JP7623869B2 - Method for producing liquid food containing wheat bran sterilized by pressurized heating - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for producing a wheat bran-containing liquid food that is sterilized by pressurization and heating, and a wheat bran-containing liquid food that is sterilized by pressurization and heating.

In recent years, due to increased health consciousness, bakery foods such as bread and baked goods, and processed foods and beverages such as noodles are being produced using grain husks such as wheat bran, which contain nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, and functional ingredients such as dietary fiber.
Liquid foods such as sauces and soups are also in demand as consumption forms of foods and beverages containing wheat bran. Liquid foods such as sauces and soups are often provided as pressurized and heated foods, such as retort foods, that can be stored at room temperature after being heated and pressurized.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a pressurized and heated food product containing wheat bran, in which powdered bran is subjected to a hydrous and heated treatment to produce a paste-like bran, which is then sealed in a heat-resistant container and subjected to a pressurized and heated retort treatment to obtain a paste-like packaged bran.
Furthermore, Patent Document 2 describes food and drink products containing dietary fiber made from cereal husks, and Example 4 of Patent Document 2 describes an example of the production of corn potage.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-262586 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-49662

The inventors have found that when liquid foods such as sauces and soups containing wheat bran are retorted to produce pressurized and heated foods, the harsh taste of the wheat bran may be felt more strongly when eaten after storage, and browning may become more noticeable and the appearance may deteriorate compared to when wheat bran is not added. These inconveniences can be suppressed by taking measures such as adjusting the cooking conditions or pressurized heating conditions, but the degree of effectiveness of such measures varies depending on the inherent characteristics of the liquid food, such as flavor and color, making it difficult to take a unified measure.

The technology of Patent Document 1 aims to obtain noodles that have excellent texture and flavor, are free of a foreign body sensation, and contain a large amount of dietary fiber, but does not describe the heating and pressurizing of liquid foods containing wheat bran or the issues that arise when doing so.
The technology in Patent Document 2 involves extracting a plant fiber raw material with an alkali, treating the extract with an enzyme, and then incorporating a partial hydrolysis product of hemicellulose into food or beverages. However, there is no mention of the heating and pressurizing of liquid foods containing wheat bran, nor of the problems that arise in this case.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a wheat bran-containing, pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food, which contains wheat bran to meet the health-conscious needs of consumers, while easily and effectively suppressing the deterioration of flavor and taste and browning that tend to occur when the food is pressurized and heated, and to provide a method for producing the same.

The present invention provides a method for producing a wheat bran-containing liquid food that is sterilized by pressurizing and heating, characterized in that wheat bran derived from white wheat is used as the wheat bran.

The present invention also provides a wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressurization and heating, which contains 5 to 80% by mass, calculated as the dry mass, of wheat bran derived from white wheat.

The method for producing a wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressurizing and heating and the wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressurizing and heating of the present invention can easily and effectively suppress the deterioration of flavor and taste and browning that tend to occur when the food is pressurized and heated, while responding to health-conscious trends by incorporating wheat bran.

The present invention will be described below based on its preferred embodiments. In the following description, "X to Y" (X and Y are any numbers) means "X or more and Y or less" unless otherwise specified, and "X to Y[Z]" (X and Y are any numbers and [Z] is any unit) means "X[Z] or more and Y[Z] or less" unless otherwise specified.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressure and heat, and a wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressure and heat. In this specification, the term "liquid food" in the context of a pressure and heat sterilized liquid food refers to a food that has fluidity at room temperature and normal pressure, and solid sauces and rouxes, for example, are excluded from the scope of the present invention.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of a method for producing a wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food and a wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food will be described.
The manufacturing method of this embodiment includes a step of obtaining wheat bran derived from white wheat (white wheat bran), and a step of subjecting a liquid food containing the white wheat bran to a pressurized, heated and sterilized treatment.

[Process for obtaining white wheat bran]
First, the wheat grains as the raw material are pulverized, and the endosperm and germ are separated to obtain wheat bran, which is the outer layer of the grain. The wheat grains used for pulverization may be conditioned by adding water to the grains, or may be pulverized without adding water and conditioning. There is no particular restriction on the method for extracting the wheat bran fraction from the pulverized grains. For example, a method can be used in which the pulverized grains are separated into the wheat bran fraction and other components by a known classification method such as sieving, and the wheat bran fraction is then extracted.

The grains can be ground by any grinding method commonly used in this technical field, such as roll grinding, impact grinding, airflow grinding, etc. The grains can be ground once, or multiple times using the same or different grinding methods. For example, roll grinding and impact grinding can be combined and performed in that order, or roll grinding can be performed multiple times in multiple stages. The grinder used for impact grinding is not particularly limited as long as it grinds the grains by mechanical impact between an impact plate and a rotating rotor. From the viewpoint of simultaneously improving the grain grinding efficiency and the bran separation efficiency, it is preferable to employ roll grinding.

In the present invention, in the manufacturing method of liquid food, wheat bran obtained from wheat, a species of the genus Triticum in the family Poaceae, is used as a raw material. Generally, wheat caryopsis (wheat kernel) is roughly divided into endosperm, outer skin (outer skin and seed coat), and germ (embryo), and wheat bran is obtained by crushing wheat kernels and removing the endosperm and germ to obtain a fraction derived from the outer skin.

Wheat is broadly divided into two types, red wheat and white wheat, according to the color observed when the grain is visually observed. Red wheat is wheat that contains a red pigment in the outer skin, and when the wheat grain is visually observed, it is observed as red, reddish brown, or brown. On the other hand, white wheat is wheat that contains almost no red pigment in the outer skin, and when the wheat grain is visually observed, it is observed as white or pale yellow. Of these, it is preferable to use white wheat as a raw material for wheat bran. By using white wheat, it is possible to easily suppress the deterioration of taste and flavor, such as acridness and unpleasant odor derived from wheat bran, which is the outer skin of wheat, that tends to be enhanced when liquid foods containing wheat bran are pressurized and heated. In addition, by using white wheat, it is possible to easily suppress the browning of liquid foods that tends to occur when liquid foods containing wheat bran are pressurized and heated. Although the mechanism by which browning is suppressed is unclear, it is speculated that when red wheat bran is used, strong browning occurs due to a combination of the migration of bran-derived pigments into liquid foods and browning reactions such as the Maillard reaction that occur during heating, whereas when white wheat bran is used, the migration of bran-derived pigments is less likely to occur, resulting in suppression of browning. The suppression of browning by using white wheat can suppress the deterioration of appearance. Another advantage is that it is no longer necessary to suppress the bitterness by adding masking ingredients that are not normally required. Note that this does not exclude the addition of ingredients that have an off-flavor masking effect such as milk to liquid foods when they should be added depending on the type of liquid food. The use of white wheat also has the advantage of making the texture smooth.

Specific examples of white wheat that can be used in the present invention include, for ordinary wheat, Australian Standard White (ASW, produced in Australia), Prime Hard (PH, produced in Australia), Soft White (SW, produced in the United States), Western White (WW, produced in the United States), and durum wheat (produced in various countries around the world). These white wheats can be appropriately selected, for example, based on genetic characteristics.

Furthermore, ordinary wheat is broadly divided into three types according to the hardness of the wheat kernel: hard wheat, soft wheat, and medium wheat, which has a hardness intermediate between hard and soft. Of these types, from the viewpoint of suppressing browning of pressurized heat sterilized liquid foods, it is preferable to use white wheat classified as medium or soft wheat, and it is more preferable to use white wheat classified as medium wheat. Taking white wheat and ordinary wheat as an example, an example of hard wheat is PH, an example of medium wheat is ASW, and a specific example of soft wheat is WW.

For the above reasons, it is preferable to use wheat bran derived from white wheat (white wheat bran) as the wheat bran to be blended into liquid foods, more preferably to use at least one of ASW and WW, and even more preferably to use ASW. By blending such white wheat bran into liquid foods, the resulting pressurized and heated sterilized liquid foods are not only useful from the perspective of health promotion, but also suppress the generation of bitterness, have good taste and flavor, and are inhibited from browning.

It is preferable to use white wheat bran that has been subjected to heat treatment such as dry heat treatment and moist heat treatment, and it is even more preferable to use moist heat treatment. By using heat-treated bran, the generation of bitterness is further suppressed and a pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food with an improved flavor can be obtained. If the heat treatment is moist heat treatment, the generation of bitterness is further suppressed and a pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food with an even better flavor can be obtained.

In addition, the heat treatment process can be used to finely pulverize the white wheat bran, which is advantageous in terms of obtaining wheat bran with a small white particle size with high productivity. In addition, the heat treatment process can reduce or inactivate various enzymes such as amylase and protease, which is particularly advantageous in terms of further improving the viscosity stability during the production of liquid foods.
Whether or not the white wheat bran has been heat-treated can be determined, for example, by measuring the enzyme activity or gluten vitality. Specifically, in the case of enzyme activity, the heat-treated white wheat bran has less enzyme activity than the unheated white wheat bran, or the enzyme activity is below the detection limit, so that the heat-treated white wheat bran can be distinguished from the unheated white wheat bran in this respect.

The moist heat treatment is a treatment in which the moisture in the treatment object (wheat bran) is maintained or moisture is supplied from the outside and the treatment object is heated. In the moist heat treatment, water, saturated steam, superheated steam, etc. can be supplied and used.
When dry heat treatment is performed as the heat treatment, the product temperature of the white wheat bran is preferably 80 to 200 ° C., more preferably 90 to 150 ° C., and the treatment is preferably performed for 1 to 120 minutes, more preferably 3 to 50 minutes. In the dry heat treatment, the wheat bran can be introduced into an apparatus having a configuration similar to that of the heat treatment stirring apparatus described in JP-A-2004-9022, for example, and the temperature and time can be set as described above. This heat treatment stirring apparatus includes a cylindrical container for accommodating the object to be treated, a hollow rotating shaft provided inside the container, a hollow pipe screw formed in communication with the shaft, and a steam supply source for supplying steam into the rotating shaft and the pipe screw, and is configured to transmit heat generated by supplying steam into the rotating shaft and the pipe screw to the object to be treated via the rotating shaft and the pipe screw, thereby performing dry heat treatment.

Dry heat treatment is a process in which the target (wheat bran) is heated without adding moisture, and is a heat treatment carried out while actively evaporating the moisture in the target. Dry heat treatment can be carried out, for example, by heating in an oven, heating in a roasting kiln, heating using a thermostatic bath, heating by blowing hot air, or leaving in a high-temperature, low-humidity environment.
When the heat treatment is performed using moist heat, the temperature of the white wheat bran is preferably 80 to 110°C, more preferably 85 to 95°C, and the bran is allowed to remain in the sealed container for 1 to 60 seconds, more preferably 3 to 30 seconds. The moist heat treatment can be performed, for example, by introducing the wheat bran and saturated steam into a powder/grain heating device described in Japanese Patent No. 2784505 so as to reach the above-mentioned temperature and time. This powder/grain heating device is equipped with a cylindrical pressure vessel having an inlet for saturated steam and containing the material to be treated, and a stirring means having a plurality of rod-shaped blades on a rotating shaft with dimensions close to the inner diameter of the cylinder, so that the powder/grain introduced from an inlet at one end of the vessel is stirred and transferred toward an outlet at the other end of the vessel. In particular, the moist heat treatment suppresses harshness, and the flavor of the resulting pressurized, heated, and sterilized liquid food is further improved.

From the viewpoint of suppressing the roughness caused by wheat bran and making the pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food have a good texture, the wheat bran preferably has an average particle size of 30 to 180 μm, more preferably 50 to 150 μm, even more preferably 70 to 120 μm, and even more preferably 80 to 100 μm. The average particle size in the present invention refers to the volume cumulative particle size D50 at 50% cumulative volume when measured in a dry state using a laser diffraction scattering type particle size distribution measuring device (for example, "Microtrack Particle Size Distribution Measuring Device 9200FRA" manufactured by Nikkiso Co., Ltd.). White wheat bran having such an average particle size can be easily obtained by classification, for example, using a sieve or an air classifier.

[Process for subjecting liquid food containing white wheat bran to pressurized heat sterilization treatment]
The pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food of the present invention is typically obtained by subjecting a liquid food containing white wheat bran to pressurized and heated sterilization treatment.
The liquid food containing white wheat bran and the pressurized heat sterilized liquid food obtained by subjecting the liquid food to pressurized heat sterilization (hereinafter collectively referred to as liquid food) may be any type of food, as long as it contains white wheat bran, and examples of such food include sauce, soup, liquid roux, bean paste, sauce, dressing, and side dish. The liquid food is a food having fluidity, and for example, the moisture content is 60% by mass or more, preferably 60 to 95% by mass, and more preferably 65 to 90% by mass. The moisture content is determined based on the bone drying method, and specifically, the difference in mass between the liquid food subjected to bone drying treatment and the liquid food before bone drying can be calculated as a percentage of the mass of the liquid food before bone drying treatment. The liquid food typically refers to soup, sauce, etc. that can be eaten as is after storage at room temperature.

The liquid food is preferably a sauce, soup, or side dish. There is no limitation on the flavor of the liquid food. For example, sauces include meat sauce, demi-glace sauce, carbonara sauce, cheese sauce, white sauce, ketchup sauce, arrabbiata sauce, tomato sauce, brown sauce, curry sauce, consommé sauce, Chinese-style sauce, oil sauce, cod roe sauce, basil sauce, butter sauce, salt, miso or soy sauce-based sauce, etc. Soups include tomato soup, consommé soup, wakame soup, etc. Side dishes, which are liquid foods, refer to side dishes that have a liquid portion and ingredients, and examples of such side dishes include stew, meat and potatoes, and rolled cabbage. The specific examples of sauces, soups, and side dishes mentioned above are merely examples, and sauces, soups, and side dishes are not limited to those mentioned above. Sauces are usually eaten with other ingredients or dishes.

In addition, it is preferable to incorporate white wheat bran into the liquid food without including it in the raw materials of the solid ingredients, from the viewpoint of not affecting the quality of the solid ingredients. Also, it is preferable to incorporate white wheat bran into the liquid food alone, not as a part of whole wheat flour.
It is preferable that the white wheat bran is mixed with other ingredients of the liquid food either in powder form or dissolved or dispersed in water or the like.
The liquid food can be prepared according to a conventional method for producing the liquid food depending on the type of the liquid food. Typically, the white wheat bran and other raw materials are added to a liquid such as water (which may be cold or hot water) and mixed using a known stirring device. The liquid to which the raw materials are added is usually water, but is not particularly limited, and for example, a seasoning liquid in which seasonings such as salt are dissolved or dispersed in water can also be used. The expression "adding raw materials" includes both the case where raw materials are added to a liquid and the case where a liquid is added to raw materials.
For example, raw materials other than white wheat bran may be added to liquid foods, and various raw materials according to the type of liquid food may be added as the other raw materials. Examples include protein materials such as cereal flours other than white wheat bran, soy protein, egg yolk powder, egg white powder, whole egg powder, and skim milk powder; fats and oils such as animal and vegetable fats and oil powders; kansui, calcined calcium, leavening agents, emulsifiers, salt, sugars, sweeteners, spices, seasonings, vitamins, minerals, colorants, flavorings, alcohol, preservatives, enzymes, dietary fiber, dextrin (including resistant to digestion), thickeners, water retention agents, pH adjusters, and oxidation-reducing agents. These may be used alone or in combination of two or more.

Examples of flours other than white wheat bran include flours and starches other than white wheat bran. Examples of flours include powders of various grains such as rice, barley, corn, sorghum, barnyard millet, foxtail millet, millet, oats (oats), and rye. Examples of starches include unprocessed starches such as potato starch, tapioca starch, wheat starch, corn starch, waxy corn starch, and rice starch, as well as various processed starches such as those obtained by subjecting the above-mentioned unprocessed starches to etherification, esterification, acetylation, cross-linking, oxidation, and the like, and these can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

The liquid food may contain a non-powdered solid ingredient. Examples of non-powdered ingredients include chunks of meat such as chicken, pork, and beef; processed meat such as sausage, ham, and bacon; unheated or heated vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, and tomato; root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes; fruits such as mandarin oranges, strawberries, peaches, pears, melons, figs, and pineapples; eggs such as chicken eggs; creams such as custard cream, whipped cream, and fresh cream; spreads such as butter, jam, and margarine. These may be used alone or in combination of two or more.
Examples of non-powdered solid ingredients include minced meat when the liquid food is meat sauce, tomato pulp when the liquid food is tomato soup, and potatoes when the liquid food is meat and potato stew.

The wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food according to the present invention contains white wheat bran in an amount of preferably 5 to 80% by mass, more preferably 10 to 80% by mass, and even more preferably 15 to 80% by mass, calculated as a dry mass, based on the total amount of the food. By incorporating white wheat bran in such an amount, the health promoting function of wheat bran can be expected, and the food has better flavor, taste, appearance, etc., with less harshness and browning. The content of white wheat bran calculated as a dry mass is measured as follows.
(Method of measuring content)
The content of white wheat bran in terms of dry mass is calculated based on the bone-drying method. Specifically, the mass of the white wheat bran added to the liquid food after bone-drying can be calculated as a percentage of the mass of the liquid food to which the white wheat bran has been added after bone-drying.

The pressurized heat sterilization treatment is typically a sterilization treatment to enable storage at room temperature, and involves heat treatment at over 100° C. for 5 minutes or more. Preferably, the treatment is carried out under general conditions, for example, in accordance with the "Manufacturing Standards for Packaged, Pressurized, Heat-Sterilized Foods" by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and involves heat treatment at over 100° C., preferably at a product temperature of 102 to 130° C., for 3 to 120 minutes. More preferably, the treatment involves heating at a product temperature of 120° C. for 4 minutes, or a pressurized heat sterilization treatment having an effect equal to or greater than that.
The pressurized heat sterilization treatment is preferably performed in a sealed packaged state of the liquid food containing white wheat bran before the pressurized heat sterilization treatment. By performing the pressurized heat sterilization treatment in a sealed packaged state, a wheat bran-containing pressurized heat sterilized liquid food that is excellent in storage stability and handling and can be stored at room temperature can be easily obtained. Alternatively, the pressurized heat sterilization treatment can be performed in a sealed package after the pressurized heat sterilization treatment. The sealed package refers to a packaged form that prevents the inclusion of all solids, liquids, and gases in the contents. The container used for the sealed package is not particularly limited as long as it is in a sealable form, and can be a bag or molded body made of plastic, glass, metal, or a combination thereof, and more specifically, can be a plastic container, a bottle, a can, a pouch container, etc. When the food mixture is sealed and packaged, a microbial control treatment such as a gas replacement treatment such as inert gas replacement filling can be performed.

The wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food according to the present invention is typically stored, distributed, preserved, etc. in a sealed package, similar to ordinary retort foods, and then the sealed package is opened and eaten. Heating is not required before eating, but it is also preferable to heat the food in a hot water bath, a microwave oven, etc. before eating. The wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food according to the present invention contains wheat bran, which contributes to the maintenance and promotion of health, and the deterioration of flavor and taste and browning that are likely to occur when the food is pressurized and heated are simply suppressed, so that the food has a good flavor and taste, and the inconvenience associated with browning is also suppressed.
Although the present invention has been described based on the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments.

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

[Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Example 1]
The wheat bran was produced from the following white or red wheat. The wheat berries were selected and crushed in a roll crusher, and the crushed product was classified using a sieve with a mesh size of 200 μm to obtain the wheat bran fraction.
The collected wheat bran fraction was then impact-pulverized using a turbo mill (manufactured by Tokyo Flour Mills), and the pulverized product was subjected to a wet heat treatment at a product temperature of 90° C. for 5 seconds while introducing saturated steam using a powder/granule heating device described in Patent No. 2784505. The pulverized product after the wet heat treatment was then finely pulverized using an impact pulverizer (ACM Pulverizer, manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation), and then classified using a sieve with an opening of 150 μm. The fraction with a particle size of less than 150 μm that passed through the sieve was collected to obtain powdered wheat bran (average particle size about 90 μm, moisture content 8.6% by mass).

The raw wheat used in each of the Examples and Comparative Examples was as follows:
Examples 1 and 3: ASW (white and medium wheat)
Examples 2 and 4: WW (white and soft wheat)
Comparative Examples 1 and 2: 1CW (No. 1 Canada Western Red Spring; red and hard wheat)

[Examples 3 and 4 and Comparative Example 2]
In the same manner as in Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Example 1, the above-mentioned wheat bran fraction of white wheat or red wheat was collected and impact-pulverized using a turbo mill, and then the pulverized product was subjected to dry heat treatment by heating for 25 minutes using an apparatus having a similar configuration to the heat treatment stirring apparatus described in JP 2004-9022 A so that the product temperature of the dried heat-treated product reached 120° C. Next, the pulverized product after the dry heat treatment was finely pulverized using the above-mentioned impact type fine pulverizer, and then classified using a sieve with an opening of 150 μm. The fraction with a particle size of less than 150 μm that passed through the sieve was collected to obtain powdered wheat bran (average particle size about 90 μm, moisture content 8.6% by mass).

[Production of pressurized, heated and sterilized liquid food]
(1) Production of sauce The heat-treated wheat bran obtained in each of the Examples and Comparative Examples was mixed with the raw materials shown below in the ratios shown below to obtain a liquid food, which was then subjected to pressure-heat sterilization to produce a meat sauce as a pressure-heat sterilized liquid food.
Specifically, oil and minced meat were added to a pan, and the meat was fried while crumbling until it was no longer red, and then onions and carrots were added and fried further, after which the bran pre-dispersed in water, tomato paste, seasonings, and spices were all added and boiled to produce the meat sauce. The meat sauce produced by the above method was then filled into a retort pouch and retort sterilized (product temperature 123°C, 20 minutes). The bran was mixed by dispersing it in water in an amount twice the weight of the bran.
<Ingredients for meat sauce> (The units of ingredients shown below are "parts by mass.")
・Wheat bran: 10
・Oil: 1
・Onion: 18
Carrots: 1.5
Minced meat: 7
・Tomato paste: 13
Water: 43
・Seasonings, spices, etc.: 6.5
Total: 100
The obtained meat sauce (pressure-heat-sterilized liquid food) had a moisture content of about 75.5%, and the amount of wheat bran in terms of dry mass was about 37% by mass. The amount in terms of dry mass can be calculated using the following formula: Amount in terms of dry mass (%) = [Dry mass of wheat bran / Dry mass of liquid food) x 100
In this specification, the dry mass is the mass based on the Analysis Manual of the 2015 Edition (7th Revised Edition) of the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan, and refers to the mass obtained by subtracting the water content measured by the method described in the manual from the total mass of the object to be measured.

(2) Production of soup The heat-treated wheat bran obtained in each of the Examples and Comparative Examples was mixed with the raw materials shown below in the ratios shown below to obtain a liquid food, which was then subjected to pressure-heat sterilization to produce tomato soup as a pressure-heat sterilized liquid food.
Specifically, wheat bran was dispersed in a pot with twice the amount of water as wheat bran. Tomato paste and other raw materials were added and stirred well, and the remaining water and milk were added and boiled to produce tomato soup. The tomato soup produced by the above method was then filled into a retort pouch and retort sterilized (product temperature 115°C, 30 minutes).
<Ingredients for Tomato Soup> (The units of ingredients shown below are "parts by mass.")
・Wheat bran: 10
・Tomato paste: 7
・Milk: 10
Water: 70.9
・Seasonings, spices, etc.: 2.1
Total: 100
The moisture content of the wheat bran used was 8.6% by mass, the moisture content of the resulting tomato soup (pressure-heat sterilized liquid food) was approximately 87%, and the amount of wheat bran in terms of dry mass was approximately 70% by mass.

〔evaluation〕
The meat sauce and tomato sauce produced using the wheat bran obtained in each Example and Comparative Example were heated in a water bath at 100°C for 3 minutes just before consumption, and then the retort pouches were opened and the sauces were eaten by 10 expert panelists.
Ten expert panelists were asked to evaluate the flavor (degree of harshness) and the degree of browning according to the following evaluation criteria 1 and 2, and the arithmetic mean scores of the 10 panelists are shown in Table 1. The higher the arithmetic mean score, the less harshness derived from wheat bran and the better the flavor. The higher the arithmetic mean score, the less browning and, for example, the better the appearance.

<Flavor evaluation criteria (evaluation criteria 1)>
5 points: Almost no bitterness is felt.
4 points: Slightly bitter taste.
3 points: A slight bitter taste is felt, but it does not cause any major problems.
2 points: Smells bitter.
1 point: Strongly bitter taste.

<Evaluation Criteria for Browning (Evaluation Criteria 2)>
5 points: Almost no browning.
4 points: slight browning is observed.
3 points: Some browning has occurred, but it does not cause any major problems.
2 points: Browning has occurred.
1 point: Strong browning.

As shown in Table 1, the examples using wheat bran derived from white wheat had better evaluation results for bitterness and browning than the comparative examples using wheat bran derived from red wheat, and it can be seen that by using white wheat bran as wheat bran, it is possible to effectively suppress the deterioration of flavor and taste, such as the generation of bitterness, and browning associated with pressurized heat sterilization treatment by a simple method. In addition, a comparison of the results of Examples 1 and 2 with Examples 3 and 4 shows that white wheat bran subjected to moist heat treatment has a higher bitterness suppressing effect than white wheat bran subjected to dry heat treatment.

Claims (7)

A blending step of blending the heat-treated wheat bran into a liquid food product;
A method for producing a wheat bran-containing pressurized and heat-sterilized liquid food, comprising: a pressurized and heat-sterilizing step of pressurizing and heat-sterilizing the liquid food containing the heat-treated wheat bran ;
As the wheat bran, wheat bran derived from white wheat is used ,
The method for producing a wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food , wherein the liquid food is a sauce or soup, or a side dish having a liquid portion and ingredients . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the white wheat used is at least one of Australian Standard White and Western White. The method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the wheat bran-containing pressurized and heated sterilized liquid food contains 5 to 80% by mass of wheat bran derived from white wheat in terms of dry mass. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , further comprising a pressurized heat sterilization step of pressurizing and heating the product at a temperature of 102 to 130 ° C. for 3 to 120 minutes. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the pressurized and heated sterilized food is selected from a sauce or a soup. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the wheat bran has an average particle size of 30 to 180 μm. A wheat bran-containing pressurized and heat-sterilized liquid food comprising heat-treated wheat bran derived from white wheat blended into a liquid food,
The wheat bran is blended in an amount of 5 to 80% by mass in terms of dry mass ,
A wheat bran-containing liquid food sterilized by pressurization and heating , which is a sauce or soup, or a side dish having a liquid portion and ingredients .