Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A23—FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS; TREATMENT THEREOF, NOT COVERED BY OTHER CLASSES
  • A23L—FOODS, FOODSTUFFS OR NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PREPARATION OR TREATMENT THEREOF
  • A23L7/00—Cereal-derived products; Malt products; Preparation or treatment thereof
  • A23L7/10—Cereal-derived products
  • A23L7/161—Puffed cereals, e.g. popcorn or puffed rice
  • A23L7/174—Preparation of puffed cereals from wholegrain or grain pieces without preparation of meal or dough
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A23—FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS; TREATMENT THEREOF, NOT COVERED BY OTHER CLASSES
  • A23L—FOODS, FOODSTUFFS OR NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PREPARATION OR TREATMENT THEREOF
  • A23L7/00—Cereal-derived products; Malt products; Preparation or treatment thereof
  • A23L7/10—Cereal-derived products
  • A23L7/161—Puffed cereals, e.g. popcorn or puffed rice
  • A23L7/174—Preparation of puffed cereals from wholegrain or grain pieces without preparation of meal or dough
  • A23L7/183—Preparation of puffed cereals from wholegrain or grain pieces without preparation of meal or dough by heating without using a pressure release device
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02B—PREPARING GRAIN FOR MILLING; REFINING GRANULAR FRUIT TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS BY WORKING THE SURFACE
  • B02B1/00—Preparing grain for milling or like processes
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02B—PREPARING GRAIN FOR MILLING; REFINING GRANULAR FRUIT TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS BY WORKING THE SURFACE
  • B02B1/00—Preparing grain for milling or like processes
  • B02B1/08—Conditioning grain with respect to temperature or water content
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02B—PREPARING GRAIN FOR MILLING; REFINING GRANULAR FRUIT TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS BY WORKING THE SURFACE
  • B02B3/00—Hulling; Husking; Decorticating; Polishing; Removing the awns; Degerming
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02B—PREPARING GRAIN FOR MILLING; REFINING GRANULAR FRUIT TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS BY WORKING THE SURFACE
  • B02B5/00—Grain treatment not otherwise provided for
  • B02B5/02—Combined processes

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a process for preparation of expanded finger millet, a ready-to-eat product with versatile food uses. Background of the invention
• Finger millet or Ragi (Eleusine coracana) is a grain of unique nutritional qualities and technological characteristics. It is an important staple food for people belonging to low income groups in Indian subcontinent and several African countries. Millet is a good source of carbohydrates, sulphur amino acids, dietary fibre, micro-nutrients, phytochemicals and is the richest source of calcium among cereals (J.H.Hulse, E.M.Laing and O.E.Pearson, Sorghum and millets: composition and nutritive value, Academic press, New York, 1980). It is believed that among millet consumers, incidence , of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, duodenal ulcer and other gastro-intestinal tract related disorders is relatively less (C.
• the puffed or expanded rice is superior to popped rice with respect to degree of precooking, crunchiness, fiber regulation, shelf-life and sensory attributes for which reference may be made to G. Murugesan and K. R. Bhattacharya (Rheological and hydration properties of popped rice. Journal of Texture Studies, 20, 325-333, 1990) and R. J. MacGregor, D.M. MacGregor, A. Lueck, [Process for popping wild rice. United States Patent, US 48887099, US 223608 (19880725), 1988].
• Popping as well as puffing is a high temperature short time treatment (HTST) to grains and generally involves dropping the grains in sand, salt or air heated to about 250° C and continuous agitation followed by separation of the popped grains from heat transfer media by sieving. Popping is also practiced using edible oil as heat transfer l media, contact heat in iron or earthen pan. Both popped and puffed cereals are ready-to-eat products with crunchy texture and desirable aroma, besides, during popping the seed born microflora are destroyed and the protein gets denatured.
• HTST high temperature short time treatment
• Popped or puffed cereals could be used as snacks as such or after seasoning with oil and spice or coating with flavoring and such other agents to improve the sensory attributes and also could be blended with processed legumes, jaggery or sugar to prepare nutritious supplementary foods for weaning children and mothers. Both puffing and popping are dry process, and have economical and technological edge over other kinds of cereal processing technologies for preparation of ready-to-eat foods.
• drawbacks of popping process for cereals in general, and finger millet in particular are that, the grains are mixed with sand or salt heated to about 230° C and the popped material is separated by sieving. Fine sand or salt particles adhere to the popped grains especially in the crease portion of the expanded endosperm.
• the main object of the invention is to prepare expanded millet similar to puffed or expanded rice which would be a precooked ready-to-eat product free from seed coat matter.
• Another object of the invention is to provide a process for the preparation of expanded millet utilizing the expanded millet as snacks and adjuncts in confectionery.
• the present invention provides a process for the preparation of expanded millet, the process comprising; a. equilibrating millet grains to optimum moisture by adding additional water and tempering or resting in order to impart pseudo-elastic texture to decorticated millet endosperm, b. loosening intracellular intactness of the endosperm by mechanical means without developing fissures to obtain bumped millet, c. drying the bumped millet to optimum level for puffing, d. grading the millet obtained in step (c) to near uniform size by screening through appropriate sieves or screens, e. subjecting the grains to high temperature short time treatment in salt, sand or air or such other heat transfer media to prepare expanded millet.
• step (a) above is carried out on hydrothermally treated and decorticated finger millet.
• the decorticated millet is equilibrated to 15 -
• bumped millet are dried in shade or sun or in mechanical dryer to 10-20% moisture content and subjected to high temperature short time treatment in sand, salt, air or other heat transfer media heated to 200-250°C for 15-45 seconds.
• step (d) is carried out to obtain millet grains with a thickness of 0.8 - 1.0 mm and diameter 1.5 - 1.6 mm.
• expanded millet prepared following the present process is pre-cooked having 95-100% carbohydrate digestibility and can serve as a ready-to-eat snack, supplementary foods or such other food uses in isolation, or in combination with other edible cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fruits and vegetables including as an ingredient in confectionery.
• FIG. 1 provides a flow chart for the preparation expanded fmger millet according to the process of the invention. Detailed description of the invention
• the present invention provides a process for the preparation of expanded millet comprising first subjecting finger millet which has been decorticated to a pre-processing step.
• the pre-processing comprises imparting pseudo-elastic texture to decorticated millet endosperm by equilibrating the millet to optimum moisture by adding additional water and tempering (or resting), loosening the intracellular intactness of the endosperm by mechanical means without developing fissures, drying the bumped millet to optimum level for puffing, and grading the pre-processed millet to near uniform size (thickness: 0.8 - 1.0 mm and diameter: 1.5 - 1.6 mm) by screening through appropriate sieves or screens.
• the graded grains are then subjected to high temperature short time treatment in salt, sand or air or such other heat transfer media to prepare expanded millet. Subsequently, the puffed/expanded grains are examined for their suitability for ready-to-eat health foods, snacks and as a component of confectionery products.
• the hydrothermally treated and decorticated finger millet is equilibrated to 15 - 35% moisture level and subjected to bumping or flattening the millet to 0.7 - 1.0 mm thickness and 1.5 - 1.6 mm diameter, mechanically or manually, without causing visible cracks.
• the bumped grains are dried in shade or Sun or in mechanical dryer to 10 - 20% moisture content and subjected to high temperature short time treatment in sand, salt, air or such other heat transfer media heated to 200 - 250° C for 15 - 45 seconds.
• Expanded millet prepared by the present process is pre-cooked having 95 - 100%) carbohydrate digestibility and could serve as a ready-to-eat snack, supplementary foods or such other food uses in isolation, or in combination with other edible cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fruits and vegetables including as an ingredient in confectionery.
• the novelty of the process is that a low cost and under utilized minor cereal such as finger millet could be processed to prepare high value product, that would be acceptable to the traditional as well as non-traditional millet consumers. Moreover, this is altogether a new product from finger millet which has not been prepared heretofore to our knowledge.
• the process permits to prepare the ready-to-eat millet which can serve as a natural source of calcium, dietary fiber, sulphur aminoacids, micro-nutrients and antioxidants.
• the product prepared following the present process is also suitable for tertiary processing to prepare novelty food products of different shape, size and pallet and also as a substitute to expanded rice. Expanded millet is poised for widespread utilization in the form of diversified products.
• the principle involved in the process is that the process uses decorticated millet unlike the whole seeds in traditional process.
• By raising the moisture level of the decorticated millet it is made possible to induce pseudo-elasticity in the millet endosperm, which enables the grain to withstand the physical impact.
• the impact loosens the cell wall rigidity, modifies the endosperm texture and there by facilitates the starchy material to expand when subjected to HTST treatment.
• grading of the material prior to puffing helps in simultaneous expansion of all the grains uniformly within the very short span of contact time with the heat transfer media, and this prevents unnecessary charring of the grains, minimizes the loss of edible matter and also saves energy to maintain the temperature of heat transfer media during puffing.
• Example 1 1 Kg of decorticated finger millet was sieved through sieves of 1.0 and 1.18 mm openings and graded into larger (+1.18 mm), medium (-1.0+1.18) and small size (-1.0 mm) grains. Nearly 92 % of millet was of medium size and was used for preparation of expanded millet. Millet in 100 g batches was dropped in 500 g common salt of particle size 250 - 355 microns and heated to 230° C in open pan.
• the millet and salt were mixed instantaneously with help of a ladle and mix was agitated continuously for about 30 sec or till the hissing sound subsided. Soon after that, expanded millet was separated from salt by sieving through a sieve of 2.0mm opening. Subsequently, puffed grains were brushed to remove adhering salt. Similarly, puffing of medium grade millet was carried out using sand as heat transfer media. Apparent volume of expanded millet prepared from salt and sand media was measured and expansion ratio was calculated after equilibrating both decorticated and expanded millets (of equal weight) to 6% moisture content, as follows;
• the millet in 100 g batches was dropped in 500 g common salt of particle size 250 - 355 microns and heated to 230° C in open pan, the millet and the salt were mixed instantaneously with the help of a ladle and the mix was agitated continuously for about 30 sec or till the hissing sound subsided and soon after that the expanded millet was separated from the salt by sieving through a sieve of 2.0 mm opening. Subsequently, the puffed grains were brushed to remove the adhering salt. Similarly, puffing of the medium grade millet was carried out using sand as heat transfer media. The apparent volume of the expanded millet prepared from salt and sand media was measured and the expansion ratio was calculated after equilibrating both decorticated and expanded millets (of equal weight) to 6% moisture content, as follows;
• the grains with 1.4 - 1.7 mm diameter were sorted out and used for the preparation of expanded millet.
• One hundred grams of the -1.4+1.7 mm sized grains were dropped in 500 g of common salt of particle size 250 - 355 microns heated to 230° C in a open pan and agitated continuously for about 30 sec or till the hissing sound subsided.
• the expanded millet was separated from the salt by sieving through a sieve of 2.0 mm opening and the puffed grains were brushed to remove the adhering salt.
• puffing of graded millet was carried out in sand heated to 230°C.
• the apparent volume of the expanded millet was measured and the expansion ratio was calculated as, taking same quantity of both the decorticated and the expanded material, as follows;
• the grains with 1.4 - 1.7 mm diameter were sorted out and used for the preparation of expanded millet.
• One hundred grams of the -1.4+1.7 mm sized grains were dropped in 500g of common salt of particle size 250 - 355 microns heated to 230° C in a open pan and agitated continuously for about 30 sec or till the hissing sound subsided.
• the expanded millet was separated from the salt by sieving through a sieve of 2.0 mm opening and the puffed grains were brushed to remove the adhering salt.
• the expanded millet was smeared with a thin layer of vegetable oil in a coating machine and dusted uniformly with banana flavored sugar powder.
• the coated millet had crispy texture and highly acceptable taste and aroma.
• the main advantage of the present invention is that, by the process, it is possible to transform decorticated millet to fully cooked ready-to-eat product with versatile food uses by simple dry heat treatment which otherwise is not edible as such and needs cooking in water similar to rice.
• the process permits utilization of decorticated millet prepared from different cultivars irrespective of chemical composition, seed coat color, size and shape and pre- harvest condition. Preparing expanded millet overcomes monotonous use of millet in form of cooked grains and provides easy and convenient avenues for its diversification and value addition.
• popping Since popping is a dry process, it needs minimum energy inputs compared to other kinds of cereal processing methodologies to prepare ready-to-eat products. Moreover, the grains get freed from the seed born microflora during processing without any kinds of chemical or such other treatment.
• the expanded millet being largely spherical in shape and is of smooth surface, adherence of the heat transfer media namely sand or salt is negligible, and if a small portion is adhered that can be separated easily by simple brushing or aspiration.
• the expanded millet is a rich source of pre-gelatinized starch and other carbohydrates and finds its utilization as a thickener in soups and such other foods, and also as a base for ready- to-eat supplementary foods, snacks, confectionery, sweet and savory products.
• the special features of the expanded millet is that it retains crispness even when it is used as a component of cocoa based confectionery.
• the millet being rich source of calcium and other micro- nutrients, the product prepared, following the present process could serve as a natural source of calcium and also as a base in calcium enriched food formulation for special physiological situation such as osteoporosis.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Nutrition Science (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Food Science & Technology (AREA)
• Polymers & Plastics (AREA)
• Grain Derivatives (AREA)
• Cereal-Derived Products (AREA)
• Confectionery (AREA)
• Seeds, Soups, And Other Foods (AREA)

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• 2003
  • 2003-12-31 JP JP2005512770A patent/JP4611893B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-12-31 WO PCT/IN2003/000472 patent/WO2005063048A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2003-12-31 GB GB0614747A patent/GB2428959B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-12-31 AU AU2003300728A patent/AU2003300728A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-12-31 US US10/582,892 patent/US7871657B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

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