PROCESS FOR PREPARING LOW-CALORIE CERAL

Abstract: Low-calorie boiled cereal with reduced content in carbohydrate component, particularly in saccharide. The cereal is useful as low-calorie food for the therapy and preven­ tion of obesity and therapy of diabetes. The cereal is prepared by adding to a boiled cereal water or diluted aqueous acid heated at 60°C or higher, warming the mixture at 60°C or higher for 1 to 30 min. while maintaining viscosity of the water or diluted aqueous acid at 200 cP or below and then removing the solution. Preferably a thickener and filler, e.g. a dietary fiber, is added to the cereal.

Description: Background of the Invention 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a low-calorie cereal and a process for preparing the same. More particularly, it is concerned with a boiled granular low-calorie cereal with a reduced content in carbohydrate component and a process for preparing the same. The cereal of the invention has reduced content in carbohydrate, particularly saccharide content so that it is useful as low-calorie food for therapy and prevention of obesity as well as therapy of diabetes. 2. Description of Prior Arts In order to limit caloric intake in the therapy and prevention of obesity and the therapy of diabetes, in some cases, there has been applied intake of plain rice gruel or rice gruel with vegetables. The method is based upon reduction of caloric level per unit weight due to swelling of rice grains as a result of absorption of a large amount of water when rice is boiled into gruel. However, as starch which accounts for almost all of the saccharides in rice is converted to α-starch when rice is boiled into gruel, it becomes more digestive and utilizable in the body thereby reducing the effect of the limited caloric intake. On the other hand, there has been adopted reduction of calorie level per unit weight by intake of a filler and thickener such as dietary fibers, alone or in addition to other foods. In recent years dietary fibers have called attention because of their action improving metabolism of saccharides and lipids. The dietary fibers, however, are disadvantageous in that it is difficult to take them alone and an addition of them to other food will deteriorate taste and flavor in many cases due to their unpleasant taste and flavor. US 3,241,978 generally discloses a process for producing a quick-cooking food from hulled oats comprising soaking and rinsing operations. The product obtained has a reduced content in carbohydrate. Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 are graphs indicating cumulative removal percent of saccharide by extraction and remaining percent of saccharides in the desaccharified rice obtained in Example 1 and Example 2, respectively. Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for preparing a boiled granular low-calorie cereal in which the problems of the prior arts have been overcome, that is, caloric level per unit weight is very low, nevertheless dietary fibers can easily be taken in, and moreover, appearance, taste and flavor of which are similar to those of plain rice gruel. It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for preparing a low-calorie cereal comprising a boiled granular low-calorie cereal with reduced content in carbohydrates, particularly a reduced saccharide content and, as needed, thickeners, fillers and seasonings. According to the invention, there is provided a process for preparing a boiled granular low-calorie cereal which comprises boiling a cereal, adding to the boiled cereal water or a diluted aqueous acid at a temperature of 60°C or higher, warming the mixture at 60°C or higher for a period from 1 to 30 min. while maintaining viscosity of said water or diluted aqueous acid at 2.10⁻¹Pa.s (200 cP) or below and then removing the solution. A cereal as used herein includes rice, wheat, barley, rye, foxtail millet, barnyard grass and the like. When rice is employed as the starting material in the invention, any of whole rice, half-polished rice, 70%-polished rice, polished rice, rice with germs and alpha rice, in grain or crushed may be used. As the thickener or filler of the invention are used dietary fibers. Those which are highly soluble such as carrageenin, pectin, xanthan gum, guayule gum and arabic gum are preferable. As the seasonings may be used any one or more of the conventional ones such as salt, soybean sauce, sodium glutamate, vinegar, sweet sake (mirin), rice wine (sake) and miso. In addition, spices may be added as needed. The preparative process of the invention will be described below with reference to the use of rice as the starting material. The process may be carried out in the same way with a cereal other than rice. Raw rice, after washed, is boiled by a conventional method such as using a pressure cooker, an electronic cooker or a kettle. To the boiled rice is added a sufficient amount of water or a diluted aqueous solution of an acid such as acetic acid or phosphoric acid warmed to a temperature of 60°C or higher. The mixture is gently heated with stirring. Concentration of the acid in the solution is suitably in the range between 0.025 and 0.5%. The heating with stirring is continued for a period between 1 min. and 30 min., and the solution is removed by filtration or decantation. If the temperature of the water or the diluted aqueous solution of an acid such as acetic acid or phosphoric acid is lower than 60°C, desaccharification of the boiled rice will disadvantageously be slow. The higher-temperature and shorter-time treatment results in swelling 1.5 to 2.5 times larger than the original while keeping the rice grains in shape. By carrying out the above-described procedures once to several times, the saccharide content is extracted into the solution so that the calorie level per unit weight becomes much lower than boiled rice. Removal of the saccharides by extraction may also be effected by circulating water or a diluted aqueous acid such as acetic acid or phosphoric acid warmed to 60°C or higher in an extraction tank. In the desaccharification of boiled rice it is necessary to maintain viscosity of a saccharide-extraction solution not higher than 2.10⁻¹Pa.s (200 cP). If viscosity of the extraction solution exceeds the above level, shearing force applied to the rice grains will be so large that they will be apt to be deformed and separation of the rice grains from the solution will be difficult. Separation of rice grains from the liquid portion by means of a 0,84 mm (20-mesh) screen is difficult even with usual 50 : 50 plain rice gruel. Then, permeability through the screen and degree of the transformation of rice into gruel were compared under various viscosity conditions of the extract. To 650 g of polished rice was added 1 lit. of water, and the mixture was boiled in an electric cooker in a conventional way. There was produced 1450 g of boiled rice. The boiled rice was divided into 350 g portions which were each placed in six 3 lit. kettles. To the kettles were added 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5 and 2 lit. of water, respectively. The kettles were then put over a slow fire for 30 min. Permeability through the screen and degree of the transformation of rice into gruel of the saccharide extract were compared using the six samples thus obtained. The results are shown in Table 1. As seen from Table 1, the rice grains are hardly deformed and easily separated from the liquid portion when viscosity of the extract is 2.10⁻¹Pa.S (200 cP) or lower, desirably 10⁻¹Pa.s (100 cP) or lower. Water added (lit.) Permeability through the screen Viscosity 10⁻³Pa.s (cp) Degree of the transformation into gruel 0,84 mm 0,50 mm 0,149 mm 0.5 X X X Not measurable Transformed 0.75 ○ X X 210 Transformed 1.0 ○ X X 152 1.25 O ○ ○ ○ 62 1.5 O ○ O ○ ○ 25 2.0 O ○ O ○ ○ 18 Permeability through the screen: X...Poor ○ ...Good O ○ ...Excellent According to the above method, it is usually possible to reduce remaining percent of carbohydrates to 80% by weight or lower. To the boiled rice desaccharified in such a way as described above is added an aqueous solution containing 0.1% - 10% of one or more of the above-mentioned dietary fibers in a volume 0.5 to 5 times as much, and the mixture is heated with stirring. In general, the temperature at which the heating is made is desirably 60°C or higher though it may be varied depending upon solubility of the dietary fibers employed. The heating time is desirably from 1 min. to 5 min. Finally, one or more of the above-mentioned seasonings are added to give a flavor to be fixed depending upon need for the therapy or patient's liking. The invention will be described in more details below by way of examples and test examples. Example 1 To 320 g of polished rice after washed was added 480 ml of water, and the mixture was boiled in an electric cooker. To the boiled rice was added 2 lit. of water heated to 90°C, and the mixture was gently stirred for 5 min. while being heated. Then, the solution is removed by decantation. The above procedures were repeated three times in total. The solution and the rice grains produced at each operational stage were measured for saccharide concentration (in terms of glucose) by the phenol-sulfuric acid method to determine cumulative removal percent of saccharides by extraction and remaining percent of saccharides. The results are shown in Fig. 1. As seen in Fig. 1, the above procedures resulted not only in removal of approximately 50% of the saccharides but also in swelling of the rice grains approximately twice as much in volume. Next, 20 solutions of dietary fibers were prepared in 20 beakers each containing 50 ml of water heated at 80°C in which were dissolved 0.05 g, 0.1 g, 0.5 g, 1 g and 5 g of carrageenin, xanthan gum, pectin and arabic gum (manufactured by San-ei Kagaku), respectively. To each of the solutions was added 50 g of the desaccharified boiled rice, and the mixture was heated at 90°C for 5 min. and allowed to cool at room temperature for 10 min. An organoleptic test was performed for flavor with the 20 samples thus obtained. The results are shown in Table 2. As the amount of dietary fibers added was increased, gelation became greater and flavor was worse, though being varied also depending upon nature of the dietary fibers. Addition of 0.1 g or 0.5 g of carrageenin or 0.05 g of pectin produced excellent flavor. Example 2 160 g of polished rice was washed and then 240 ml of water was added thereto, and the mixture was boiled in an electric cooker. To a half of the boiled rice was added 1 lit. of 0.01% aqueous acetic acid heated to 90°C, and the mixture was gently stirred for 5 min. while being heated. The solution was then removed by decantation. The above procedures were repeated three times in total. The solution produced at each operational stage was measured for saccharide by the phenol-sulfuric acid method to determine cumulative removal percent by extraction of saccharides from the boiled rice and remaining percent of saccharides in the rice. The results are shown in Fig. 2. As seen from Fig. 2, the above procedures resulted not only in removal of approximately 45% of the saccharides but also in swelling of the rice grains approximately twice as much in volume. To 100 g of the desaccharified boiled rice was added 100 ml of a solution in which 0.5 g of carrageenin had been dissolved, and the mixture was heated with stirring at 90°C for 5 min. To the resulting mixture were added 1 g of salt, 0.25 g of sugar and 0.05 g of sodium glutamate for seasoning to produce a low-calorie gruel-like food. Separately, to 100 g of the above-prepared boiled rice was added 150 ml of water, and the mixture was heated over a slow fire for approximately 45 min. To the resulting mixture were added 1 g of salt, 0.25 g of sugar and 0.05 g of sodium glutamate for seasoning to produce a plain rice gruel. An organoleptic test was performed by eleven persons on the low-calorie gruel-like food for appearance, taste and flavor taking the plain rice gruel obtained above as standard. The results are shown in Table 3. As seen in Table 3, the low-calorie gruel-like food was judged as equivalent to gruel for appearance, taste and flavor.

Claims: A process for preparing a low-calorie cereal which comprises boiling a cereal, adding to the boiled cereal water or a diluted aqueous acid heated at a temperature of 60°C or higher, warming the mixture at 60°C or higher for a period from 1 to 30 min. while maintaining viscosity of said water or diluted aqueous acid at 2.10⁻¹Pa.s or below and then removing the solution. A process according to Claim 1 wherein the water or diluted aqueous acid is circulated in the system. A process according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the cereal is rice. A process according to any of claims 1 to 3 comprising the addition to the boiled cereal of a thickener and filler. A process according to Claim 4 wherein the thickener and filler is a dietary fiber, preferably highly soluble. A process according to any of the preceeding claims comprising the addition to the boiled cereal of seasonings. A process according Claim 6, wherein the seasonings are one or more members selected from the group consisting of salt, soybean sauce, miso and sodium glutamate.

Inventors: OHTA, ATSUTANE
Applicants: TERUMO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1987
Main classification: A23L1
IPC codes: A23L1