JPH0767537A - Soft candy and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce soft candy having low calorie, low caries and low sweetness as well as active taste of the raw material. CONSTITUTION:This soft candy excellent in stability and texture is obtained by blending 40-70wt.%, preferably 45-60wt.% of lactitol with residual part of at least one kind of saccharide to be used for soft candy selected from sugar alcohols and polydextrins, and further, blending other oils and fats, starch, foaming agent, emulsion and perfume therewith.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a soft candy and a method for producing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a soft candy which is mainly composed of lactitol and which does not substantially use sugar, has a low sweetness and a good flavor, has a low calorie, and is unlikely to cause tooth decay.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Soft candy has hitherto been manufactured by mixing sugar and starch syrup as the main sugar raw materials with a mixture of oils and fats, starch, a foaming agent, an emulsifier, a fragrance, etc. A wide variety of soft candy has been marketed in response to the consumption, and in recent years, a tendency toward products having a high soft feeling in various food and confectionery fields.
In Japan, which is hot and humid, these soft candies are mainly products of the type in which microcrystals of sugar are dispersed throughout in order to maintain shape retention. Therefore, these soft candies inevitably use a large amount of sugar because they crystallize sugar. If you try to reduce the amount of sugar used, it becomes difficult to generate sugar crystals, resulting in poor shape retention and unfavorable physical properties in the manufacturing process, or high hygroscopicity and poor storage stability. Problems such as occur. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the recent trend of sweetening, which is low in calories.
There is a drawback that it is not possible to add value to the product by adding a physiological function that appeals to health, such as being less prone to tooth decay.

For example, JP-A-55-88658 introduces a low sweetness crystallized soft candy that uses lactose and maltose as sugars as a soft candy that does not use sugar. In this publication, lactose is used in place of sugar and maltose is used in combination to suppress excessive crystallization of lactose and achieve smooth melting in the mouth. However, although this method can achieve low sweetening, it cannot impart functions such as low calorie and less prone to tooth decay. Further, JP-A-63-309144 introduces a crystalline soft candy using palatinose and palatinose honey, but it is not perfect in terms of low calorie.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of such circumstances,
The main object of the present invention is a so-called sugarless soft candy that does not use sugar, starch syrup, etc., and has little texture or sticking to teeth and melts in the mouth well, and has little sticking to a machine during molding. The purpose of the present invention is to provide soft candy having good physical properties. That is,
Instead of sugar that has been conventionally used, lactitol is used as a main sugar, and a part of the lactitol is crystallized to provide low moisture absorption and stable soft candy with good shape retention. .

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, various sugars with low sweetness, low calorie, and low cariogenicity, which are alternatives to sugar, and which have good crystallinity are examined. The present invention has been completed by finding that lactitol, which has recently become commercially available, is the most suitable. Lactitol in the present invention is also known as reduced lactose, which is produced by catalytic reduction of lactose purified from milk as a raw material at high temperature and high pressure using a nickel catalyst or the like. Currently available lactitol has 60% concentration liquid type and three types of crystalline powder, but any lactitol can be used in the present invention, and there is no problem even if it is used alone or as a mixture of two or more types. For example, lactitol LC-2 and lactitol LC-60 sold by Nikken Chemical Co., Ltd. are available. LC-2 is a crystal powder mainly composed of dihydrate crystals,
LC-60 is a liquid product with a concentration of 60%.

Lactitol has a sweetness about one-third that of sugar.
It is known to have a very low sweetness and very good sweetness, and is widely used as a low-sweetness material that makes the most of the flavor of the material.
It is also suitable as a sugar substitute sweetener because it has a low hygroscopic property and is very similar to sugar in terms of physical properties. Also,
It has a low calorie of 1.5 Kcal / g, which is 40% or less of that of sugar, and has the property of not easily causing tooth decay.

The blending ratio of lactitol used in the present invention can be 40 to 70% by weight, preferably 45 to 60% by weight, based on 100% by weight of the total solid content of sugars used. Lactitol blending ratio is 4
If the amount is 0% by weight or less, crystallization of lactitol is not sufficient, resulting in a sticky product, which adheres to a machine or has teeth when molded. Even if it is commercialized, it does not retain its shape and loses its shape over time. On the other hand, when the blending ratio of lactitol is 70% or more, lactitol crystals are excessively produced and become hard and rough.

The sugar used in combination with lactitol is preferably a sugar having a certain degree of viscosity, but it is desirable to use a low-calorie / low-cariogenic sugar which is the object of the present invention. Any sugar can be used so long as it does not deviate from this purpose, but specifically, polydextrose, which also has functions as sugar alcohol and dietary fiber, is suitable. As sugar alcohols, there are sorbitol, maltitol, reduced starch syrup, etc., but for the purpose of the present invention, S57, S30 and S2 sold by Nikken Chemical Co., Ltd.
Reduced starch syrup such as 0 / S100 and Niken Chemical Co., Ltd.
Marubit sold is suitable. Examples of polydextrose include polydextrose sold by Pfizer Inc. or its improved product, Lites Lites II, and hydrogenated products thereof. Of course, equivalent products sold by companies other than the above can also be used.

In the soft candy of the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned sugar component, butter /
Fats and oils such as margarine and hydrogenated oil, emulsifiers such as lecithin and monoglyceride, milk such as condensed milk, skim milk powder and whole milk powder, foaming agents such as ovalbumin, gelatin, soy protein, wheat protein, rice flour, corn starch, potato starch, etc. Can be produced by appropriately combining natural starches such as various starches, locust bean gum, gum arabic, carrageenan and agar.

The desired soft candy can be produced by using only the above raw materials, but if necessary, various flavoring materials such as black tea, green tea, coffee, cocoa and menthol, citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, tartaric acid, etc. Acidulants,
Colorants such as tincture pigments, safflower pigments, beet red pigments, caramel pigments, paprika pigments, cochineal pigments, fruit juices or extracts such as apples, strawberries and oranges, alcohols such as whiskey, brandy and liqueurs, and more , Other commonly used confectionery raw materials such as vitamins, various calciums, and fruit flavonoids can also be added for flavoring.

Further, one of the objects of the present invention includes low sweetening, but in order to adjust the sweetness when the sugar used in combination with lactitol is too low, for example, aspartame stevia acesulfame. High intensity sweeteners such as K. saccharin sodium and glycyrrhizin can also be used.

The soft candy of the present invention can be produced by using the above raw materials, and the production method thereof is not particularly limited, and it can be produced by a conventional method.
For example, it can be manufactured by the following method.
That is, water is added to sugar to dissolve it, and then the mixture is boiled at 125 to 130 ° C., and the raw materials used for ordinary soft candy other than sugar as described above are added and stirred according to a conventional method to uniformly mix. Furthermore, lactitol can be crystallized by a conventional method, and after adding a flavoring agent, a coloring agent and the like, the mixture can be cooled and molded to obtain the intended soft candy.

The soft candy of the present invention is one in which microcrystals of lactitol are uniformly dispersed. The crystallization method of lactitol is not particularly limited, but, for example, by adding a crystal nucleus. The method of producing fine crystals of lactitol is preferred. That is, a method in which fine powder of lactitol or lactitol fondant prepared in advance as a crystal nucleus is added when the temperature of the candy dough has cooled to about 60 ° C. and kneading vigorously to uniformly generate fine crystals is suitable.

The addition temperature of the crystal nuclei is sufficient to cool the dough to a temperature of about 70 to 75 ° C. in the case of producing sugar crystals in a soft candy using sugar / syrup. In this case, it is necessary to cool to around 60 ° C. The reason for this is that when the solubility of sugar is in the range of 40 ° C. or higher, the influence of temperature is small, and since it is lower than the solubility of lactitol, crystals are likely to precipitate even at higher temperatures. Further, even if the temperature of the dough is too low, the viscosity becomes too high, and strong agitation is required, and there is a limit to the apparatus. For the above reasons, about 60 ° C. is shown as the optimum crystal nucleus addition temperature peculiar to lactitol. It is important to generate sufficient microcrystals in this kneading step, but if necessary, aging may be performed at room temperature to 45 ° C. If you do not generate enough crystals in these steps, not only the cause of stickiness, but also the crystal grows over time,
It causes a rough texture and makes the mouth feel bad.

[0015]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below with reference to specific examples. Of course, this does not limit the scope of the present invention. Soft candy was prepared according to the following formulation, and a sensory test was conducted.

[0016]

[Table 1]

Note) Lactitol powder is lactitol LC-2 manufactured by Nikken Chemical Co., Ltd. This product contains about 9% of water as water of crystallization. -Reduced polydextrose was obtained by hydrogenating polydextrose manufactured by Pfizer, Inc. under high temperature and high pressure using a Raney nickel catalyst, followed by purification with an ion exchange resin and concentration to 70%. -For acid saccharified starch syrup, Sansyrup R75C (DE41) manufactured by Japan Corn Starch Co., Ltd. is used.・ Refined processed fats and oils are KCF30 manufactured by Kanegafuchi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.
Use 0H. -Lactitol fondant is a fondant consisting of lactitol and S57, with a solid content of 87% and a lactitol content of 74%.

Example 1 Among the raw materials shown in Table 1, lactitol LC-2 and S-30 were dissolved by heating and boiled down to 125 ° C., and then the concentrate was transferred to a confectionery mixer, and the gelatin solution and degreasing were performed while stirring. Add powdered milk, emulsifier, and refined processed fats and oils and mix evenly. When the product temperature of the obtained dough reaches about 60 ° C., a fragrance is added, and lactitol LC-0 fine powder is added little by little and stirred to precipitate lactitol fine crystals. The obtained dough is rolled into a sheet and cooled to 25 ° C.
It was kept for 24 hours and then molded to obtain a soft candy with a low sweetness and a good texture.

Example 2 Of the raw materials shown in Table 1, lactitol LC-2 and reduced polydextrose were dissolved by heating and boiled down to 125 ° C., and then other raw materials were added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1,
When the product temperature of the obtained dough reaches 58 ° C., the flavor and aspartame are added, and the mixture is stirred while adding lactitol fondant to precipitate fine crystals of lactitol. The obtained dough is rolled into a sheet and cooled,
The mixture was kept at 4 ° C. for 4 hours and then molded to obtain a soft candy with a low sweetness and a pleasant texture.

Example 3 Of the raw materials shown in Table 1, lactitol LC-2, S 30, and reduced polydextrose were dissolved by heating 12
After boiling down to 6 ° C, other raw materials were added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1, and when the product temperature of the obtained dough reached 61 ° C, the flavor was added and the lactitol LC-0 fine powder was added and stirred. Then, microcrystals of lactitol are precipitated. The obtained dough is rolled into a sheet and cooled,
It was kept at 5 ° C for 5 hours and then molded to obtain a soft candy with a low sweetness and a good texture.

Comparative Example Among the raw materials shown in Table 1, sugar and acid saccharified starch syrup were dissolved by heating and boiled down to 127 ° C. Then, other raw materials were added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a dough obtained. Product temperature is 73 ℃
At this point, add flavor and stir while adding powdered sugar to precipitate fine crystals of sugar. The obtained dough was rolled into a sheet, cooled, held at 25 ° C. overnight, and then molded to obtain a soft candy. The soft candy prepared by this method had a higher sweetness than the soft candy prepared in Examples 1, 2 and 3.

[0022]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION The soft candy of the present invention, which uses lactitol as a main sugar, has the characteristics of low calorie and low sweetness and less prone to tooth decay. Further, there is provided a method capable of industrially producing an excellent soft candy which is excellent in stability, melts well in the mouth, and is not toothed.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Tatsuya 2-1216 Kosaka, Midori-ku, Nagoya, Aichi

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A soft candy characterized by containing lactitol in an amount of 40 to 70 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of total sugar in a solid content ratio. 2. In the production of soft candy, lactitol is added in a solid content ratio of 4 to 100 parts by weight of total sugar.
0 to 70 parts by weight, at least one type of sugar selected from sugar alcohol and polydextrose in a solid content ratio of 60
A method for producing soft candy, comprising concentrating a mixed solution containing ˜30 parts by weight to a water content of 6 to 9% and then crystallizing lactitol.