A ZINC FORTIFIED TEA COMPOSITION

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tea composition. In particular, the present invention relates to a zinc fortified tea composition. Accordingly, the present invention provides a tea composition comprising; a) a zinc compound; b) a first polysaccharide selected from maltodextrin; c) a second polysaccharide selected from gum arabic; and d) a leaf tea product.

Claims

1. A tea composition comprising; a) a zinc compound; b) a first polysaccharide selected from maltodextrin; c) a second polysaccharide selected from gum arabic; and d) a leaf tea product.

2. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the amount of zinc compound is in the range of 0.5 to 4% by weight of the composition.

3. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the zinc compound is selected from the group consisting of zinc sulphate, zinc citrate, zinc gluconate, zinc glycinate, zinc EDTA and mixtures thereof.

4. The composition according to claim 3, wherein the zinc compound is selected from the group consisting of zinc sulphate, zinc citrate and zinc glycinate.

5. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the amount of maltodextrin is in the range of 0.5 to 5% by weight of the composition.

6. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the amount of gum arabic is in the range of 0.05 to 6% by weight.

7. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the leaf tea product is selected from a black tea product, a green tea product, an oolong tea product, a white tea product, or blends thereof.

8. The composition according to claim 7, wherein the leaf tea product is a black tea product.

9. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the amount of leaf tea product in the composition is in the range of 85 to 98.5% by weight of the composition.

10. The composition according to claim 1 further comprising nutrients.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] The disclosure of the invention as found herein is to be considered to cover all embodiments as found in the claims as being multiply dependent upon each other irrespective of the fact that claims may be found without multiple dependency or redundancy.

[0020] Where a feature is disclosed with respect to a particular aspect of the invention (for example a composition of the invention), such disclosure is also to be considered to apply to any other aspect of the invention (for example a method of the invention) mutatis mutandis.

[0021] The present invention provides a tea composition comprising; [0022] a) a zinc compound; [0023] b) a first polysaccharide selected from maltodextrin; [0024] c) a second polysaccharide selected from gum arabic; and [0025] d) a leaf tea product.

[0026] The invention is about a zinc fortified tea composition. Any zinc compound which is having higher water solubility is suitable for this purpose of the present invention. Another preferred criterion for selection of the zinc compound for the present invention is the amount of zinc present in the zinc compound. The preferred zinc compound is selected from zinc sulphate, zinc citrate, zinc gluconate, zin glycinate, zinc EDTA and mixtures thereof. The most preferred zinc compound is selected from zinc sulphate, zinc citrate and zin glycinate.

[0027] The amount of zinc compound preferably in the range of 0.5 to 4%, more preferably 1 to 3%, and most preferably 1.5 to 2% by weight of the composition.

[0028] The composition of the present invention also comprises two polysaccharides.

[0029] The first polysaccharide is maltodextrin.

[0030] Maltodextrin is a well-known food additive. It is a flavourless substance. It is generally produced from vegetable starch by hydrolysis. The starch is preferably corn or wheat. It is generally known to improve the mouthfeel of savouries.

[0031] The amount of maltodextrin used in the composition of the present invention is preferably in the range of 0.5 to 5%, more preferably 1 to 4%, furthermore preferably 2 to 4% and most preferably 2 to 3% by weight of the composition.

[0032] The composition of the present invention also comprises a second polysaccharides. The second polysaccharide is gum arabic. It is also commonly known as gum acacia. It is an edible water-soluble gum widely used in food industries as stabilizer and/or thickener.

[0033] The amount of gum arabic in the composition of the present invention preferably is in the range of 0.05 to 6%, more preferably 0.1 to 4%, further preferably 0.1 to 3% and most preferably 0.5 to 2% by weight.

[0034] The composition of the present invention comprises a leaf tea product. A leaf tea product preferably means a tea product which is obtained after the tea manufacturing processes and comprise less than 10%, preferably less than 7% and most preferably less than 5% moisture by weight of the leaf tea product.

[0035] The leaf tea product may preferably be selected from a black tea product, a green tea product, an oolong tea product, a white tea product or blends thereof.

[0036] Black tea generally refers to fermented tea and produced by processing fresh tea leaves. Fresh tea leaf refers to tea leaf, buds and/or stem that have never been dried to a water content of less than 30% by weight, and usually have moisture content in the range 60 to 90%. Black tea has different characteristics to green tea. Black tea is more astringent in taste and less bitter than green tea. The redness of black tea liquor is also significantly higher than that of green tea. Black tea also contains higher level of theaflavins.

[0037] In the process of black tea, fermentation refers to the oxidative and hydrolytic process that tea undergoes when certain endogenous enzymes and substrates are brought together, e.g. by mechanical disruption of the cells by maceration of the leaves. During this process, colourless catechins in the leaves are converted to a complex mixture of yellow and orange to dark-brown polyphenolic substances.

[0038] Green tea refers to substantially unfermented tea. Green tea has different characteristics than black tea. Green tea liquor is light in colour unlike black tea. Green tea also enriched with catechins and low or no amount of theaflavins.

[0039] Oolong tea refers to semi-fermented tea.

[0040] The preferred leaf tea product for the purpose of the present invention is either black tea or green tea, the most preferred is black tea.

[0041] The amount of leaf tea product in the composition is preferably in the range of 85 to 98.5%, more preferably 87 to 98.5%, furthermore preferably 90 to 98.5% and most preferably 92 to 98.5% by weight of the composition.

[0042] The composition as per the present invention may comprise further nutrients. The further nutrients may be selected from vitamin C, iron etc.

[0043] The present invention will now be demonstrated by way of non-limiting examples below. The examples are for illustration only and do not limit the scope of the invention in any manner.

EXAMPLES

[0044] Preparation of Different Zinc Fortified Tea Product [0045] Different zinc fortified tea products were prepared using the processes as described below;

Example A

[0046] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate was dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare a coating solution. 98 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

Example B

[0047] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate and 4 g of gum arabic were dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare a coating solution. 94 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

Example C

[0048] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate and 4 g of maltodextrin were dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare coating solution. 94 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

Example D

[0049] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate, 4 g of gum arabic and 6 g of maltodextrin were dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare coating solution. 88 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

Example E

[0050] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate, 8 g of gum arabic and 3 g of maltodextrin were dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare coating solution. 87 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

Example 1

[0051] 2 g of Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate, 1 g of gum arabic and 3 g of maltodextrin were dissolved in 43 g of distilled water (at 50° C.) to prepare coating solution. 94 g of black leaf tea (obtained from Kenya) was taken in a bowl and the coating solution was sprinkled on the tea and mixed thoroughly in a Hobart blender. Then this mixture was spread on a ceramic plate and kept for drying in a hot air oven at 80° C. The dried tea was then used for further analysis.

[0052] For the above examples Zinc Sulfate Heptahydrate (Catalogue No: 1088830500) and Gum arabic (Catalogue No: 1042281000) were obtained from Merck® and Maltodextrin (Catalogue No: 419699-100G) was obtained from Sigma Aldrich.

[0053] After the above tea products were prepared, the C* value of each products was measured using the following protocol:

[0054] C* was measured using a Hunter lab Ultra scan Vis (Hunter lab Associates Laboratories Inc. Virginia) works on the measurement principle of Dual beam spectrophotometer. A pulsed xenon lamp was used as the light source. The illuminant used was D65 and the measurements were made at 10° Observer angle. Measurements were made using a quartz cuvette of 10 mm path length. The cuvette was filled up to the brim with leaf tea compositions as prepared above in the instrument for colour measurement. The instrument was calibrated using a standard white tile (Hunterlab Duffuse/8°, mode-RSIN/RSEX, Port-1″ and area-large) in accordance with the instructions provided in the instruction manual. TTRAN mode is used for measuring infusion samples.

[0055] C* value represent the chroma value which is the appearance of the tea products (lighter or darker).

[0056] These C* values were compared with a standard black leaf tea product. For this purpose, the standard black tea product was the same black leaf tea product (obtained from Kenya) and used in the above examples.

[0057] The results are summarized below in Table 1

TABLE-US-00001 Example No. Surface Reflectance value (C*) A 1.66 B 1.36 C 1.73 D 1.27 E 1.41 1 3.52 Regular Black leaf tea product 3.29

[0058] From the above examples it is evident that the tea product within the scope of the present invention (Example 1) produce a fortified tea product which appears similar to a regular black tea product. However, the examples that are outside the scope of the present invention (Examples A to E) produces tea products that appears non-natural compared to a regular black leaf tea product. The tea product also does results in lump formation.