Animal solid fat substitute, preparation method thereof and layered vegetarian meat containing animal solid fat substitute

Abstract

The invention provides an animal solid fat substitute. The animal solid fat substitute is prepared from the following raw materials: vegetable oil; a gelling agent; and water; wherein the fat content in the substitute is greater than 80% by weight, and the saturated fatty acid content in the substitute is less than 20% by weight. The invention further provides a method for manufacturing the substitute and layered vegetarian meat containing the substitute. According to the content disclosed by the application, the animal solid fat substitute has the advantages that the content of saturated fatty acid is low, the health problem caused by high saturated fat can be reduced, the moisture content in the substitute is lower than 5wt%, and the problem of solid fat structure disintegration caused by high temperature when the high saturated fat is used as the solid fat can be improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to an animal solid fat substitute, in particular to an animal solid fat substitute having a fat content greater than 80% by weight and a saturated fatty acid content less than 20% by weight, a method for producing the same, and layered vegetarian meat containing the substitute. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, with the growing number of vegetarians and heightened awareness of health, plant-based meat products have garnered widespread attention and demand. As a food alternative to traditional meat, plant-based meat primarily offers a similar eating experience to animal meat, including the flavor and texture of meat. This satisfies consumers seeking healthy dietary options while allowing them to express their support for animal welfare and environmental protection by choosing these products.

[0003] Plant-based meat products aim to recreate the texture and flavor of animal meat. To mimic the solid fat found in meat, these products often use highly saturated plant fats with lower melting points, such as coconut oil and palm oil. While this approach can achieve the goal of replacing animal meat, high saturated fat intake is associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes, which contradicts the concept of plant-based meat as a healthy diet.

[0004] Furthermore, highly saturated fats have a low melting point and are prone to melting and loss during cooking, resulting in structural collapse and a poor taste. Therefore, a continuing challenge in this field is to develop a solid animal fat substitute that is low in saturates, has an animal meat flavor, and maintains its appearance after cooking. Summary of the Invention

[0005] To meet this need in the art, the present application provides an animal solid fat substitute having a fat content greater than 80% by weight and a saturated fatty acid content less than 20% by weight. Due to its low saturated fatty acid content, the animal solid fat substitute can reduce the health concerns associated with high saturated fat. Furthermore, due to its high fat content, the animal solid fat substitute can provide the smooth and nourishing taste of plant-based meat.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, the present application provides an animal solid fat substitute, the raw materials for its preparation may include: vegetable oil; a gelling agent; and water; wherein the oil content in the substitute is greater than 80% by weight, and the saturated fatty acid content in the substitute may be less than 20% by weight.

[0007] Preferably, the water content of the animal solid fat substitute may be 5% by weight, more preferably below 2% by weight.

[0008] Preferably, the saturated fatty acid content in the animal solid fat substitute may be less than 15% by weight.

[0009] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the gelling agent is mixed with the water and then dried to form a gel.

[0010] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the gel is adsorbed with the vegetable oil to form the substitute.

[0011] Preferably, the raw materials for preparing the animal solid fat substitute further include a flavoring agent.

[0012] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the flavoring agent is heat-treated.

[0013] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the flavoring agent comprises: beetroot or its extract, quinoa or its extract, onion or its extract, garlic or its extract, glucose, fructose, xylose or a combination thereof.

[0014] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the gelling agent comprises edible gum, edible protein or a combination thereof.

[0015] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the edible gum comprises: methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, monoglyceride, triglyceride, guanyin, carrageenan, locust bean gum, curdlan gum, or a combination thereof.

[0016] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the edible protein comprises sodium caseinate, soy protein, pea protein, whey protein, or a combination thereof.

[0017] Preferably, in the animal solid fat substitute, the vegetable oil comprises: canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, linseed oil, camellia oil, or a combination thereof.

[0018] Preferably, the animal solid fat substitute is solid at a temperature of 100-200°C.

[0019] Another object of the present application is to provide a method for preparing the aforementioned solid animal fat substitute, comprising: (a) mixing the gelling agent and the water, and drying the mixture to obtain a gel; and (b) mixing the vegetable oil with the gel.

[0020] Preferably, the method further comprises, after step (a), a step of crushing the gel to make it into powder.

[0021] Preferably, the method wherein the vegetable oil is a flavored vegetable oil.

[0022] Preferably, the method, wherein the flavored vegetable oil is heat-treated and then mixed with the gel.

[0023] Preferably, in the method, step (b) is carried out at 55-75°C.

[0024] Another object of the present application is to provide a layered vegetarian meat comprising the aforementioned animal solid fat substitute.

[0025] Preferably, the layered vegetarian meat comprises: a vegetarian meat layer; a konjac layer; and the animal solid fat substitute sandwiched therebetween. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 .Gel powder after drying.

[0027] Figure 2 .Vegetable oil with meat flavor produced by heating device.

[0028] Figure 3 .Low saturated animal solid fat substitute.

[0029] Figure 4 .Fat retention rate of animal solid fat substitutes after heating.

[0030] Figure 5 .Layered vegetarian meat made with solid animal fat substitute. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used in this application have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. In the event of a conflict, the definitions contained in this specification will control.

[0032] When referring to percentages in this application, “weight %”, “%”, etc. used herein may refer to mass fractions, which are defined as the percentage of the mass of a substance divided by the total mass of the mixture.

[0033] As used in this application, the term "produced from" is synonymous with "comprising." As used herein, the terms "includes," "included," "comprises," "comprising," "has," "having," "contains," "containing," or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a composition, process, method, article, or apparatus that contains a plurality of listed elements is not necessarily limited to only those listed elements but may include other elements not expressly listed but inherent to the composition, process, method, article, or apparatus. The term "comprising" is generally used in an inclusive sense, that is, to allow for the presence of one or more additional features or components.

[0034] The indefinite articles "a" and "an" preceding an element or component in the present application are intended to indicate the number of instances (i.e., the number of occurrences) of the element or component without limitation. Therefore, "a" or "an" should be understood to include one or at least one, and the singular form of the element or component also includes the plural form unless the number is obviously intended to be singular.

[0035] The purpose of this application is to provide an animal solid fat substitute, the preparation raw materials of which include: vegetable oil; a gelling agent; and water; wherein the fat content in the substitute is greater than 80% by weight, and the saturated fatty acid content in the substitute is less than 20% by weight.

[0036] In one embodiment, the water content of the solid animal fat substitute is 5% by weight, preferably less than 2% by weight, such as less than 1.5% by weight, less than 1% by weight, less than 0.5% by weight, or 0% by weight. The water content of the solid animal fat substitute is provided by ingredients other than vegetable oil. For example, gel is prepared by mixing a gelling agent with water and then drying it. However, it is not ruled out that the solid animal fat substitute may still contain some water, such as a trace amount.

[0037] In one embodiment, the solid animal fat substitute may contain less than 15% by weight of saturated fatty acids, such as 13% by weight, 10% by weight, 7% by weight, 5% by weight, 3% by weight, or 0% by weight. In the embodiments of this application, vegetable oil, which is a fat with a high unsaturated fatty acid content, is used to prepare the solid animal fat substitute.

[0038] In the present application, the vegetable oil is a flavored vegetable oil. For example, the vegetable oil may be flavored by adding a flavoring agent to impart a unique flavor. To further enhance the flavor, the flavored vegetable oil may be heat-treated, for example, at 120-150°C, to extract the unique flavor of the flavoring agent or the flavor compounds generated by the heat into the vegetable oil. The oil may then be filtered, thereby forming a plant-based reactive flavored oil.

[0039] In one embodiment, the animal solid fat substitute, wherein the gelling agent can be mixed with water and dried to form a gel. In one embodiment, the gel can absorb vegetable oil to form the animal solid fat substitute, and the vegetable oil can be a flavored vegetable oil.

[0040] The gelling agent can contain multiple ingredients, so water is used as a solvent to help the gelling agent mix evenly. After mixing, various drying methods are used, including heat drying, vacuum drying, or freeze drying, to remove most of the water and form a gel.

[0041] In one embodiment, the gel is in powder form and absorbs the seasoned vegetable oil to form the animal solid fat substitute. Specifically, the gel can be crushed using a grinder to obtain a gel powder. The gel powder is then adsorbed with vegetable oil having a temperature above 50°C (e.g., 55°C to 80°C) to obtain a fat gel adsorbed with the vegetable oil. The gel is then whipped using a blender (such as a juicer) to form a finer powder particle that absorbs the vegetable oil and forms a paste. The gel is then shaped and allowed to stand at room temperature to form an animal solid fat substitute with a specific shape.

[0042] In one embodiment, the animal solid fat substitute further comprises a flavoring agent. Preferably, the flavoring agent may comprise beetroot or its extract, pea protein, quinoa or its extract, onion or its extract (such as dried onion), garlic or its extract (such as dried garlic), glucose, fructose, xylose, or a combination thereof.

[0043] Flavoring agents impart a unique flavor to animal fat substitutes. Depending on the specific application requirements, flavoring agents can further include chemical compounds or plant and animal extracts. Chemical compounds can include food additives like MSG and aspartame; plant and animal extracts can include animal-derived extracts like seafood meal, chicken meal, and beef meal, as well as various plant extracts.

[0044] In one embodiment, the gelling agent in the animal solid fat substitute may include edible gum, edible protein, or a combination thereof. Preferably, the edible gum may include methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, monoglyceride, tannin gum, guanyin gum, carrageenan, locust bean gum, curdlan gum, or a combination thereof. Preferably, the edible protein may include sodium caseinate, soy protein, pea protein, whey protein, or a combination thereof.

[0045] The term "edible gum" herein refers to an additive in the food industry that can increase the viscosity of a liquid without substantially changing other chemical properties of the liquid (such as pH value). Edible gum is also known as a thickener in the art.

[0046] The term "edible protein" in this article refers to protein extracts obtained from animal or non-animal sources: animal sources include proteins extracted from animal meat, seafood, eggs, or dairy products; and non-animal sources include proteins extracted from legumes, nuts, plant seeds, grains such as oats or wheat.

[0047] In one embodiment, the vegetable oil in the animal solid fat substitute may include canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, linseed oil, camellia oil, or a combination thereof.

[0048] In one embodiment, the solid animal fat substitute can be solid at a temperature of 100-200° C. In one embodiment, the solid animal fat substitute can be solid at a temperature of 110-180° C. In one embodiment, the solid animal fat substitute can be solid at a temperature of 120-160° C.

[0049] In the present application, the palmitic acid content of the animal solid fat substitute may be less than 15% by weight, for example, less than 10% by weight or less than 5% by weight. In one embodiment, the animal solid fat substitute does not contain palmitic acid. In one embodiment, the animal solid fat substitute does not contain palmitic acid monoglyceride.

[0050] While this application primarily uses unsaturated vegetable oils as a fat source, the examples provided herein demonstrate that solid animal fat substitutes can mimic the "solid" structure formed by highly saturated animal oils at room temperature. Furthermore, solid animal fat substitutes can be solid at temperatures between 100°C and 200°C, meaning that within this temperature range, they can still maintain the "solid" structure formed by highly saturated animal oils at room temperature.

[0051] Another object of the present application is to provide a method for preparing the aforementioned solid animal fat substitute, which may include: (a) mixing a gelling agent and water and drying the mixture to obtain a gel; and (b) mixing the vegetable oil with the gel.

[0052] In one embodiment, step (b) of the method is performed at 55-75°C.

[0053] In one embodiment, the method may further comprise, after step (a), pulverizing the gel to form a powder for mixing with the vegetable oil. After drying, the gel may form a block or flake structure. Therefore, the gel may be further pulverized using a blender, grinder, pulverizer, or pestle and mortar, among other tools known in the art.

[0054] In one embodiment, the method comprises the step of: the vegetable oil being a flavored vegetable oil. Preferably, the flavored vegetable oil is heat-treated before being mixed with the gel. The flavoring method of the vegetable oil is as previously described and will not be further described here.

[0055] The term "heat treatment" herein refers to heating the flavored vegetable oil (i.e., the vegetable oil containing flavoring) using a heating device such as a stainless steel pot, a pressure cooker, or a microwave oven to further extract the special flavor of the flavoring or the flavor compounds produced by the flavoring due to the heat into the vegetable oil.

[0056] Another object of the present application is to provide a layered vegetarian meat, which may include the aforementioned solid animal fat substitute. Preferably, the layered vegetarian meat may include: a vegetarian meat layer; a konjac layer; and the solid animal fat substitute sandwiched therebetween.

[0057] The present application provides a layered mock meat, namely vegetarian Dongpo pork, as an example of the solid animal fat substitute used in this application. Layered mock meat also encompasses other types of dishes, such as braised three-layered mock meat. Besides layered mock meat, solid animal fat substitutes can also be used to simulate various animal meats and be incorporated into foods such as garlic-mashed vegetarian white meat, vegetarian meat sauce, or vegetarian minced meat.

[0058] In summary, the animal solid fat substitute provided in this application has an exemplary raw material formula comprising vegetable oil, a gelling agent, a flavoring agent, and water, wherein the weight ratio of the vegetable oil, the gelling agent, and the flavoring agent is 80-95:1-15:0-8, and the water is used as a solvent to dissolve the gelling agent.

[0059] The materials, methods and examples in this application are illustrative only and, unless otherwise specified, are not intended to limit the present invention. Although methods or materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used to implement or test the present invention, those described herein are more appropriate methods and materials.

[0060] Example 1: Preparation of animal solid fat substitute

[0061] Use 3 grams of methylcellulose, 3 grams of curdlan gum and 6 grams of whey protein as gelling agents, dissolve the gelling agents in an appropriate amount of water to form a uniform liquid, and then dry and grind them. Figure 1 As shown, the gel powder is obtained for use.

[0062] In addition, 91.8 g of canola oil, 0.2 g of beetroot, 1.8 g of pea protein, 1.8 g of red quinoa, 0.2 g of dried onion, 0.2 g of dried garlic, 0.9 g of glucose, 1.5 g of fructose, and 1.5 g of xylose and other flavoring agents were mixed and heated in a heating device at 140° C. for 30 minutes. Figure 2 As shown, a plant-based reaction flavor oil is formed, which is a vegetable oil with meat flavor. Further, the vegetable oil with meat flavor is adsorbed with 12 grams of gel powder at 65°C, and then mixed with a stirring device (such as a juicer) to form a paste. The paste is then allowed to stand at room temperature to form the following. Figure 3 Animal solid fat substitutes as shown.

[0063] Example 2: Test on the fat retention rate of animal solid fat substitute after heating

[0064] To confirm that the animal solid fat substitute can still retain its original fat content after heating and that its solid structure is not easily disintegrated, this application uses the Soxhlet extraction method to analyze the fat content of the animal solid fat substitute before and after heating. Figure 4 As shown, the fat content of the animal solid fat substitute (control group) before heating was approximately greater than 80% by weight, consistent with the content of the vegetable oil formula provided in Example 1 of this application. To simulate the actual use environment of the animal solid fat substitute (such as high-temperature cooking in a pot), the animal solid fat substitute was heated at 150°C for 5 minutes or 150°C for 10 minutes using a heating device. Soxhlet extraction analysis of the heated substitutes revealed that, although the fat content decreased slightly, it still remained above 80% by weight. This indicates that the fat content of the animal solid fat substitute remained substantially unchanged after heating, indicating that the solid fat structure did not collapse due to heating, thereby maintaining the fat content.

[0065] Therefore, animal solid fat substitutes can also overcome the defect of using hydrogels to simulate solid fat in the previous technology, which causes the solid fat structure to collapse due to high-temperature cooking.

[0066] Example 3: Layered vegetarian meat made with animal solid fat substitute

[0067] Animal solid fat substitutes can be used to simulate the fat content of any meat dish and can be dyed or flavored as needed. This application further provides an example of a vegetarian Dongpo pork recipe as an example of layered vegetarian meat. It comprises three parts: konjac skin dyed with caramel pigment, the animal solid fat substitute of Example 1, and a base of vegetarian meat embryo. These three parts are placed in a mold of the desired size and compacted. The mold is then baked in an oven at 150°C for 10 minutes to combine the three parts. Figure 5 As shown, vegetarian Dongpo pork is ready.

Claims

1. An animal solid fat substitute, the raw materials for its preparation comprising: Vegetable oil; gelling agents; and water; The oil content in the substitute is greater than 80% by weight, and the saturated fatty acid content in the substitute is less than 20% by weight.

2. The animal solid fat substitute as claimed in claim 1, wherein the moisture content is less than 5% by weight.

3. The animal solid fat substitute as claimed in claim 1, wherein the saturated fatty acid content is less than 15% by weight.

4. The solid animal fat substitute as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gelling agent is mixed with the water and then dried to form a gel. 5 . The animal solid fat substitute as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the vegetable oil is a flavored vegetable oil, and the gel is adsorbed with the flavored vegetable oil to form the substitute. The animal solid fat substitute as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the preparation raw materials further comprise a flavoring agent.

7. The animal solid fat substitute according to claim 6, wherein the flavoring agent comprises: beetroot or an extract thereof, quinoa or an extract thereof, onion or an extract thereof, garlic or an extract thereof, glucose, fructose, xylose or a combination thereof.

8. The solid animal fat substitute as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gelling agent comprises edible gum, edible protein or a combination thereof.

9. The solid animal fat substitute according to claim 8, wherein the edible gum comprises: methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, monoglyceride, tannin gum, guanyin gum, carrageenan, locust bean gum, curdlan gum, or a combination thereof. 10 . The solid animal fat substitute according to claim 8 , wherein the edible protein comprises sodium caseinate, soy protein, pea protein, whey protein, or a combination thereof.

11. The animal solid fat substitute as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vegetable oil comprises canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, linseed oil, camellia oil, or a combination thereof.

12. The solid animal fat substitute according to claim 1, which is solid at a temperature of 100-200°C.

13. A method for preparing the animal solid fat substitute according to claim 1, comprising: (a) mixing the gelling agent and the water and drying the mixture to obtain a gel; and (b) mixing the vegetable oil and the gel.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising, after step (a), a step of crushing the gel to obtain a powder.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the vegetable oil is a flavored vegetable oil.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the flavored vegetable oil is heat-treated before being mixed with the gel.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the step (b) is performed at 55-75°C.

18. A layered vegetarian meat comprising the animal solid fat substitute according to claim 1.

19. The layered vegetarian meat as claimed in claim 18, comprising: a vegetarian meat layer; a konjac layer; and the animal solid fat substitute sandwiched therebetween.

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