JP7802397B2 - Edible film and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an edible film and a method for producing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to an edible film with a composition that provides excellent spreadability during production without increasing the moisture content, and has an excellent body that allows for a full flavor, and a method for producing the same.

Various proposals have been made for edible films, which are used in a variety of fields, including various luxury items, sweets, and pharmaceuticals.
Among these fields of application, in the case of various luxury goods and sweets, it is important to fully enjoy the flavor, so it is necessary to blend in a sufficient amount of extracts that bring out the flavor.
However, when a sufficient amount of these extracts is added, there are problems such as excess moisture resulting in high drying costs, and when extract powder is used, the film becomes less flexible when produced, making it impossible to produce an edible film of uniform thickness.
Therefore, various proposals have been made to solve the problems of formability such as the ductility of edible films.
For example, Patent Document 1 proposes a water-insoluble laminated edible film with improved strength. Specifically, the proposed laminated film is a water-insoluble edible film formed by laminating two edible films, an acidic film made of polysaccharides soluble in an acidic range and an alkaline film made of polysaccharides soluble in an alkaline range, and the acidic and alkaline components contained in the films react and neutralize between the layers of the acidic and alkaline films, making the laminated film insoluble in water.
Patent Document 2 proposes an edible sheet and a method for producing the same that can be produced efficiently and at low cost, with thickness control and thinning being easy, allowing it to be used for a variety of purposes, and that inhibits thermal deterioration of food ingredients that are prone to deterioration in taste and flavor when heated. Specifically, the proposed edible sheet is a sheet-shaped thermocompressed product of a raw material composition containing pregelatinized starch, where the raw material composition contains at least one food ingredient belonging to vegetables, including potatoes, fruit vegetables, grains, legumes, leafy vegetables, stem vegetables, flower vegetables, and root vegetables, fruits, seaweed, or seafood.

JP 2013-99342 A JP 2022-100790 A

However, even with the above proposals, it has not yet been possible to provide an edible film itself that fully exhibits flavor. Furthermore, while increasing the water content in a liquid film composition before molding may improve moldability, which is one of the conventional problems, the increased water content also leads to problems such as the finished film becoming sticky and the drying process becoming longer. Furthermore, the reason why the above proposals have not been able to solve the problems is that, when the composition is adjusted to fully exhibit flavor, the problem of poor spreadability remains unresolved, and as a result, it is currently not possible to obtain a high-quality edible film.
In short, there is currently a demand for the development of an edible film that allows the flavor to be fully enjoyed and has a composition that is excellent in stretchability during production.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an edible film with a composition that provides excellent spreadability during production without increasing the moisture content, and that has an excellent body that allows for a full flavor, as well as a method for producing the same.

As a result of extensive research to solve the above problems, the inventors discovered that the above object could be achieved by containing both water-soluble plant fiber and water-insoluble plant fiber and not using water as a liquid component.Further extensive research led to the completion of the present invention.
That is, the present invention provides the following inventions.
1. An edible film composition comprising a liquid component and a solid component,
The food product contains both water-soluble plant fiber and water-insoluble plant fiber as the solid component,
An edible film that does not use water as the liquid component,
The total amount of water-soluble plant fiber and water-insoluble plant fiber derived from the food is 5% by weight or more of the total amount,
The edible film has a blending ratio of the water-soluble plant fiber derived from the food to the water-insoluble plant fiber of 100 parts by weight to 10 to 500 parts by weight of the water-insoluble plant fiber.
2. The edible film according to 1, further comprising pregelatinized starch in an amount of 10 to 30% by weight based on the total weight of the edible film.
3. The edible film according to 1, wherein the blending ratio of the liquid component to the solid component is 100 parts by weight of the liquid component to 200 to 500 parts by weight of the solid component.
4. A mixing step of mixing the solid components;
2. The method for producing an edible film according to claim 1, comprising a permeation step in which the mixture obtained in the mixing step is added to a liquid component that does not contain water, and the liquid component is permeated into the mixture to obtain a permeate, and a film formation step in which the permeate is rolled to obtain a film.

The edible film of the present invention has a composition that provides excellent spreadability during production, and has an excellent body that allows the flavor to be fully enjoyed.
Furthermore, according to the method for producing an edible film of the present invention, a high-quality edible film with excellent ductility can be efficiently produced.

The present invention will now be described in further detail.
The edible film of the present invention comprises an edible film composition containing a liquid component and a solid component, and contains a food product containing both water-soluble plant fiber and water-insoluble plant fiber as the solid component, and does not use water as the liquid component.
The present invention will be described in detail below.

<Edible film composition>
[Liquid component]
The liquid component used in the present invention may be any component having fluidity, including a viscous paste, but water is not used in the present invention. The liquid component is not particularly limited as long as it is a liquid component other than water, and an extract component, other liquid component, etc. can be used.
The above extract components are components for imparting a desired taste, and specific examples include plum extract; various fruit juices; various plant extracts; seafood extracts; and animal-derived extracts such as beef extract, pork extract, and chicken extract.
Other liquid components include glycerin, starch syrup, isomerized liquid sugar, sugar alcohols, and the like.

[Solid component]
The solid ingredients used in the present invention include foods containing both the water-soluble plant fiber and the water-insoluble plant fiber, as well as bases, other solid ingredients, and the like.
As the base, the following film materials can generally be used, and each can be used alone or in combination of two or more kinds, and commercially available products can also be used.
Polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium polyacrylate, carboxymethylcellulose, starch, xanthan gum, karaya gum, sodium alginate, methylcellulose, carboxyvinyl polymer, agar, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate (HPMCP), cellulose acetate phthalate (also known as cellulose acetate phthalate, CAP), carboxymethylethylcellulose (CMEC), ethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, carboxyvinyl polymer (trade name: Carbopol, manufactured by BF Goodrich Co.), tragacanth, gum arabic, locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, dextrin, dextran, amylose, potassium carboxymethylcellulose, carbo Examples of suitable polymers include sodium carboxymethylcellulose, calcium carboxymethylcellulose, pullulan, chitosan, starch, polyvinyl alcohol, carboxymethylethylcellulose, sodium carboxymethylstarch, Plantago seed coat, galactomannan, Eudragit, casein, sodium alginate, alkyl alginate esters, gelatin, shellac resins (shellac, white transparent shellac), starch, cellulose acetate, hydroxyethyl methylcellulose, water-insoluble methacrylic acid copolymer, ethyl methacrylate-trimethylammonium ethyl methacrylate chloride copolymer, dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate-methyl methacrylate copolymer, pullulan, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), methylcellulose, acrylic acid, methyl methacrylate copolymer, hydroxyethyl cellulose, and polyethylene glycol.

[Water-soluble plant fiber]
The water-soluble plant fiber used in the present invention can be contained in or used in food, and various types of plant fiber can be used without any particular limitation as long as it is water-soluble. Foods or food additives containing such water-soluble plant fiber can also be contained in the edible film of the present invention.
Specific examples include pectin, alginic acid, gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, gum arabic), methylcellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, glucomannan, cellulose, gluten, pullulan, soybean polysaccharides, and various fruit-derived plant fibers.
[Water-insoluble vegetable fiber]
The water-insoluble plant fiber used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is contained in food or can be used in food, and various types of plant fiber can be used as long as it is not soluble in water.Food or food additives containing such water-insoluble plant fiber can also be used to incorporate it into the edible film of the present invention.
Specific examples include cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, chitin, and the like.
[Other solid components]
Examples of the other solid components include pregelatinized starch, and in the present invention, it is preferable to further contain pregelatinized starch in addition to the water-soluble plant fiber and the water-insoluble plant fiber. Commercially available pregelatinized starch can be used as the pregelatinized starch. The amount of pregelatinized starch in the edible film is preferably 10 to 30% by weight based on the total weight of the edible film, in order to improve the spreadability and to provide the edible film with a good texture that is neither sticky nor papery, and is more preferably 15 to 25% by weight.

[The above foods and their contents]
Specific examples of the food containing both the water-soluble plant fiber and the water-insoluble plant fiber used as the solid component in the present invention include the following:
"VITACEL AF401 (Apple Fiber)" product name, VITACEL series manufactured by Rettenmaier Co., Ltd.;
"NUTRAVA (registered trademark) Citrus Fiber" sold by Sansho Co., Ltd.; Citri-Fi (registered trademark, sold by Torigoe Flour Milling Co., Ltd.), etc.
The blending ratio of the water-soluble plant fiber and the water-insoluble plant fiber, i.e., the blending ratio of the insoluble dietary fiber and the water-soluble dietary fiber in the food, is preferably 10 to 500 parts by weight, more preferably 50 to 500 parts by weight, of the water-insoluble plant fiber to 100 parts by weight of the water-soluble plant fiber. By using a blending ratio within this range, the desired effects can be obtained.
Furthermore, the total amount of the insoluble dietary fiber and the water-soluble dietary fiber used, i.e., the total amount of the insoluble dietary fiber and the water-soluble dietary fiber in the food, is preferably 5% by weight or more, more preferably 5 to 20% by weight, and most preferably 5 to 15% by weight, of the entire edible film.

[Other ingredients]
In the present invention, in addition to the water-soluble vegetable fibers and the water-insoluble vegetable fibers, various components that can usually be used in this type of edible film can be used.
Examples of the other components include the following. When these are used, if they are liquid components, they are used as the liquid components, and if they are solid components, they are used as the solid components.
Acidulants such as citric acid; flavoring agents such as plum salt; umami seasonings such as sodium glutamate and sodium inosinate; binders such as tragacanth powder, gum arabic, and corn starch; excipients such as crystalline cellulose; disintegrants such as corn starch; lubricants such as magnesium stearate; sweeteners such as sucrose, lactose, fructose or saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, stevia, and acesulfame potassium; flavorings such as peppermint, peppermint oil, cherry flavor, orange oil, and fennel oil; preservatives such as benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, benzyl benzoate, ethyl parahydroxybenzoate, butyl parahydroxybenzoate, and propyl parahydroxybenzoate; opacifying agents such as titanium oxide; colorants such as red ferric oxide and yellow ferric oxide; various medicinal ingredients, etc.

(Ratio of liquid component to solid component)
The blending ratio of the liquid component to the solid component is preferably 100 parts by weight of the liquid component to 200 to 500 parts by weight of the solid component, and more preferably 300 to 450 parts by weight of the liquid component to 100 parts by weight of the solid component.

[Method for producing edible film of the present invention]
The edible film of the present invention can be obtained by carrying out the following production method.
That is, the production method of the present invention is
a mixing step of mixing the solid components and separately mixing the water-free liquid components;
The mixture obtained in the mixing step is added to a mixture of liquid components, and the liquid components are allowed to permeate the mixture to obtain a permeate (permeate step), and the permeate is rolled to obtain a film (film formation step).
Details are provided below.
(Mixing process)
In the present invention, it is important to mix the solid component and the liquid component separately and then mix the mixture of the two.
The mixing method for mixing the solid components in the mixing step is not particularly limited, and can be performed using various mixers depending on the amount of the solid components. The mixing time is also not particularly limited, and mixing can be performed in a conventional manner to the extent that the solid components (all of the above-mentioned solid components are powders) are sufficiently dispersed and mixed.
The method for mixing the liquid components is not particularly limited, and various mixers can be used depending on the amount of the solid components. The mixing time is also not particularly limited, and mixing may be performed to the extent that the components are sufficiently dispersed and mixed in a conventional manner.
(Infiltration process)
The mixture of solid components mixed in the above mixing step is poured into the mixture of liquid components, and the two are mixed to allow the mixture of liquid components to penetrate into the mixture of solid components. During penetration, it is preferable to mix the two. Penetration and mixing may be carried out to the extent that the liquid component and the solid component are lightly combined. Such penetration and mixing may be carried out using a conventional stirring mixer or the like.
(Film-forming process)
In this step, first, the mixture of the solid component and the liquid component obtained in the above-mentioned infiltration step is sealed in a bag, for example, an aluminum bag, and after sealing, is steamed for 10 to 60 minutes.
After steaming, the film is sandwiched between release paper or the like and rolled in a rolling machine according to a conventional method. This rolling is continued until the desired thickness is reached, thereby obtaining the edible film of the present invention.
(Other processes)
In the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned steps, other steps can be carried out as appropriate within the scope of the present invention.
The edible film of the present invention can be obtained by carrying out the production method of the present invention.
The edible film of the present invention obtained by the above steps contains the above-mentioned components. The thickness is not particularly limited, but is preferably in the range of 0.01 mm to 10 mm, more preferably 0.1 to 5 mm, from the viewpoint of maintaining texture.

[Usage, effects]
The edible film of the present invention can be used by cutting it to a desired size and eating it in the same way as ordinary snacks and the like.
The edible film of the present invention, having the above-described structure, can be produced with excellent spreadability. It also has an excellent texture, is neither papery nor sticky, dissolves well in the mouth, and has a pleasant flavor. While the reason for this effect is unclear, it is believed that the inclusion of both insoluble and soluble dietary fiber improves the balance between the skeletal components and the water-retaining components, resulting in flexible physical properties and improved processability when rubbing the film into a sheet.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to examples and comparative examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples at all.
Examples 1 and 2
Edible films were prepared as follows using the compositions shown in Table 1. In the following examples, the amount was small, so the work was done manually, but each work may also be done using a machine.
(Mixing process)
The solid ingredients in Table 1 were mixed using a spoon until the solid ingredients were thoroughly dispersed and mixed. Separately, the liquid ingredients in Table 1 were mixed using a spoon until they were thoroughly dispersed and mixed.
(Infiltration process)
The mixture of solid components mixed in the mixing step was poured into the mixture of liquid components, and the two were mixed to allow the mixture of liquid components to penetrate into the mixture of solid components. During penetration, the mixture was mixed by kneading at the same time, and a ball-like mixture was obtained.
(Film-forming process)
Next, the mixture of the solid and liquid components was placed in an aluminum bag or the like, sealed, and then steamed for 20 minutes.
After steaming, the mixture was sandwiched between release papers and rolled using a rolling pin to obtain an edible film having a thickness of 2.5 mm.
The resulting edible films were evaluated as follows, and the results are shown in Table 2.
Texture test;
For the sensory evaluation, 10 monitors were prepared and asked to eat the obtained edible film and evaluate it based on the following evaluation criteria.
Spreadability: In the film-forming process, it was judged whether the film had good spreadability.
⊚: Good stretchability and good stretchability.
◯: Although it was a little sticky, it was possible to spread it to the specified thickness.
△: Somewhat hardened or sticky, and some parts were not stretchable, or some parts could not be molded.
x: Hard and not stretchable or could not be molded.
(Sensory evaluation)
Stickiness: Whether or not the sample is sticky when touched with the hand was judged.
◎: Not sticky to the touch.
◯: There was almost no stickiness when touched.
△: There was some stickiness when touched.
×: Sticky to the touch.
Adhesion to teeth: Adhesion to teeth was evaluated when bitten with teeth.
◎: Did not stick to teeth.
〇: It was difficult to stick to teeth.
△: Somewhat stuck to teeth.
×: Stuck on teeth.
Hardness: Determined whether or not the food could be bitten off with teeth.
◎: It was very easy to bite through.
〇: It was easy to bite through.
△: It was a little difficult to bite through.
×: It was difficult to bite through.
Meltability in the mouth: The degree to which the product melts in the mouth when placed in the mouth was judged.
◎: Very melt-in-your-mouth.
〇: Melts easily in the mouth.
△: Slightly difficult to melt in the mouth.
×: Does not melt in the mouth.
Taste and aroma: The taste and aroma were judged when the product was placed in the mouth.
◎: The taste and aroma were strong.
〇: The taste and aroma were easily noticeable.
△: The taste and aroma were somewhat weak.
×: No taste or aroma.

Comparative Examples 1 and 2
Edible films were produced and tested in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the compositions were as shown in Table 1. The results are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

As shown in Table 2, the following can be seen.
Both Examples 1 and 2 were good in all evaluation items. In particular, Example 1 was highly evaluated in both workability and sensory tests.
On the other hand, Comparative Examples 1 and 2 were inferior to Examples 1 and 2 in the sensory evaluation and were found to have poor workability.

Claims (3)

an edible film composition containing a liquid component and a solid component as a raw material component;
The blending ratio of the liquid component to the solid component is 100 parts by weight of the liquid component to 300 to 450 parts by weight of the solid component,
The liquid component comprises an extract component and another liquid component selected from glycerin, starch syrup, isomerized liquid sugar, and sugar alcohol,
The solid component contains 5 to 15% by weight of plant fiber relative to 100% by weight of the edible film composition, and the plant fiber is a food product containing both water-soluble plant fiber and water-insoluble plant fiber, and the food product is "VITACEL (registered trademark) AF401 (apple fiber) " or NUTRAVA (registered trademark) Citrus Fiber. The extract component is plum extract, and the other liquid component is glycerin,
2. The edible film according to claim 1, further comprising pregelatinized starch in an amount of 10 to 30% by weight of the composition for an edible film. a mixing step of mixing the solid components and, separately, mixing the liquid components without adding any water other than the water content of each component;
The method for producing an edible film according to claim 1, comprising: a permeation step of adding the mixture of solid components obtained in the mixing step to a mixture of liquid components to permeate the mixture of solid components with the liquid components to obtain a permeate; and a film formation step of steaming the permeate and then rolling it to obtain a film.