JPH0683680B2 - Molded sugar manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Object of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for producing a low-calorie, non-cariogenic, non-hygroscopic meso-erythritol shaped sugar.

(Prior Art) Low-calorie, non-cariogenic sweeteners include non-sugar stevioside, aspartame, sodium saccharin, glycyrrhizin; sugar alcohols sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, etc. for caries prevention, diabetes, obesity It is used for prevention purposes.

However, since non-sugar sweeteners are powdery fine powders and have a significantly high sweetness, which is about 200 to 500 times that of sucrose, it is practically impossible to use it as a single product in ordinary households. , And these are usually used as molded into an appropriate shape using an excipient. And, as the excipient at that time, sorbitol and maltitol are used, but since these are easy to absorb moisture, the sweetener formed by using them has trouble and cost in packaging and containers for preventing moisture absorption. It took. In addition, sorbitol, maltitol, and xylitol have recently been reported to be significantly decomposed and absorbed in experiments on rats, dogs, and humans, and have no significant difference from sucrose in terms of calories. It is profitable.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention is intended to provide a method capable of easily producing a low-calorie, non-cariogenic, non-hygroscopic shaped sugar.

(Means for Solving Problems) As a result of repeated studies to solve the above problems, the present inventor has found that meso-erythritol can be easily molded into sugar by compression molding at a specific water content and drying. The present invention has been made and the present invention has been achieved.

That is, according to the method for producing a molded sugar of the present invention, meso-erythritol powder and / or granules are compression-molded at a water content of 0.5 to 5% by weight by adding a relatively small amount of other components as necessary. The method is characterized by drying after that.

Meso-erythritol in the present invention has the structural formula Is a tetravalent sugar alcohol represented by a molecular weight of 122,
It is a white crystal with a melting point of 119 ° C. Its appearance is similar to that of sucrose granulated sugar, it is well soluble in water, and it is non-digestible, non-cariogenic and non-brown denaturing. This meso-erythritol (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as "erythritol") is contained in natural algae, mushrooms and the like, and also in small amounts in sake, wine, soy sauce and the like. According to the panel test results, the sweetness intensity and sweetness were slightly weaker than sucrose, slightly stronger than glucose and about 75-80% of sucrose.
The sweetness is similar to that of sucrose, but the aftertaste is less sweet than sucrose.

In the production method of the present invention, such powder and / or granules of erythritol as they are at a specific water content,
Alternatively, if necessary, a relatively small amount of other components are blended, compression molded, and then dried. The erythritol powder preferably has a particle size smaller than 32 mesh.
The powder may be a crystallized powder or a powder obtained by crushing a melt-solidified product of erythritol. Further, the erythritol granules preferably have a particle size smaller than 16 mesh, and it is desirable to use a fluidized bed granulation method for granulating the granules, but an extrusion granulation method or a compression granulation method can also be used.

When the erythritol powder or granules in the production method of the present invention are compression molded, the water content is in the range of 0.5 to 5% by weight, preferably 1 to 2% by weight. If the water content is too low, the shape retention of the molded sugar deteriorates, and a molded sugar having sufficient hardness cannot be obtained. On the other hand, if the water content is too high, water oozes out during the drying process, causing the mold to lose its shape, and it is not possible to obtain a good molded sugar, and it takes a long time to dry. The addition of water to erythritol for compression molding is preferably performed by spraying water, which is preferable.

Although the compression molding is not limited in its method, it is preferable to use ordinary compression molding or molding, which is simple and convenient. Hot air drying or vacuum drying is used to dry the molded sugar obtained by compression molding. The drying temperature is preferably in the range of 50 to 90 ° C. Since erythritol is non-brown-denatured, there is no risk of brown coloring due to heating during drying, such as in the case of molded sugar using sucrose.

Erythritol powder having a particle size of 100 mesh was compression-molded at various water contents, and the molded sugar obtained by drying with hot air at 80 ° C. had mold releasability, shape retention before and after drying,
The results of examining the hardness of the obtained molded sugar are shown in Table 1.

In the method for producing a molded sugar of the present invention, powder or granules of erythritol having a water content of 0.5 to 5% by weight, preferably 1 to 2% by weight may be directly compression-molded, if necessary. A mixture containing a relatively small amount of other components may be compression molded. In that case, other components that can be blended include non-sugar sweeteners, instant coffee powder, instant black tea powder, fruit juice powder, flavors, acidulants, and edible surfactants.

In particular, if a non-sugar sweetener is added to erythritol, the sweetness of erythritol can be significantly improved. For example, a small amount of a non-sugar sweetener having a sweet taste in the mouth, such as aspartame, stevioside, saccharin sodium, and glutyrrhizin, is mixed with erythritol and molded into a molded sugar having a sweetness similar to that of sucrose. Conventionally, a combination of a sugar alcohol of sugars such as maltitol, sorbitol, xylitol, and mannitol sugar and a non-sugar sweetener was known, but it is known that a combination of erythritol and a non-sugar sweetener can improve the sweetness of erythritol. There wasn't.

Table 2 shows the compounding ratio of the non-sugar sweetener which is preferable for improving the sweetness of erythritol.

Notes to Table 2: (1) The materials used in this case were as follows.

Erythritol ... Nikken Chemical Co., Ltd. Aspartame ... Ajinomoto Co. Stevioside ... Dainippon Ink's trade name Chrysanta AX-P Saccharin Na ... Tanabe Seiyaku Co., Ltd. Glycyrrhizin ... Ikeda Saccharification Co., Ltd. trade name Ricotin A (2) Magnification is based on the following formula.

Therefore, for example, in the case of molded sugar for coffee, tea, etc., if the strength of sweetness per piece is set to the same level as one sugar cube, it can be used in the same manner as conventional sugar cubes.
Also, if necessary, the amount of non-sugar sweetener can be increased to obtain sweetness twice or triple that of sugar cube.

The molded sugar obtained by the production method of the present invention is also one of the excellent characteristics that it has extremely low hygroscopicity. RH84 for commercially available sugar cubes (10 × 10 × 10 mm) and erythritol shaped sugar, maltitol shaped sugar, and sorbitol shaped sugar (all 10 × 10 × 10 mm) obtained by the production method of the present invention.
%, The water content was measured after leaving it in the air at 20 ° C for 10 days, and the results are shown in the table below.

(Example) An example is given below and further detailed.

Example 1 Meso-erythritol powder (particle size 120 mesh) 99 g water
After spraying 1 g and thoroughly kneading, the mixture was put into a 10 × 10 × 10 mm mold and pressed at 20 kg / cm ² to mold, and dried at 80 ° C. for 10 hours.

Obtained molded sugar and commercially available sugar cube (10 × 10 × 10 mm),
The results of measuring the water absorption (water content) when left in the air at RH 79% and 30 ° C are shown in the table below.

The shaped sugar of Example 1 hardly absorbs water even under high temperature and high humidity.

Example 2 To 100 g of erythritol powder (particle size 100 mesh), 0.8 g of aspartame was mixed well, 1.0 g of water was sprayed and kneaded well, and then pressure molding was carried out under the same conditions as in Example 1 at 60 ° C.
Vacuum dried for 10 hours.

The molded sugar thus obtained was allowed to stand in air at RH 79% and 30 ° C. for 30 days, and the water content was measured and found to be 0.03% by weight. The sweetness of this molded sugar was about 1.5 times that of sugar.

(C) Effect of the Invention According to the production method of the present invention, a shaped sugar having meso-erythritol as a main component can be easily produced, and the obtained shaped sugar has a good appearance and is always available for desktop use or the like. Since it is easy to use, has low calories and is non-cariogenic, it can contribute to health promotion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Meso-erythritol powder and / or granules, optionally with a relatively small amount of other ingredients,
A method for producing a molded sugar, which comprises compression-molding at a water content of 0.5 to 5% by weight and then drying.