CAPSULE CONTAINING BEVERAGE POWDER, IN PARTICULAR FOR PREPARING BREWED COFFEE

Abstract

A capsule, especially for preparing a beverage from beverage powder, in particular of coffee from coffee powder, by introducing water into the capsule, wherein the capsule comprises a compacted pellet made of a powder containing at least one polysaccharide, wherein the compacted pellet is sheathed with at least one coating layer, wherein the at least one coating layer comprises a cross-linked polysaccharide, wherein the cross-linked polysaccharide can be obtained by cross-linking a polysaccharide with a cross-linking agent without the use of a polyol spacer.

A method for manufacturing such a capsule comprises the following steps: i) preparing a compacted pellet from a powder containing at least one polysaccharide, ii) bringing at least one part and preferably the entire surface of the compacted pellet used in step i) into contact with a solution of a polysaccharide in a solvent or with a dispersion of a polysaccharide in a dispersant, iii) when appropriate, removing of the compacted pellet from the solution or dispersion of step ii), iv) bringing the compacted pellet obtained in step ii) or iii) into contact with at least one cross-linking agent, v) when appropriate, removing the compacted pellet from the solution of step iv) and vi) drying of the compacted pellet obtained in step iv) or v).

Claims

1. A capsule for preparing a beverage from beverage powder by introducing water into the capsule, wherein the capsule comprises a compacted pellet made of a powder containing at least one polysaccharide, wherein the compacted pellet is sheathed with at least one coating layer, wherein the at least one coating layer comprises a cross-linked polysaccharide, wherein the cross-linked polysaccharide is obtainable by cross-linking the polysaccharide with a cross-linking agent without the use of a polyol spacer.

2. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the polysaccharide of the at least one coating layer is selected from the group consisting of starch, cellulose, chitin, carrageenan, agar and alginates.

3. The capsule according to claim 2, wherein the polysaccharide of the at least one coating layer is an alginate.

4. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the polysaccharide of the at least one coating layer is cross-linked via covalent bonds.

5. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the polysaccharide of the at least one coating layer is cross-linked via ionic and/or coordinative bonds.

6. The capsule according to claim 5, wherein the cross-linked polysaccharide of the at least one coating layer is an alkaline earth metal alginate.

7. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the compacted pellet is sheathed with 1 to 100 coating layers.

8. The capsule according to claim 3, the compacted pellet is sheathed with 2 to 100 coating layers of calcium alginate.

9. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the compacted pellet contains a material selected from the group consisting of coffee, tea, drinking chocolate, cocoa and milk powder.

10. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the compacted pellet can be obtained by pressing the powder with a pressure of 0.01 to 1000 MPa.

11. The capsule according to claim 1, wherein the capsule comprises a compacted pellet made from a powder of a substance selected from the group consisting of coffee, tea, drinking chocolate, cocoa and milk powder, wherein the compacted pellet is obtained by pressing the powder at a pressure of 0.01 to 1.000 MPa and wherein the compacted pellet is encapsulated with 1 to 100 coating layers of calcium alginate.

12. A method for manufacturing a capsule according to claim 1, comprising the following steps: i) preparing a compacted pellet from a powder containing at least one polysaccharide, ii) bringing at least one part of the compacted pellet used in step i) into contact with a solution of a polysaccharide in a solvent or with a dispersion of a polysaccharide in a dispersant, iii) when appropriate, removing of the compacted pellet from the solution or dispersion of step ii), iv) bringing the compacted pellet obtained in step ii) or iii) into contact with at least one cross-linking agent, v) when appropriate, removing the compacted pellet from the solution of step iv) and vi) drying of the compacted pellet obtained in step iv) or v).

13. The method according to claim 12, in which the compacted pellet in step ii) is dipped in or sprayed with an alkali metal alginate solution.

14. The method according to claim 12 wherein the compacted pellet in step iv) is dipped in or sprayed with an alkaline earth metal salt solution.

15. (canceled)

16. The capsule according to claim 6, wherein the alkaline earth metal alginate is a calcium alginate.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the alkali metal alginate solution is an aqueous 0.5 to 5 wt. % alkali metal alginate solution.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the alkali metal alginate solution is an aqueous 0.5 to 5 wt. % sodium alginate solution.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the alkaline earth metal salt solution is an aqueous 1 to 7 wt. % alkaline earth metal salt solution.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the alkaline earth metal salt solution is an aqueous 1 to 7 wt. % calcium chloride solution.

Description

EXAMPLE 1

[0043] 8 g of ground roasted coffee were pressed into a spherical compacted pellet with a press at a pressure of 20 MPa. The resulting spherical compacted pellet was then immersed in a 1 wt % aqueous sodium alginate solution and after 1 to 2 seconds, removed from the sodium alginate solution. After removal of the compacted pellet from the sodium alginate solution, it was sprayed with a 5 wt % CDCl.sub.2 solution. Then, the compacted pellet was dried for 10 minutes at room temperature in a stream of air.

[0044] A capsule consisting of a compacted pellet with an encapsulated layer of calcium alginate was obtained.

EXAMPLE 2

[0045] A coffee capsule was prepared as in Example 1, except that the steps of immersing the compacted pellet in the sodium alginate solution, removing from the sodium alginate solution, spraying with the calcium chloride solution and drying are to be repeated successively for a total of 5 times each.

[0046] A capsule consisting of a compacted pellet with five encapsulated layers of calcium alginate was obtained.