Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
CA 02037788 2000-09-06
SPECIFICATION
1. Title of the Invention
Quality-Improving Agents for Fish Meat SURIMI
2. Technical Fields
This invention relates to quality-improving agents for
fish meat SURIMI (ground fish) useful as a raw material for
fish pastes.
3. Background Art
Items considered to be extremely important among items
for quality evaluation of fish pastes such as KAMABOKO
(fish jelly) are whiteness and elasticity.
Concerning fish pastes, generally, products of a high
degree of whiteness and strong elasticity are qualified as
of good quality. In preparation of fish pastes excellent
in such whiteness and elasticity, it is the quality of fish
SURIMI that has the most important influence on these
quality evaluating items, and it is freshness of raw
material fish that has the most important influence on the
quality of the fish meat SURIMI.
At present, almost all fish pastes are prepared from
Frozen SURIMI, and almost all the Frozen SURIMI are
prepared from walleye pollacks (gardiformes theragra) as a
raw material. As for the walleye pollacks, it has
gradually become difficult to reliably obtain fish meat
having a high freshness and a good quality due to recent
fishing spots having become distant, delay of time from
harvest to processing following decrease of fishery amount
in one's country and purchase from abroad, and further
decrease of fish source, etc.
That is, preparation of Frozen SURIMI having a good
quality has become difficult due to the fact that when fish
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
meat is obtained, the variation in its freshness has become
greater and that fishery amount has been decreased.
It is lowering of whiteness and elasticity of fish
pastes that has been brought about from these background,
and in order to solve these problems, several proposals
have been made.
Many of these proposals have been introduced as those
of improving the whiteness as well as preventing lowering
of the elasticity or increasing the elasticity and, for
example, it is a method of using surfactants) such as
glycerin monofatty acid ester together with sugars) and/or
sugar alcohol(s) for filtrated meat obtained by a
conventional method, as disclosed in TOKKYO-KOKOKU-KOHO
(Publication for Opposition of Examined Patent Application)
No. Showa 55-20, and a method of using colloidal solid
quality-improving agents, having particle size of 20 to 145
mesh, composed of 65 to 98o sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) as dispersion medium, 20 to 0.50 of saccharose
fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester and/or
propylene glycol fatty acid ester as food surfactant and 30
to 0% of fat, as disclosed in the TOKKYO-KOKOKU-KOHO No.
Showa 60-8107 and others that have been proposed as methods
for improving the whiteness and elasticity.
On the other hand, while different factors influencing
the quality of fish pastes, such as variety of fish meat
freshness and others, are becoming more important, the
quality demanded of fish pastes is becoming all the more
strict. To satisfy this demand, fish meat SURIMI quality
improving agents more excellent than existing ones, for
increasing the whiteness and preventing lowering of the
elasticity at the same time, are strongly desired.
4. Summary of the Invention
The present inventors have conducted extensive studies
for enhancing whiteness and elasticity of fish pastes, and
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
as a result, have succeeded in enhancing remarkably
whiteness and elasticity of fish pastes by adding fish meat
SURIMI quality-improving agents containing powdered fat and
oil ("fat and oil" may be referred simply to as "fat"
hereinafter) as an effective component in the preparation
of fish meat SURIMI and have completed the present
invention.
The content of the present invention is described in
detail hereinafter.
The present invention relates to a) a quality-
improving agent for fish meat SURIMI which includes
powdered fat and oil as an effective ingredient.
Further, the present invention relates to b) a
quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI which includes
a powder mixture of 5 to 80 weight parts of powdered fat
and oil and 20 to 95 weight parts of powdered sugars)
and/or sugar alcohol(s).
Further, the present invention relates to c) quality
improving agents for fish meat SURIMI described in a) or b)
hereinbefore, wherein the said powdered fat and oil
includes 50 to 99 weight parts of normally (under normal
temperature) solid fat and oil as a powdered fat and oil
and 1 to 50 weight parts of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) and has a powdery or granular form.
Further, the present invention relates to d) quality-
improving agents for fish meat SURIMI described in any of
a) to c) hereinbefore, wherein the said powdered fat and
oil includes 55 to 95 weight parts of normally (under
normal temperature) solid fat and oil as a powdered fat and
oil, 4 to 45 weight parts of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s), 1 to 30 weight parts of protein and 0 to 10
weight parts of food emulsifier, which powdered fat and oil
is produced by any one or by more than one methods) of a
group consisting of spray drying method, spray cooling
method, fluidized drying method , freeze drying method,
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
vacuum conveyer type drying method and flash drying method
and has a powdery or granular form of 16 to 200 mesh in
particle size.
Moreover, the present invention relates to e) quality
improving agents for fish meat SURIMI described in any of
a to d) hereinbefore, wherein the said powdered fat and
oil is used in the range of 0.01 to 10 weight percent (may
be referred simply to as "s" hereinafter) of fish meat
SURIMI.
As powdered fat and oil which can be used in the
present invention those which are commercially available
and having food-grade quality are acceptable.
As commercially available powdered fat, we can name,
for instance, N NEOPOWDER made by NIHON YUSHI C0. LTD.,
EMAFAT made by RIKEN VITAMINS C0. LTD. and others.
The composition of commercially available powdered fat
is 70 to 80s of fats, 1 to 150 of proteins, 10 to 270 of
sugars, 1 to 20 of emulsifier and 1 to 20 of humidity.
On the other hand, in the present invention, powdered
fats other than commercially available ones can be used,
and powdered fats appropriate to display the effect of the
present invention are those which include 50 to 99 weight
parts of sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s) as a coating
agent. They can be previously mixed with other various
additives for SURIMI or quality-improving agents for pastes
in order to eliminate addition process to SURIMI or to
enhance the effect of various additives and quality-
improving agents.
In this stage, if powdered fats include more than 99
weight parts of fat which is solid at normal temperatures
or less than 1 weight part of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s), the sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s) acting as
a coating agent to form powdered fat, tend not to cover all
the surface of the fat which is solid under the normal
temperatures, and the fat exposes itself on the surface and
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
the produced powdered fat become vulnerable to oxidation
and other undesirable degenerations.
Moreover, it is not desirable to use powdered fats
exposing fat on the surface as a quality-improving agent
for fish meat SURIMI because it will not disperse in
SURIMI.
On the other hand, if powdered fats include less than
50 weight parts of fat which is solid under the normal
temperatures and more than 50 weight parts of sugars)
and/or sugar alcohol(s), the layer of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) covering the powdered fat becoming thicker, it
takes much time to add the powdered fat to the SURIMI and
for its solution and dispersion in SURIMI, thus preventing
undesirably the fat from acting sufficiently as a quality
improving agent of SURIMI.
Other powdered fats appropriate to display the effect
of the present invention are those which include 55 to 95
weight parts of fat, solid at normal temperatures, and 4 to
45 weight parts of sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s), 1 to
30 weight parts of proteins and 0 to 10 weight parts food
emulsifier.
In this case, powdered fats including more than 95
weight parts of fat which is solid at normal temperatures
and less than 4 weight parts of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) are not preferred, because, as mentioned
hereinbefore, fat tends to be exposed on the surface of
powdered fat and powdered fat becomes susceptible to
degeneration and others, and those including less than 55
weight parts of fat which is solid at normal temperatures
and more than 45 weight parts of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) are also not preferable because of the same
reasons as mentioned hereinbefore.
Moreover, proteins have an excellent effect as a
coating adjuvant of powdered fat and help to display
excellent effects of the present invention by coating fat
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
which is solid under the normal temperature, however, the
preferred protein content in powdered fat is 1 to 30 weight
parts. Short or excess dosage out of this range is not
preferred, because it makes it difficult to obtain the
powdered fat of the present invention and has an adverse
effect on the conservation quality of the powder.
Further, though the effect of the present invention
can be displayed without using food emulsifier when enough
protein is contained in the powdered fat, the addition of
l00 or less of food emulsifier in the process of powdered
fat production makes the quality stabilization of the
formulation possible, and moreover, it is possible to
obtain stable effects after its addition to SURIMI.
Sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s) usable to produce
powdered fats of the present invention include sucrose,
glucose, maltose, fructose, lactose, oligosaccharide
derived from starch and various starch syrups containing
dextrin, erythritol, xylitol, xylo-oligosaccaride,
sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol, reduced
oligosaccharide and one or more than one mixtures) thereof
and others.
On the other hand, proteins usable to produce powdered
fats of the present invention include lactoprotein, soybean
protein, wheat protein, skim milk, gelatin, whey and
others.
Food emulsifiers usable to produce powdered fats of
the present invention include mixtures of one or more
emulsifiers selected from glycerol fatty acid ester,
lecithin, saccharose fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid
ester, propylene glycol fatty acid ester and other
emulsifiers appropriate to food applications.
Some commercially available powdered fats use fat
which is liquid at normal temperatures; however, those
using fat which is solid at normal temperatures are
preferable, because, after pulverization and packing, when
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CA 02037788 2000-09-06
custody stack load becomes important, the fat component
should not exude nor ooze out and powder agglomeration or
ingredient drift should be prevented.
Another reason why the powdered fat which is solid at
normal temperatures is preferable is that, when the
addition amount to SURIMI is increased, the SURIMI or
KAMABOKO (fish jelly) quality-improving effect is more
remarkable in powdered fat using fat which is solid at
normal temperatures than those using fat which is liquid at
normal temperatures.
As the quality-improving agents for fish meat SURIMI
of the present invention, powdered fat can be used as such.
However, preparation of fish meat SURIMI is usually carried
out at a low temperature while various additives are added
thereto and mixed therewith in a short period of time and,
moreover, the said preferred amount of powdered fat is
often not dispersed in the fish meat and mixed therewith
because its amount is smaller than that of SURIMI.
Therefore, in order to use quality-improving agents of the
present invention, it is usually desirable to use powdered
fat in the form of powder or granules prepared by adding
thereto diluents, other additives or the like.
For instance, suppose the amount of filtrated meat is
100 weight parts, formulations made by adding 2 to 20
weight parts of a mixture of one or more sugar (s) and/or
sugar alcohol(s) or 0.1 to 1 weight part of polymerized
phosphate or an appropriate amount of other quality-
improving agents to 0.01 to 10 parts of powdered fat and
prepared in the form of powder or granules may constitute
quality-improving agents for fish meat SURIMI of the
present invention.
The preferred additives to be mixed with quality-
improving agents of the present invention include sugars)
and/or sugar alcohol(s), polymerized phosphate, calcium
salts of organic acids, albumen (egg white), plasma protein
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and other various elasticity-enhancing agents and pH
controlling agents, and their formulation in the course of
preparation make quality-improving agents carry a trace of
additives and enhance all the more the effect of each added
ingredients.
Further, when powder of sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s), to be used in order to prevent protein from
freeze degeneration or for other purposes, is powder mixed
previously with powdered fat, the step of adding to SURIMI
can be omitted, powdered fat dissolves and disperses
rapidly in SURIMI and a still enhanced quality-improving
effect of each agent can be expected.
Usable sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s) in this
formulation include sucrose, glucose, maltose, fructose,
lactose, oligosaccaride derived from starch and various
starch syrups, erythriol, xylitol, xylo-oligosaccharide,
sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol, reduced
oligosaccharide and one or more mixtures) thereof and
others.
The relation between the amount of sugars) and/or
sugar alcohol(s) and the amount of powdered fat of quality-
improving agents for fish SURIMI of the present invention
is determined based on the necessary amount of the sugars)
and or sugar alcohol(s) to be added to fish meat and
suitable amount of powdered fats effective for whiteness
and elasticity improvement of fish pastes; however, among
various ingredients proportions and forms, it is especially
preferred that 5 to 80 weight parts of powdered fat are
powder mixed with 20 to 95 weight parts of sugars) and/or
sugar alcohol(s) and then formulated in the form of powder
or granules as a suitable quality-improving agent for fish
meat SURIMI of the present invention, because the quality-
improving result of SURIMI is more excellent.
Among various formulations of quality-improving agents
for fish meat SURIMI of the present invention, quality-
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improving agents for fish meat SURIMI containing sugars)
and/or sugar alcohol(s) can for example be prepared
according to the following methods:
(1) A method wherein fat which is sold at normal
temperatures and, as necessary, food emulsifier, protein,
polymerized phosphate or other quality-improving
ingredients are added to an aqueous solution of sugars)
and/or sugar alcohol(s) suspended therein, an emulsion is
obtained in slurry form and powdered by any one or by more
than one method (s) of a group consisting of spray drying
method, spray cooling method, fluidized drying method,
freeze drying method, vacuum conveyer type drying method
and flash drying method, and ground or graded as necessary,
and finally the powdered fat is formulated in the form of
powder or granules.
(2) A method wherein sugars) and/or sugar alcohol(s),
lactoprotein, water and, as necessary, food emulsifier,
polymerized phosphate, albumen or other elasticity-
enhancing agents are added to fat which is solid at normal
temperatures and mixed therewith, an emulsion is obtained
in slurry form and powdered by any one or by more than one
methods) of a group consisting of spray drying method,
spray cooling method, fluidized drying method, freeze
drying method, vacuum conveyer type drying method and flash
drying method, and ground or graded as necessary, and
finally the powdered fat is formulated in the form of
powder or granules.
(3) A method wherein powdered sugars) and/or sugar
alcohol(s) and others are added as necessary to the
powdered fat obtained by any of the methods mentioned above
together with powdered polymerized phosphate, elasticity-
enhancing agents and the like, and mixed therewith as
powder.
As for the preferred addition amount of quality-
improving agents for fish meat SURIMI of the present
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invention, it is suitable that powdered fat is used within
the range of 0.01 to 10~ of fish meat SURIMI.
If the addition amount exceeds 10%, the additional
dosage will not be effective to improve whiteness and
elasticity of the obtained fish pastes, so economically it
is of no use to increase the addition amount, and when the
addition is excessive, the elasticity may decrease
undesirably.
On the other hand, it is not suitable to decrease the
addition amount to less than 0.010, because a sufficient
improvement effect of whiteness and elasticity cannot be
obtained.
Further, it is preferred to add quality-improving
agents for fish meat SURIMI of the present invention
together with a polymerized phosphate or to formulate a
polymerized phosphate in the preparation of powdered fat in
order to maintain pH constant which has a strong influence
on protein denaturation.
By using quality-improving agents for fish meat SURIMI
of the present invention, fish pastes which are remarkably
improved in whiteness of SURIMI or KAMABOKO and elasticity
of KAMABOKO compared with the conventioned fish pastes.
5. Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention.
Now the content of the present invention will be
described more in detail referring to preferred embodiments
and comparative examples shown hereinafter; however, the
present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
Further, % in the following embodiments and comparative
examples represents weight %.
Embodiment 1
700 g of soybean hardened oil, 80 g of lactic casein,
30 g of polyglycerine fatty acid ester [PO-500 made by
SAKAMOTO PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.] as food
CA 02037788 2000-09-06
emulsifier, 270 g of 70o aqueous solution reduced starch
saccharide [PO-20 made by TOWA CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.]
as sugar alcohol and 1 litre of water were mixed for 5
minutes at 10,000 r.p.m. using a emulsifier [ULTRAHOMOMIXER
UM-2 manufactured by NIHON SEIKI MACHINERY K.K.] to obtain
an emulsion, which was then pulverized by spray dryer
[MODEL L-8 manufactured by OHKAWARA CHEMICAL MACHINERY CO.,
LTD.] to obtain approximately 1 kg of quality-improving
agent for fish meat SURIMI of the present invention (No.
1 ) .
The fat, protein and water composition of this
quality-improving agent was determined by the Soxhlet
method, Kjeldahl method and vacuum drying method
respectively to obtain the following result: 72.5% of fat,
6.0% of protein and 1.70 of water.
Embodiment 2
To 600 g of soybean hardened oil, 40 g of lactic
casein, 25 g of polyglycerine fatty acid ester [PO-500 made
by SAKAMOTO PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.] as food
emulsifier, 250 g of polymerized phosphate [MASCOLIN F-26
made by TAIYO CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, CO., LTD.], 85 g of
lactose, 1 litre of water were added and mixed therewith
and pulverized as described in the Embodiment 1 to obtain
approximately 1 kg of quality-improving agent for fish meat
SURIMI of the present invention (No. 2).
Embodiment 3
900 g of Sorbitol powder [SORBIT W POWDER made by TOWA
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.] and 100 g of quality-improving
agent for fish meat SURIMI as obtained in the Embodiment 1
were mixed sufficiently in a mixer [NEW GRUN MACHINE MODEL
NG-250 manufactured by DAIWA CHEMICAL MACHINERY CO., LTD.]
to obtain approximately 1 kg of quality-improving agent for
fish meat SURIMI of the present invention (No. 3).
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Embodiment 4
857 g of Sorbitol powder [SORBIT W POWDER made by TOWA
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.] and 143 g of quality-improving
agent for fish meat SURIMI as obtained in the Embodiment 2
were mixed as in the Embodiment 3 to obtain approximately
1 kg of quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI of the
present invention (No. 4).
Comparative test
100 kg fish meat SURIMI obtained in a conventional
manner from fresh walleye pollacks was divided into 10
sections of each 10 kg. To the Sections Nos. 1 to 6 were
added 5 g, 20 g, 40 g, 100 g, 300 g and 550 g respectively
of the quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI
obtained in the Embodiment 1 and 600 g of Sorbitol powder
and 25 g of polymerized phosphate were added to each
section, on the other hand, to the Section No. 7 were added
100 g of the quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI
obtained in the Embodiment 2 together with 600 g of
Sorbitol powder, to the Section No. 8 were added 660 g of
the quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI obtained
in the Embodiment 3 together with 25 g of polymerized
phosphate and to the Section No. 9 were added 700 g of
quality-improving agent for fish meat SURIMI obtained in
the Embodiment 4 and then mixed and frozen at -25°C. As a
control example, to the Section No. 10 were added 600 g of
Sorbitol powder together with 25 g of polymerized
phosphate, and mixed and frozen as described hereinbefore.
Samples of each section were preserved at -25°C. One
month and three months after the preservation, 3 kg of
sample of each section was subjected to quality comparison
tests.
Water and Hunter's whiteness of the SURIMI is shown in
Table 1.
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TABLE 1 Water and Hunter Whiteness of SURIMI
1 month 3 months
preservation preservation
Wa ter Hun ter' s Wa ter Hun ter' s
( % Whi teness I (%) Whi teness (%)
) (%)
Sec. No. 79. 28. 32 79. 2$. 45
1 3 3
Sec. No, 79. 29. 40 79.1 I 29. 90
2 2
o Sec. No. 79. 29. 64 78. 30. 27
3 0 9
Sec. No. 78. I 30.58 -- 7g. 3I. O8
4 9 7
Sec. No. 78. 30.92 78. 31. 22
5 5 6
.,.,
Sec. No. 77. 31. 58 77. 31. 48
6 2 2
Sec. No. 78. 30.18 78. 30. 52
7 7 5
Sec. No. 78. 30.22 I 78. 30. 27
8 8 8
Sec. No. 78. 30.32 I 78.8 31. 05,
9 8
0
Sec. No.lO79. 26. 66 79.1 26. 65
3
0
U
Further, one month and three months after the preservation,
elasticity and Hunter's whiteness of KAMABOKO (fish jelly)
prepared using the SURIMI were determined and shown in Table
2 and Table 3 respectively.
12 (a)
TABLE 2 Elasticity and Hunter's Whiteness of KAMABOKO
One
month
preservation
W ( g L g J ~ Hun ter'
) ( ) s s
Whiteness
Sec. 2 0 3 0. 8 1 5 3 9. 9 9
No. 7 8
1
Sec. 2 0 8 0. 9 1 6 4 0. 1 1
No. 7 4
2
Sec. 2 1 3 0. 3 1 7 4 0. 3 2
No. 8 7
3
0
Sec. 2 8 1 0. 2 2 5 4 2. 1 0
No. 9 9
4
Sec. 2 5 9 0. 1 2 3 4 2, 2 2
Na 5 9 6
Sec. 2 5 5 0. 9 2 2 4 4. 3 5
Na 6 8 7
Sec. 2 8 7 0. 5 2 7 4 1. 8 8
No. 9 3
7
Sec. 2 6 7 0. 0 2 4 4 1. 5 2
No. 9 0
8
Sec. 2 9 9 0. 6 2 8 4 1. 9 1
Na, 9 7
9
0
N
Sec. 1 9 6 0. 6 1 4 3 8. 5 0
No.lO 7 9
U
13
;:, ,; :; :J ,_;: ,:;
TABLE 3 Elasticity and Hunter's Whiteness of KAMA$OKD
Three preservation
months
W ( L ( J s Hun s
g g ter'
) )
Whiteness
Sec. 1 9 0. 8 1 5 3 3 9. 7
No. 6 '7 4
1
Sec. 2 1 0. 8 1 6 5 3 9. 4
No. 2 7 6
2
o Sec. 2 1 0. 1 1 7 0 3 9. 9
No. 0 8 5
3
Sec. 2 ~ 0. ~ 2 4 3 4 1. 6
No. 9 8 9
4
a
Sec. 2 4 0. 6 2 1 2 4 2. 1
No. 7 8 1
Sec. 2 4 0. 6 2 0 7 ~ 4. 5
No. 1 8 3
6
Sec. 2 9 0. 2 2 6 9 ~ 1. 3
No. 2 9 2
7
Sec. 2 5 0. 8 2 2 5 4 0. 5
No. 6 8 7
8
Sec. 2 8 0. 6 2 7 6 4 1. 9
No. 7 9 7
9
Sec. 1 8 0. 6 1 4 3 3 8. 2
No.lO 8 7 3
0
U
s4
i ; ;)
:~ : ,-J
The KAMABOKO was prepared by grinding SUlalMl as such,
which had been defrostE:d by holding overnight at 5°C, for 5
minutes using a silent cutter CSUPER AP-12AYJ manufactured by
BIBUN MACHINE CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD.7, sampling SURIMI in order
to determine water content and Hunter's whiteness and then
grinding down with addition of 3/ of sodium chloride for 15
minutes, packing the thus obtained meat paste into a vinylidene
chloride casing tube of 48 mm in folded diameter, and heating
the resulting material at 90°C for 40 minutes.
Water content of SURIMI was determined by vacuum drying
method at 105°C.
Further, measurement of Hunter's whiteness of SURIMI and
KAi~tABOKO was carried out using colorimetric color-difference
meter CND-1001DP manufactured by NIPPON DENSHOKU KOGYO CO.,
LTD.7, and elasticity of KAMABOKO was determined by rheometer
CNRM°2002) manufactured by FUDO KOGYO CO., LTD.7 with 5 mm
spherical plunger using test pieces of KAMABOKO each sliced
3 cm high.
