Cellulose composition, its preparation and its use in foods
AssigneeFMC Corporation
InventorGregory R. Krawczyk
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Abstract
The invention is directed to a cellulose composition useful as a texturizing, thickening, stabilizing, gelling or bulking agent for food systems comprising a combination of (1) a finely divided cellulose component and (2) a surfactant component comprising one or more surfactants, in powder aggregate form; to the use of this agent in lipids and in reduced fat foods; and to the method of making the agent. The invention is also directed to the resulting stabilized lipids, which have viscosity and consistency characteristics that were previously only obtainable with use of stabilizers such as fats that have the undesirable effect of increasing LDL and decreasing HDL.
Claims22
A method for stabilizing, texturing or bulking an aqueous-based food system comprising incorporating into the aqueous-based food system a composition comprising an aggregate having about 60% to about 95% by weight of a finely divided substantially colloidal microcrystalline cellulose having a mean particle size of from about 0.1 to less than about 1 micron and having about 5% to about 40% by weight surfactant coprocessed with the cellulose, all percentages being based on the total weight of the aggregate.
An aqueous-based food product comprising a reduced fat food product containing a composition comprising an aggregate having about 60% to about 95% by weight of a finely divided substantially colloidal cellulose component having a mean particle size of from about 0.1 to about less than 1 micron and having about 5% to about 40% by weight of a surfactant component coprocessed with the cellulose, all percentages being used based on the total weight of the aggregate.
A food product comprising an aqueous-based food and a composition comprising an aggregate having about 60% to about 95% by weight of a finely divided substantially colloidal cellulose component having a mean particle size of from about 0.1 to less than about 1 micron and having about 5% to about 40% by weight of a surfactant component coprocessed with the cellulose, all percentages being used based on the total weight of the aggregate.
A method for making cellulose-surfactant aggregates which comprises forming a mixture of finely divided microcrystalline cellulose that is substantially colloidal in particle size having a mean particle size of from about 0.1 to about 0.9 micron and surfactant, said microcrystalline cellulose and said surfactant being present in a weight ratio of from about 95:5 to about 60:40;
- subjecting said mixture of microcrystalline cellulose and surfactant to high shear processing;
- and recovering the processed mixture as free flowing cellulose-surfactant aggregates.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.