GB1587194A - Fibrous protein food products - Google Patents

Description

(54) FIBROUS PROTEIN FOOD PRODUCTS (71) We, ERNEST SCRAGG & SONS LIMITED, a British Company of P.O. Box 16, Sunderland Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to food products and has for its object to provide protein food products which simulate the texture of meat or other foods, the starting materials including any material which comprises protein.

It is already known that protein from many sources is convertible into products simulating meat or other foods, from starting materials such as groundnuts, soya beans, fish proteins, leaf proteins and casein. Many products are commercially available and are preferred to in general as "vegetable protein" when the source is of vegetable origin.

It is also known to treat protein source material to form a protein/liquid system, and then to form a gel precursor material before converting the precursor material into a chewy gel material.

According to the present invention a protein source material is treated to form an intermediate product of physical characteristics such that the product is formable into a film which is at least temporarily self-sustaining and forgable, the film being passed between a film support member and a rotating forging roller die having its periphery formed with alternate circumferential grooves and ridges.

The intermediate product may be a protein liquid system treated to have the required physical characteristic for film formulation as by adding other materials, such as thixotropic material, of which starch is an example, flour dough or gums, or by control of its water content and the temperature and pressure conditions under which it is formed into a film by extrusion.

The intermediate product may be a gel precursor material convertible into chewy gel material either by heating, or chemically as by immersion and impregnation in a treatment bath.

Heat-convertible gel precursor material may be delivered as a film, from a slot outlet of an extruder, onto a film support member in the form of a heated backing roller, which forms a nip with a grooved forging roller die, so that heat conversion of the gel precursor occurs during the forging step.

Alternatively the gel precursor material is converted chemically into chewy gel material by having a film-receiving backing roller and the forging roller die feeding the profiled film into a treatment bath through which the film runs preferably in a zig-zag path before withdrawal.

The gel precursor material may have the desired physical characteristics imparted to it by additives such as thixotropic materials, flour dough or gums.

The longitudinally grooved film of chewy gel material may be formed into food products simulating meat or other foods in many different ways, and before doing so the film may be wholly or partially coated or impregnated with such additives as colouring materials, flavouring materials and fat. The fat may be applied by running the film through a bath or molten fat.

Furthermore the film may be laminated at any time with one or more webs of other suitable edible materials.

The profiled film may be cut into lengths which are formed into blocks by stacking the lengths in layers and bonding the layers together, as by the coating of fat previously mentioned or by any other suitable binder, the block then being cut into slices across the grooves and ridges of the film layers. Furthermore the somewhat laborious steps of cutting and stacking can be circumvented by delivering the profiled film as by feed rolls onto a "creeper" moving surface such as a conveyor, i.e. a moving surface travelling at a predetermined lower speed than that of the film as it leaves the feed rolls, the object being to layer the film sinuously and with portions of the film overlapping adjacent portions in stack fashion.Thus a continuously advancing stack is formed, which is readily consolidated as by pressure rolls into a laminar structure which could be then fed directly into and through an oven or autoclave for cooking, if desired after repeating the sinuous layering step one or more times to form an advancing stack of predetermined thickness.

Alternatively the film may be rolled up to form bonded rods, with the grooves and ridges extending lengthwise, before cross cutting into slices.

It will be appreciated that present invention resides in the concept of profiling a film of protein material by means of a forging roller die, and is not concerned with methods per se of producing protein/liquid systems, gel precursor materials and chewy gel material, since such methods per se are well known in the art and to be found in text books and other literature, and in patent specification of which British Specification 746 859 is an example.

The invention provides food products of improved texture due to the ribs-and-grooves cross section of the profiled film which forms the basis of the food products, but primarily the invention provides for high production rates to be achieved by extruding and profiling films of considerably width, as by using a single long backing roller and several shorter forging roller dies forming nips with the backing roller and together covering substantially its whole length by being located in one or more series and in staggered overlapping rela tiorrship, the profiled film, with or without aforementioned additives, then being continuously stacked by sinuous layering and the stack continuously cooked so that the whole process is operated in the manner of a continuous production line.

Profiling of the film creates a greater surface area/mass ratio so that the material will dry out more rapidly, and by the same token will de-hydrate more easily when required.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:- 1. Process for preparing protein food products simulating the texture of meat and other foods, comprising treating protein source material to form an intermediate product of physical characteristics such that the product is formable into a film which is at least temporarily self-sustaining and forgable, and passing the film between a film support member and a rotating forging roller die having its periphery formed with alternate circumferential grooves and ridges.

2. Process according to Claim 1, wherein the film is passed between the rotating forging roller die and a film support member in the form of a rotating heated backing roller which forms a nip with the forging roller die.

3. Process according to Claim 1, wherein the intermediate product is formed into film by extrusion from a slot outlet of an extruder, and the extruded film is delivered onto a rotating heated backing roller which forms a nip with the forging roller die.

4. Process according to Claim 1 wherein the film from the forging roller die is delivered by feed rolls onto a moving surface travelling at a predetermined lower speed than that of the film as it leaves the feed rolls, so that the film is layered sinuously with portions overlapping adjacent portions in stack fashion.

5. Process according to Claim 4 wherein the stack is consolidated as by pressure rolls into a laminar structure.

6. Process according to Claim 1 wherein the film is rolled up to form bonded rods with the grooves and ridges extending lengthwise.

7. Process for preparing protein food products simulating the texture of meat and other foods, substantially as herein described.

8. Protein food products simulating the texture of meat when prepared by the process claimed in any preceding claim.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (8)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. and through an oven or autoclave for cooking, if desired after repeating the sinuous layering step one or more times to form an advancing stack of predetermined thickness. Alternatively the film may be rolled up to form bonded rods, with the grooves and ridges extending lengthwise, before cross cutting into slices. It will be appreciated that present invention resides in the concept of profiling a film of protein material by means of a forging roller die, and is not concerned with methods per se of producing protein/liquid systems, gel precursor materials and chewy gel material, since such methods per se are well known in the art and to be found in text books and other literature, and in patent specification of which British Specification 746 859 is an example. The invention provides food products of improved texture due to the ribs-and-grooves cross section of the profiled film which forms the basis of the food products, but primarily the invention provides for high production rates to be achieved by extruding and profiling films of considerably width, as by using a single long backing roller and several shorter forging roller dies forming nips with the backing roller and together covering substantially its whole length by being located in one or more series and in staggered overlapping rela tiorrship, the profiled film, with or without aforementioned additives, then being continuously stacked by sinuous layering and the stack continuously cooked so that the whole process is operated in the manner of a continuous production line. Profiling of the film creates a greater surface area/mass ratio so that the material will dry out more rapidly, and by the same token will de-hydrate more easily when required. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:-

1. Process for preparing protein food products simulating the texture of meat and other foods, comprising treating protein source material to form an intermediate product of physical characteristics such that the product is formable into a film which is at least temporarily self-sustaining and forgable, and passing the film between a film support member and a rotating forging roller die having its periphery formed with alternate circumferential grooves and ridges.

2. Process according to Claim 1, wherein the film is passed between the rotating forging roller die and a film support member in the form of a rotating heated backing roller which forms a nip with the forging roller die.

3. Process according to Claim 1, wherein the intermediate product is formed into film by extrusion from a slot outlet of an extruder, and the extruded film is delivered onto a rotating heated backing roller which forms a nip with the forging roller die.

4. Process according to Claim 1 wherein the film from the forging roller die is delivered by feed rolls onto a moving surface travelling at a predetermined lower speed than that of the film as it leaves the feed rolls, so that the film is layered sinuously with portions overlapping adjacent portions in stack fashion.

5. Process according to Claim 4 wherein the stack is consolidated as by pressure rolls into a laminar structure.

6. Process according to Claim 1 wherein the film is rolled up to form bonded rods with the grooves and ridges extending lengthwise.

7. Process for preparing protein food products simulating the texture of meat and other foods, substantially as herein described.

8. Protein food products simulating the texture of meat when prepared by the process claimed in any preceding claim.