml of 50 mM acetate buffer, and the remaining amount is cryopreserved), and the mixture is reacted at 50 ° C. for 10 minutes. 3 ml of glucose oxidase / peroxidase solution is added and reacted at 50 ° C. for 20 minutes, and the absorbance (EA) of each sample at 510 nm is measured. Separately, the absorbance (EG) of a 3 ml glucose oxidase / peroxidase solution containing 100 μg of glucose at 510 nm is measured. From these measurement results, the β-1,3-1,4-glucan content can be determined by the following formula.

β-1,3-1,4-glucan content (%, w / w) = (EA) x (F / W) x 8.46
In the formula, F and W are as follows.
F = (100) / (absorbance EG of 100 μg glucose)
W = amount of anhydrous substance (mg)

In the present invention, β-1,3-1,4-glucan purified to high purity can be contained as it is in a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice, but β-1,3-1, Extracted β-glucan (hereinafter, β-glucan-containing composition) in which components extracted from rice plants other than water-soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucan also coexist so that 4-glucan has the above content. It is preferable to contain (sometimes referred to as a substance).
When a β-glucan-containing composition is contained in a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice, low-molecular-weight components such as maltose and polysaccharides such as starch coexist in addition to β-1,3-1,4-glucan. Will be done. The effect of the present invention is further emphasized when β-1,3-1,4-glucan and the above low molecular weight component coexist. Although the reason for this is not clear, it seems that some action between β-1,3-1,4-glucan and the low molecular weight component causes a synergistic effect.

In the present invention, coexisting polysaccharides such as starch can be hydrolyzed by enzymatically treating with a hydrolase such as amylase in order to adjust the proportion of the low molecular weight component.

When the above β-glucan-containing composition is used, the preferable content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan contained in the β-glucan-containing composition is 5 to 50% by mass, more preferably 10 to 40% by mass. , More preferably 15 to 35% by mass.

In the β-glucan-containing composition, the ratio of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 5000 to 20000 is preferably 30 to 95%, and more preferably 35 to 90%. , 40-80%, more preferably.
Further, the proportion of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 1000 or less is preferably 5 to 70%, more preferably 10 to 65%, still more preferably 20 to 60%.
The effect of the present invention becomes more remarkable when the ratio of the regions having the standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 5000 to 20000 and 1000 or less is within the above range.
The ratio of each molecular weight region in GPC is the area of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight of 5000 to 20000 to the area of the entire region from the chromatogram obtained by the above GPC measurement. The ratio shall be calculated as the area ratio of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight of 1000 or less. The region of the standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight 5000 to 20000000 is the standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight 5000 and the standard β-1,3-1,4-. A region sandwiched between glucan-equivalent molecular weights of 200,000 is defined, and the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 1000 or less is a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight. It shall mean the area sandwiched between 1000 and 0.

The beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention refers to a beverage product containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice component, preferably a beverage containing 5% by mass or more of vegetable juice and / or fruit juice. A beverage containing 10% by mass or more is preferable. In the beverage of the present invention, the content of vegetable juice and / or fruit juice is also affected by the type of beverage and the like, and the upper limit thereof is not particularly limited, except for β-1,3-1,4-glucan. It is also possible that everything is composed of vegetable juice and / or fruit juice.

In the present invention, the vegetable juice is obtained by squeezing the vegetables, and is not particularly limited as long as it can be used in a beverage. Examples of vegetables as a raw material for the vegetable juice include, for example. Onion, carrot, broccoli, radish, cabbage, peppers, celery, spinach, asparagus, barley young leaves, spring chrysanthemum, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, salad vegetables, komatsu vegetables, tingen vegetables, tomorrow's leaves, sweet potatoes, horse bells, tomatoes, moroheiya, paprika, cresson , Parsley, celery, trefoil, lettuce, radish, kale, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, green beans, pumpkin, onion, ginger, nira, takana, cabbage, corn, pods, okura, turnip, cucumber, uri, zucchini, hechima, sprouts And so on.

Further, in the present invention, the fruit juice is obtained by squeezing the fruit, and is not particularly limited as long as it can be used in a beverage. The fruit as a raw material of the fruit juice is, for example, citrus fruits. (Lemon, orange, tangerine, nable, ponkan, summer orange, grapefruit, lime, hassaku, iyokan, yuzu, camu camu, kabosu, mandarin, tangerine, temple orange, tangelo, calamancy, etc.), strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, Cassis, cherry, apple, grape, pomegranate, kiwi, muscat, peach, pineapple, guava, banana, passion fruit, mango, acerola, prunes, papaya, passion fruit, horse, pear, anzu, lychee, melon, watermelon, pear , Persimmons, juices, figs, peaches, etc.

As the vegetable juice and / or fruit juice, either one of the various vegetables and fruits listed above may be used alone, or two or more of them may be used in combination. When two or more kinds are used in combination, the ratio of each vegetable (vegetable juice) and / or each fruit (fruit juice) can be appropriately adjusted as needed, and is not particularly limited.

The present invention is highly suitable for improving the taste when the vegetable juice and / or the fruit juice is substantially concentrated and reduced. Here, "concentration reduction" means that it is produced by removing water from vegetable juice or fruit juice that has been squeezed once and then adding water again, and "substantially". "Ni" means that 80% by mass or more of the vegetable juice and / or fruit juice is concentrated and reduced, preferably 90% by mass or more, and more preferably 95 to 100% by mass is concentrated and reduced. ..

The beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or the fruit juice of the present invention has a sufficient effect on the general vegetable juice and / or the beverage containing the fruit juice. For example, a novel beverage material is used. Beverages, of course, vegetable juices that do not contain alcohol but have the flavor of alcoholic beverages and / or fruit juice-containing non-alcoholic beverages, sugar and fat-cut vegetable juices and / or fruit juice-containing low-calorie beverages, vegetable juices and / or fruit juices It may be a contained healthy beverage, a vegetable juice and / or a fruit juice-containing sports beverage, a vegetable juice and / or a fruit juice-containing jelly beverage, a vegetable juice and / or a fruit juice-containing beverage to be consumed in a temperature range completely different from the conventional one.

The beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention contains the above β-1,3-1,4-glucan, vegetable juice, fruit juice, and other components that can be generally used in beverages. Specific examples thereof include sugar alcohols, sweeteners, bitter substances, acidulants, water-soluble dietary fibers, amino acids, aminosaccharides, peptides, proteins, various edible extracts, various vitamins, and various terpenoids. , Various flavonoids, various phenols, polysaccharides, phospholipids and their derivatives (ceramide, phosphatidylcholine, sphingomyelin, etc.), higher aliphatic alcohols (polycosanol), isoflavone, taurine, DNA, DHA, methylsulfonylmethane, Inorganic salts (iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium, etc.) and the like can be mentioned, and one or more of these can be used.

Finally, a method for improving the taste of a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention will be described.
The method for improving the taste of a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice of the present invention is to add β-1,3-1,4-glucan to a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice from 0.0001 to 0.1. It is contained in an amount of mass%, preferably 0.001 to 0.09% by mass, more preferably 0.006 to 0.08% by mass, and most preferably 0.01 to 0.07% by mass. If it is less than 0.0001% by mass, the taste improving effect is not seen, and if it exceeds 0.1% by mass, the effect of the present invention is sharply lowered, and the effect of the present invention becomes insufficient.
β-1,3-1,4-glucan can be contained, for example, by adding β-1,3-1,4-glucan to the finished beverage after producing the beverage by a usual method, or β-1,3-1,4-glucan during the production of the beverage. It can also be contained by making a beverage using 3-1,4-glucan with other ingredients.
With respect to the taste improving method of the present invention, the above-mentioned detailed description of the beverage of the present invention can be appropriately applied to the points not particularly mentioned.

Examples of the present invention will be given below, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

<Preparation of β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition>
[Preparation Example 1] Preparation of β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition A 1000 g of crushed barley (whole grain flour, the same applies hereinafter) is dispersed in 5 liters of water and stirred at 60 ° C. for 3 hours. Extraction processing was performed. After centrifuging the extract, the supernatant was frozen at −20 ° C., followed by thawing the frozen product, filtering the β-glucan-containing solids in the resulting solution and drying. The yield was 26 g. This was designated as β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition A.
(Content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan: 72% by mass, ratio of molecular weight 5000 to 20000: 67%, ratio of molecular weight of 1000 or less: 5%, but the molecular weight is standard β-1,3- Based on 1,4-glucan conversion. The same shall apply hereinafter)

[Preparation Example 2] Preparation of composition B containing β-1,3-1,4-glucan 1000 g of pulverized barley was dispersed in 9 liters of water, 1500 units of α-amylase was added, and then 3 at 60 ° C. After reacting for a time, the extraction treatment and the enzyme treatment were performed. The reaction mixture was centrifuged, and the supernatant was lyophilized to obtain 207 g of powder. This was designated as β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition B.
(Content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan: 18% by mass, ratio of molecular weight 5000 to 20000: 44%, content of molecular weight 1000 or less: 55%)

[Preparation Example 3] Preparation of β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition C 1000 g of pulverized barley was dispersed in 9 liters of water, 35 units of cellulase was added, and then the reaction was carried out at 60 ° C. for 3 hours. Then, the extraction treatment and the enzyme treatment were performed. The reaction mixture was centrifuged, and the supernatant was lyophilized to obtain 185 g of a powder. This was designated as β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition C.
(Content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan: 28% by mass, ratio of molecular weight 5000 to 20000: 58%, content of molecular weight 1000 or less: 42%)

[Preparation Example 4] Preparation of β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition D 100 g of pulverized barley was dispersed in 9 liters of water and stirred at 60 ° C. for 3 hours for extraction treatment. The extract was centrifuged and the supernatant was lyophilized to give 145 g of powder. This was designated as β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition D.
(Content of β-1,3-1,4-glucan: 32% by mass, ratio of molecular weight 5000 to 20000: 50%, content of molecular weight 1000 or less: 16%)

[Example 1]
Β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing compositions A to D obtained in the above preparation example were added to commercially available concentrated fruit juice reduced apple juice (fruit juice: 100%) to β-1,3-1,4. -Juice-containing beverages A to D with various β-1,3-1,4-glucan contents are added and dissolved so that the content as pure glucan is as shown in [Table 1], respectively. Alphabet corresponds to the added β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition), and the taste improvement test was conducted. In the taste improvement test, the taste intensity and taste quality were evaluated according to the following evaluation method.

<Evaluation method of taste strength and taste quality>
The fruit juice-containing beverages A to D and the β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition-free fruit juice-containing beverage prepared as a control for 10 panelists (the above-mentioned commercially available concentrated fruit juice reduced apple juice). The taste intensity and taste quality of the glucan were evaluated according to the following paneler evaluation criteria, and the total score was evaluated according to the following evaluation criteria, and the results are shown in Table 1.

(Paneler evaluation criteria for taste intensity)
I feel a clearly strengthened fruit juice feeling compared to the control ... I feel a slightly strengthened fruit juice feeling compared to the 2-point control ... I feel almost the same degree of fruit juice feeling as the 1-point control ...・ I feel a weaker fruit juice feeling than the 0 point control ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ -1 point I do not feel the fruit juice feeling ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 2 points Evaluation criteria)
◎ +: Total score of 10 panelists is 17 to 20 points ◎: Total score of 10 panelists is 13 to 16 points ○: Total score of 10 panelists is 10 to 12 points △: Total score of 10 panelists Total score 5-9 points ×: Total score of 10 panelists 0-4 points × ×: Total score of 10 panelists is less than 0 points

(Taste paneler evaluation criteria)
I do not feel any flavor other than the fruit juice feeling ..... 2 points I feel the flavor other than the fruit juice feeling, but there is no discomfort as the fruit juice feeling ... 1 I feel a strange taste / miscellaneous taste other than the spot juice feeling, and there is a sense of discomfort as a fruit juice feeling ... 0 points I feel an unbearable strange taste / miscellaneous taste ... -1 Point (taste evaluation standard)
◎: Total score of 10 panelists is 16 to 20 points ○: Total score of 10 panelists is 10 to 15 points △: Total score of 10 panelists is 5 to 9 points ×: Total score of 10 panelists 0 to 4 points XX: The total score of 10 panelists is less than 0 points

[Example 2]
To 100 parts by mass of commercially available mixed fruit juice (melon juice, kiwi juice, lemon juice, fruit juice 25%), 0.5 part by mass of the above β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition B was added. It was mixed and dissolved to obtain mixed fruit juice A.
The above-mentioned commercially available mixed fruit juice to which β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition B was not added was used as a control mixed fruit juice B.
When the mixed fruit juice A and the mixed fruit juice B were compared and tasted, the mixed fruit juice A had a stronger fruit juice feeling than the mixed fruit juice B.

[Example 3]
Melon and kiwifruit were cut into bite-sized pieces as fruits with a flesh-like texture, and then mixed with a mixer at a mass ratio of melon: kiwi = 1: 1 to obtain fruit juice. To 100 parts by mass of the obtained fruit juice, 0.5 part by mass of the β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition B was added, mixed and dissolved to obtain mixed fruit juice C.
The fruit juice to which β-1,3-1,4-glucan-containing composition B was not added was used as a control mixed fruit juice D.
When the mixed fruit juice C and the mixed fruit juice D were compared and tasted, the mixed fruit juice C had a stronger fruit juice feeling than the mixed fruit juice D.

Claims (4)

A beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice containing 0.001 to 0.1% by mass of β-1,3-1,4-glucan, which is a source of β-1,3-1,4-glucan. As a result, the proportion of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 5000 to 200,000 is 30 to 80%, and the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan-equivalent molecular weight of 1000 or less A beverage containing an extract of a glucan in a proportion of 20-70%. The beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or fruit juice according to claim 1, wherein 50% by mass or more of the β-1,3-1,4-glucan is derived from a gramineous plant extract. The beverage containing the vegetable juice and / or the fruit juice according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the vegetable juice and / or the fruit juice is substantially concentrated and reduced. A method for improving the taste of a beverage containing vegetable juice and / or fruit juice, which contains 0.001 to 0.1% by mass of β-1,3-1,4-glucan , and is β-1,3-1. As a 4-glucan source, the proportion of the region having a standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight of 5000 to 20000% is 30 to 80%, and the standard β-1,3-1,4-glucan equivalent molecular weight is 30 to 80%. A method for improving taste, which comprises an extract of a glucan in which the proportion of a region of 1000 or less is 20 to 70% .