METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF INSTANT FOOD HAVING IMPROVED TASTE, NUTRITIONAL VALUE, AND TEXTURE

Abstract

The present application relates to a method for the preparation of an instant food and an instant food prepared according to same, wherein even when the instant food is prepared using raw ingredients and liquid sauces that are susceptible to microbial contamination or difficult to sterilize, the amount of microorganisms in the prepared instant food is lower than a threshold value, and thus a sufficient sterilization effect can be achieved, and the problem of reduced quality that may cause due to strict sterilization does not occur, and thus an instant food having excellent texture and taste can be provided.

Claims

1. A method for the preparation of instant food, comprising: filling solid raw ingredients into a container; sterilizing the solid raw ingredients filled in the container with pressurized steam in a vacuum state; liquid-sterilizing liquid sauces by spraying steam directly on the liquid sauces; adding the sterilized sauces to the sterilized raw ingredients; sealing the container added with the sterilized sauces; and heating the sealed container at a temperature of 90? C. to 125? C. for 10 to 25 minutes.

2. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the solid raw ingredients have the number of microorganisms of 10.sup.2 cfu/ml to 10.sup.8 cfu/ml in the raw ingredients before sterilization.

3. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the solid raw ingredients comprise at least one selected from the group consisting of grains, beans, mushrooms, root and tuber crops, bulbs, seasoned vegetables, fruits/seeds, meats, fish, and eggs.

4. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the sterilizing of the solid raw ingredients is performed with steam at 120? C. to 140? C. for 1 minute to 10 minutes.

5. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the sterilizing of the solid raw ingredients is performed by repeatedly contacting the solid raw ingredients 5 to 10 times with steam at 140? C. to 155? C. for 3 seconds to 10 seconds.

6. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, further comprising immersing the solid raw ingredients in water, before filling the solid raw ingredients in the container.

7. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the liquid-sterilizing of the liquid sauces is performed for 6 to 8 minutes by directly spraying steam at 130? C. to 140? C. to the liquid sauces.

8. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the liquid-sterilizing of the liquid sauces is performed using a Direct-Steam Injection (DSI) sterilization device.

9. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the viscosity of the liquid sauces is 0 to 2,000 cp.

10. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the sugar content of the liquid sauces is 0 to 60 brix.

11. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the liquid sauces have the number of microorganisms of 10.sup.2 CFU/ml to 10.sup.8 CFU/ml before liquid-sterilization.

12. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein a cooking step is not included.

13. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein heat of 105? C. or higher is not applied before the sealing step after the sterilizing of the solid raw ingredients.

14. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein a temperature of 104? C. or lower is maintained before the sealing step after the sterilizing of the solid raw ingredients.

15. The method for the preparation of instant food of claim 1, wherein the number of microorganisms in the solid raw ingredients measured after the heating step is 0 cfu/ml.

16. An instant food prepared by the preparation method according to claim 1.

Description

BEST MODE

[0068] Hereinafter, the present application will be described in detail by Examples. However, the following Examples specifically illustrate the present application in detail, and the contents of the present application are not limited by the following Examples.

EXAMPLES AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES

Example 1: Honey Glutinous Rice

[0069] Honey glutinous rice of Example 1 was prepared using liquid sauces such as honey, soy sauce and syrup, and various raw ingredients according to the method for the preparation of instant food of the present application. Specifically, non-glutinous rice, glutinous rice, sugared chestnuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins, pine nuts and sesame oil were used as the raw ingredients, and corn oil was added to the raw ingredients washed with water to be filled into the container. The mixing ratio of each ingredient was listed in Table 1 below. The filled container was moved to an RIC device (manufactured by Hisaka Seisakusho Co., Ltd.), and a steam pressure sterilization was performed at a temperature of 130? C. for 5 minute and 30 seconds in a vacuum state. The sterilization conditions corresponded to a sterilization condition in which an F0 value is 4 or more.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Raw ingredients Mixing ratio (%) Non-glutinous rice 15.5 Glutinous rice 62.0 Sugared chestnuts 13.8 Pumpkin seeds 1.9 Raisins 2.9 Pine nuts 1.0 Sesame oil 1.0 Corn oil 1.9 Total 100.00

[0070] After sterilization of the raw ingredients was completed, a liquid sauce with a salt content of 0.9% and a sugar content of 28 brix was prepared by mixing cinnamon concentrate, dark soy sauce, honey, simple syrup, brown sugar, oligosaccharide HF and refined salt, which was sterilized to be added to the container. The liquid sauce was sterilized by directly injecting steam at a temperature of 130? C. into the sauce using a direct steam injection heater (DSI) to raise the sauce temperature to 130? C. and maintain the state for 6 minutes. After adding the liquid sauce, the container was sealed with a lid material to prevent external microorganisms substances from being introduced into the container. The sealed container was moved to a retort sterilization device and heated by setting conditions of a temperature of 115? C. for 20 minutes to prepare the instant rice of Example 4. The temperature and time conditions of the device correspond to a relatively less strict condition compared to conventional retort sterilization conditions.

Comparative Examples 1 and 2: Honey Glutinous Rice

[0071] Honey glutinous rice of Comparative Examples 4-1 and 4-2 was prepared using raw ingredients mixed in the mixing ratio according to Table 1 above and a liquid sauce. An instant rice was prepared in the same manner as the method for preparing the honey glutinous rice in Example 1, except that some conditions were varied.

[0072] In Comparative Example 1, after performing the same method as in Example 1 until the container sealing step, a liquid sauce was sterilized and added through a general liquid sterilization method by heating at 100? C. for 10 minutes or more. In addition, an instant rice was prepared under the conventional retort heat sterilization conditions by heating the sealed container in a retort sterilization device at a temperature of 123? C. for 18 minutes, instead of the heating step in Example 1.

[0073] In Comparative Example 2, a liquid sauce was sterilized using a direct steam injection heater (DSI) under the same conditions as in Example 1 above, but the raw ingredients were sterilized by heating at 98? C. for 20 minutes and then sterilized under the condition where F0 was less than 4. After adding the liquid sauce and then sealing the container, an instant rice was prepared under the conventional retort heat sterilization condition heating the sealed container in a retort sterilization device at a temperature of 123? C. for 18 minutes, instead of the heating step in Example 1.

Experimental Example 1

[1-1] Comparison of Chromaticity of Honey Glutinous Rice

[0074] The lid material of the instant rice (honey glutinous rice) of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 prepared by adding the liquid sauces such as honey and soy sauce was removed and the colors thereof were measured and compared. In addition, the instant rice of Examples 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 was heated using a microwave (700 W) for 2 minutes, and then the lid material was removed, and the colors of the Bap parts were measured and compared. For the colors, L, a, and b values were measured using an instrument manufactured by Konica Minolta company, and each value was measured three times, and average values thereof were shown in Tables 2 and 3 below, respectively.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Before heating L a b Example 4 34.57 5.92 14.03 Comparative Example 4-1 33.13 5.84 13.40 Comparative Example 4-2 36.17 5.92 13.88

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 After heating L a b Example 4 27.91 6.67 10.45 Comparative Example 4-1 26.51 6.47 10.08 Comparative Example 4-2 28.16 6.83 11.02

[0075] As a result, as can be seen in Tables 16 and 17 above, in the case of the honey glutinous rice in Example 1 of the present application, L value was measured to be relatively low and b value was measured to be high. The honey glutinous rice of Example 1 prepared according to the preparation method of the present application may be distinguished from the honey glutinous rice of Comparative Examples 1 and 2 in terms of color.

[1-2] Analysis of Cooked Rice Taste of Honey Glutinous Rice

[0076] With respect to instant food (honey glutinous rice) of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 heated using a microwave, a cooked rice taste value of each instant rice was shown in Table 4 below by measuring the appearance, hardness, glutinousness, balance, and palatability of the Bap parts using a taste meter (Tensipresser My Boy 2 system, Taketomo Electric Co., Japan).

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Gluti- Palat- Appearance Hardness nousness Balance ability Example 1 8.4 9.4 9.8 7.3 74 Comparative 8.7 9.0 9.8 7.5 78 Example 1 Comparative 8.7 8.9 9.8 7.4 77 Example 2

[0077] As a result, in the instant rice of Example 1 prepared according to the preparation method of the present application, the hardness and glutinousness values were measured to be the highest compared to the instant food of the Comparative Example prepared through other methods.

[1-3] Analysis of Physical Properties of Honey Glutinous Rice

[0078] With respect to the instant food (honey glutinous rice) of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 heated using a microwave, the hardness, elasticity, adhesiveness, and glutinousness of the Bap parts were measured using a physical property analyzer (Tensipresser Analyzer, MyBoy, TAKETOMO Electric Incorporated) in the same method as Experimental Example 1-3 and shown in Table 5 below.

TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 Hard- Adhesive- Gluti- ness Elasticity ness nousness Example 1 1 32.04 57.30 30.99 92.82 2 27.42 54.17 33.92 70.89 3 18.67 44.36 38.15 103.64 4 26.64 54.59 29.63 96.46 5 20.53 49.50 30.84 69.27 Average 25.06 51.98 32.71 86.62 Deviation 5.43 5.10 3.43 15.60 Comparative 1 35.74 64.95 35.03 153.97 Example 1 2 31.98 60.28 29.18 69.40 3 24.23 50.00 37.32 92.12 4 94.55 99.83 23.37 113.30 5 36.48 58.04 27.33 66.25 Average 44.60 66.62 30.45 99.01 Deviation 28.34 19.34 5.69 36.13 Comparative 1 28.87 59.41 37.55 106.77 Example 2 2 20.45 48.85 36.58 112.24 3 33.98 66.04 34.97 75.73 4 57.00 105.50 21.57 75.08 5 37.37 57.92 28.52 80.35 Average 35.53 67.54 31.84 90.03 Deviation 13.59 22.09 6.73 17.99

[0079] As a result, it was confirmed that in the case of the honey glutinous rice of Example 1 prepared according to the preparation method of the present application, the measured result values of 1 to 5 samples were relatively uniform and a deviation therebetween was not large, but in the case of the honey glutinous rice of Comparative Examples 1 and 2, a deviation in the measured values of physical properties for each sample was very large. In particular, the hardness and elasticity measured values of the honey glutinous rice in Comparative Examples 1 and 2 showed very large deviations, but the reason why the deviation between physical property values of the honey glutinous rice of Comparative Examples 1 and 2 was shown so large is expected to be due to the deviation in texture that occurs due to strong retort heat sterilization treatment. This property is shown prominently in the honey glutinous rice of Comparative Examples 1 and 2 having a high content of glutinous rice ingredients, and since the honey glutinous rice according to Example 1 does not have a relatively large deviation in physical properties, it was confirmed that when the preparation method of the present application is used, an instant rice having consistent texture and quality can be prepared.

[1-4] Sensory Evaluation of Honey Glutinous Rice

[0080] The instant rice (honey glutinous rice) of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 to 2 was heated using a microwave, and then various kinds of sensory qualities were evaluated by trained professional panels. The sensory quality was evaluated by color preference, taste/flavor strength, overall taste preference, texture preference, and glutinousness preference of instant rice, and the result is shown in Table 6 below.

[Evaluation Criteria]

[0081] Color preference: Provided that 1 point is a minimum value and 5 points are a maximum value, the higher the color preference, the higher the score.

[0082] Taste/flavor strength: Provided that 1 point is a minimum value and 5 points are a maximum value, it means that the higher the taste/flavor strength, the higher the score.

[0083] Overall taste preference: As it is an item to evaluate the overall taste, provided that 1 point is a minimum value and 5 points are a maximum value, it means that the better the overall taste preference, the higher the score.

[0084] Texture preference: Provided that 1 point is a minimum value and 5 points are a maximum value, it means that the higher the texture preference, the higher the score.

[0085] Glutinousness preference: Provided that 1 point is a minimum value and 5 points are a maximum value, it means that the higher the glutinousness preference, the higher the score.

TABLE-US-00006 TABLE 6 Taste/ Overall Gluti- Color flavor taste Texture nousness preference strength preference preference preference Example 1 4.0 1.3 4.0 4.0 4.0 Comparative 3.5 1.3 3.7 3.1 3.8 Example 1 Comparative 3.6 1.3 3.0 2.8 3.4 Example 2

[0086] As a result, when compared with the honey glutinous rice of the Comparative Examples, the honey glutinous rice of Example 1 was measured to have the highest level in all of color preference, overall taste preference, texture preference, and glutinousness preference, so that it was confirmed and the honey glutinous rice of Example 1 exhibited superior sensory quality as compared with Bap prepared through other methods.

Experimental Example 2

Confirmation of the Number of Microorganisms of Honey Glutinous Rice

[0087] In order to confirm whether complete sterilization was performed in the honey glutinous rice product of the present application, the number of microorganisms contained in the raw ingredients or product was measured at each step.

[0088] With respect to the honey glutinous rice according to Example 1, first, the number of general bacteria and the number of heat-resistant bacteria for each of the raw ingredients were measured. The number of each bacterium was measured in non-glutinous rice, glutinous rice, chestnuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins and pine nuts, and the number of microorganisms was measured in a mixed solid ingredient sample mixed with the raw ingredients.

[0089] As a result, it was measured that general bacteria were present above a certain level in the raw ingredients before the sterilization step, and at least 550,000 cfu/ml of general bacteria were present in the solid mixture of the raw ingredients for preparing the instant rice.

[0090] The raw ingredients were included in the container, and then a steam pressure sterilization was performed at a temperature of 130? C. for 5 minutes and 30 seconds in an RIC device during the process of preparing the honey glutinous rice according to Example 1, and then a sterilizing effect was confirmed through a microbiology challenge test (MCT). The MCT is a method of determining whether a product has process and distribution stability by artificially inoculating microorganisms and observing changes in order to check whether to control target bacteria during the actual process of the product. As general bacteria, an orange capsules (MesaLabs SASU-302) containing 106 CFU/ml of Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 5230), which died under a condition of F0 of about 4 or less, was used, and as heat-resistant bacteria, a purple capsule (MesaLabs SA-608) containing 106 CFU/ml of Geobacillus stearothermophilus (ATCC 7953), which died at an F0 of about 21 or less, was used. The raw ingredients sterilized with the RIC device using the capsules were cultured for up to 48 hours at a temperature of 35? C. for the orange capsule and 55 to 60? C. for the purple capsule, respectively, and then color changes were confirmed. If there was no color change, it was determined to be negative, and if the color changed to yellow, it was determined to be positive (Table 7).

[0091] As a result, it was confirmed that as a result of steam pressure sterilization using the RIC device, all microorganisms that had been present in the raw ingredients before sterilization were killed to exhibit a sufficient sterilization effect.

TABLE-US-00007 TABLE 7 Measuring sample Sample name MCT RIC sterilized sample 1 4-carriage 1-stage 35? C. Negative RIC sterilized sample 2 4-carriage 1-stage 55? C. Negative RIC sterilized sample 3 4-carriage 7-stage 35? C. Negative RIC sterilized sample 4 4-carriage 7-stage 55? C. Negative RIC sterilized sample 5 4-carriage 12-stage 35? C. Negative RIC sterilized sample 6 4-carriage 12-stage 55? C. Negative

[0092] Furthermore, after steam pressure sterilization, a finished instant rice product was prepared through w water addition, sealing, and additional heating processes, and bacterial growth experiments were conducted on the finished product. In the bacterial growth experiments, the instant rice product was stored at 35? C. for 10 days and then sampled to determine the growth of general bacteria and heat-resistant bacteria. According to a common measurement method in the art (based on the bacterial growth experiments according to a general test method of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety), each finished product sample was preserved in an incubator at a temperature of 35 to 37? C. for at least 10 days, and then the sample obtained from the sample was homogenized with a diluent and cultured in a culture medium at 35 to 37? C. for 45 to 51 hours, and then bacterial growth was measured. As a result, as shown in Table 8 below, no bacterial growth was observed in all 12 instant rice samples, which were shown as negative, but despite the presence of a large amount of microorganisms in the raw ingredients, it was confirmed that all microorganisms were killed in the instant rice prepared through the preparation method of the present application through sufficient sterilization.

TABLE-US-00008 TABLE 8 Sample name (carriage- Bacterial Measuring sample stage-number) growth Finished product sample 1 3-2-1 Negative Finished product sample 2 3-2-1 Negative Finished product sample 3 3-2-1 Negative Finished product sample 4 3-2-7 Negative Finished product sample 5 3-2-7 Negative Finished product sample 6 3-2-7 Negative Finished product sample 7 3-2-14 Negative Finished product sample 8 3-2-14 Negative Finished product sample 9 3-2-14 Negative Finished product sample 10 3-3-1 Negative Finished product sample 11 3-3-1 Negative Finished product sample 12 3-3-1 Negative

[0093] Hereinabove, representative Examples of the present application have been exemplarily described, but the scope of the present application is not limited to the specific Examples as described above, and can be changed appropriately by those skilled in the art within the scope described in the appended claims of the present application.