Corn protein product having decreased free sulfite levels and method for manufacturing same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11375736-B2
Application number	US-201716086744-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2017
Priority date	Mar 24, 2016
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

Described herein is a corn protein product comprising greater than about 20% corn protein on a dry weight basis and a free sulfite concentration of less than 150 ppm on an as-is basis. Also disclosed herein is a method to obtain this corn protein product including the steps of providing a protein-rich stream derived from a wet corn milling operation, wherein the protein-rich stream comprises greater than 20% corn protein on a dry weight basis, and treating the protein-rich stream with an oxidant, preferably hydrogen peroxide.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of treating a corn protein-rich stream, comprising:
providing a protein-rich stream derived from a wet corn milling operation, wherein the protein-rich stream comprises not less than 80% corn protein on a dry weight basis and comprises sulfite in a range of about 300 ppm to 5000 ppm on an as-is weight basis;
forming a wet cake by filtration of the protein-rich stream to provide a) a water-washed cake and b) a first filtrate;
subsequently spraying the water-washed cake with a hydrogen peroxide solution while maintaining filtration vacuum to provide a) a hydrogen peroxide treated cake and b) a second filtrate; and
harvesting the hydrogen peroxide treated cake to obtain a corn protein product having a free sulfite concentration of less than 150 ppm on an as-is basis.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the forming a wet cake step and the spraying step are carried out in the same filtration apparatus.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the forming a wet cake step and the spraying step are carried out in a drum filtration apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sulfite level of total filtrate from the method does not change when the second filtrate is added to the first filtrate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen peroxide solution is sprayed in an amount to apply from 1.8 moles to 10 moles of the hydrogen peroxide to oxidize 1 mole of free sulfite in the water-washed cake.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corn protein product has a free sulfite concentration of less than 20 ppm on an as-is basis.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corn protein product has a free sulfite concentration of less than 10 ppm on an as-is basis.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corn protein product comprises between about 90% and 98% corn protein on a dry weight basis.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corn protein product is for human and animal consumption.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the protein-rich stream comprises greater than 85% corn protein on a dry weight basis.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corn protein product has a free sulfite concentration of less than 40 ppm on an as-is basis.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the protein-rich stream comprises sulfite in a range of about 500 ppm to 900 ppm on an as-is weight basis.

Assignees

• Cargill Inc

Inventors

• Porter Michael A
• Yehia Hadi Nayef
• Zheng Guo-Hua

Classifications

• A23L5/20

  Removal of unwanted matter, e.g. deodorisation or detoxification · CPC title

• A23L5/276

  Treatment with inorganic compounds (A23L5/273 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A23J1/006

  from vegetable materials (A23J1/005, A23J1/12 and A23J1/14 take precedence) · CPC title

• A23V2002/00

  Food compositions, function of food ingredients or processes for food or foodstuffs · CPC title

• A23L5/23

  by extraction with solvents · CPC title