ITFM extraction of oil seed

Abstract

An edible protein-containing meal for human and animal consumption and high quality food grade oils are obtained from oil seeds and other oil and protein containing plants. The meal has a significantly improved level of dietary available (absorbable) protein. The protein is substantially free of oils and fats, and is a cleaner, purer product with high levels of absorbable protein. Such protein isolates can be used as such or added to formulated foods in order to increase the total protein content of that food. The meal produced and the oils recovered have compositions which are unique and unobtainable by prior processing methods, having a greater content of proteins, the proteins having a greater solubility and an increased ratio of high to medium molecular weight proteins.

Description

[0001] This is a Divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 133,020, filed 26 Apr. 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,981, which is a Continuation-In-Part of a) U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 890,043, filed 2 Oct. 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,424 which claims benefit from PCT / GB00 / 00125, published as WO 00 / 43471, 27 Jul. 2000, based on British Patent Application Serial No. 9901617.2 filed 25 Jan. 1999, now GB 2,276,392 and British Application Serial No. 9905054.4 filed 5 Mar. 1999, now GB 2,345,915, b) U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 049,145, filed 17 Jun. 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,998 which claims benefit from PCT / GB00 / 02957, published as WO01 / 10527, 15 Feb. 2001, based on British Patent Application SN9918436.8 filed Aug. 5, 1999, now GB 2,352,724 and c) claims benefit from British patent application 01 / 069723 filed 20 Mar. 2001, now PCT / GB02 / 01332 published as WO 02074886.[0002] The present invention is directed to the isolation of superior, high purity, bright proteins from oilseed protein, the product having a signific...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0002] The present invention is directed to the isolation of superior, high purity, bright proteins from oilseed protein, the product having a significant increase in absorbable protein over that available from prior materials sources. At the same time, the process described herein provides a cleaner edible or industrial oil from the same seed and provides the capability of removing fatty acids as well as glucosinolates, which have toxic decomposition products, from that oil. Still further, the process provides a method of separating out various constituents of the recovered extractables, thus allowing isolation of components of the oil. The invention is also directed to the superior, high purity, bright proteins, the product having a significant increase in absorbable protein over that available from prior materials sources, derived from oilseed protein.

Problems solved by technology

Pressing is a simple process and has a low capital investment cost but suffers from high operating cost for power, significant equipment wear and tear, and labor costs.

In addition, temperature increases due to mechanical working of the bean can result in quality degradation of the oil and meal.

This procedure again suffers from oil quality degradation as a result of the use of elevated temperatures.

Also, for food use, residual solvent remaining in the oil is a significant negative factor, requiring additional processing at elevated temperatures, which in turn further degrades the quality of the oil.

If not removed, these gums will settle out during storage, causing future processing problems.

The oil is released by lowering the pressure, which reduces the solubilization ability of the now gaseous CO2.

A significant deficiency of this process is the capital investment in high pressure processing and CO2 recovery equipment.

This is followed by cell disruption and the physical removal of some non-proteinaceous material by screening, grinding, milling, air classifying, etc.

Images