CREAM

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of the food industry; it is aimed more particularly at the preparation of food products, namely a range of cream analogues, composed of vegetable ingredients and having functional and organoleptic properties close to those of dairy products.

Claims

1. A vegetable food product analogous to a dairy cream comprising: crushed nuts, with the addition of: at least one vegetable fat; at least one source of starch; at least one natural acidifying ingredient; optionally, at least one source of vegetable food fibres; and water; wherein the vegetable food product contains no added additives.

2. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has a protein content greater than or equal to 3.5%.

3. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, not comprising protein concentrate and/or isolate.

4. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the crushed nuts are in the form of almond puree, with the further addition of: the at least one vegetable fat selected from the vegetable oils liquid at 20° C., including rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, grape seed oil, linseed oil, hemp oil and mixtures thereof; optionally, ferments; the at least one source of vegetable food fibres, selected from soluble fibres, including chicory fibres, resistant dextrins and psyllium or other mucilaginous fibres including linseed or chia seed fibres, and mixtures thereof.

5. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the crushed nuts are in the form of almond puree, with the further addition of ferments.

6. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, not comprising soybean.

7. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, further comprising (percentages expressed by weight with respect to the total weight of the product): from 5 to 30% of crushed nut puree; from 5 to 40% of vegetable fat; from 0.5% to 10% of a starch source; up to 30% of other raw materials, including vegetable or fruit purees or pieces, cereals, seeds, aromas, coloring foods, sugars, Lithothamnium powder or herbs; up to 8% of vegetable food fibres; optionally, a natural source of calcium, of the Lithothamnion type, at a content of between 0.5 and 1%; up to 3.5% of acidifier of the concentrated lemon juice type; up to 1.5% of food salt; optionally, up to 1% of ferments; and water, between 50% and 75%.

8. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has: a dry extract content of between 20 and 50%; a pH between 4.0 and 5.2; and characteristics of a fresh dairy product, including white color, smooth appearance, very smooth and dispersing texture in the mouth, from liquid to thick depending on the type of cream desired and a fresh to fermented/acidic taste.

9. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the nut is almond.

10. A vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable fat is a vegetable oil liquid at 20° C.

11. The vegetable food product according to claim 10, wherein the vegetable oil liquid at 20° C. is chosen from rapeseed, sunflower or olive oil or their mixture.

12. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the starch source is a rice flour and/or a potato or manioc fecula.

13. The vegetable food product according to claim 12, wherein the rice flour is pregelatinized.

14. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food fibres are chosen from the soluble fibres, including chicory fibres, resistant dextrins and psyllium or other mucilaginous fibres including linseed or chia seed fibres, and mixtures thereof.

15. A method for preparing the product according to claim 1, comprising the following steps: A) optionally, preparing a fermented vegetable raw material by fermentation of a part or all of the crushed nuts, in their rehydrated and thermally treated form prior to the inoculation of the ferments; B) mixing the raw materials, comprising the fermented vegetable raw material obtained in step A), via a vigorous shearing, and optionally preheating; C) thermal treating the mixture at a temperature between 75 and 140° C.; D) optional degassing and homogenizing; E) optionally, adding raw materials, including vegetable; wherein steps E) and F) can be reversed; F) dosing the finished product; G) optionally, cooling between 4 and 10° C.; H) optionally, in the case of a dosing in an intermediate container, adding other raw materials, including vegetable, aromatizing or coloring and/or ferments, followed by cold dosing of the product in its final packaging.

16. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the nuts are in the form of a puree.

17. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has a protein content between 3.5 and 6%.

18. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has a protein content between 3.5 and 5%.

19. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has a protein content between 4 and 6%.

20. The vegetable food product according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable food product has a protein content between 4 and 5%.

Description

FIGURES

[0191] FIG. 1 is a photograph of the product of Example 1 which is a vegetable analogue of 18% fat thick cream according to the invention, on a hot fruit pie.

[0192] FIG. 2 is a photograph of the product of Example 1 which is a vegetable analogue of 18% fat thick cream according to the invention, on a baked pizza.

[0193] FIG. 3 is a graphic representation of the sensory evaluation of a cream according to the invention in comparison with a dairy cream.

[0194] FIG. 4 is a graphical representation of the viscosity values at 4° C. carried out on the product of example 1, in comparison with a commercial thick dairy cream.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 (FIGS. 1 and 2): The Cream-Type Product is Composed of 72% Water, 11% Almond Puree, 13% Shea Butter, 2.5% Potato Fecula, 1.3% Concentrated Lemon Juice, 0.2% Natural Aroma

[0195] The method comprises the following steps from Table 3 described above, namely:

(A)-B-C-D-G-H.

The steps indicated in the examples in brackets are optional.
The steps B) and C) can in particular be carried out with a Stephan or Karl-Schnell type cooker using shearing parameters known to the person skilled in the art. In this case, the two mixing steps were carried out at 1500 rpm.
In the case of sterilized products, the thermal treatment is carried out on a UHT equipment according to the methods known to the person skilled in the art.
The result is a finished product having a thick dairy cream with a smooth and unctuous texture in the mouth and a white appearance (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The product has a pH of 4.4 and can be stored before opening for several weeks (70 days) at a temperature of 4 to 10° C. without showing any noticeable evolution in terms of texture or taste. In the case of a sterilized product, the product can then be stored at room temperature.
The nutritional values of the product in Example 1 are shown below:

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Content per 100 g Energy (kcal) 199 Protein 3.2 Carbohydrates 2.8 Of which sugars 0.5 Lipids 19 Of which 6.7 Saturated Fatty Acids Fibres 0.6

Example 2: The Cream-Type Product is Composed of 71% Water, 11% Almond Puree, 13% Rapeseed Oil, 2.5% Potato Fecula, 1% Inulin, 1.3% Concentrated Lemon Juice, 0.2% Natural Aroma

[0196] The method comprises the following steps from Table 4 described above, namely:

(A)-B-C-D-G-H

The result is a finished product of Nutri-Score A having the appearance of a semi-thick dairy cream, with a smooth and unctuous texture in the mouth and a white appearance. The product has a pH of 4.4 and can be stored before opening for several weeks (70 days) at a temperature of 4 to 10° C. without showing any noticeable evolution in terms of texture or taste.

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Content per 100 g Energy (kcal) 204 Protein 3.2 Carbohydrates 3.8 Of which sugars 0.6 Lipids 19 Of which 1.76 Saturated Fatty Acids Fibres 1.5

Example 3: The Cream-Type Product is Composed of 69.2% Water, 18% Almond Puree, 9% Rapeseed Oil, 1% Potato Fecula, 1.5% Concentrated Lemon Juice, 1.1% Inulin, 0.2% Natural Aroma

[0197]
(A)-B-C-D-G-H

Example 4: Culinary Tests of Vegetable Creams According to the Invention

[0198] The cream according to example 1 has been successfully used in various applications such as a mushroom sauce, on a hot fruit pie (FIG. 1), and on a pizza before baking (FIG. 2, taken after baking). In any case, it has an excellent staying power after cooking, better than a dairy cream, which would tend to liquefy.

Example 5

[0199] In the following example, the almond puree with added water was inoculated and fermented with a strain of the Lactococcus lactis ssp lactis biovar diacetylactis specie. The resulting mixture was fermented at 30° C. for 24 hours to obtain what will be called a leaven.

The leaven is then incorporated during the step B) up to 30% in the final mixture.
An unleavened product was also made for comparison. The composition of the two products is equivalent and is summarized in the following table 5:

TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 Product with Product without Ingredients incorporation of 30% leaven incorporation of leaven Almond puree 10.5%.sup.  15% Fermented leaven (15% 30% 0   almond puree + 85% water) Total almond puree 15% 15% Rapeseed oil 10% 10% potato fecula 0.5 0.5 Inulin  1%  1% Lemon juice 1.3%  1.3%  Water 46.7%.sup.  72.2%.sup. 
The method implemented is that of example 1.
Both products were made on the same day. During the tasting, the fermented test came out significantly more greedy than the control, with well-marked notes of cream and an organoleptic profile very close to that of a dairy cream.

Example 6

[0200] A sensory evaluation was conducted on one of the examples of the invention (the product of example 2) in comparison with a commercial dairy cream.
The evaluation took place on a comparative basis, on products presented anonymously using a 3-digit code.
The jury was made up of 8 participants trained in the descriptive method (Sensory Profile/QDA Quantitive Descriptive Analysis) and in the evaluation of dairy and vegetable products.
About ten descriptors of texture or aspect were evaluated, including: brightness, exudation, firmness, moisture, sensation of fat, melting/dispersing, pasty/sticky
The products were rated on a continuous 10-point scale
The sensory profiles of the products are presented in the form of a radar graph.
This graph (FIG. 3) clearly shows the proximity of the cream of the invention in comparison with a dairy cream.

Example 7

[0201] Viscosity measurements at 4° C. were carried out on one of the examples of the invention (example 1) in comparison with a commercial thick dairy cream.
The measurements are made with a rheometer equipped with a plane cone geometry of 2 degrees of angle and 50 mm diameter. One milliliter of sample is deposited and the viscosity value is read after 2 minutes under shear at 10 s.sup.−1.
The results are shown in the diagram in FIG. 4. The viscosity of the product resulting from the invention is close to the viscosity of a commercial thick dairy cream.
The viscosity of the product of the invention can be modulated as required by adjusting the formulation and manufacturing method parameters.