Dried egg white, production method therefor, and food containing improved dried egg white

Abstract

An improved dried egg white has a pH of 9.5 or more and a carbon dioxide concentration is 1% or less in a sealed 250 ml vial, when 25 g of the product is stored in the vial at 75° C. for 24 hours.

Description

[0001]Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-242713, filed on Sep. 7, 2006 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-141394, filed on May 29, 2007, are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to an improved dried egg white which exhibits improved water retention, gel strength, elasticity, and the like after reconstitution and heat coagulation, while imparting excellent quality-improvement effects when used in various foods without adversely affecting the flavor and the like of the foods, to a method for producing the improved dried egg white, and to foods containing the improved dried egg white.[0003]Since dried egg whites can be preserved for a long period of time, and require only low transport cost and a small shelf space as compared with raw egg whites, the dried egg whites are used as ingredients of various foods. In order to prevent quality deterioration such as browning and giving off an unpleasant odor duri...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The invention may provide an improved dried egg white which exhibits excellently improved water retention, gel strength, elasticity, and the like after reconstitution and heat coagulation without the use of an additive, a method for producing the improved dried egg white, and foods containing the improved dried egg white.

[0010]Under these circumstances, the inventors have found that dried egg whites with a pH of 9 or more, prepared by adding no organic acid or adding only a small amount of organic acid during desugaring, contain a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and in addition, the carbon dioxide contained in these dried egg whites can be dissipated by a suitable dry-heat treatment. The dried egg whites with an increased pH obtained by dissipating carbon dioxide can hardly become denatured, even when subjected to a dry-heat treatment, while exhibiting sufficiently improved water retention, gel strength and elasticity over the dried egg whites of which the pH has been increased by adding an alkali salt. In addition, this method provides dried egg whites which exhibit excellent quality-improvement effects when used in various foods without adversely affecting the flavor and the like, as compared with a common method of improving the water retention by adding an additive such as an alkali salt or fatty acid. These findings have led to the completion of an improved dried egg white and a method for producing the same according to this invention.

[0023]In the above method, dissipating carbon dioxide contained in the dried egg white may increase the pH of the dried egg white.

[0025]In the above method, dissipating carbon dioxide contained in the dried egg white may decrease the concentration of carbon dioxide in a sealed 250 ml vial to 1% or less, when 25 g of the improved dried egg white is stored in the vial at 75° C. for 24 hours.

[0027]The improved dried egg white exhibits improved water retention, gel strength, elasticity and the like after reconstitution and heat coagulation without the use of an additive. Moreover, the improved dried egg white does not contain an additive, and therefore imparts excellent quality-improvement effects when used in various processed foods without adversely affecting the flavor and the like. Hence, demand for such processed foods can be expanded.

Problems solved by technology

However, the dried egg white obtained using this technique may have an unpleasant taste and odor due to the fatty acid.

With this technique, however, because the alkali salt added remains in the final product, the addition of the resulting dried egg white to a food may adversely affect the taste or physical properties of the food.