Method for Producing a Food Product

Abstract

The invention refers to a method of producing a deformed fibrous protein product (12) from a wet textured product material (11). The wet textured product material (11) comprises at least 10 wt % of proteins possessing a fibrous structure and at least 35 wt % water. The in particular deformed fibrous protein product (12) being selected from the group consisting of a deformed product (12a), an initial pulled product (12b), a block product (12c), and a final pulled product (12d). The method comprising the step of a) elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material (11), thereby changing the fibrous structure to obtain the deformed product (12a).

Claims

1. A method of producing a fibrous protein product (12) from a wet textured product material (11), the wet textured product material (11) comprises at least 10 wt % of proteins possessing a fibrous structure at least 35 wt % water, the fibrous protein product (12) being selected from the group consisting of a deformed product (12a), an initial pulled product (12b), a block product (12c), and a final pulled product (12d) the method comprising the step of a) elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material (11), thereby changing the fibrous structure to obtain the deformed product (12a).

2. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material (11) is textured by means of high moisture extrusion cooking, printing, shear cell processing, kneading and/or fiber spinning.

3. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material (11) is elastic-plastically deformed by means of at least one pair of rolls, wherein there is a roller gap size rg1 between the two rolls with rg1≤0.8 of the height h of the wet textured product material, in particular with a roller gap size of rg1≤0.4 of height h, in particular with a roller gap size rg1 of 0.1 mm≤rg1≤3.6 mm.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material results in the deformed product with a thickness t.sub.dp smaller than the height h of the wet textured product material and a thickness t.sub.dp larger than the roller gap size rg1 or than the thickness at maximum compression h.sub.comp, in particular the thickness t.sub.dp is ≤2.5 times the roller gap size rg1 or the thickness at maximum compression h.sub.comp, in very particular the thickness t.sub.dp is ≤2.5 and ≤7 times the roller gap size rg1 or the thickness at maximum compression h.sub.comp.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material (11) by means of at least one pair of rolls results in a thickness t.sub.dp of the deformed fibrous protein product of below the height h of the wet textured product material but above the roller gap size rg1, in particular wherein 0.7 mm≤t.sub.dp≤9 mm.

6. The method according to anyone of the preceding claims, comprising the subsequent step of b) pulling or cutting apart the deformed product (12a) to obtain the initial pulled product (12b).

7. The method according to claim 6, comprising the subsequent step of c) forming the initial pulled product (12b) to a block product (12c), in particular forming a mixture of the initial pulled product (12b) and an adhesive matrix material to obtain the block product (12c), in particular, forming the block product (12c) from the initial pulled product (12b) by means of a vacuum or pressing procedure.

8. The method according to claim 7, comprising the subsequent step of d) pulling the block product (12c) to obtain a finished pulled product (12d).

9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the fibrous protein product (12) is a slaughter-free protein product resembling processed meat products.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material (11) is an extrudate produced by high moisture extrusion cooking.

11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a protein component of the wet textured product material (11) is selected from the group consisting of pea, soy, wheat, sunflower, pumpkin, rice, cereals, pulses, oil seeds, algae, single cells, fungi, and fermented components.

12. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a component of the wet textured product material (11) is selected from the group consisting of further plant cells, starch, flavours, spices, dietary fibres, hydrocolloids, salt, fat, oil, and fungal component, optionally muscle cells.

13. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material (11) comprises 10-65 wt % of protein, in particular comprises 10-40 wt % of protein.

14. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material (11) has an anisotropic structure.

15. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wet textured product material temperature is within the range of 10°−100° C., in particular within the range of 30-90° C., during the deforming step a).

16. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein step (a) is performed by means of rolling the wet textured product material (11) at least once, in particular at least twice, in particular by means of rolling the wet textured product material (11) in a direction (r1) parallel to a fibre orientation of the fibrous structure, and/or in a direction (r2) normal to the fibre orientation of the fibrous structure.

17. A product (12) obtained by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

18. Product according to claim 17, which is a food product, in particular which food product resembles processed meat products.

19. A device for performing the method according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 16, in particular for performing method step a), comprising rolling means (2) for elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material (11), in particular a feeding mechanism (21) for feeding the wet textured product material (11) into the rolling means (2).

20. The device according to claim 19, wherein the rolling means comprise at least one pair of rolls (2), in particular two pairs of rolls (2), with a roller gap (rg1) with rg1≤0.8 of the thickness h of the product material (11), in particular with rg1≤0.4 of the thickness h of the product material (11).

21. The device according to any one of the claims 19 to 20, comprising pulling means (3), in particular for performing method step b), for pulling apart the deformed product (12a) to obtain a pulled product (12b), in particular the pulling means (3) are arranged in series with the rolling means (2), in particular, the pulling means (3) comprise a pair of pin-rolls (3).

22. A use of the device, in particular comprised of more than one device connected in sequence according to any one of the claims 19 to 21 for manufacturing of a fibrous protein product (12).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0093] The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent from the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings, wherein:

[0094] FIG. 1 shows a diagram of method steps for producing a fibrous protein product according to an embodiment of the method;

[0095] FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a method and a device for performing the method according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0096] FIG. 3 shows a further schematic of a method and a device for performing the method according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0097] FIG. 4 shows a schematic of method steps according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0098] FIG. 5 shows a section of a wet textured product material according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0099] FIG. 6 shows a schematic of a wet textured product material according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0100] FIG. 7 shows experimental data of example 1;

[0101] FIG. 8 shows experimental data of example 1;

[0102] FIG. 9 shows a photograph of deformed products according to example 2;

[0103] FIG. 10 shows a schematic of the experiment according to example 3;

[0104] FIG. 11 shows photographs of deformed products and pulled products according to example 3;

[0105] FIG. 12 shows photographs of the fibrous protein product after each method step according example 4;

[0106] FIG. 13 shows experimental data according to example 6.

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0107] FIG. 1 shows a diagram of method steps. In particular, the wet textured product material 11 is the starting product for the method of producing a fibrous protein product 12. The wet textured product material 11 comprises at least 10 wt % of proteins possessing a fibrous structure and at least 35 wt % water.

[0108] An in particular deformed fibrous protein product 12 is the target product of the method and is selected from the group consisting of a deformed product 12a, an initial pulled product 12b, a block product 12c, and a final pulled product 12d.

[0109] An in particular deformed fibrous protein product 12 according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention might be a slaughter-free protein product resembling processed meat products.

[0110] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the fibrous protein product 12 is a food product, in particular the food product resembles a processed meat product.

[0111] The first step a) of the method is to elastic-plastically deform the wet textured product material 11 and thereby changing the fibrous structure, to obtain the deformed product 12a.

[0112] In a further advantageous method step b) that might follow subsequently to step a), the deformed product 12a is pulled or cut apart to obtain the initial pulled product 12b.

[0113] A further advantageous embodiment of the method of producing a fibrous protein product 12 comprises after step b) the subsequent step c) wherein the initial pulled product 12b is formed to the block product 12c.

[0114] In a further advantageous step of the method of producing a fibrous protein product 12, the subsequent step after step c) is step d), wherein the block product 12c is pulled to obtain the finished pulled product 12d.

[0115] FIG. 2 shows a schematic of a device according to an embodiment of the invention for performing method step a). The device comprises rolling means 2 for elastic-plastically deforming the wet textured product material 11 to obtain the deformed product 12a.

[0116] In an advantageous embodiment of the device, a feeding mechanism 21 might be adapted to feed the wet textured product material 11 into the rolling means 2. Such feeding mechanism 21 might be a funnel as shown in FIG. 2 or might be a further pair of rolls, not shown in the figure. In FIG. 2, the rolling means 2 are configured as a pair of rolls with a roller gap rg1.

[0117] Advantageously, the roller gap rg1 has the size of rg1≤0.8 of the height h of the wet textured product material, in particular with rg1≤0.4 of the height h of the wet textured product material, wherein the product thickness is the shortest diameter of the product before entering the rolling means 2.

[0118] As shown in FIG. 2, the rolls of the pair of rolls are rotating against each other to deform the wet textured product material 11.

[0119] Advantageously, the wet textured product material temperature is within the range of 10°−100° C., in particular within the range of 30°−90° C., during the deforming step a).

[0120] FIG. 3 shows a further embodiment of the device according to the invention. The device in FIG. 3 not only comprises rolling means 2 for deforming the product material 11 to obtain the formed product 12a according to step a) of the method, but further comprises pulling means 3, for performing the method step b), wherein the formed product 12a is pulled apart into an initial pulled product 12b. Advantageously, as shown in FIG. 3, the pulling means 3 are configured as a pair of pin-rolls. The pin-rolls comprise a pair of rolls, wherein each roll comprises pins that are equally distributed over the surface of the respective roll. The initial pulled product 12b might comprise one or more fibrous pieces.

[0121] In a further embodiment, step a) of the method can be repeated multiple times to obtain the deformed product. In particular, the product material 11 might be fed into the rolling means 2 with different orientations of the fibrous structure, e.g. with the orientation of the fibrous structure being oriented parallel or normal to a direction in which the product material is fed into the rolling means.

[0122] FIG. 4 shows a schematic of the method steps c) and d). The initial pulled product 12b is formed to a block product 12c according to method step c).

[0123] In a further embodiment of the invention the initial pulled product 12b, optionally mixed with an adhesive matrix material, is formed to obtain the block product 12c.

[0124] In particular, such forming of the block product 12c from the initial pulled product 12b might be done by means of vacuum or pressing procedures.

[0125] The block product 12c might be packaged and the fibrous protein product 12 might be stored as a block product 12c, e.g. in a fridge or freezer.

[0126] In a method step d), the block product 12c might be pulled or cut apart again, in particular by means of hand or fork, to obtain the finished pulled product 12d. In particular, in method step d), the pulling needs less force than in step b). Therefore, the final pulled product 12d can be obtained from the block product 12c more easily, in particular with less force, than the initial pulled product 12b is obtained from the deformed product 12a.

[0127] FIG. 5 shows a section of a wet textured product material 11 according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0128] An advantageous wet textured product material 11 is a wet textured material, in particular textured by means of high moisture extrusion cooking, kneading, rolling, fiber spinning, printing and/or shear cell processing.

[0129] A further advantageous embodiment of the wet textured product material 11 comprises a protein selected from the group consisting of pea, soy, wheat, sunflower, pumpkin, rice, cereals, pulses, oil seeds, algae, single cells, fungi and fermented components.

[0130] In a further advantageous embodiment of the wet textured product material 11, the wet textured product material 11 comprises a component selected from the group consisting of further plant cells, starch, flavours, spices dietary fibres, hydrocolloids, salt, fat, oil, and fungal components, optionally muscle cells.

[0131] A further advantageous embodiment of the wet textured product material 11 comprises 10-65% wt of protein, in particular comprises 10-40% wt of protein.

[0132] A further advantageous embodiment of the wet textured product material 11 has an anisotropic structure as schematically shown in FIG. 5. The wet textured product material 11 comprises a fibrous structure that is directed along a direction r1.

[0133] The wet textured product material 11 has a height h, wherein the height h might be defined as the thickness of the wet textured product material 11.

[0134] FIG. 5 shows a schematic of a section of an advantageous embodiment of a wet textured product material 11 with the orientation of the fibrous structure in the product material 11. The fibrous structure is therefore anisotropic. FIG. 5 shows in particular the fibrous structure on a microscopic level. For method step a), the product material might be feed into a deforming mechanism with the fibrous structure being oriented into a direction r1 that is parallel to the fibre orientation of the fibrous structure or into a direction r2 that is normal to the fibre orientation of the fibrous structure.

[0135] FIG. 6 shows a schematic of an embodiment of a product material 11, in particular a schematic of a wet textured material produced by high moisture extrusion cooking. The product material 11 has an anisotropic structure on a macroscopic level. The product material still comprises the microscopic fibrous structure of FIG. 5 align along a profile as shown in FIG. 6, resulting from the flow profile in the texturization process. The embodiment in FIG. 6 has a length L and a width W. Advantageously, the embodiment of the product material 11 of FIG. 6 has a length L1 and a width W1 before being deformed in the method step a) and has a length L2 and a width W2 after being deformed to obtain the deformed product 12a. Advantageously, the relationship between the product material 11 and the deformed product 12a is: L1<L2 when rolling in direction r, and W1<W2 when rolling in direction normal to r.

[0136] Advantageously, the direction of the texturization in FIG. 6 is in the direction of the arrow r. The product material 11 can enter the deforming means, in particular a pair of rolls, for deforming the product material in a direction parallel to the direction r of the texturization or in a direction normal to the direction r of the texturization.

EXAMPLES

[0137] To further illustrate the invention, the following examples are provided. These examples are provided with no intention to limit the scope of the invention.

[0138] Example 1: Pea protein wet TVP as wet textured product material was rolled at varying roller distances. Wet TVP from pea protein was produced by co-rotating twin-screw high moisture extrusion cooking composed of 52 wt % water, rape seed oil, pea protein isolate, and pea fibers. The wet TVP was extruded at a height of 10.5 mm and a width of 60 mm and cut into pieces of approximately 100-120 mm in length. Rolling of wet TVP was performed with two counter-rotating rollers of a roller pair and at a rotating speed of 12.2 rpm. The roller gap was varied between 3.6 mm to 0.1 mm. The cut pieces of wet TVP, with a core temperature of 75-80° C., were inserted into the rollers in a direction normal to the texturization of the TVP. Thus, the rolling direction was normal to a direction to the flow direction in the extruder. As shown in FIG. 7, rolling with a roller gap of below the wet TVP height results in compression of the wet TVP. In FIG. 7, the x-axis refers to the roller gap size [mm] and the y-axis refers to the height after rolling [mm]. The dots represent the measured height after rolling and the line the roller distance. The initial TVP has a thickness of 10.5 mm. The line indicates the theoretical height after rolling or a plastically deforming material, which does not show elastic recovery after passing the roller gap.

[0139] Roller gaps of 3.6 mm and 0.1 mm led to height reductions of height h of the TVP from 10.5 mm to 9 mm and to 0.7 mm, respectively, which is equal to an elastic recovery of 2.5 to 7 times compared to the thickness at maximum compression h.sub.comp equal to the roller gap rg1.

[0140] The height h of the TVP is in particular the smallest diameter of the wet textured product material, in particular the height of the TVP is illustrated in FIG. 5. For a plastically deforming material or a hard and brittle material, the height after rolling would be equal to the roller distance. Instead, the elastic-plastic wet TVP partly relaxes back after passing the roller gap. FIG. 8 shows images of unrolled (picture on the very left) and rolled wet TVP at varying roller gap size (roller gap size is given in mm in the figure). The width w of the TVP increases with the decreasing roller gap size. The fibrous structure of the wet TVP is loosened and at smaller gap size torn apart into fibrous pieces when passing the roller gap. With decreasing gap size the rolled TVP becomes less coherent. At a gap size of 0.35 mm, the resulting rolled wet TVP is comparable to a loose carpet of long TVP fiber bundles. When further decreasing the gap size to 0.1 mm, the structure is more compressed and ripped apart resulting in flakes, which stick to the rollers and can be scraped off. FIG. 8 shows images of pea protein wet TVP (top view) unrolled and after one roller passing at a rotational speed of 12.2 rpm and at varying roller gap size indicated above. L refers to length and w refers to width of the TVP. The arrow indicates the direction at which the wet TVP was inserted in between the rollers. The rolling direction is normal to the flow direction in the high moisture extrusion cooking process.

[0141] The example demonstrates embodiments according to the invention, wherein the TVP as wet textured product material is deformed to obtain a deformed product with a deformed fibrous structure while preserving the fibrous microstructure.

[0142] Example 2: Pea protein wet TVP rolled in hot and cold state. The pea protein wet TVP (Example 1) was inserted into the rollers at a gap size of 3.0 mm and a rotational speed of 12.2 rpm at a core temperature of 75-80° C. (FIG. 9, left) and for comparison at a core temperature of 50° C. (FIG. 9, right). As the wet TVP becomes harder, less elastic and more brittle upon cooling, the indentation of the TVP in between the rollers was impaired for the colder product. Furthermore, while the hotter wet TVP was torn apart along the fiber bundles, thus loosened, the colder product showed brittle fracturing on the surface as visible in FIG. 9. Although the structure was loosened after rolling at colder temperature, rolling at hotter temperature was preferred to better preserve the fibrous structure, due to a favoured elastic recovery.

[0143] The example demonstrates the advantage of rolling the TVP at a preferred core temperature within the range of 70-90° C.

[0144] Example 3: Rolling of pea protein wet TVP parallel and normal to an extrusion direction r.

[0145] Pea protein wet TVP (from Example 1) as the wet textured product material was inserted into a pair of rolls. The TVP was rolled in either a direction r1 parallel or a direction r2 normal to the flow direction r of a fibre orientation of the fibrous structure in the high moisture extrusion cooking process, as schematically shown in FIG. 10, and rolled at a rotational speed of 12.2 rpm and a gap size of 1.2 mm. While both rolled wet TVP, shown in FIG. 11, had the same height after rolling, insertion in a direction r2 normal to the extrusion direction r led to an increase in width w as shown in FIG. 11A and in a direction r1 parallel to the extrusion direction r to an increase in length 1, as shown in FIG. 11C. Insertion in a direction r2 normal to the extrusion direction r led to loosening of the long parallel fibers coming from flow alignment in high moisture extrusion cooking. Hence, after rolling, long fibers could be easily isolated from the wet TVP by pulling, e.g., by hand, shown in FIG. 11B. These long isolated fibers and fiber bundles can be further processed into plant-based food products resembling processed meat products. In contrast, parallel rolling ripped apart the aligned fibers by overstretching, in particular by elastic-plastic deformation, resulting in a rough surface as visible in FIG. 11C. As a consequence, the wet TVP is less strong when deforming it in a direction r1 parallel to the extrusion direction. Hence, it can be pulled into shorter fibrous pieces as depicted in FIG. 11D without the need of cutting, e.g. by shearing off with a blunt blade.

[0146] The example demonstrates the differences in texture of the deformed material 12a after being rolled in a direction r2 normal to the direction of the fibrous structure or in a direction r1 parallel to the direction of the fibrous structure.

[0147] Example 4: A food product made by rolling of wet TVP as wet textured product material 11. Wet TVP from pea and sunflowers was produced by co-rotating twin-screw high moisture cooking extrusion composed of 52 wt % water, sunflower oil, 37 wt % pea protein isolate, pea fibers, 2.4 wt % ground sunflower seeds. The wet TVP was extruded at a height of 10.5 mm and a width of 60 mm was cut into pieces of approximately 150-200 mm in length. The pieces of wet TVP as wet textured product material 11 were rolled according to method step a) in a direction r2 normal to a fibre orientation, at a rotational speed of the pair of rolls of 12.2 rpm and a roller gap size of 0.5 mm. The resulting deformed product 12a is a rolled loose fiber carpet (FIG. 10A). The loose fiber carpet was slightly pulled according to method step b) into an initial pulled product 12b in form of single fiber bundles resembling pulled pork in shape, appearance and texture (FIG. 10B). The pulled fibers were reassembled to a block product 12c according to method step c) by means of vacuum procedure, wherein the block product 12c was put into a vacuum bag, shaping it into a loaf and applying vacuum. The resulting plant-based fibrous loaf was marinated with oil-based barbecue marinate, baked for 10 min at 200° C. to generate a crust and heat the product. Subsequently, the baked loaf can be pulled into a final pulled product 12d according to method step d) into the single fiber bundles by help of a fork similar to the process of preparing pulled meat at home (FIG. 10C).

[0148] The example demonstrates all process steps of the method.

[0149] Example 5: A food product made from rolled wet TVP as wet textured product material 11. Pea protein wet TVP (from example 1) was rolled according to method step a) to obtain a deformed product 12a, the procedure described in Example 1 with a roller gap size of 0.9 mm. The resulting deformed product 12a are loose fibrous TVP carpets, coated with an adhesive mixture prepared from 49 wt % sunflower oil, 49 wt % water and 2 wt % pea protein isolate by mixing for 5 min. Subsequently, the coated loose fibrous TVP carpets were stacked onto a large metal skewer traditionally used for meat-based products. The water-oil-protein mixture acted as adhesion layer in between the rolled carpets. The resulting food was roasted. Rolling allowed to preserve the fibrous structure and thus the meat-like texture but generate thin layers comparable to meat-based products. Also, the available space in between the fibers resulting from the roller process allowed for oil penetration from the coating during roasting, which hence increased juiciness known from meat-based products. The example therefore demonstrates the preparation of a food product with the method according to the invention.

[0150] Example 6: Pea protein wet TVP as a wet textured product material 11 (according to example 1) was cut into a piece of 10.5 mm in height, 60 mm in width and 10 mm in length. The small piece was either compressed normal to the flow direction r with a texture analyzer to a minimum height of 3.6 mm at a velocity of 1 mm/s or rolled perpendicular to the flow direction r with a gap size of 3.6 mm. The compression and de-compression curves (FIG. 14) show high stiffness and partly elastic recovery. The x-axis refers to the TVP height [mm] and the y-axis refers to the compression force [N]. The dotted line refers to the de-compression and the full line to the compression force.

[0151] Rolling (FIG. 14B) in comparison to normal compression (FIG. 14A) exerts higher elongational forces onto the wet TVP, which supports the loosening of the fibrous structure by elongating the material product normal to the oriented fibrous structure. Thus, the fiber bundles/sheets/aggregates are pulled apart and get separated either during elongation or after elastic relaxation.

[0152] Example 7: Wet TVP as wet textured product material with a height of 10 mm consisting of 55 wt % water, 22.5 wt % microalgae powder, and 22.5 wt % soy concentrate was heated to 80° C. and rolled with a pair of smooth rolls at a rotational speed of 12.2 rpm and a gap size of 3.6 mm. Due to the high microalgae content, the wet TVP is highly plastically deformable and has a low stiffness. Hence, rolling results in substantial deformation of the products and only minor elastic recovery resulting in a product height after rolling of 4 mm. Rolling squeezes the fibrous structure of the wet TVP, comparable to a wheat dough, rather than loosening the fibrous structure.

[0153] Example 8: Wet TVP as wet textured product material with a height of 11 mm consisting of 62 wt % water, 22 wt % pea protein, and 16 wt % pea fibers was cut into pieces of 15 cm in width and 100 cm in length and rolled at a gap size of 5.5 mm at a temperature of 80-85° C., resulting in a height after rolling of 10 mm. The rolled fibrous protein product was processed into pieces by a cutting device resembling processed meat.