Process for producing a butter-like food fat

A butter-like food fat being directly spreadable at refrigeration temperature, i.e. 4 to 5.degree. C., and preferably containing 80 to 83% fat is produced by addition of vegetable oil, water, and salt. Initially conventional butter is produced, which preferably contains 80 to 83% fat and which is made exclusively from milk. Subsequently, the conventional butter is passed continuously through a tight, closed plant, whereby the butter initially passes through a kneading station followed by addition of half the total amount of added vegetable oil. Then the butter mixture passes through a mixer, whereafter the remaining portion of the amount of added vegetable oil and water and salt are added. In this manner buttermilk results exclusively as a by-product from the production of the conventional butter and contains therefore nothing but pure milk fat. Accordingly, the buttermilk can be used as market milk and sold at the highest possible market price. In addition, a particularly high production flexibility is obtained during the production of butter.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The invention relates to a process for producing a butter-like food fat, 
which is directly spreadable at refrigeration temperature, i.e. 4 to 
5.degree. C., and which preferably contains 80 to 83% fat, said process 
including addition of vegetable and/or animal oil, where butter-milk is 
produced as a by-product. 
BACKGROUND ART 
For instance Danish Printed Accepted Application No. 152.245 discloses a 
process of the above type, where the main portion of the total amount of 
added vegetable and/or animal oil is added and mixed with conventionally 
soured or unsoured cream before the churning, whereafter the remaining 
amount of vegetable and/or animal oil is added at the kneading station of 
the butter machine. The resulting ready-made butter-like food fat contains 
an amount of 15 to 30% of vegetable and/or animal oil. The addition of the 
major portion of the vegetable and/or animal oil to the cream before the 
churning has the effect that some of the oil is lost in the buttermilk 
always being a by-product of the butter production. Therefore, the 
buttermilk contains vegetable and/or animal fat not being butter fat. In 
addition, it is necessary to reduce the churning temperature to 5 to 
6.degree. C., which is too low for ensuring the lowest possible 
consumption of energy in the butter machine and the lowest possible loss 
of fat in the buttermilk. The content of foreign fat/oil in the buttermilk 
prevents said buttermilk from being used as a market product, and 
therefore it can only be used as a feedstuff product. Accordingly, the 
market price of the buttermilk is reduced to a minimum. 
GB-A-2 021 140 discloses a process for producing a butter-like food fat 
being well spreadable at refrigeration temperature from ready-made butter 
by admixing vegetable oils and stabilizer to said butter during a heating 
of the mixture to 30 to 35.degree. C. According to the publication it is 
necessary that the stabilizer is admixed water and added to the softened 
butter before the vegetable oil is added to the mixture. 
The consistency of the butter-like food fat is softer than the consistency 
of conventional butter, and therefore it is necessary to use plastic cups 
as packing for the butter-like food fat, other materials, such as an 
aluminium sheet, being unacceptable as packing. In order to utilize the 
total capacity of a butter machine it is therefore necessary that the same 
capacity applies to the succeeding cup-filling line for the butter-like 
food fat as the capacity applying to the aluminium sheet-packing line for 
the conventional butter, only one line being usable at a time by such a 
procedure. 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION 
The process according to the present invention is characterised by 
continuously passing conventional butter preferably containing 80 to 83% 
fat and exclusively being produced from milk through a tight, closed 
plant, whereby the butter initially passes through a kneading station and 
subsequently through a mixing station, where the vegetable and/or animal 
oil as well as water are added. In this manner the buttermilk results 
exclusively as a by-product from the production of a conventional butter, 
and accordingly it only contains pure milk fat. The resulting buttermilk 
can be used as a market product and sold at the highest possible market 
price. Furthermore it is possible to optimize the initial production of 
conventional butter so as to involve the lowest possible consumption of 
energy and loss of fat in connection with a 100% butter capacity, and the 
conventional butter can be advanced according to desire for packing or for 
further processing so as to allow production of the butter-like food fat 
followed by packing. In this manner it is possible on the same production 
plant to simultaneously produce conventional butter and the butter-like 
food fat. The butter-like food fat does not contain any emulsifier, 
stabilizer or other "chemical" additive, which today is of increasing 
importance to the consumers. 
According to the invention the first portion of the total amount of added 
vegetable and/or animal oil is added before the butter mixture passes 
through a first mixing means, and the remaining portion of the vegetable 
and/or animal oil is subsequently added before the butter mixture passes 
through a ready-mixing means. As a result, a particularly lenient mixing 
of the butter and the oil and the water is obtained together with a 
particularly good and uniform distribution of the oil and the water in the 
butter. 
Furthermore according to the invention the water may in a particularly 
advantageous manner be added to the butter mixture immediately before said 
mixture passes through the ready-mixing means. 
Moreover according to the invention, salt may in a particularly 
advantageous manner be added to the butter mixture immediately before said 
mixture passes through the ready-mixing means. 
According to the invention, 15 to 30% of vegetable fat, 16% of water, and 
0.8 to 1.2% of salt may be added to the butter mixture, whereby a 
butter-like food fat is obtained which presents a particularly good 
spreadability at refrigeration temperature as well as particularly good 
taste properties. 
Finally according to the invention, half the total amount of added 
vegetable oil may be added before the butter mixture passes through the 
first mixing means, whereby a particularly advantageous mixing of the 
vegetable oil is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
The invention is explained in greater detail below with reference to a 
particularly preferred example and the accompanying drawing, in which a 
flow chart is shown for the particularly preferred example of the process 
for producing a butter-like food fat. 
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 
Following the flow chart shown in the drawing the process according to the 
invention involves the steps of initially producing conventional butter 
preferably containing 80 to 83% fat and exclusively being made from milk. 
The butter is produced by means of any suited butter production machine, 
such as the one described in PCT/DK90/00284. A by-product in form of 
buttermilk results from the butter production, the fat of said buttermilk 
exclusively being pure milk fat. 
The freshly produced butter is then advanced continuously either to a 
packing line, where the butter is packed in sheet in a conventionally 
known manner, or further through a tight, closed plant for the production 
of the butter-like food fat which is directly spreadable at refrigeration 
temperature, i.e. 4 to 5.degree. C., and preferably contains 80 to 83% 
fat. 
The tight, closed plant may for instance be a plant like the one described 
in PCT/DK90/00284, to be used for the production of low-fat butter, said 
plant, however, being provided with a number of flowmeters and setting 
units so as to achieve the desired composition of the ready-made 
butter-like food fat. 
By the process according to the invention, the conventional butter passes 
initially through a kneading station, whereafter a first portion of a 
total amount of added vegetable oil is added. The first portion amounts to 
approximately 80% of the total amount of added vegetable oil. 
Subsequently, the butter mixture passes through a first mixing means, 
preferably a known mixer, whereafter the remaining portion of the total 
amount of added vegetable oil is added together with water as well as 
other possible additives, such as salt and possible flavours. 
Then the butter mixture continues through a ready-mixing means, which may 
also be a known mixer. The ready-made butter-like food fat is then 
advanced to a packing station, where the butter must be filled into cups 
due to its softness. 
The ready-made butter-like food fat contains 80 to 83% fat, 15 to 30% 
thereof being vegetable fat, 16% being water and 0.8 to 1.2% being salt. 
Salt can, however, be added in amounts up to 2.5% according to desire. 
Flow-meters and setting units measure and set the first portion of the 
total amount of added vegetable oil, the remaining portion of the total 
amount of added vegetable oil, the amount of water, and the amount of 
salt, as well as the amount of ready-made butter-like food fat in order to 
obtain the desired proportions of vegetable fat, water, and salt in the 
ready-made butter-like food fat. The amount of salt is usually added to 
the water in an amount corresponding to the amount of salt in the 
water-phase of the butter mixture, and a desired salt content of for 
instance 1% in the ready-made butter necessitates an amount of salt in the 
water of 6.25% relative to an amount of water of 16%. 
In this manner the buttermilk exclusively results as a by-product from the 
production of the conventional butter, and accordingly it only contains 
pure milk fat, said buttermilk always resulting as a by-product from the 
churning during the production of butter. Therefore the buttermilk can be 
used as a market product and sold at the highest possible market price. 
Furthermore it is possible to optimize the initial production of 
conventional butter so as to involve the lowest possible consumption of 
energy and loss of fat in connection with a 100% butter capacity, and the 
conventional butter can be advanced according to desire for packing or for 
further processing so as to allow production of the butter-like food fat 
followed by packing. In this manner it is possible on the same production 
plant to simultaneously produce conventional butter and the butter-like 
food fat. 
In addition it should be mentioned, that the churning of butter during the 
production of the conventional butter can now be performed under the 
optimum temperatures usually applying to production of butter unlike the 
previous processes for the production of butter-like food fat. Previously, 
it was necessary to reduce the temperature to 4 to 5.degree. C. which 
involved a considerably increased consumption of energy in the butter 
machine. 
Many modifications can be carried out without thereby deviating from the 
scope of the invention. Other additives, such as lactic starters, may for 
instance also be added in the mixing station.