JP7445482B2 - How to make cereal puffs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a new method for producing cereal puffs with a high protein content.

Cereal foods such as corn flakes have high nutritional value and can be stored for a long time, so various forms have been proposed.Granola, which has been in increasing demand in recent years, uses cereal puffs (hereinafter referred to as ``cereal puffs''). There are many things.

Various types of cereal puffs have been proposed in response to increasing demand, and for example, cereal puffs characterized by "low calorie" and "high dietary fiber" have been disclosed. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a cereal puff made of sugar oligomers and dietary fiber. Further, Patent Documents 2 and 3 disclose cereal puffs containing psyllium and manufacturing methods.

However, cereal puffs with increased protein content have not been sufficiently studied so far, and the problems that arise when increasing the protein content of cereal puffs have not been clarified.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-193175 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-126074 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-170972

The biggest challenge in increasing the protein content of cereal puffs was increasing the viscosity of the dough inside the extruder. Although the details will be described later, as the viscosity of the dough increases, the quality of the cereal puff decreases, so in order to stably produce cereal puffs with a high protein content, it was necessary to reduce the viscosity of the dough.

The present inventors supplied an extruder with raw material flour containing at least 40 to 70% by weight of protein, 15 to 57% by weight of starch, and 3 to 15% by weight of an organic acid salt having a solubility in water of 1 g/100 mL or more. It has been discovered that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by a method for manufacturing cereal puffs, which is characterized by a puffing process.

The completion of the present invention makes it possible to reduce the viscosity of the dough and stabilize the quality of cereal puffs even if the protein content is high.

This is an example (prototype example 1) with poor processing suitability because no organic acid salt was added. This is an example (prototype example 5) in which processing suitability was improved by adding an organic acid salt. This is a graph showing the physical properties of dough when potassium gluconate or sodium chloride was added using a farinograph. This is a graph showing the physical properties of dough when sodium gluconate was added using a farinograph. This is a graph obtained by measuring the physical properties of dough when monosodium glutamate was added using a farinograph. This is a graph showing the physical properties of dough when sodium citrate was added using a farinograph.

In the present invention, raw material flour containing at least 40 to 70% by weight of protein, 15 to 57% by weight of starch, and 3 to 15% by weight of an organic acid salt having a solubility in water of 1 g/100 mL or more is supplied to an extruder and expanded. The present invention relates to a method for producing cereal puffs, which is characterized by processing. Each item will be explained in detail below.

(cereal puff)
Cereal puffs in the present invention refer to cereals with a bulk specific gravity of 400 g/L or less.

(organic acid salt)
In the present invention, it is necessary that the raw material powder contains 3 to 15% by weight of an organic acid salt. By adding an organic acid salt, it is possible to reduce the viscosity of the dough in the extruder and to suppress the deterioration of the flavor of the product. The circumstances in which the present inventors discovered the organic acid salt will be explained below.

The biggest challenge in increasing the protein content of cereal puffs was increasing the viscosity of the dough inside the extruder. It has been known that when protein-containing dough is kneaded, the proteins aggregate and the viscosity increases, but the present invention assumes that puffs with a protein content of more than 40% by weight will be produced. The viscosity increases to an extent that is incomparable to conventional methods.

The viscosity can be lowered by adding water, but if too much water is added, sufficient air bubbles will not be generated in the dough, resulting in a poor texture. On the other hand, if processing is continued while the viscosity of the dough is high, the plasticity of the dough immediately after being discharged from the extruder will be too low, making the cereal puffs brittle, and the dough temperature will rise due to frictional heat, resulting in burning and loss of flavor components. Dissipation is likely to occur. Furthermore, the load on production equipment is also large. Therefore, in order to stabilize the quality of cereal palls, it was necessary to reduce the viscosity of the dough by a method other than adding water.

In response, the present inventors investigated a method of adding inorganic salts such as sodium chloride and potassium chloride to raw material flour to suppress dough viscosity. Although the mechanism is not clear, it is thought that by adding highly soluble salt, the solubility of protein decreases, water separates, and the viscosity of the dough decreases. However, during the development process, it became clear that when trying to suppress the viscosity of dough with inorganic salt, a large amount of inorganic salt is added to the dough, which has a large effect on the taste.

Therefore, the present inventors discovered a method of adding an organic acid salt as a method of lowering the viscosity of the dough without increasing the amount of water added or the amount of inorganic salt added. Organic acid salts have a stronger ability to suppress viscosity than inorganic salts, so the amount added can be reduced and the impact on taste can be minimized.

A wide variety of organic acid salts can be used as long as they are food grade, but the solubility in water must be 1 g/100 mL or more, preferably 3 g/100 mL or more. When the solubility of the organic acid salt in water is low, the function of separating water from proteins is weak, and it is not possible to sufficiently suppress increase in the viscosity of the dough.

Specific examples of organic acid salts include sodium citrate, sodium malate, sodium lactate, potassium lactate, sodium glutamate, sodium succinate, sodium inosinate, sodium gluconate, potassium gluconate, calcium gluconate, and the like.

These organic acid salts can be changed depending on the desired flavor of the cereal puff. Specifically, if the food is intended to be eaten with highly acidic foods such as dried fruit or yogurt, highly acidic sodium citrate or sodium malate may be used to add umami flavors such as corn soup or bacon. If the food is intended to be eaten with foods that have a strong flavor, it is preferable to use umami ingredients such as sodium glutamate and sodium succinate. In addition, if it is desired to impart as little flavor to the cereal puff as possible, it is preferable to use sodium gluconate, potassium gluconate, etc., which have little effect on taste.

Next, the amount of the organic acid salt added will be explained.
Regarding the lower limit of the amount of the organic acid salt added, it is necessary to set the amount of the organic acid salt added to the total amount of the raw material powder to be 3% by weight or more, and more preferably 4.5% by weight or more. If the amount of the organic acid salt added is too small, the viscosity of the dough cannot be sufficiently suppressed.

On the other hand, regarding the upper limit of the amount of organic acid salt added, the allowable amount differs depending on the application. Specifically, when using organic acid salts that have a small effect on taste, such as sodium gluconate and potassium gluconate, the amount of the organic acid salt added is preferably 15% by weight or less, and 12% by weight or less. It is more preferable. On the other hand, when using organic acid salts that have a large effect on taste, such as sodium citrate and monosodium glutamate, the amount of organic acid salts added is preferably 8% by weight or less, more preferably 5% by weight or less. preferable. In other words, gluconate has superior properties over other organic acid salts in that it has a smaller effect on taste than other organic acid salts, and the amount added can be increased as needed. ing.

Note that, from the viewpoint of productivity, it is not necessary to add an excessive amount of organic acid salts, so it is preferable that the amount of organic acid salts added to the total amount of raw material powder is 15% by weight or less.

(protein)
In the present invention, it is necessary that the raw material flour contains 40 to 70% by weight of protein, and more preferably 50 to 65% by weight. If the protein content is less than 40% by weight, the viscosity of the dough will not increase much, so there is no point in employing the present invention. It is also contrary to the purpose of the present invention, which is to produce cereal puffs with a high protein content.

On the other hand, since it is necessary for the raw material flour to contain 3% by weight or more of organic acid salts and 15% by weight or more of starch, it is practically impossible to increase the protein content to more than 70% by weight. Furthermore, if the cereal contains a large amount of protein, there is no room for adding starch, making it difficult for puffing to occur and making it difficult to form the cereal into a puff.

As the protein, vegetable protein, animal protein, etc. can be used, but since the purpose of the present invention is to manufacture cereal puffs, which are processed grain products, vegetable protein is used in consideration of flavor etc. Among these, it is particularly preferable to use proteins derived from grains such as soybean protein and wheat protein. Furthermore, soybean protein and wheat protein do not need to be isolated, and their raw materials, such as soybean and wheat flour, may be used.

(starch)
Next, in the present invention, in order to puff the cereal into a puff shape, the raw material flour needs to contain 15 to 57% by weight of starch, preferably 17% by weight or more. When water is added to starch and kneaded, it becomes a paste, and when this paste-like starch is rapidly heated, the water contained in the starch expands and at the same time the starch surrounding it expands and hardens. As a result, a puffed cereal is obtained.

If there is too little starch, the puffing power will be weak and it will not be possible to process it into a puff. On the other hand, if there is too much starch, it will be easier to process into puffs, but the protein content will be relatively low, which is contrary to the purpose of the present invention, which is to obtain cereal puffs with a high protein content. becomes.

The starch may be a natural starch such as corn starch, potato starch, wheat starch, or tapioca starch, or a modified starch such as pregelatinized starch, ether crosslinked starch, or phosphoric acid crosslinked starch. Alternatively, wheat flour or potato, which are raw materials for starch, may be used.

(Processing conditions)
An extruder is a device that performs kneading, processing, shaping, swelling, etc. by adding water to powder or granular materials and extruding them under heating conditions by applying pressure with a screw. The extruder used in the present invention can be either a single-screw extruder or a multi-screw extruder with two or more screws, but a two-screw type is preferable from the viewpoint of quality stability. An extruder generally consists of an input part, a screw, a barrel (a tunnel-shaped part in which the screw rotates and processes the sample), and a die (the part from which the processed dough comes out). be done.

Raw material powder is added from the input section, mixed by a screw in a heated barrel while pressure is applied, and extruded from a die. At this time, when raw material powders containing starch are mixed and treated under high temperature and high pressure as in the present invention, the water and air that were compressed when extruded from the die expand, and a puffed product is obtained. Thereafter, cereal puffs can be manufactured by cutting the puffed product into an appropriate length.

The barrel temperature inside the extruder is preferably 60 to 160°C, more preferably 80 to 140°C. Further, the pressure at the die portion is preferably 2 to 20 MPa, more preferably 5 to 15 MPa.

In order to vary the texture and appearance of the cereal puffs, the shape may be changed by applying a pressure roll to the extruder after discharging the cereal puffs.

Further, in order to improve the texture and shelf life of the cereal puff, a drying step may be provided as necessary. The general drying conditions are 100 to 300°C for 15 seconds to 20 minutes, but natural drying may also be used. There is no particular restriction on the moisture content of cereal puffs, but if you want the crispy texture typical of conventional cereals, the moisture content is preferably 7% by weight or less, and 4% by weight or less. It is more preferable.

(moisture adjustment)
In the present invention, it is preferable to adjust the water content of the raw material flour before and/or during the mixing and kneading of the raw material flour with an extruder. Wheat flour and starch, which are the main ingredients of raw flour, are agricultural products, so their moisture content often varies depending on the harvest time and place of origin, which can easily cause the quality of cereal puffs to be unstable. Therefore, by providing a step of adjusting the moisture content, the quality of the cereal puff can be stabilized.

Further, the moisture content of the raw material powder after moisture adjustment is preferably 15 to 35% by weight, more preferably 18 to 25% by weight. When the water content is less than 15% by weight, the plasticity of the dough immediately after being discharged from the extruder becomes too low, making the cereal puff brittle. Also, depending on the conditions, the viscosity may become too high, causing the extruder to stop or be damaged. On the other hand, if the water content exceeds 35% by weight, sufficient air bubbles will not be generated in the dough, resulting in an undesirable texture. Furthermore, depending on the conditions, swelling itself does not occur and it is not possible to form it into a puff shape.

66 parts by weight of powdered soy protein (Fuji Pro E manufactured by Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.) and 34 parts by weight of wheat flour (Flower manufactured by Nisshin Seifun Co., Ltd.) were mixed together, and water was further added to make the mixture (prototype example 1). It was adjusted.

Prototype Example 2 was prepared by mixing 66 parts by weight of powdered soy protein, 32 parts by weight of wheat flour, and 2 parts by weight of potassium gluconate, and further adding water. Prototype Examples 3 to 23 were prepared by adjusting the raw material ratio according to Tables 1 and 2.

Prototype Examples 1 to 23 were supplied to a twin-screw extruder (LT-32L, manufactured by NP Foods Co., Ltd.) and puffed to produce cereal puffs (Examples 1 to 21, Comparative Examples 1 and 2). The barrel temperature of the extruder was 90° C., and the screw speed (dough conveyance speed) was 144 rpm.

Processing suitability (shape stability)
Processing suitability (shape stability) of Prototype Examples 1 to 23 was evaluated. The evaluation criteria are as follows.
○: Most of the samples (cereal puffs) have no burrs or corners and are swollen into an almost spherical shape (defective rate less than 5%)
×: Most samples have burrs or corners, or are not sufficiently expanded (defective rate of 50% or more)
△: Intermediate evaluation (defect rate 5% or more, less than 50%)

Flavor To evaluate the influence of organic acid salts on the flavor of cereal puffs, 10 experienced panelists evaluated them according to the following criteria.
○: 9 or more panelists evaluated that the flavor of the cereal puff was not affected or the flavor was good ×: 9 or more panelists evaluated that the flavor of the organic acid salt was too strong and was not suitable for consumption △: Other than the above

Evaluation of dough physical properties A mixture of 67 parts of powdered soy protein, 24 parts of wheat flour, and 9 parts of potassium gluconate was mixed with 240 parts of water (prototype example F7), and the viscosity was measured using a farinograph. The progress was observed. A farinograph is a device that measures the torque applied to a rotating shaft during the dough mixing process as hard viscosity (FU: farinograph unit). Originally, the amount of water added should be the same as when using an extruder, but the viscosity was too high to be measured using a farinograph, so a test sample was prepared with an increased amount of water added to lower the viscosity.

The ratio of powder raw materials (powdered soybean protein, wheat flour, organic acid salt) in Prototype Example F7 is the same as in Prototype Example 7. Similarly, prototype examples F10-13 correspond to prototype examples 10-13. Further, Prototype F0 is a sample for confirming the behavior when no organic acid salt is added, and has a formulation other than Prototype F7 except for potassium gluconate.

The specific measurement conditions in the present invention are as follows.
Measuring equipment: Farinograph E type (manufactured by Brabender)
Temperature: 30℃
Measurement time (mixing time): 290 seconds (145 counts)
Measurement interval: 2 seconds In the graphs in Figures 3 to 7, the horizontal axis is the number of counts, and the vertical axis is farinograph units (FU).

From Prototype Examples 1 to 9, it can be seen that it is necessary to contain at least 3% by weight of an organic acid salt (potassium gluconate), and preferably 4.5% by weight or more. Also, if the amount of organic acid salts is too high, the flavor of the cereal will deteriorate.

From Prototype Examples 7 and 10 to 13, processing suitability is better when organic acid salts are added than when sodium chloride is added. It can be seen that gluconates (sodium gluconate, potassium gluconate) are superior in terms of flavor. Moreover, from Table 3, it can be seen that organic acid salts have a better viscosity stabilizing function than sodium chloride.

From Prototype Examples 5 and 14 to 19, it can be seen that even when organic acid salts are added, processing suitability decreases when there is too much protein. On the other hand, there was a tendency that the more starch contained in the puff, the better the processing suitability was.

From Prototype Examples 5 and 20 to 23, it was found that processing suitability decreased when the amount of water added was less than the optimum amount.

Claims (4)

Raw material flour containing at least 40 to 70% by weight of protein, 15 to 57% by weight of starch, and 3 to 15% by weight of an organic acid salt having a solubility in water of 1 g/100 mL or more (weight ratio of each component in raw material flour) is the weight ratio before adjustment when adjusting the moisture content ) is supplied to an extruder and subjected to a puffing process. Claim 1, characterized in that, in the case where the moisture content of the raw material flour is adjusted before and/or during the mixing and kneading of the raw material flour with an extruder, the moisture content of the raw material flour after the moisture adjustment is 15 to 35% by weight. The method of manufacturing the cereal puffs described. 3. The cereal according to claim 1, wherein the organic acid salt is one or more organic acid salts selected from the group consisting of gluconate, glutamate, succinate, citrate, and malate. How to make puffs. 4. The method for producing cereal puffs according to claim 3, wherein the organic acid salt is a gluconate.

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