Europaisches Patentamt 0 326 294 European Patent Office © Publication number: A1 Office europeen des brevets © EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION © Application number: 89300551.2 © Int. CI.4: A23L 1/04 , A23L 1/325 , A23L 1/31 , A23P 1/00 © Date of filing: 20.01.89 §) Priority: 22.01.88 JP 13155/88 © Applicant: Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. 27, Doshomachi 2-chome Higashi-ku 5) Date of publication of application: Osaka-shi Osaka, 541 (JP) 02.08.89 Bulletin 89/31 @ Inventor: Konno, Akira §) Designated Contracting States: 284, Oaza-Takahama Shimamoto-cho AT BE CH DE ES FR GB GR IT LI LU NL SE Mishima-gun Osaka 618(JP) Inventor: lida, Atsu 13-23, Seimeidohri Abeno-ku Osaka 545(JP) © Representative: Lewin, John Harvey et al ELKINGTON AND FIFE Beacon House 113 Kingsway London WC2B 6PP(GB) © Shaped foods of fish or meat and production thereof. © Shaped foods are produced by mixing a curdlan with small pieces of fish or meat, shaping the mix- ture and heating the shaped material for binding said small pieces. The thus obtained shaped foods have superior texture and appearance. < CM CO CM CO O Qm HI Xerox Copy Centre I EP 0 326 294 A1 Shaped Foods of Fish or Meat and Production Thereof This invention relates to shaped foods pre- page 196 (1966)], the produced by the mutant pared by mixing a curdlan to small pieces of fish or NTK-u (IFO 13140) of Alcaligenes faecalis var. nneat, shaping the mixture and heating the shaped myxogenes 10C3K (Japanese Patent Publication material. No. 32673/1973, U.S. Patent 3,822,250) and the Recently, the number of people who have 5 curdlan produced by Agrobacterium radiobacter sp. meals in the so-called "one dinner and four (IFO 13127) and its mutant U-19 (IFO 13126) snacks" manner is increasing. Thus, people who (Japanese Patent Publication No. 32674/1973, U.S. take meals in that manner have a dinner only once Patent 3,822,250), for instance, are usable. When a day and, for the rest, have four snacks or light cultivated in the conventional manner, generally meais at pleasure depending on the extent to w under aerobic conditions, using, as nutrient sour- which they feel hungry, without 'sticking to any ces, carbon sources, nitrogen sources, inorganics particular time and/or place as far as circumstances and so forth, such microorganisms produce a curd- permit. Hand in hand with such tendency, various lan usable in the practice of the invention. The snack foods have come into the market. Some of thus-produced curdlan can be recovered from the them, called sheet foods or film foods, for instance, 75 cultures generally by appropriately utilizing such are very different in shape from the conventional means as dissolution, filtration, neutralization, wash- snack foods. ing with water, dehydration and drying. For in- Generally, snack foods should be characterized stance, a culture broth containing a curdlan usable in that they are fashionable and can be eaten in the practice of the invention is supplemented smartly at any time and at any place. Snack foods 20 with an alkali, such as an aqueous sodium hydrox- currently on the market are anyhow reflecting the ide solution, the mixture is stirred to an extent endeavors made to make them have such char- sufficient for dissolution and then subjected to such acteristic features. As yet, however, few are sat- treatment as centrifugation or filter press filtration isfactory from the quality viewpoint. Thus, in the using a filter aid, the thus-obtained clear and trans- • case of the conventional sheet foods, for instance, 25 parent filtrate is neutralized with an acid, such as some are readily broken on the occasion of eating hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid or acetic acid, and while others are too hard, hence difficult to eat. the resulting gel-like precipitate is collected by Moreover, such snack foods may be readily broken centrifugation, washed with water and spray-dried during carrying and this is unfavorable from the to give the curdlan as a white or off-white powder. product appearance viewpoint. 30 Generally, the fish or meat to be used in the Under these circumstances, the present inven- practice of the invention is not limited to any par- tors made intensive investigations in an attempt to ticular species provided that it is an edible one make improvements in quality features, such as obtainable in the form of small pieces or processed texture and appearance, of certain snack foods, into the form of small pieces. Typical examples of namely snack foods produced by using fish or 35 the fish, meat or the like product usable in the meats as raw materials and, as a result, found that practice of the invention are given hereinbelow. As shaped foods obtained by mixing a curdlan with fishery products, there may be mentioned various small pieces of fish or meat for binding said small kinds of roe (e.g. herring roe, cod roe, shishamo pieces have good quality features as snack foods. smelt, salmon roe, salted salmon roe), crustaceans Further investigations based on this finding have 40 (e.g. crab, lobster, shrimp, sea-urchin), fish (e.g. now led to completion of the present invention. codfish, young of sardines, bonito, smelt whiting), Thus, the invention provides 1) a shaped food shellfish (e.g. abalone, short neck clam, scallop), produced from small pieces of fish or meat by and so forth. Examples of the meat are beef, pork, shaping and binding with a curdlan and 2) a meth- chicken, fowl, mutton, lamb and horsemeat. Al- od of producing shaped foods which comprises 45 though the fish or meat may be used in the raw mixing a curdlan with small pieces of fish or meat, state, it is generally used suitably in the cooked or shaping the mixture and heating the shaped ma- processed form. For instance, it is used after such terial for binding said small pieces. treatment as drying, salting, smoking or heating or The "curdlan" is a generaly name of theremo- in the form of a finished processed food, such as a geiable #-1 ,3-glucan-type polysaccharides, which so product made with fish paste, minced meat or the are produced by microorganisms such as strains of like (e.g. boiled fish paste, ham, sausage), a deli- the genus Alcaligenes or Agrobacterium. Thus, cacy (e.g. gourmet foods based on jellyfish, red more specifically, the curdlan produced by Al- pepper-seasoned walleye pollack roe, jerky), a caligenes faecalis var. myxogenes 10C3K product boiled in sweetened soy sauce (e.g. shell- (Agricultural and Biological Chemistry, vol. 30, fish, shrimp, tangle, fish or beef boiled with soy 2 I :P 0 326 294 A1 sauce, sugar and ginger) or a canned food (e.g. plates to a desired size ana snape may De em- laked tuna). ployed. The small pieces as so referred to herein in- The shapings are then heated for binding said clude those naturally occurring as such, for exam- small pieces. This heating may be made by an jle roe and small fish (e.g. the young of sardines}, 5 appropriate method, such as direct heating, water and those resulting from processing and having bath • heating, oil bath heating or heating under dimensions of, for example, 1-30 mm (thickness) x pressure, in a manner such that the shapings can >-30 1-100 mm (length). be heated to a temperature above about 55 C, mm (width) x ° In accordance with the invention, the small preferably above 70 C, more preferably above pieces of fish or meat are mixed with a curdlan in 'o 80 *C, whereby the binding of said small pieces he presence of water, shaping the mixture as proceeds by the intermediary of the curdlan. The desire, and heating for binding said small pieces, heating time should suitably be selected depending rhe curdlan is added generally in the form of a on the size of the shapings. Usually, the preferably dispersion in water, a liquid seasoning or the like. heating time is about 0.5 - 30 minutes. In this way, Mien water is present on the small piece surface rs the small pieces are bound together by the binding n an amount sufficient to wet and moisten the action -of a curdlan to give the shaped food accord- Durdlan, it may be added in the form of a powder, ing to the invention with a certain given shape and n each case, the curdlan should preferably be size. Dresent in the form of an aqueous mixture contain- The shaped food according to the invention ng about 1 -23% by weight on the surface of small ?o may serve as a snack food either as such or in Dieces of fish or meat. The curdlan is used in an combination with one or more other food materials. amount suitably selected depending on the ma- For instance, the shapings obtained by shaping terial to which it is added, generally in an amount and binding into plates may serve as a kind of Df 0.1-25% by weight, preferably in an amount of snack food for easy eating or may be used in D.2-10% by weight, more preferably in an amount 25 preparing sandwich by inserting said plate-like Df 1-5% by weight, based on the final product. For shaping between two slices of bread, for instance. this purpose, usually about 10-100 parts by weight The shaped food according to the invention is of said aqueous dispersion of curdlan is mixed with characterized in that it has a certain desired shape 1 00 parts by weight of small pieces of fish or meat.