JP7330095B2 - Method for producing softened food - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for producing a softened meat product.

With the aging population in recent years, the number of people with dysphagia and decreased chewing power is increasing, so there is a demand for the development of soft food that can be easily crushed with the gums or tongue (so-called soft food). ing. Conventional softened foods have been produced using methods such as finely chopping ingredients or grinding them with a mixer or the like. However, the softened food produced by these methods does not retain its original shape, and its appearance and taste are worse than those of the original food. was inviting

Therefore, in recent years, in the food industry, as one of the methods of softening the food while maintaining the shape of the food as much as possible, a method of softening the food by decomposing substrates such as proteins with enzymes is attracting attention.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for producing processed foods using fish and shellfish as raw materials. By performing the step of decomposing by the action of , it is possible to produce a processed food that retains its shape and has a soft texture.

Japanese Patent No. 4986188

By the way, if the substrate of meat is degraded too much by enzymatic treatment, the taste and texture of meat will differ from those of untreated meat. You will feel uncomfortable. In addition, when meat that has simply been impregnated with enzymes is heated to the enzyme activation temperature to produce softened food, the appearance and shape of the meat after the enzyme treatment deteriorates, and those who eat the softened food may not The difference in appearance and shape from processed meat is also uncomfortable. In addition, there is a problem that the appetite of the person who eats the softened food is reduced due to such discomfort.

Therefore, the softened food produced by decomposing the substrate by enzymatic treatment and softening the meat can suppress the deterioration of the taste, has a shape that makes it difficult for those who eat the softened food to feel uncomfortable, and has a moderate hardness. Although it is desired that the food is softened to a certain extent, the current situation is that a method for producing such a softened food has not yet been established.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a softened food made of meat as a raw material, which has sufficient softness, has an arbitrary shape, and has suppressed deterioration in taste. The purpose is to provide a method that can be manufactured.

The characteristic configuration of the method for producing a softened food product according to the present invention for achieving the above object is a method for producing a softened food product made of meat,
A pretreatment step of heating the meat to a predetermined temperature;
a freeze-drying step of freeze-drying the heated meat;
A pulverizing step of pulverizing the freeze-dried meat;
A permeation step of infiltrating at least a part of the granules made of the pulverized meat with a treatment liquid containing an enzyme that decomposes a predetermined substrate in the meat , and turning the portion infiltrated with the treatment liquid into a paste. and,
and a heating step of heating the granules infiltrated with the treatment liquid to the activation temperature of the enzyme.

According to the above characteristic configuration, by heating the meat to a predetermined temperature in the pretreatment step, the predetermined substrate in the meat is appropriately decomposed. At this time, if the substrate is protein, the protein is moderately denatured and the protein complex is moderately decomposed into a plurality of subunits in the pretreatment step. After that, the meat whose substrate is moderately decomposed (if the substrate is protein, the meat which is moderately denatured and decomposed) is freeze-dried to dry the meat while maintaining the state of moderately decomposed substrate. Next, the meat dried by freeze-drying is pulverized, and then at least an arbitrary part of the granules made of the pulverized meat is permeated with a treatment liquid containing an enzyme, and the granules permeated with the treatment liquid are Heat up to enzyme activity temperature. As a result, the substrate in the meat is decomposed by the decomposing action of the enzyme, the meat is softened, and the portions of the pulverized meat that have been permeated with the treatment liquid bind to each other. In other words, in the impregnation step, when the treatment liquid is impregnated into the granular material made of pulverized meat, by adjusting the size and shape of the portion to be impregnated with the treatment liquid, the softened food obtained after the heating process is sufficiently soft. It has an arbitrary shape while being equipped with a sturdiness.

In addition, in the softened food production method according to the present invention, as described above, the freeze-drying step is performed after the pretreatment step, so that the substrate in the meat is decomposed (if the substrate is protein, the protein complex is moderately degraded into a plurality of subunits, and the protein is moderately denatured) is maintained. Here, when the substrate is in a moderately decomposed state, the decomposition of the substrate by the enzyme is facilitated. When the substrate is a protein, when the protein complex is decomposed into subunits, the protein is easily decomposed by the enzyme. Since it does not act, the undenatured protein will be degraded by the enzyme. Therefore, by pulverizing the meat in which the substrate is maintained in a moderately decomposed state and allowing the enzyme to act on the pulverized meat, the substrate is moderately decomposed, so the softened food obtained after the heating process is It has sufficient softness while suppressing deterioration of taste. In particular, when the substrate is a protein, the meat in which the protein complex is decomposed into subunits and the protein is maintained in a moderately denatured state is pulverized, and the enzyme is applied to the pulverized meat. will let you Therefore, the amount of protein complexes remaining in the meat is reduced, and the protein in the meat is moderately decomposed. Therefore, the resulting softened food is less spoiled in taste and has sufficient softness as compared to meat simply treated with enzymes.

As described above, according to the method for producing a softened food product according to the present invention, a softened food product using meat as a raw material has sufficient softness, has an arbitrary shape, and is softened so that deterioration in taste is suppressed. Food can be manufactured.

Further, a further characteristic configuration of the softened food manufacturing method according to the present invention is that, in the permeation step, the treatment liquid is formed into fine droplets and sprayed onto an arbitrary position in the granular material, The point is that the treatment liquid is permeated into the substrate.

According to the softened food manufacturing method having the above-described characteristic configuration, the treatment liquid is formed into fine droplets and sprayed onto an arbitrary position of the granules made of pulverized meat by a so-called inkjet method, and the treatment liquid permeates the arbitrary position. can be made In this method for producing a softened food product, a heating step is performed on the meat in which the treatment liquid has permeated at an arbitrary position, thereby producing a sufficiently soft softened food in a state where the portion permeated with the treatment liquid is bound. Obtainable. As described above, in the softened food manufacturing method having the above-described characteristic configuration, when the treatment liquid is permeated into an arbitrary position of the pulverized meat, the so-called inkjet method is used, so that the treatment liquid is simply dripped. Compared with the case, the position to be permeated with the treatment liquid can be finely adjusted. Therefore, it is possible to easily produce softened foods with a wide variety of shapes.

A further characteristic configuration of the softened food production method according to the present invention is that the freeze-dried meat is pulverized in the pulverization step so that the average particle size is 1 μm or more and 1 mm or less.

If the average particle size of the pulverized meat is too small or too large, there is a risk that the treatment liquid may penetrate too much or not permeate the pulverized meat. Therefore, in the pulverization step, it is preferable to pulverize the freeze-dried meat so that the average particle size is 1 μm or more and 1 mm or less. In addition, the inventor of the present application has a desired shape while having sufficient softness by performing a permeation step and a heating step on meat that has been pulverized so that the average particle size is 1 μm or more and 1 mm or less. , confirmed experimentally that it is possible to produce a softened food in which the deterioration of taste is suppressed.

A further characteristic configuration of the softened food manufacturing method according to the present invention is that the meat is heated to 70° C. or higher in the pretreatment step.

If the meat is insufficiently heated in the pretreatment step, the substrate may not be appropriately decomposed. In such a case, in order to obtain softened food with sufficient softness, measures such as increasing the concentration of the enzyme or extending the time of the heating process are required. In particular, when the concentration of the enzyme must be increased, the taste of the enzyme itself strongly appears in the taste of the softened food, and the taste tends to deteriorate. Moreover, when the substrate is protein, the protein may not be denatured or may not be appropriately denatured, or the protein complex in meat may not be sufficiently decomposed. In such a case, the protein is degraded more than necessary due to the decomposition action of the enzyme, or the remaining amount of the protein complex increases, which deteriorates the taste or causes the product to have insufficient softness. There is a fear that it will not become a thing.

However, according to the above characteristic configuration, in the pretreatment step, by heating the meat to 70 ° C. or higher, the substrate is in a state of being appropriately decomposed. There is no need to deal with lengthening the time. In addition, when the substrate is protein, the amount of protein (undenatured protein) subjected to enzymatic decomposition can be reduced to an appropriate amount. can be done. In addition, protein complexes can be moderately decomposed.

A further characteristic configuration of the softened food manufacturing method according to the present invention is that the concentration of the enzyme in the treatment liquid containing the enzyme is 0.001% by mass or more and 1% by mass or less.

If the concentration of the enzyme in the treatment solution to be permeated into the meat is too high, the taste of the enzyme itself appears too strongly in the taste of the softened food, or the substrate is decomposed too much, resulting in poor taste. On the other hand, if the enzyme concentration in the treatment solution is too low, the decomposition action will be too weak and the time required for the treatment will increase. According to the method for producing a softened food product having the above characteristic configuration, the concentration of the enzyme in the treatment liquid is 0.001% by mass or more and 1% by mass or less, so that the taste of the enzyme itself appears strongly in the taste of the softened food product. No meat is overly decomposed. Therefore, the obtained softened food has a desired shape while being sufficiently soft, and the deterioration of the taste is suppressed. In addition, there is no problem that the time required for manufacturing is extremely increased.

A further characteristic configuration of the softened food manufacturing method according to the present invention is that the enzyme is a protease.

According to the above characteristic configuration, the protein in the meat can be decomposed to soften the meat, and the obtained softened food has sufficient softness.

A further characteristic configuration of the softened food manufacturing method according to the present invention is that the meat is heated to a predetermined temperature by steaming in the pretreatment step.

According to the above characteristic configuration, by steaming the meat in the pretreatment step, the amount of dripping during cooking is reduced, and the resulting softened food is less likely to deteriorate in taste.

Hereinafter, a softened food manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. Although preferred examples are described below, each of these examples is described in order to illustrate the present invention more specifically, and various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. and the present invention is not limited to the following description.

[Softening food manufacturing method]
A method for producing a softened food according to an embodiment is a method for producing a softened food made of meat, and includes a pretreatment step of heating the meat to a predetermined temperature, a freeze-drying step of freeze-drying the heated meat, and a freeze-dried A pulverizing step of pulverizing meat, a permeating step of infiltrating at least part of the granules made of the pulverized meat with a treatment liquid containing an enzyme that decomposes a predetermined substrate in the meat, and permeating with the treatment liquid. and a heating step of heating the granules to the activity temperature of the enzyme. In the following description, the case where the substrate is protein will be described as an example, but the substrate is not limited to protein.

In this softened food production method, the meat is heated to a predetermined temperature (for example, 70° C.) in the pretreatment step, thereby moderately denaturing and decomposing the proteins in the meat. After that, the meat in which the protein is moderately denatured and decomposed is freeze-dried, thereby drying the meat while maintaining the denatured and decomposed state of the protein. Thereafter, the meat dried by freeze-drying is pulverized, an arbitrary part of the pulverized meat is impregnated with an enzyme-containing treatment liquid, and the enzyme-permeated powder is heated to the activity temperature of the enzyme. heat to As a result, the protein in the meat is decomposed by the decomposing action of the enzyme, the meat is softened, and arbitrary portions of the pulverized meat that have been permeated with the treatment liquid bind to each other. Therefore, according to this softened food manufacturing method, the softened food obtained has an arbitrary shape while being sufficiently soft.

In the pretreatment step, specifically, the meat is heated using a heating method such as steaming, grilling, boiling, or frying, and the proteins in the meat are appropriately denatured and decomposed. By steaming and heating the meat, dripping during cooking is reduced, and the taste of the softened food is less likely to deteriorate. Therefore, in the pretreatment step, it is preferable to heat the meat to a predetermined temperature by steaming. The predetermined temperature is preferably 70° C. or higher and 120° C. or lower from the viewpoint of appropriately denaturing and decomposing the protein.

Here, in this softened food manufacturing method, the following advantages are obtained by carrying out the pretreatment step. That is, by performing the pretreatment step, the protein complexes in the meat can be appropriately separated into a plurality of subunits in advance, so that the protein complexes are less likely to remain in the softened food, and the post-treatment step is performed. Enzymatic degradation of proteins is facilitated. Furthermore, by performing the pretreatment step, the proteins in the meat are in a state of being appropriately denatured in advance, and the enzymes do not act on the denatured proteins, so the undenatured proteins are decomposed by the enzymes. . Thus, according to this softened food production method, the pretreatment step reduces the amount of protein complexes remaining in the meat and moderately decomposes the protein. Therefore, the obtained softened food has sufficient softness while suppressing the deterioration of taste.

In the freeze-drying step, for example, the meat after the pretreatment step is frozen using an ultra-low temperature refrigerator, liquid nitrogen, or the like, and then the frozen meat is dried using a known freeze-drying apparatus. As a result, the meat is dried while the protein is maintained in a moderately denatured and decomposed state. The drying period is, for example, several hours to three days.

In the pulverizing step, for example, the meat after freeze-drying is pulverized in a mortar or the like to form powdery grains. The average particle size of the pulverized meat is not particularly limited, but if it is less than 1 μm or more than 1 mm, the treatment liquid may penetrate too much into the pulverized meat. It is preferable that the thickness is 1 μm or more and 1 mm or less because there is a possibility that the penetration may not occur.

In the infiltration step, specifically, the treatment liquid is dripped onto an arbitrary position of the granules made of pulverized meat (for example, the whole or a part of the granules, or the whole surface or a part of the surface). By permeating the liquid, the portion permeated with the processing liquid becomes liquid or pasty. As a method of dripping and permeating the treatment liquid into the powder, it is preferable to adopt a method using a so-called ink-jet method. That is, in the permeation step, the treatment liquid is made into fine droplets (for example, the volume of one droplet is 1 pL or more and 1000 pL or less), and any position (for example, the whole or a part, or the whole surface or a part of the surface) of the powder or grain ) to allow the treatment liquid to permeate the surface, and the portion to which the treatment liquid has been sprayed is preferably liquid or pasty. According to this method, when the treatment liquid is permeated into an arbitrary position of the powder, the position to be permeated with the treatment liquid is finely adjusted compared to the case of simply dropping the treatment liquid that is not atomized. can. Therefore, it is possible to easily produce softened foods with a wide variety of shapes. In addition, the granular material to be subjected to the permeation step may be in a state of being placed casually, or may be in a state of being accommodated and filled in a mold (container) having a predetermined shape. If it is in a state of being accommodated and filled in a shape mold, the softened food having the shape of the mold is obtained by permeating the entire powder or granular material with the treatment liquid to make it liquid or pasty and then performing the heating process. can get.

As the treatment liquid used in the permeation step, a solution obtained by dispersing an enzyme in an aqueous solvent containing water or alcohol can be used. In addition to enzymes, the treatment liquid may contain pH adjusters and seasonings (salt, soy sauce, alcoholic beverages, mirin, sugar, sauce, etc.). Since it becomes necessary, it is preferable to contain a binder and a surfactant.

The concentration of the enzyme in the treatment liquid used in the permeation step is not particularly limited, but if it is less than 0.001% by mass, the decomposition action of the enzyme becomes too weak and the time required for the treatment increases. If it is higher than % by mass, the taste of the enzyme itself may appear too strong in the taste of the softened food to be produced, or the decomposing action of the enzyme may become too strong, making it difficult to maintain the shape. Therefore, the concentration of the enzyme in the treatment liquid is preferably 0.001% by mass or more and 1% by mass or less.

The enzyme to be used is not particularly limited as long as it can decompose any substrate in meat, but protease is used when the substrate is protein. As the protease, Bromelain F (activity temperature 65-75°C), Papain W-40 (activity temperature 70-90°C), Alloase (registered trademark) XA-10 (activity temperature 60-75°C), Alloase AP- 10 (activity temperature 50-65°C), protin NY100 (activity temperature 50-55°C), protin SD-AY10 (activity temperature 70-80°C), Nucleisin (registered trademark) (activity temperature 55-65°C), Alcalase ( (registered trademark), Bioplase (registered trademark) OP (activity temperature 50-60°C), Biopase SP-20 (activity temperature 60-70°C), Orientase (registered trademark) 22BF (activity temperature 60-70°C), orientase AY (activity temperature 50-60°C), orientase OP, protease A "Amano" SD (activity temperature 40-50°C), protease P "Amano" SD (activity temperature 40-50°C), protease M "Amano" G , Sumizyme AP, Sumizyme ACP-G, Sumizyme LP-G, Sumizyme FP-G, Sumizyme FLAP-G, Sumizyme DPP-G, Denapsin 2P, Denazym® Protease YP-SS, Denazym AP (activity temperature 45-55°C), Denathym PMC SOFTER (activity temperature 40-60°C), pantydase (registered trademark) NP-2 (activity temperature 50-60°C), samoase (activity temperature 50-60°C), collagenase (activity temperature 30 to 50° C.) and Neurase F3G (activity temperature of 40 to 50° C.). Also, the enzymes may be used singly or in combination of two or more that do not inhibit each other. Furthermore, the enzyme may be plant-derived or microbial-derived, or a combination of plant-derived and microbial-derived enzymes may be used.

Specifically, in the heating step, the granules infiltrated with the treatment liquid are heated to a predetermined temperature (eg, 60° C.), and then maintained at the predetermined temperature for a certain period of time (eg, 30 minutes), so that the particles are decomposed by enzymes. The reaction decomposes the substrate (eg protein) to soften the meat and bind the ground meat together. In addition, as a method of heating meat to a predetermined temperature and maintaining the predetermined temperature for a certain period of time, a method of putting powdery grains impregnated with the treatment liquid into an oven and heating at 60° C. for 30 minutes can be exemplified.

In the present application, "meat" is a concept including meat of birds and animals such as chicken, duck meat, beef, horse meat, mutton and wild boar meat, and seafood meat such as fish and shellfish.

[Examples and Comparative Examples]
Specific examples and comparative examples will be described below.

[Example 1]
100 g of beef thigh was used as a sample, and the sample was steamed in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes and heated to at least 100 ° C. (pretreatment step), and then dried for 2 days using a freeze-drying apparatus (freeze-drying step). The dried sample was pulverized using a mortar (pulverization step). The average particle size of the pulverized sample (granules made of pulverized meat) was about 200 μm when estimated by length measurement from the observation image of a scanning electron microscope (SU3500 manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd.). After that, 0.25 g of the pulverized granular material was filled in a mold having a square base with a side length of 30 mm and a depth of 0.5 mm. Then, water (treatment liquid) in which 0.1% by mass of Papain W-40 (manufactured by Amano Enzyme Co., Ltd.) is dissolved is applied to a circular region with a diameter of 20 mm from the upper surface of the powder or granular material by an inkjet method. , 0.07 ml to permeate the treatment liquid (permeation step). After that, the sample was placed in an oven and heated at 60° C. for 30 minutes (heating step). The sample after heating was subjected to a rupture test using a texture meter (RE2 33005B manufactured by Yamaden Co., Ltd.) to measure hardness. Regarding the shape, it was evaluated as "good" if it had an arbitrary shape, and as "bad" if it did not. ', and 'bad' if not suppressed.
[Examples 2 to 4]
Examples 2 to 4 were the same as in Example 1, except that meat other than beef (shrimp meat in Example 2, octopus meat in Example 3, and duck meat in Example 4) was used as samples. I went with

[Comparative Examples 1 to 4]
Comparative Examples 1-4 were carried out in the same manner as Examples 1-4, except that a treatment solution containing no enzymes (papain W-40 and alloase) was used in the permeation step. Comparative Example 1 used beef thigh meat, Comparative Example 2 used shrimp meat, Comparative Example 3 used octopus meat, and Comparative Example 4 used duck meat.

[Test results]
The hardness, shape and taste of Examples 1-4 and Comparative Examples 1-3 are summarized in Table 1 below. "Category 1", "Category 2", and "Category 3" in Table 1 are included in the four categories in the category table established by the Japan Nursing Care Food Council, which is one of the indicators for softened foods. is. Specifically, "Category 1" is "easy to chew (hardness upper limit: 500 kPa)", "Category 2" is "can be crushed with gums (hardness upper limit: 50 kPa)", and "Category 3" is It is defined as "can be crushed with the tongue (hardness upper limit: 20 kPa)".

When Examples 1 to 4 and Comparative Examples 1 to 4 are compared, there is no particular difference in shape depending on the type of sample, and the softened food obtained in any of Examples and Comparative Examples has an arbitrary shape. had. On the other hand, with regard to hardness, although there are differences depending on the difference in the samples, the examples are softer than the comparative examples for all samples, and the softened foods obtained in the examples have sufficient softness. It has become a thing. As for the taste, the softened foods obtained in the examples had a good taste, and the softened foods obtained in the comparative examples had a bad taste.

For these reasons, by performing the pretreatment process, freeze-drying process, pulverization process, permeation process and heating process, it is possible to obtain a softened food made from meat, which has sufficient softness and can be formed into any shape. It was confirmed that a softened food with reduced taste deterioration could be produced.

The method for producing a softened food product of the present invention can be used when producing a softened food product using meat as a raw material.

Claims (7)

A method for producing a softened food consisting of meat,
A pretreatment step of heating the meat to a predetermined temperature;
a freeze-drying step of freeze-drying the heated meat;
A pulverizing step of pulverizing the freeze-dried meat;
A permeation step of infiltrating at least a part of the granules made of the pulverized meat with a treatment liquid containing an enzyme that decomposes a predetermined substrate in the meat , and turning the portion infiltrated with the treatment liquid into a paste. and,
and a heating step of heating the granules infiltrated with the treatment liquid to an activation temperature of the enzyme. 2. The softened food production method according to claim 1, wherein in the permeation step, the treatment liquid is formed into fine droplets and sprayed onto an arbitrary position of the granular material to permeate the treatment liquid into an arbitrary position of the granular material. . 3. The method for producing a softened food according to claim 1 or 2, wherein in the pulverizing step, the freeze-dried meat is pulverized to have an average particle size of 1 μm or more and 1 mm or less. The softened food production method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the meat is heated to 70°C or higher in the pretreatment step. The softened food manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the treatment liquid containing the enzyme has a concentration of the enzyme of 0.001% by mass or more and 1% by mass or less. The method for producing softened food according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the enzyme is protease. The softened food production method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein in the pretreatment step, the meat is heated to a predetermined temperature by steaming.