Patent Application
20250160342
The present invention relates to a process for producing lipophobic breading flour, belonging to the foodstuff field, more specifically aimed at a process for producing breading flour with low oil absorption.
Breading flour or bread crumbs finds more and more applications in the modern food industry as a coating for frying breaded and fried foods such as steak parmigiana, breaded and fried meat, fish, shrimp and seafood, widely accepted not only for domestic use, but also in the restaurant sector, due to the unique good texture and fragrance.
Breading for frying foods are done by applying processed flour or bread crumbs, acting as a barrier to prevent the high temperature of the oil from being transferred directly to the ingredients, prevent modification of the nutritional properties, taste properties, prevent the loss of ingredients, promote frying for a reduced time to form a layer with a unique texture, and promote oil absorption and moderate hardening to produce a unique aroma and flavors.
The recent increase in health awareness, the rejection of excessive calorie intake from fat and oil has become a constant pursuit, so high-fat foods such as fried foods tend to be avoided. The occurrence of angina or myocardial infarction due to obesity raises society's concern about the consumption of foods rich in fat. Therefore, a weak point from a nutritional point of view is the resistance or even the rejection that the medical community and food technicians make to this practice that requires, in its finishing, the use of vegetable oils of various types, such as margarine or even animal fats such as lard, etc.
Technical solutions, such as the use of oven, air fryer and other ways of frying without oil have been applied as an alternative, however, classic frying still has great appeal, due to its lower cost and practicality. For this reason, when it comes to classic frying by immersion, the technical environment has been looking for alternatives to increase the healthy appearance of fried foods, so that the product is “dry and crunchy”, avoiding, whenever possible, that the covering or coating presents a soft, greasy and soggy appearance.
To obtain breading results with crunchiness, it is common to purchase Panko-type breading flour, of Japanese origin, which conveys precisely this sensation to the user. This flour is obtained by the industrial processing of bread in the form of crumbs. Bread crumbs, processed with the addition of sugar and other additives, is another type of bread crumb widely used by the market. In practice, sugar helps in this effect by crystallizing when subjected to frying, thus leaving a feeling of crunchiness, however, the high absorption of oil or fats during frying is a problem that persists.
Thus, the capacity of non-absorption of oil should be highly relevant in the evaluation of the quality of a breading flour, because it is precisely this external coating that conditions the amount of oil that the breaded and fried food transmits to consumers. Unfortunately, such property is not a determining characteristic when choosing a breading flour, or because there is no technical specification in practice or in the legislation or regulation of the sector. Nor is a standardized and easily reproducible method known and applied for this characteristic to be evidenced, analyzed and applied.
This situation is very strange and difficult to understand, even in view of the obvious increase in the costs of all frying oils.
It can be said that reducing the oil absorption factor is doubly advantageous both from the point of view of the health of consumers, and for the strong and measurable savings that it allows in the entire food chain of breaded fried foods.
Thus, when facing a topic of this importance and complexity, it is always necessary to emphasize an analysis of the existing breading technologies and the origin of oil absorption in fried and breaded foods. It is quite simple to understand how the characteristic of being soaked in oil during frying basically depends on a physical fact that is obvious: the contact surface between the liquefied oil or fat.
It is known that fatty acids are low surfactant products, that is, they have reduced surface tension. Consequently, they tend to occupy the entire surface exposed to contact with oil during hot immersion, which occurs around 180° C.
Among the methods of production of breading flour in the world are:
The first, which is the traditional use of bread as a base, produced by the most different techniques, classical, ancient and precursor. Roughly speaking, it consists of adhering a uniform layer of bread flour, also known as bread crumbs, to the entire surface of the food, and then frying by immersion or grilling in a pan greased with a drizzle of olive oil. Although the procedure seems simple, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the steps so that the breading does not come loose at the time of frying or has coating failures. The process usually consists of passing the seasoned and dried food in wheat flour, beaten eggs and finally bread crumbs, frying it, preferably then in oil heated between 16° and 180° C., and then placing it on paper or on a grill. It is evident that every type of conventional bread, including loaf of bread, carries with it the qualitative advantage of well-fermented bread. However, this fermentation creates inside the bread, a series of micro and macro caves that are perfectly visible even to the naked eye. Evidently, a product of low surface tension such as a heated fatty acid tends to penetrate the interior of these micro caves, until it occupies the entire internal and external exposed surface of each grain of breading flour. Consequently, it is easy to demonstrate that the better and tastier from an organoleptic point of view, the traditional bread is, the more fermented and consequently the more contact surface it has, it becomes more soaked, absorbs a greater amount of frying oils.
The second type of breading is carried out using a flour baking technique called extrusion, widely used in the USA, and synonymous with the modern breading method in Europe and Brazil. It consists of passing bread-type dough through a food extruder at high temperature, opportunely regulated until it reaches the desired gelatinization point, generating a strong expansion of the drawn dough and high temperature that thus tends to form a series of segments with many alveoli, mainly due to the expansion of the water contained in the extruded bread dough.
Regarding the alveolate or micro-cavernous characteristic of breading flours, the main technique is the determination of the apparent density of the grains of the breading flour. In a well-fermented bread flour, it is around 0.4 and 0.5 g/cm3. In an extrusion-produced bread flour, it is around 0.3 and 0.5 g/cm3.
Through these and other various aspects and needs of the technical environment, and seeking to apply the experience acquired in the practice of manufacturing flour for special uses, the inventor developed the present invention, idealizing a process to obtain lipophobic breading flour, which consists of using a centrifugal turbo baking equipment, capable of baking and centrifuging initial cereal flour and/or mixtures thereof (preferably wheat, corn, rice, rye, barley, oats, soybeans or other types) properly moistened and enriched by the addition of iron, folic acid and annatto-type dye, subjecting them to a forced centrifugation so that the bread dough is pushed along a horizontal path, in contact with an ultra-heated wall.
The force normally and initially used for this operation, which is called “thermalization”, is around 80° C. to 100° C.
For this, in order to improve the lipophobic characteristics, a type of rotor suitable for running at a speed up to 1500 rpm was then developed. Consequently, the centrifugal force on the ground bread particles was doubled up to 200° C., thus creating a greater compression effect and an even higher bulk density that can be measured up to a value of 1.2 g/cm3.
In this way, the outer surface of the grains that make up the breading product is compacted, preventing any penetration of the frying oil into the interior of the core.
Another innovative solution that has been applied consists of saturating the internal area of the centrifugal turbo baking intended for the initial preparation of the microgranules by feeding saturated steam at 22 ATE obtained from an expressly installed boiler.
This heated steam has the dual function of gelatinizing the outer surface of each grain or micrograin of ground bread, r making it smooth and compact with better sensitivity to the centrifugation action described above.
The use of partially superheated steam is therefore of decisive importance in obtaining the claimed lipophobic characteristic.
In a breading flour produced by the process with centrifugal turbo baking equipment, the following properties are obtained: apparent density between 0.7 g/cm3 and 1.2 g/cm3, more specifically 0.8 g/cm3; actual density or specific mass between 1.2 g/cm3 and 1.5 g/cm3; more specifically 1.4 g/cm3; porosity between 20% and 60%, more specifically 40%; specific surface area between 1.0 m3/g and 1.1 m3/g, more specifically 1.03 m3/g. This is achieved through process and control parameters. Other relevant characteristics obtained with the new process reduced humidity in the final product (of a maximum of 10%) and the following granulometric ranges (% of fraction retained in sieve): ABNT no. 12 (1.40 mm opening): between 0.1% and 5.0%; ABNT sieve no. 20 (0.85 mm opening): between 4.0% and 30.0%; ABNT sieve no. 45 (0.355 mm opening): between 56.0% and 90.0%; ABNT no. 45 (0.355 mm opening): between 10.0% and 41.0%.
In addition to the properties mentioned, others are relevant and need attention, which are the morphology of the microstructure and the index of shape of the particle.
In the case of microstructure morphology, low oil absorption, without loss of crunchiness, is achieved thanks to the presence of grains with a sintered and massive structure containing two morphological types of particles: irregular lenticular and planar. The surface of lenticular particles is smooth while the surface of planar particles is slightly rough. Irregular planar particles are generally interstitial to lenticular particles.
Another important property is that agglomerates formed by lenticular particles disaggregate more easily than planar particles when biting, which promotes crunchiness during the consumption of the product.
In addition, the agglomerates have intercommunicable interstitial voids, which promotes the infiltration of the oil during frying, but its easy exit during drainage. Because planar and lenticular particles have a solid core, oil absorption does not occur.
Regarding the index of shape, the present invention predicts that the sphericity of the grains is between 0.5 and 0.9, more specifically 0.8 and the circularity is between 0.5 and 0.9, more specifically 0.7. These properties show the easy rolling between the grains of flour and the ease with which it has to drain the oil from its surface.
The invention proposed here is totally different and innovative, as it promotes the obtaining of a breading flour that provides, in breaded products, the reduction of oil/fat consumption in frying, reduce the dirtiness of the oil due to its high density, provide a dry and crunchy coating, a superior performance when the product is reheated in a conventional oven and microwave, uniform density and granulometry and versatility of products and use. In cold cuts, it gives crunchy texture to the filling and excellent palatability.
Thus, this patent was designed aiming at obtaining a process and respective product with the fewest possible steps, conveniently configured and arranged to allow the company to perform its functions with unparalleled efficiency and versatility, without the inconveniences already mentioned.
The present patent application presents a process for obtaining lipophobic breading flour with all aesthetic and functional qualities, designed and developed according to the most modern techniques, thus enabling its most varied use, from its use for the production of breading flours to its use for the production of high-density flours for special uses, as well as in industrial use in various cases.
Its design and mode of operation allows an excellent level of functionality to be obtained, offering a flexible process, having been created mainly to obtain flour and breading with the lowest possible oil absorption factor.
It is thus understood that the process for obtaining lipophobic breading flour presented here is extremely simple in its constructivity, being, therefore, easy to do, however, excellent practical and functional results are obtained, offering a differentiated constructivity c over the known breading flour manufacturing processes.
Next, for the proper understanding and comprehension of how the “PROCESS FOR PRODUCING LIPOPHOBIC BREADING FLOUR AND RESPECTIVE PRODUCT OBTAINED” is constituted, which is claimed here, the attached illustrative drawing is presented, where it is seen:
It should be noted that this figure is merely representative, and may present variations, as long as they do not deviate from what was initially required.
In accordance with what is illustrated in the figure listed above, the “PROCESS FOR PRODUCING LIPOPHOBIC BREADING FLOUR AND RESPECTIVE PRODUCT OBTAINED”, object of this patent, is essentially characterized by being a process consisting of the following steps:
As a method of realization, the product has: maximum humidity content of 10%; apparent density between 0.7 g/cm3 and 1.2 g/cm3, more specifically 0.8 g/cm3; actual density or specific mass between 1.2 g/cm3 and 1.5 g/cm3; more specifically 1.4 g/cm3; porosity between 20% and 60%, more specifically 40%; specific surface area between 1.0 m3/g and 1.1 m3/g; more specifically 1.03 m3/g. This is achieved through process and control parameters. Other relevant characteristics obtained with the new process reduced humidity in the final product (of a maximum of 10%) and the following granulometry ranges (% of fraction retained in sieve): ABNT no. 12 (1.40 mm opening): between 0.1% and 5.0%; ABNT sieve no. 20 (0.85 mm opening): between 4.0% and 30.0%; ABNT sieve no. 45 (0.355 mm opening): between 56.0% and 90.0%; ABNT no. 45 (0.355 mm opening): between 10.0% and 41.0%.
As another way of realization, it is that agglomerates formed by lenticular particles disaggregate more easily than planar particles, promoting the phenomenon of crunchiness.
As another way of realization, the agglomerates have intercommunicable interstitial voids that promote oil infiltration during frying, and rapid runoff without oil absorption by the planar and lenticular particles of solid core.
As another way of realization it is that the agglomerates formed by lenticular particles and planar particles have an index of shape, where the sphericity of the agglomerated grains is between 0.5 and 0.9, more specifically 0.8 and the circularity is between 0.5 and 0.9, more specifically 0.7.
Another way of realization is that lenticular particles have a length and/or diameter between 5 and 50 μm, more specifically 10 to 25 μm.
Another way of realization is that irregular planar particles have a length and/or diameter measuring between 2 and 100 μm, more specifically between 10 and 50 μm.
Another way of realization is that irregular planar particles have a length and/or diameter measuring between 2 and 100 μm, more specifically between 40 and 100 μm.
It can thus be seen from the foregoing that the “PROCESS FOR PRODUCING LIPOPHOBIC BREADING FLOUR AND RESPECTIVE PRODUCT OBTAINED” is characterized as a process and its resulting product that has all the practical and functional qualities that fully justify the patent application as a Privilege of Invention.
Obviously, it will be noticed that while the above has been described by way of illustrative example, all other modifications and variations made to this constructive arrangement, in the form that would apparently be to those with knowledge in the technique, are considered within the broad scope and under this Privilege of Invention, according to the following claim scope.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1020220085706 | May 2022 | BR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/BR2023/050135 | 5/3/2023 | WO |
