Snack chip comprising buckwheat hulls

The present invention relates to a method for producing an improved sheet-shaped snack food, more specifically, a method for producing a sheet-shaped multigrain snack food in which buckwheat husks can be seen from the outside.

Sheet-shaped snack foods such as potato chips and processed corn chips are popular consumer goods that are in great demand. When producing a sheet-shaped snack food, the starch-based dough is first rolled into a sheet, then cut into small pieces of a desired shape and then cooked. Often, the desired snack piece shape is square, triangular, or circular. After cutting the dough, the dough pieces are cooked (eg, fried, baked, or fried and baked) to reduce the water content of the dough. Flavor the snack pieces before sending them to the packaging process.

A sheeter is a device commonly used in the food industry to produce such flat, i.e., sheet-rolled foods (eg, tortilla chips and processed potato chips) in a continuous processing operation. Typically, the dough product is placed closely and compressed between a pair of counter-rotating sheeter rollers that serve as pinch points that sandwich and tighten the dough into a sheet. The dough can then be cut, for example, with a cutting roller to form the desired product shape.

Many dough products, especially those made from corn [masa (corn flour)], tend to stick to the sheeter rollers rather than falling onto the conveyor for the next processing step, such as a baking oven. .. One common approach to this problem is to stretch a stripper wire around the surface of the sheeter roller so that the fabric product can be stripped from the surface of the sheeter roller. Such a solution is discussed in detail in Patent Document 1 entitled "Sheeter Wire Appartus" filed on July 31, 2001. Scraper blades can also be used to remove fabric from the surface of the sheeter rollers.

In recent years, consumer demand for health foods in general, especially health snack foods, has increased dramatically. Nutritional snacks should ideally meet several criteria, including restrictions on fat mass, including saturated and trans fatty acids, cholesterol, sodium, and added sugars.

Whole grain snacks are gaining in popularity, in part, as a result of the USDA's recommendation to make half of the whole grain eaten whole grain. Whole grains are defined as containing whole grains (bran, germ, endosperm) and may include corn, brown rice, bulgua, oatmeal, barley, rye and buckwheat. A typical indicator to consumers that a product contains whole grains is that the bran particles in the product are visible. It would be beneficial to be able to include whole grains in a snack product so that the whole grain is visible to the consumer and the consumer can visually confirm that the product contains beneficial whole grains.

However, it is difficult to produce whole grain snacks using the conventional dough rolling method. This is because the bran or seed coat accumulates on the sheeter wire or scraper blade and the dough cannot be uniformly removed from the rollers. Also, large bran or seed coat pieces can be reduced in size due to the physical forces encountered during the rolling process. This reduction in size reduces the final visibility of the bran pieces.

Buckwheat has an excellent reputation for its high nutritional quality in human major foods. Most of the buckwheat used by humans is commercially available in the form of flour whose primary end use is pancake mix. The buckwheat flour used in buckwheat foods of the prior art is whole grain flour, and some of them contain shells, but these shell particles cannot be easily identified as individual particles of buckwheat shells. This is because almost 99% of buckwheat flour (including shells) passes through a 60 mesh (# 60) US standard sieve. Nonetheless, consumer surveys show that consumers are more likely to recognize that a product contains whole grains if the whole grain material is clearly visible.

A sheet containing whole-grain buckwheat, with visible buckwheat shell particles in the final product so that consumers can see that it contains whole-grain buckwheat, but no excess dough builds up on the rolled wire or scraper blade. It would be beneficial to have a snack.

Therefore, there is a need for nutritional snack chips with a high content of whole grains produced from dough that has an appearance indicating the presence of whole grains and can be easily rolled with conventional snack food seaters. Ideally, such products should have whole grain components that are easily identifiable to consumers as such.

<p><patcit num="1"><text>U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,005</text></patcit></p>

<p> The present invention is a method of producing a sheet-like snack chip containing visible buckwheat husks without causing excessive deposition on the sheeter wire or scraper.</p>

<p> Such sheet snacks include corn, potato, rice, oat wheat, tapioca, wheat, lime-treated corn, buckwheat flour, vegetarian flour, barley flour, wheat germ, lime flour, morokoshi flour, graham flour, and mixtures thereof. It is produced by preparing a wet dough made of a flour material including, but not limited to, a flour material. These doughs may also contain gelatinized or non-gelatinized added starch, and fermented ingredients and other fats or emulsifiers. The moisture content of these doughs can range from 25% to 70% of the total dough.</p><p> The buckwheat shell powder (ground buckwheat hulls) having a specific particle size is then added to the dough. These buckwheat husks may be from any buckwheat variety, but brown or black ones are beneficial for increased visibility. The most preferred variety is Koto or Komo because of its uniform black color. Buckwheat husk is 99% by weight or more Must have a particle size that passes through a 20 mesh US standard sieve and at least 80% by weight does not pass through a 60 mesh US standard sieve. Therefore, the unmilled buckwheat husks of the prior art are not acceptable as buckwheat husk components of the present applicant's invention.</p><p> Particles that do not pass through the 20-mesh US standard sieve are large enough to deposit on the sheeter wire / scraper and puncture the fabric sheet, and are therefore not preferred. Residues of more than 1% on a 20-mesh US standard sieve can result in excessive buildup on the wire, puncturing the fabric sheet, and frequent interruptions in production to clean the wire. .. However, particles that pass through a 60-mesh US standard sieve cannot be individually identified as particles in the final product. When more than 20% passes through the 60 mesh sieve, Not only is it indistinguishable individually, but the product is generally darkened and appears to be charred, which is not preferred by consumers.</p><p> The buckwheat husk powder is added to the dough in an amount of 0.05 to 5% by weight of the dough. If the amount added is less than 0.05%, the visibility of the buckwheat husks in the final product becomes insufficient. If the amount added exceeds 5%, there will be too many visible particle shells and the product will look darker than what consumers like.</p><p> Then, using a roller, the dough is rolled into a sheet. The thickness of this sheet can range from 0.0381 to 0.254 centimeters (0.015 to 0.10 inches). The buckwheat husk powder particles have a sufficiently strong consistency and an appropriate particle size, so that the decrease in particle size during the rolling process is minimized and the dough sheet can be punctured. Absent.</p><p> The dough is then cut while on the rollers or after being removed from the rollers. The dough sheet is removed from the roller surface using one or more sheeter wires and / or scraper blades.</p><p> Sheet dough pieces are toasted, but this is not required and is then fried or baked to reduce the water content of the final product to less than 4%. The final product has many visible buckwheat husk particles without the entire product becoming blackish due to defects. Moreover, the production of such products does not require frequent interruptions in production to clean the sheeter wires or scraper blades.</p><p> Therefore, this method provides a means for producing sheet-like snacks containing whole-grain buckwheat, and since the buckwheat shell particles are visible in the final product, consumers know that whole-grain buckwheat is present, and moreover. The ease of manufacture is also maintained as there is no excessive deposition on the sheeter wire or scraper blades.</p><p> The above and additional features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent in the following description. The novel features considered to be peculiar to the present invention are described in the appended claims. However, the invention itself, as well as its preferred use, additional purpose and advantages, will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the embodiments that are helpful to the description and reading in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. There will be.</p>

<figref num="1">The flowchart which shows the processing step of this invention.</figref>

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the snack chip manufacturing method that is invented by the applicant. The first step includes step 102 of mixing the starting materials. This mixing step features low-sheer mixing to avoid damage to the cell structure of the starting material and is intended to completely blend the starting material. Moreover, this slow shear mixing does not require a great deal of working time to form the dough. This mixing step 102 may include one or more individual mixing operations. For example, the first dry mixing operation can occur when all dry materials are completely blended and then combined with water to form a sheetable dough. Alternatively, the dry ingredients can be mixed in separate pre-blending steps and then added to a water-containing material mixture such as cornmeal and final mixed to obtain the desired dough. This dry pre-blending method is best suited for adaptation to food lines that produce corn-based chip products. This mixing step 102 The dough produced in is usually starch-based and has a standard moisture content of 36-60% by weight, preferably 44-52% by weight, most preferably about 47-about 49% by weight.

Next, the dough produced in this mixing step 102 is subjected to step 104 of rolling into a sheet. The rolling step 104 may use a single pair of rolling rollers or a continuous roller in which each roller continuously reduces the thickness of the resulting sheet. The advantage of using continuous rollers is that there is less work on the dough during rolling. The dough sheet produced in rolling step 104 has a thickness in the range of preferably 0.0254 to 0.508 cm (0.01 to 0.20 inch), more preferably 0.0381 to 0.254 cm (0.015 to 0.10 inch). The dough leaves the rolling rollers during rolling step 104 as a sticky, continuous uncooked dough sheet.

The dough sheet is then cut, usually with a cutting roller, in cutting step 106. In this cutting step 106, individual dough pieces are formed and then transported to cooking step 108. The shape of the chip can be any of many shapes known in the art, such as triangles, circles, squares, and so on.

Cooking step 108 is a method of baking or frying dough pieces, or other methods known in the food industry for cooking and drying snack chips, such as microwave energy, infrared energy, collision-heated ovens. , Surface frying or bed frying, and methods using various continuous combinations thereof may be included. For example, the dough pieces may be baked to a certain amount of water and then finished with a finishing oil, or with a preliminary oil and then with a finishing oil in an oven.

After cooking step 108, cooked snack pieces with a water content of less than 4% by weight, most preferably about 1 to about 3% by weight, are served, for example, with a seasoning curtain, a seasoning spray. , Or those using a seasoning drum, etc., are subjected to the seasoning step 110 using a method known in the art.

After the seasoning step, the chips are sent to the packaging step. A typical packaging step involves using a vertical bag filling machine to put the snack pieces into a flexible retail package.

One aspect of the applicant's invention is the addition of buckwheat husks to the dough formed in step 102 of mixing. In order to adapt the applicant's invention to the current corn chip production line to give the visual features desired by the consumer, a preferred embodiment of the applicant's invention is to add specific grains of buckwheat husks. It is necessary to mill to the diameter. Specifically, at least 99% by weight of such buckwheat husk powder must pass through a 20 mesh US standard sieve, and more than 80% by weight of the buckwheat husk powder is 60 mesh US standard sieve. Do not pass through. In other words, less than 20% by weight of the buckwheat husk powder must pass through a 60 mesh US standard sieve. In a more preferred embodiment, Applicants further require that at least 10% by weight of buckwheat husk powder does not pass through a 30 mesh US standard sieve (ie, less than 90% by weight). Finally, in the most preferred embodiment, Applicants further require that at least 25% by weight of buckwheat husk powder does not pass through a 40 mesh US standard sieve (ie, less than 75% by weight). To do. The buckwheat husk powder having this particle size is added to the dough so that the buckwheat husk component of the final product constitutes 0.1 to 10% of the weight of the final product. In a preferred embodiment, this buckwheat husk flour The powder component is 0.1 to 3% of the final product weight. In the most preferred embodiment, the buckwheat husk powder constitutes from about 0.3 to about 1.0% by weight of the snack chips. The preferred concentration of buckwheat husk powder in the dough is about 0.05 to about 2% by weight. The buckwheat husk powder to be added is generally preferably black. Applicants have determined that Koto or Koma buckwheat husks are an acceptable material in this regard. Naturally, this buckwheat husk powder component of this particular particle size must be prepared prior to mixing step 102 to meet the particle size specifications detailed above. This preparation step includes the step of producing a buckwheat husk powder component that satisfies the particle size characteristics detailed above.

The main ingredients of the dough produced in mixing step 102 are corn, potato, rice, oat wheat, tapioca, wheat, lime-treated corn, buckwheat flour, vegetarian flour, barley flour, wheat germ, lime flour, morokoshi flour, graham flour, Includes flour ingredients selected from the group consisting of Amaranth and Tef. The dough may further have added starch, such as, for example, corn starch or potato starch, and in alternative embodiments may include fermenting material.

Table 1 below is an example of a corn chip embodiment of the applicant's invention.

<tables num="1"><img file="JP4852154B2_D0001.tif" /></tables>Table 1: Corn chip dough formulation The source of corn in this formulation is usually cooked and crushed corn, but dried corn flour may be used. The sugar component can be sucrose, fructose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, honey, brown sugar, or any artificial sweetener.

Buckwheat flour consists of a combination of whole buckwheat flour and light buckwheat flour. The whole buckwheat flour component is buckwheat flour made by milling the entire buckwheat seeds including the shell. Therefore, more than 99% of such buckwheat flour passes through a 60 mesh US standard sieve, the appearance is light gray and the final product is grayish in color. However, of course, when Applicant uses the term "buckwheat husk powder", Applicant refers to a separate discrete material that is essentially buckwheat husk only, all of the prior art. It does not refer to the shell component of grain buckwheat flour. The white buckwheat flour component is buckwheat flour made by milling shell-free buckwheat and therefore has a white appearance. The buckwheat husk components of the embodiments illustrated in Table 1 meet all of the particle size requirements listed above for the buckwheat husk components of the most preferred embodiment of the dough.

Since the applicant adds buckwheat husk powder as a separate ingredient, the combined buckwheat ingredient (buckwheat husk powder) The amount of shells of powder, whole-grain buckwheat flour, and white buckwheat flour) is higher than when the applicant used only whole-grain buckwheat flour as a source of buckwheat material. In other words, the shell component of the buckwheat material used in the preferred embodiment of the present applicant is more than the shell component of the whole grain buckwheat flour of the prior art, specifically, in the preferred embodiment, the shell component of the prior art. Is about 25% by weight, while it is about 30% by weight or more. The preferred embodiment of the applicant is generally lighter in color than the whole grain buckwheat flour of the prior art, despite the large amount of shell components, but the shell particles are more visible. Therefore, the applicant applies the relative ratio of the buckwheat shell powder component, the whole buckwheat flour component, and the white buckwheat flour component in all the materials, when only the whole buckwheat flour component and the white buckwheat flour component are used. It can be used as a means of controlling the color, texture and appearance of the final product in ways that are not possible with.

The dough in Table 1 is formed by mixing the dry material, any wet material and the added water in mixing step 102. The dough is then rolled into a sheet in rolling step 104 to a preferred thickness of about 0.0762 to about 0.254 cm (about 0.030 to about 0.10 inch) and then cut into individual dough pieces in cutting step 106. .. This sheet thickness can be achieved in consideration of the particle size requirements described above. In cooking step 108, the cut dough pieces of the preferred embodiment pass through a toast oven using an infrared heater and a heating belt to reduce the total moisture of the dough pieces from about 48% by weight to about 24% by weight. Next, the dough pieces are fried in corn oil to reduce the water content to about 1.1% by weight. Alternatively, the dough pieces may be fried first and then finished and dried. Also, the dough pieces may be simply fried or baked.

Table 2 below lists the ingredients of the final product made from the dough disclosed in Table 1 in connection with the processing steps described above.

<tables num="2"><img file="JP4852154B2_D0002.tif" /></tables>Table 2: Example Corn Chip Final Product Formulation Table 2 lists the ingredients of the final product by dry weight. This particular product is highly regarded by consumers for its taste, mouthfeel and multi-grain appearance. In addition, the starting material used in this dough (as disclosed in Table 1) can be sheeted using current corn chip rolling lines, such as those used in the production of traditional tortilla chips. Is. As a result, no excessive deposition occurs on the rolling wire or scraper blades during rolling step 104 using current factory facilities.

Although the applicant's invention has been described for a particular formulation and processing step, it goes without saying that the applicant's invention is desired within the operating parameters of the equipment used to manufacture the product. It broadly includes the use of buckwheat husk ingredients added to foods to obtain visual effects.