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US-12622442-B2 - Method of making native-whole-starch-based fat replacer

US12622442B2US 12622442 B2US12622442 B2US 12622442B2US-12622442-B2

Abstract

A food product includes a plant-based substrate and a native-whole-starch-based fat replacer that is combined with the plant-based substrate. The native-whole-starch-based fat replacer includes a powder form of a cereal grain selected from the group consisting of wheat, millet, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum and maize; a plant-based fat, and water.

Inventors

  • James Fuller

Assignees

  • Fable Holdings Pty Ltd

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230908
Priority Date
20210308

Claims (13)

  1. 1 . A method of producing a vegetarian native starch based fat replacer comprising a native starch, a plant-based fat, and water, wherein the native starch based fat replacer further comprises no more than about 1% (w/v) of one or more gelling agents, thickening agents, emulsifying agents and/or edible gums, the method comprising the steps of: combining the native starch, plant-based fat and water, wherein the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined at ratio of about 0.75-1.5:0.25-1:1-1.5, to form a mixture of ingredients; forming sheets of the mixture of ingredients such that each sheet has a predetermined thickness in the range of about 1 to about 25 mm; steaming each sheet of the mixture to an internal temperature of at least 60 degrees Celsius to form cooked sheets of the mixture; optionally processing or shaping the cooked sheets into desired shapes; cooling the cooked sheets to about 20-about 27 degrees Celsius to form cooled sheets; chilling the cooled sheets to a temperature of about 1 to 4 degrees Celsius to form chilled sheets until the starch in the chilled sheets has substantially retrograded; and optionally processing the retrograded sheets into particles or portions of a vegetarian native starch based fat replacer, wherein the native starch based fat replacer produced by the method is solid at room temperature and has a low heat melting temperature, such that the native starch based fat replacer melts between 35-60 degrees Celsius.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch based fat replacer does not further comprise gelling agents, thickening agents, emulsifying agents and/or edible gums.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the native starch based fat replacer is a colloidal-emulsion.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch comprises a powder form of a cereal grain selected from the group consisting of wheat, millet, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum and maize.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the native starch comprises glutinous rice flour (GRF).
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant-based fat comprises refined, bleached and de-odorized (RBD) oil.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the oil is coconut oil.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined to form a mixture of ingredients in the following percentages of a total quantity measured by one of: dry weight or volume: powder form of a starch, about 10%-about 70% plant-based fat, about 5%-about 40% water, about 10%-about 70%.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined to form a mixture of ingredients in the following percentages of a total quantity measured by one of: dry weight or volume: Glutinous rice flour (GRF), about 10%-about 70% RBD coconut oil, about 5%-about 40% Water, about 10%-about 70%.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined to form a mixture of ingredients in the following percentages of a total quantity measured by one of: dry weight or volume: Glutinous rice flour (GRF), about 30%-about 40% RBD coconut oil, about 15%-about 20% Water, about 40%-about 55%.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch based fat replacer is vegan.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined at ratio of about 0.75-1.25:0.25-0.75:1-1.5 to form the mixture of ingredients.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 1 , where the native starch, the plant-based fat, and water are combined at ratio of about 1:0.5:1.3, to form the mixture of ingredients.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of PCT/AU2022/050192, filed Mar. 8, 2022, which claims the benefit of Australian Application No.: 2021900653, filed Mar. 8, 2021. The contents of PCT/AU2022/050192 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The presently disclosed subject matter generally relates to the field of starch-based compositions for use in food products. Particularly, the present subject matter relates to a native-whole-starch-based fat replacer that can be used in place of animal fat, native starches and/or modified starches in various food products. BACKGROUND Starch-based fat replacers have been widely used in various food products including, but not limited to, dairy products, baked goods, salad dressings, and mayonnaise. Also, emerging plant-based meat alternatives have begun using starch-based fats that impart one or more physicochemical characteristics such as moisture, binding or texture to the food product so that the food product influences consumer perceptions via one or more organoleptic properties, for instance, mouth-feel or taste. The starch-based fats need to substantially mimic the organoleptic properties that are usually felt with consumption of animal-based fats rendered in conjunction with proteins, from either a plant-based or animal-based source. As many of these organoleptic properties remain desirable to most consumers, a long-felt need for a substitute that renders the same, or similar, functionality (i.e., by imitating the characteristics imparted by use of animal fat components in the food product), has remained largely unmet, despite the use of both native, or even modified, starches. This desire to mimic characteristics associated with animal fat components in food products has also manifested into a consumer demand that has witnessed significant increase alongside a rise in the popularity of plant-based diets. On one hand, although native starches may be obtained using whole food sources such as maize, waxy maize, high amylose maize, rice, wheat, tapioca and potato and require little to no processing, these native starches are best suited for their use in modifying a texture and/or accomplishing a thickening of the food product. Further, these native starches also suffer from the drawback that they remain largely insoluble in cold water and may swell to different extents, for instance, depending on the exact temperature used. This causes consistency issues, especially to manufacturers of food products when these native starches are used. Moreover, in some cases, retrogradation of a native starch, a process that typically occurs after the native starch has been gelled, is a major determinant of the functional properties of the native starch. This retrogradation, in turn, dictates the use of the native starch in food processing applications as it is these functional properties of the native starch, arrived at upon retrogradation, that can influence aspects including, but not limited to, quality, acceptability, nutritional value and shelf-life of the finished food products. In other cases, starch retrogradation is considered to have undesirable effects because of its major contribution in staling of some food products such as bread and other starch-rich food products as this can cause reduced shelf-life and consumer acceptance, while leading to significant waste of the food products. This is in addition to posing other challenges for food manufacturers to overcome when manufacturing such food products. On the other hand, modified starches (also known as starch derivatives), when intended for use are mostly prepared, or derived, from native starches by physically, chemically or enzymatically treating the native starches so that existing properties of the native starches can be altered favorably to suit specific requirements of a food processing application. However, it is also well known that the current landscape of the meat alternative space is being driven largely by a growing customer base seeking ingredients that are naturally occurring and/or minimally processed and substantially devoid of unnecessary additives, such as food gums, emulsifiers, fillers and thickening agents. Owing to this, modified starches may not be ideal for their use in preparing food products, or are at least not preferred for consumption, by such conscientious customers. To make a starch-based fat replacer suitable for use, especially by consumers of plant-based meat alternatives, the starch-based fat replacer would preferably need to fulfill at least the following conditions: a) the starch-based fat replacer should remain solid, or non-flowable, at room temperature i.e at about 20-27 degree Celsius,b) the starch-based fat replacer should melt at a reasonable cooking temperature, for instance, at a temperature between 35-60 degree Celsius,c) the starch-based fat replacer should be capable of being processed to different particle sizes yet have cons