Tomato-derived thickening agent

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10477885-B2
Application number	US-201514880826-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2015
Priority date	May 3, 2010
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

The present invention provides a tomato-derived thickening agent, said agent being characterized in that, on a dry weight basis, it contains: 0.1-3 wt. % of lycopene; 14-34 wt. % of protein; 11-35 wt. % of pectin; 17-39 wt. % of sugars selected from fructose, glucose, and combinations thereof. The invention further relates to a process for preparing a tomato-derived thickening agent and to the use of such a thickening agent in food products such as tomato ketchup, tomato-based sauces, pizza sauce, tomato soup and tomato juice.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for preparing a tomato-derived thickening agent comprising the steps of:
a. providing a tomato pulp containing 3-15 wt. % tomato soluble solids (TSS) and 0.3-5 wt. % tomato insoluble solids (TIS);
b. isolating from said tomato pulp a tomato serum fraction having a reduced TIS content of less than 2.0 wt. % and a TSS content of at least 3 wt. %;
c. subjecting said tomato serum fraction to a filtration step to produce a retentate and a filtrate, said filtration step employing a membrane with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) in the range of 10-20,000 kDa;
d. collecting the retentate; and
e. drying the retentate to obtain the tomato-derived thickening agent.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the tomato serum fraction is isolated from the tomato pulp by means of a solid-liquid separation technique selected from centrifugation, decanting, sieving, filtration and combinations thereof.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dried retentate is combined with another tomato derived fraction that is obtained as a high solids fraction during isolation step b), said high solids fraction having a TIS content of at least 50% of by weight of dry matter.

4. The process according to claim 3 , wherein the high solids fractions has a TIS content of at least 70% of by weight of dry matter.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the tomato pulp comprises one or more tomato materials selected from tomato paste, tomato puree, and tomato juice.

6. The process according to claim 5 , wherein the tomato pulp is tomato paste and/or tomato puree diluted with water.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dried retentate is dried to a water content of less than 20 wt. %.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the retentate is dried to produce a free-flowing powder having a mass weighted average diameter in the range of 10-300 μm.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the serum fraction is diluted or concentrated prior to being subjected to step c).

Assignees

• Conopco Inc

Inventors

• Dubbleman Sander
• Mavroudis Nikolaos
• Oliehoek Leandro

Classifications

• A23L29/231

  Pectin; Derivatives thereof · CPC title

• A23L29/206

  of vegetable origin · CPC title

• A23L29/20 Primary

  containing gelling or thickening agents (marmalades, jams, jellies or other similar fruit or vegetable compositions A23L21/10) · CPC title

• A23L27/63

  Ketchup · CPC title

• A23L19/09

  Mashed or comminuted products, e.g. pulp, purée, sauce, or products made therefrom, e.g. snacks (A23L19/01, A23L19/10, A23L27/63 and A23L21/00 take precedence) · CPC title