Low fat food containing gas bubbles

Abstract

The invention discloses a shelf stable food product. The product comprises a continuous aqueous phase, liquid oil droplets dispersed in the continuous aqueous phase, and protein coated gas bubbles. The continuous aqueous phase constitutes from 20% to 80% by volume (or weight) of the food product and the liquid oil droplets and protein coated gas bubbles are from 0.5 μm to 10 μm in diameter. The protein comprises cysteine amino acid residues, but is not a hydrophobin. The invention also discloses a method of forming an aqueous dispersion of protein coated gas bubbles suitable for forming the above food product. The method comprises dissolving a protein capable of forming coated gas bubbles in water with stirring, sonicating the protein solution at a temperature below but within 6° C. of the protein's denaturation temperature in the presence of oxygen, and controlling the temperature within these limits. Any protein debris from the resultant dispersion of protein coated gas bubbles is separated out.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.