JP7121267B2 - carbonation enhancer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a carbonic acid enhancer.

The demand for carbonated drinks has been around for a long time, and its history is said to date back to BC. Even today, it is a particularly popular beverage and is the most produced soft drink item in Japan. Carbonated beverages are characterized by a stimulus that gives a unique refreshing or cool feeling when the mouth and throat are pleasantly stimulated when drunk, that is, a carbonic acid sensation. In particular, it is known that irritating sensations expressed as fizzy sensations, tingling sensations, tingling sensations, and the like are caused by chemical irritation caused by dissolved carbon dioxide and cannot be detected unless the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide is high to some extent. The combination of this chemical stimulus and the physical stimulus including the sound and pressure when foaming/breaking creates a refreshing feeling unique to carbonated beverages. However, the carbon dioxide in the packaged beverage inevitably causes the peculiar stimulus of the carbonated beverage, that is, the carbonated feeling to decrease over time due to release of dissolved gas due to release of pressure and rise in temperature immediately after opening.

On the other hand, it is also difficult to simply increase the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in the beverage to enhance the stimulus from the standpoint of pressure resistance performance of the container and safety at the time of opening. Under these circumstances, various means for enhancing the feeling of carbonation without relying on dissolved carbon dioxide have been proposed. For example, a carbonated drink (Patent Document 1) characterized by adding spiranthol or a plant extract or plant essential oil containing spiranthol so that the spiranthol content is 5 to 150 ppb, and a pungent ingredient as an active ingredient. and a pungent component added to the final product at a concentration in the range of 1/10 or more of the pungent threshold to less than the pungent threshold (Patent Document 2). A carbonated beverage that satisfies the following requirements (1) to (5), (1) has a sweetness of 2 or less, and (2) contains one or more ingredients selected from the group consisting of caffeine, quasin, and naringin. (3) The bitterness (A) represented by [caffeine concentration (% by weight) + quasine concentration (% by weight) x 10000 + naringin concentration (% by weight) x 3.3] is 0.0001 to 0 .055, (4) acidity (B) is 0.01 to 0.2, and (5) ratio (A/B) of bitterness (A) to acidity (B) is 0.01 to 1.1, a container-packed low-sweetness carbonated beverage with enhanced carbonation (Patent Document 3) and the like have been proposed.

Japanese Patent No. 4679132 JP 2010-068749 A JP 2017-104046 A

As described above, it is known to use a pungent substance or a bitter substance as a carbonic acid enhancer. It was necessary to adjust the addition amount for other reasons. For this reason, problems still existed, such as that a sufficient effect cannot be obtained in combination with the substance to be added, or that the influence on the flavor of the beverage cannot be avoided in order to obtain the effect. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a carbonic acid sensation enhancer that has little effect on the flavor of carbonated beverages.

The inventors of the present invention have investigated various materials for the effect of enhancing carbonic acid sensation, and have found a carbonic acid sensation enhancer that has less influence on beverages due to its own flavor. That is, the present invention provides a carbonic acid enhancer containing a pepper fruit extract as an active ingredient.

Since the extract of peppercorns of the present invention itself does not have a strong flavor, it does not adversely affect the flavor of beverages, and makes it possible to enhance carbonic acidity and suppress a decrease in carbonic acidity over time.

The present invention is a carbonation enhancer for enhancing the carbonation of carbonated beverages, which contains an extract of Peppercorn as an active ingredient.

The Peppercorn (Schinus molle L.) fruit used in the present invention is the ripe fruit of the dried Peppercorn, commonly marketed as Pink Pepper and having a shape resembling red pepper. . It has a weak aroma and no pungent taste, so it is mainly used as a color for cooking.

In the present invention, the pepper fruit is extracted with a solvent. Use the extract. In order to increase the extraction efficiency, it is preferable to crush, pulverize, or grind the pepper seeds before extraction, but the particle size and particle size distribution may be appropriately set in consideration of the efficiency of the subsequent solid-liquid separation. . Since the pepper itself has a small particle size, the main purpose is to avoid a decrease in extraction efficiency due to the pericarp, and it is generally crushed to a particle size equivalent to roughly grinding spices. It can be prepared by extracting from the raw material by any method. Specific examples thereof include immersion extraction, stirring extraction, continuous extraction, and countercurrent extraction, but stirring extraction is preferred because it is simple and efficient. As the extraction solvent, water or a mixed solvent of water and a hydrophilic solvent is mainly used. A particularly preferable hydrophilic solvent is ethanol, and it is most preferable to use hydrous ethanol which is a mixed solvent with water. Although the concentration of hydrous ethanol can be selected arbitrarily, it is preferably in the range of 40 to 60% by volume. There are no particular restrictions on the extraction temperature during heat extraction, but extraction is generally carried out at a temperature below the boiling point of the extraction solvent under atmospheric pressure because no special extraction apparatus is required. A specific extraction temperature is 40 to 100°C, more preferably 50 to 80°C. The extraction time varies depending on conditions such as the raw material/solvent ratio, extraction temperature, raw material particle size, etc., but is determined in consideration of the extraction efficiency per hour, as in ordinary solvent extraction. The liquid after extraction is solid-liquid separated. Any solid-liquid separation method may be used, generally by filtration. At the time of filtration, the separation efficiency can be increased by adding a filter aid, but the method of using the filter aid may be any method. Filtration time can be shortened by pressure filtration. The filtrate can be used as the agent as it is, but when it is obtained by water extraction, ethanol or the like can be added to maintain the quality. The extract can also be concentrated, and any method such as heating under reduced pressure, membrane concentration, freeze concentration, etc. can be selected as the concentration method.

The carbonic acid sensation enhancer of the present invention can be used in combination with other carbonic acid sensation enhancers as long as they do not affect the flavor of the beverage. The carbonic acid sensation enhancer of the present invention can also be mixed with other food additives. The other food additives referred to here are additives that can be used in carbonated beverages, such as sweeteners, acidulants, coloring agents, flavoring agents, vitamins, minerals, other nutritional enhancing ingredients, and antioxidants. etc.

The carbonation enhancer of the present invention is used in carbonated beverages. Any carbonated beverage can be used as long as it is a carbonated beverage in which additives can be used. Specific examples include carbonated soft drinks, carbonated milk drinks, carbonated flavored waters, carbonated fruit juice drinks, and carbonated alcoholic drinks.

The amount of the carbonic acid enhancer of the present invention to be added to the carbonated beverage is generally 1 to 500 ppm, more preferably 10 to 100 ppm, based on the weight of the carbonated beverage. In addition, a range of 1 ppb to 500 ppm, more preferably 10 ppb to 1 ppm, is presented in terms of the mass ratio of carbonated beverages in terms of the fruit of raw pepper. More specifically, a range of 1 to 500 ppm, more preferably 1 to 100 ppm, by weight relative to the carbonated beverage is suggested for the hot water extract. In addition, when the amount of the water extract to be added is converted to the fruit of the raw material Peppercorn, it is presented in the range of 12 ppb to 6 ppm , more preferably 12 ppb to 1.2 ppm, in mass ratio to the carbonated beverage. Furthermore, for example, in the case of an extract extracted with 50% by volume of water-containing ethanol, the specific addition amount to carbonated beverages is 0.1 to 1000 ppm in mass ratio with respect to carbonated beverages. Preferably a range of 10-500 ppm is presented. When the added amount of the water-containing ethanol extract is converted to the starting pepper fruit, it is presented in the range of 1 ppb to 10 ppm, more preferably 100 ppb to 5 ppm, in mass ratio to the carbonated beverage.

(Production example of pepper fruit extract)
Peppercorns were coarsely ground, 50 g of which was charged into an extraction kettle, and 3500 g of water was added. After that, the mixture was extracted with stirring at 80° C. for 90 minutes and then cooled to room temperature. The cooled extract was extracted from the extraction vessel, diatomaceous earth was added, and the mixture was stirred, and then filtered by pressure filtration. Ethanol was added to the obtained filtrate to obtain 4200 g of a carbonic acid enhancer.

(Carbonation enhancement effect test)
The carbonated sensation enhancer obtained above was added to a carbonated beverage, and a sensory test was performed to confirm a change in the carbonated sensation. As the carbonated drinks, a vitamin-containing carbonated drink and a milky carbonated drink were used. The sensory evaluation was performed by a panel of five experts according to the following criteria, and the scores were averaged. Table 1 shows the results.
(Evaluation method)
Compared to the control, the feeling of carbonation is stronger (5 points)
Carbonated feeling is slightly strong (3 points)
Feeling of carbonic acid remained unchanged or weakened (0 points)

As a result of the sensory test, as shown in Table 1, the addition of the carbonic acid sensation enhancer of the present invention was found to enhance carbonic acid sensation in both vitamin-containing carbonated beverages and lactic carbonated beverages having different properties. It was confirmed that the carbonic acid sensation enhancer of the present invention is a hot water extract and that addition of 1 ppm provides a sufficient carbonic acid sensation enhancement effect. Moreover, although the effect was recognized up to the addition of 500 ppm, it was confirmed that although the enhancement effect was obtained when the addition amount was increased, it tended to decrease slightly. From this, it was determined that the addition amount of the carbonic acid enhancer of the present invention is more preferably in the range of 1 ppm to 100 ppm in terms of hot water extract. The amount added at this time was 12 ppb to 6 ppm , more preferably 12 ppb to 1.2 ppm, in terms of raw pepper. From this, it was determined that the preferable addition rate when converted to the mass of the raw material pepper is 10 ppb to 10 ppm, and the more preferable range is 10 ppb to 1 ppm.

(Production example of pepper fruit extract)
Peppercorns were coarsely ground, 50 g of which was placed in an extraction vessel, and 5 kg of 50% by volume hydrous ethanol was added as an extraction solvent. After that, extraction was performed at 60° C. for 60 minutes while stirring, and then the mixture was cooled to room temperature. The cooled extract was taken out from the extraction pot, diatomaceous earth was added, and the mixture was stirred and then filtered by pressure filtration to obtain 5 kg of a carbonic acid enhancer.

(Carbonation enhancement effect test)
The carbonated sensation enhancer obtained above was added to a carbonated beverage, and a sensory test was performed to confirm a change in the carbonated sensation. As the carbonated drinks, a vitamin-containing carbonated drink and a milky carbonated drink were used. The sensory evaluation was performed by a panel of five experts according to the following criteria, and the scores were averaged. Table 2 shows the results.
(Evaluation method)
Compared to the control, the feeling of carbonation is stronger (5 points)
Carbonated feeling is slightly strong (3 points)
Feeling of carbonic acid remained unchanged or weakened (0 points)

As a result of the sensory test, as shown in Table 2, the addition of the carbonic acid feeling enhancer of the present invention was found to enhance the carbonic acid feeling effect. It was confirmed that the addition of 0.1 ppm of the extract of the carbonic acid enhancer of the present invention provides a sufficient effect of enhancing the carbonic acid sensation. Moreover, although the effect was observed up to the addition of 1,000 ppm, it was confirmed that although the enhancement effect was obtained when the addition amount was increased, it tended to decrease slightly. From this, it was determined that the addition amount of the carbonic acid enhancer of the present invention should preferably be in the range of 10 ppm to 500 ppm in terms of hydroalcoholic extract. The amount added at this time was 1 ppb to 10 ppm in terms of raw pepper, and a more preferable range was 100 ppb to 5 ppm . From this, it was determined that the preferable addition rate when converted to the mass of the raw material pepper is 1 ppb to 10 ppm, and the more preferable range is 100 ppb to 5 ppm .

Claims (5)

A carbonic acid enhancer containing a pepper fruit extract as an active ingredient, wherein the pepper fruit extract is a water extract of pepper fruit, and a final product of the pepper fruit extract A carbonic acid sensation enhancer characterized by being added at a concentration of 12 ppb to 6 ppm in terms of the mass of raw pepper fruit. A carbonic acid enhancer containing a pepper fruit extract as an active ingredient, wherein the pepper fruit extract is a water-containing ethanol extract of pepper fruit, and the final product of the pepper fruit extract is A carbonic acid sensation enhancer characterized by being added to a product at a concentration of 1 ppb to 10 ppm in terms of the mass of raw pepper fruit . A carbonated beverage to which the carbonic acid sensation enhancer of claim 2 is added at a mass ratio of 0.1 to 1000 ppm . 3. The method for producing a carbonic acid enhancer according to claim 2, wherein the extraction solvent is 40 to 60% by volume aqueous ethanol. The method for producing a carbonic acid sensation enhancer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the extraction temperature is 50 to 80°C.