PL191229B1 - A method for preserving food products particularly caviar - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for preserving food products, preferentially roe and most preferably roe from cod, is performed by carrying out the desired end preservation at the raw material stage. A salting at the raw material stage results in a severely reduced consumption of salt. Preservation with salt can be carried out in combination with one or more preservatives such as sugar, benzoic acid and derivatives thereof, sorbic acid and derivatives thereof, organic acids and salts thereof and acidity regulating agents.

Description

The invention relates to a method of preserving fish eggs, especially cod.

That food products need to be preserved is a well known phenomenon. It is also well known that raw materials for further processing in the production of food products often also need to be preserved to prevent spoilage, especially due to the effects of microbial growth.

A frequently used method is the so-called low water activity (aw) preservation.

Low water activity is achieved by adding low molecular weight compounds such as salt (NaCl) and / or various types of sugars (such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose or lactose) or sugar alcohols (such as sorbitol, mannitol, inositol or xylitol).

However, it has now been established that excessively high levels of such low molecular weight compounds should be avoided for health reasons. In particular, high consumption of salt and sugar in the population is undesirable and high consumption of sugar alcohols has a laxative effect.

In addition, it is a disadvantage that excessively high or even high concentrations of low molecular weight compounds often impart flavor to the raw materials which is transferred to the products made therefrom, which severely limits the use of the raw material.

The present invention relates generally to a method of preserving food products, and in particular to a method of preserving caviar, in particular cod caviar.

Roe is a perishable material. The roe is harvested in large quantities during a relatively short season, and its industrial use therefore requires the preservation of the roe already at the raw material stage.

The roe is traditionally preserved by canning / bottling, freezing, salting (NaCl) or sugar-salting (also referred to as "sugar salting or" pickling) (NaCl + sucrose).

Of these methods, the first two are relatively expensive due to the necessary investment in factories and similar installations, and are therefore only suitable for expensive products.

This leads to a preference for less expensive preservation methods such as salting and sugar salting, often in combination with cold storage.

However, the disadvantage of these methods is that they lead to a high and undesirable salt content in the roe, which means that the roe must be soaked back in water before use, which is very expensive and time consuming, or that its consumption must be limited to products with a high salt content brine is not a problem.

Another disadvantage of salting / sugar salting is that the water content of the roe varies depending on its degree of maturity.

The salted / sugar-salted roe is preserved due to the reduced water activity aw, and if the water content of the roe is too high, this must in turn be compensated for by an increased, but undesirable, addition of salt.

Yet another difficulty with this is that the water activity is in practice not measured at the point where the roe is packed, which means that the salt dosing is done on the basis of an estimate.

This in turn means that the roe can become oversalted, with the consequence that it has to be soaked in water afterwards - a process that is not harmful in itself, but also that the roe can be under salted, with the detrimental effect of fermenting the roe during storage.

The aim of the present invention is to remedy all these drawbacks in a simple and effective manner, while at the same time providing a raw material that is directly available for further processing without the need for additional preservation.

Accordingly, the present invention relates to a method for preserving eggs, which method is characterized in that the desired final preservation is carried out in the raw material stage. The method is also suitable for the preservation of food products.

The method of the invention applies to eggs, most preferably to cod eggs.

The invention relates to a method of preserving fish eggs, especially cod, by means of the combined preservation technology, characterized in that the fresh raw material of roe is preserved with salt in combination with one or more of the following:

- sugar 0-120 g / kg of raw roe,

- benzoic acid, its salts and derivatives 0-10 g / kg of roe raw material,

- sorbic acid and its salts 0-5 g / kg of raw eggs,

PL 191 229 B1

- organic acids such as acetic acid, propionic acid and lactic acid and their salts 0-10 g / kg of raw roe,

- Acidity regulators such as organic acids, including ascorbic acid, malic acid, citric acid, butyric acid and tartaric acid, and inorganic acids such as phosphoric acid, to a pH in the range of 6.5 to 3.

Preferably, cod eggs are used as raw material in the process.

Preferably, the roe product is preserved from 1-12 kg, more preferably 4-8 kg salt / 100 kg fresh roe.

The method of preserving eggs according to the invention is based on a so-called combination technology.

Instead of basing the preservation on only one principle (the above-mentioned reduced water activity aw), the preservation according to the invention is based on several principles which, individually, probably did not give sufficient quality for the preservation of roe, but which in combination give a good result.

This has the advantage of significantly reducing the amount of preservatives (salt), which are not always equally desirable, and the fact that there is not so much dependence on the ability to accurately estimate the water content of the roe during the preservation process.

The roe is preserved by a combination of a reduction in water activity by adding salt, but in much lower amounts than with traditional salting / sugar salting, reduced pH, low storage temperature (cold storage) and the addition of conventional food-approved preservatives.

It is necessary to point out that the latter types of preservatives are preferably selected from those already in use in products made from roe as a starting material.

This has the added advantage of reducing the cost of preservatives to a minimum.

According to the invention, the addition of preservatives is transferred from the final product to the raw material, allowing the preservative then to remain in the products until the final product, where its desired effect is continued.

As a rule, the end product contains other ingredients in addition to the roe, and it is possible with the process of the invention to increase or adjust the addition of preservative to the raw material to correspond to the "dilution occurring during processing and further refinement towards the end product.

In this way, an increased preservative effect of the raw material is obtained without the said effect on the taste properties or in conflict with the legal provisions or regulations concerning the final product.

It should be mentioned here that the selection of preservatives in the case of food products, such as, for example, roe, cannot of course be made completely without restriction.

A prerequisite, of course, is that the preservative must be suitable for being added to the final product. Thus, this additive is not likely to cause any significant, and certainly no adverse, taste effects. The final requirement, but certainly not the least important, is that the preservative has a positive effect on the quality of the raw material storage. This can be ensured in part by proper control of other accompanying factors such as, for example, the pH value.

Fish roe preservation experiments were carried out to prepare a caviar emulsion using a combination of salt, acetic acid and sodium benzoate.

The pH of the roe was reduced somewhat by adding an inorganic acid such as hydrochloric acid or phosphoric acid, thereby increasing the antimicrobial effect of acetic acid and benzoic acid. However, this must be balanced against the effect on the taste of the final product.

Currently, sodium benzoate is used as a preservative for caviar emulsions and the dosing of sodium benzoate per egg is adjusted accordingly.

Compared to traditional salting or sugar salting, the process of the invention provides, in addition to simplifying the process, a significant reduction in the amount of salt. Traditional salting / salting with added sugar uses 14 kg or more of salt per 100 kg of fresh eggs. By the method of the invention, the amount of this additive can be significantly reduced, even down to 4 to 5 kg of salt per 100 kg of fresh eggs.

This, of course, is of major economic importance, but also has significant health implications.

PL 191 229 B1

As indicated above, the method of the invention is not limited to cod eggs, but can be applied without major modification to eggs from other types of fish, such as capelin, salmon, trout, catfish, lobster, sturgeon, and crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters. .

The method according to the invention, i.e. the transfer of the addition of preservatives from the final product to the raw material, can also be used for other products that are currently salted preserved, of which, for example:

The same treatment as roe (which essentially consists of eggs) can be applied to salted egg yolks using the same preservatives used in finished products such as mayonnaise, remoulade, dressings and other mayonnaise products.

Fish is now salted in brine for later use in semi-canned goods (short-life products) such as pickled herrings, pickled bristlings (small sardine-like herrings), pickled herring fillets, anchovies, etc. The same preservatives that used in the final product, they can be advantageously added during the pickling step.

Vegetables that are preserved by salting for later use in the final product, such as beans, peas, onions and cauliflower, can be treated with the same preservatives as those in the final product.

Meat intended for salting for later use in minced products to which preservatives will be added may be treated with the same preservatives during salting.

The invention will be described by means of the following example

An example of the preservation process

Fresh cod eggs were pressed from the bags, mixed well and mixed with seawater from Trondheim port at 24 ml / kg of roe to ensure that the roe contained a diverse flora of external microorganisms.

The roe was then divided into two parts, part A and part B.

Sodium benzoate was added to part B in an amount of 2.4 kg / kg of roe and concentrated acetic acid in an amount of 2.1 g / kg of roe, both parts dissolved in less pure water (8-10 ml / kg roe).

Part A and Part B were split into 15 smaller parts and NaCl was added as indicated in Table 1.

After the addition of the salt in portions from Part B, the pH was adjusted from 4.7 to 4.9 with hydrochloric acid. The pH in part A was not adjusted, it was in the range of pH 5.5 to 6.0, depending on the salt concentration, whereby increasing the amount of salt resulted in a decrease in the pH value.

The roe was then transferred to a Hungate tube which was closed with a rubber septum stopper. After closing the tube, the air pocket above the roe weight was purged with nitrogen gas in order to obtain approximately anaerobic conditions corresponding to the conditions in which the roe is kept in the barrels.

The Hungate tubes were then incubated at 30 ° C and 15 ° C. The pressure of the Hungate tubes was measured at regular intervals by inserting the tip of the syringe connected to a pressure gauge through a rubber septum.

The growth of microorganisms in the roe resulted in the formation of CO2 and in some cases other gases, leading to an increase in pressure in the tubes. Tubes with pressures> 0.3 atmospheres were considered contaminated with bacteria, while tubes with pressures of 0.1 to 0.3 atmospheres were recorded as doubtful.

The results obtained are shown in Table 1 and show a clearly positive effect of the added preservatives in combination with salt and the reduced pH value on the storage quality of the eggs.

PL 191 229 B1

T a b e l a 1

Storage of salted roe with and without sodium benzoate and acetic acid in Hungate tubes in an approximately oxygen-free atmosphere. The time period to a significant increase in pressure (overpressure> 0.3 atm) was recorded as a measure of microbial contamination. In parentheses are indicated test tubes in which an overpressure of 0.1 to 0.3 atmospheres was measured.

NaCl (g / 100 g fresh eggs) Salt only (Part A) Salt + benzoic acid + acetic acid (Part B) pH 5.5-6 pH 4.7-4.9 Storage temperature (° C) thirty 15 thirty 15 Time (days) to register a significant increase in pressure 0 2 4 4 12 2-0 2 4 4 12 4.5 2 14 > 99 > 99 5.0 4 14 > 99 > 99 6.0 4 19 > 99 > 99 7.0 4 (> 99) > 99 > 99 8.0 6 > 99 > 99 > 99 9.0 12 > 99 > 99 > 99 10.0 12 > 99 > 99 > 99 11.0 26 > 99 > 99 > 99 12.0 26 > 99 > 99 > 99 13.0 99 > 99 > 99 > 99 14.0 (> 99) > 99 > 99 > 99 15.0 (> 99) > 99 > 99 > 99

Patent claims

Claims (3)

1. Method for the preservation of roe, in particular cod, by the combined preservation technology, characterized in that fresh raw roe is preserved with salt in combination with one or more of the following measures: - sugar 0-120 g / kg of raw roe, - benzoic acid, its salts and derivatives 0-10 g / kg of roe raw material, - sorbic acid and its salts 0-5 g / kg of raw eggs, - organic acids such as acetic acid, propionic acid and lactic acid and their salts 0-10 g / kg of raw roe, - Acidity regulators such as organic acids, including ascorbic acid, malic acid, citric acid, butyric acid and tartaric acid, and inorganic acids such as phosphoric acid, to a pH in the range of 6.5 to 3. 2. The method according to p. The process of claim 1, wherein the raw material is cod roe. 3. The method according to p. The method of claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the roe product is preserved 1-12 kg, preferably 4-8 kg salt / 100 kg fresh roe.