Title of Invention

A PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF MILLED MALTED CEREALS FLOUR

Abstract

A process for the preparation of milled malted cer eal flour, which comprises : i. cleaning & soaking cereals in excess water for a period in the range of 8- 36 hrs, germinating the said soaked cereals for a period in the range of 1 to 5 days, drying the sprouts, removing the rootlets by mild abrasion, kilning the resultant dried and derooted oreen malt either by air or0by contact heat at a temperature in the range of 40 c to 80 c for a period in the range of 30 to 90 mins, ii. Dehusking malted cereals, if required to 100% shelling, iii. Moistening the seed coat of malted cereals and bran layer of brown rice malt if rlce is maited seoarately with 2-10 % addit- ional water, tempering for 5-.15 min and milling separately by con- ventional methods, iv. Sifting the milling fractions separately through 60-l20 mesh siev-es (British Standard Sieves), to abtain different flour fractions blending the above_said flour fractions proportionately to obtain milled maled cerecal four.

Full Text

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of milled malted cereal flour. More particularly this invention relates the preparation of milled cereals useful for preparing enzyme-rich low-fibre malt flour. Malting enriches the cereals with hydrolytic enzymes, develops desirable aroma and improves the overall nutritional quality. The hydrolytic enzymes of the malt flour impart special features to the malt based foods and facilitate preparation of low bulk and calorie dense foods. Malt is extensively used in brewing and preparation of malt extract and allied products. In recent years, the potentiality of malt flour in low bulk nutritious and supplementary foods has been established and malted cereals are poised for larger usage in speciality foods. The seed coat (husk/bran) forms 10-3 0% of malted cereals (cereal malt) . The seed coat particularly that of rice (rough rice or paddy) and barley is non-edible and needs to be separated from malt for food uses of malt flour. The seed coat of cereal malt consists mainly of coarse fibrous constituents which are not available nutritionally and often contain some of the antinutritional factors. The enzymes of the malt are largely concentrated in the endosperm and the seed coat from malt concentrates the flour with the enzymes, improves its nutritional quality, acceptability and also storage quality. Separation of seed coat fully or partially from the malted cereals involves milling. Malting modifies the endosperm texture and makes it highly friable, and because of that, the conventional cereal milling methods are not effective for the preparation of low fiber malt flour from malted cereals. For health foods, weaning and supplementary foods and such other speciality foods, the maltflour should be free from seed coat constituents, rich in enzymes and low in fiber content. Generally malted cereals are debranned in friction or abrasive type cereal milling machinery and the decorticated malt is pulverised in comminuting or attrition mills. Alternately, the malted cereals are pulverised in plate, hammer or roller mills and the meal is sifted to separate husk and coarse bran as tailings. The main drawbacks of these milling methods are that; 1. a considerable part of the modified enzyme rich endosperm gets pulverised and is lost along with the seed coat resulting in low yield and poor quality malt flour, and 2. pulverized seed coat get admixed with the flour and affects it's edible quality. Very often the heat generated during milling of malt, in plate or burr mill causes partial inactivation of the enzyme activity and also causes browning of malt. The malt flour of poor enzyme activity forms low calorie density and bulky foods. The conventional methods of preparation of grist from malted cereals is also not suitable for obtaining edible grade malt flour as the grist which contains husk and bran are treated with warm water to extract the solubles and the husk and the bran are separated by filtration. The enzyme of the malt flour hydrolyses mainly the starchy component of the foods during cooking the slurry and reduces the water holding capacity of the starch. This results in thinning or lowering the dietary bulk of the food and there by increasing the nutrient density and partial digestion of the food also. The low bulk and energy dense foods are highly desirable for weaned babies, growing children, mothers, geriatric subjects, athelets, cosmonauts, army personnel at high altitudes, and patients needing enteral feeding, the fiber especially from the seed coat does not contribute for the nutrition of the food, on the top of it, it affects, sensory quality, some of the nutrient availability and reduces the food value. Therefore, separation of fibrous seed coat from malted cereals by judicious milling is desirable to prepare enzyme rich malt flour. The main object of the present invention is to provide a process for the preparation of milled malted cereals useful for the preparing enzyme rich, low fibre malt flour suitable for food uses, which overcomes the drawbacks of the processes of milling of malted cereals followed hitherto. Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for obtaining malt flour from cereals and millet that are free from husk and bran and exceptionally rich in amylase. Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for the preparation of milled malted cereal flour, which comprises: i cleaning & soaking cereals in excess water for a period in the range of 8-36 hrs, germinating the said soaked cereals for a period in the range of 1 to 5 days, drying the sprouts, removing the rootlets by mild abrasion, kilning the resultant dried and derooted green malt either by air or by contact heat at a temperature in the range of 4 0°C to 80°C for a period in the range of 30 to 90 mins, ii Dehusking malted cereals, if required to"-100% shelling, iii Moistening the seed coat of malted cereals and bran layer of brown rice malt if rice is malted separately with 2-10% additional water, tempering for 5-15 min and milling separately by conventional methods, iv Sifting the milling fractions separately through 60-120 mesh sieves (British Standard Sieves), to obtain different flour fractions blending the above said flour fractions proportionately to obtain milled malted cereal flour. In an embodiment of the present invention. i. Viable seeds of cereals preferably barley, rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, triticale and millets are cleaned off the extraneous matter, damaged kernels and soaked separately in excess potable water for a period ranging from 8-30 hr. and germinated separately for a period varying from 2 to 5 days at ambient temperature and keeping the germinating seeds moist by sprinkling water or by passing humid air. Permitted antifungal agents of natural or chemical source and plant hormones preferably gibberllic acid may be sprinkled over the germination seeds. ii. Drying of the sprouts may be effected separately by sun drying or mechanical drying to 10-16% moisture level. iii. Removing the rootlets of the sprouts by known methods such as hand brushing or mechanically by passing through abrasive or brushing machine. iv. Kilning the green malt either by passing hot air or by contact heat in a temperature ranging from 50-70°C for a period ranging from 30-90 min. v. Dehulling the kilned malt particularly the rice malt to 100% brown rice level in a cereal dehuller preferably rubber roll or centrifugal shellers. vi. Spraying 2-10% additional water to the brown rice malt and other cereal malts, mixing manually or mechanically and tempering for a period ranging from 5-15 min, and milling separately in attrition, abrasive, comminuting, friction or roller flour mill alone or in combination or in sequence. vii. Sieving the meal through 60-10 0 mesh sieves, and collecting the through fraction (flour), either as a straight run flour or the different milling streams separately. The different flour fractions may be blended proportionate to their extraction rate to obtain whole flour, simultaneously retaining the individual fractions separately. Following the process of this invention it is possible to obtain enzyme rich flour substantially free from husk and bran particles, suitable for the preparation of therapeutic foods, weaning and supplementary foods, foods for athletes, cosmonauts and high" altitude defense personnel, and also for health drinks, bakery products and such other nutrient dense food products. The flour may serve as a source of natural enzymes in brewing and malt extract preparation also. The process offers the scope: 1. To prepare malt flour of desired enzyme activity, slurry viscosity, nutrients and dietary fiber contents suitable for a wide range of speciality foods, therapeutic foods and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverage formulations. 2. To prepare dehulled cereal malts useful for porridge: or similar kind of food products. 3. The scope of the present invention could also be enlarged to prepare malted legume flour of different protein and carbohydrate profiles. 4. Co-milling of cereals and pulses to prepare nutritious foods. Using the process of the present invention, it is possible to prepare enzyme-rich, edible grade malt flours particularly from rice which is not practiced hitherto. Cereals with over 95% germination capacity are steeped separately in excess water for 8-32 hr, changing the steep water once in 12 hr and germinating separately upto 48-120 hr. To achieve uniform germination, the sprouts are kept moist by spraying water or by passing humidified air and mixed gently to prevent clogging of rootlets. The sprouts are sundried or air dried separately in the temperature range of 50-7Q°C to 10-16% moisture level. The roots and shoots are removed separately by gentle brushing by hand or mechanically and the derooted green malt is kilned separately at the temperature range of 50-70°C by contact heat or by passing hot air. The kilned malt particularly, the rice malt is dehusked in cereal dehuller preferably rice shellers such as the rubber roll or centrifugal shellers. The brown rice malt and other cereal malts are separately sprayed with 2-10% additional water, tempered separately for a period ranging from 5-15 min and milled in abrasive, attrition, comminuting, roller mills alone or in sequence. The clearance between the plates in attrition mill, roll gaps in roller mill and screen in comminuting mill are so adjusted that, the endosperm of malt is pulverized finer than the seed coat constituents to enable for the separation of flour from the seed coat by sifting. Finally, the meal is sifted through 80-120 mesh sieve and the flour fractions are collected separately. The tailings are given another pass in the attrition or comminuting mill and sieved through 80-100 mesh sieve to recover the flour fraction adhering to seed coat. The following examples are given to illustrate the process of present invention and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention. Example 1: Clean and viable seeds of 'Intan' variety of paddy (Oryza sativa) are soaked in excess water at room temperature for 24 hr, water is changed after 12 hr and the soaked seeds are germinated for 72 hr by floor malting method. During germination, the seeds are kept moist by sprinkling water and the sprouts are mixed gently to aerate and also to prevent clogging. The sprouts are dried mechanically in a truck drier at about 55°C to 14% moisture. The roots and shoots of the sprouts are removed by brushing gently in a machine and the green malt is kilned at about 60°C by contact heat in an electrically heated grain roaster for 40-45 min. The kilned malt is dehusked in a rubber roll sheller rotating at 1100 rpm and adjusted to 3mm roll clearance between the rolls. The husk is aspirated and the un-husked rice is separated in a paddy separator and again dehusked in the same milling set up. The process of separating the unhusked rice from brown rice malt and dehusking the same is repeated till 100% husked rice (brown rice malt) is obtained. The brown rice malt is sprayed with 2.5% additional water, tempered in a rotary tempering bins for 10 min and milled in experimental roller flour mill (Buhler Automatic Mill, Type MLU-202), set to 500 rpm for fast rolls and 2.1 roll differentials at about 5 kg per hr feed rate. The Break rolls, No.1 (B1) and No.3 (B3) are adjusted to 0.495 and 0.035 mm and the reduction rolls No.1 (C1) and No.3 (C3) are set to 0.014 and 0.018 mm clearance, respectively. The mill streams viz.,. B1, B2, B3 and C1, C2, C3, bran and shorts are collected separately. The shorts fraction is further sifted through the bran duster rotating at 2950 rpm and the flour adhering is recovered. Whole flour (straight run flour) is prepared either by mixing all the fractions as such, including the bran duster through or by mixing each of the fractions proportionate to their extraction rate. The yield and quality attributes of the total malt flour and milling fractions are indicated in Table 1. Table 1: Yield, amylase activity and viscosity of different milling fractions of flour from malted rice (Table Removed) * mg of maltose released by the action of enzymes extracted from one g of malt on soluble starch as substrate Example 2: Clean and viable barley (Hordeum vulgare) seeds are soaked in excess water for 24 hr and germinated for 72 hr following floor malting method. The sprouts are dried to 12 % moisture in a mechanical drier and derooted in a brushing machine. The derooted malt is kilned in a grain roaster at 55°C for 30 min. The malt is sprayed with 5% additional water, tempered in a rotary tempering bin for 10 min and milled in an experimental roller mill (Buhler automatic mill, Type MLU 202) with 0.465 and 0.035 mm clearance between break rolls No.l (B1) and No.3 (B3) and.0.055 and 0.035 mm clearance between the reduction rolls No.l (C1) and No. 3 (C3) respectively. The material is fed at about 3 kg per hr. The different mill streams are collected separately. The flour from shorts is recovered by passing through bran duster. Whole flour (straight run flour) is prepared either by mixing all the fractions as such, including the bran duster through or by mixing each of the fractions proportionate to their extraction rate. The .yield and quality attributes of the straight run flour and fractions are indicated in Table 2. Table 2: Yield, amylase activity, dietary fiber and viscosity of different milling fractions of flour from malted barley (Table Removed) * mg of maltose released by the action of enzymes extracted from one g of malt on soluble starch as substrate Example 3: Clean visible seeds of wheat (Triticum aestivum) , sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), maize (Zea mays), finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum) are steeped separately in excess water for 24 hr respectively. The millets are germinated separately for 48 hr, wheat and sorghum are germinated for 72 hr separately and maize for 96hr. During germination the sprouts are kept moist by spraying water and mixed gently once in 24 hr to prevent interlocking of roots. The sprouts are dried separately at 50°C in a air dryer and derooted separately in a brushing machine. The derooted malts are Mined separately at about 55°C and for about 45 min in a grain roaster by contact heat. Wheat, sorghum maize, pearl millet malt are sprayed with additional 4 % water whereas finger millet is sprayed with 7% water, tempered for about 10 min and milled in a comminuting mill fitted with 0.5mm screen and the meal is sieved through 100 mesh sieve. The tailings of the first pass are remilled and sieved through 100 mesh again and the flour fractions are pooled together. The yield, amylase activity, dietary fiber and viscosity of are given in Table 3. Table 3 : Yield, amylase activity, dietary fiber and viscosity of the total flour from wheat, sorghum, maize, finger millet and pearl millet (Table Removed) * mg of maltose released by the action of enzymes extracted from one g of malt on soluble starch as substrate The process of the invention offers following advantages : i. The yield of enzyme-rich flour obtained by milling of malted cereals based on this process are near to the theoretical values, yet the fiber and the acid insoluble ash contents of flour are very low, which indicates that the flour is free from seed coat. ii. Some of the mill streams obtained are exceptionally rich in amylase activity. This enables to use them for preparation of highly nutrient dense natural foods. iii. The milling process does not affect enzyme activity of malt, colour and the nutritional quality of malt flour. iv. The process permits blending of milling streams of varying enzyme activity and dietary fiber contents selectively, thereby enables to prepare malt flour of desirable viscosity, nutrient and fiber contents,"and v. The process could be adopted for co-milling of malted cereals and legumes to prepare malt flour of higher protein content suitable for low bulk, nutrient dense and protein rich supplementary foods. The main advantages of this process is that, enzyme-rich low fiber edible quality flour from malted cereals particularly from rice could be produced using available cereal milling machinery which has not been possible hitherto. WE CLAIM: 1. A process for the preparation of milled malted cereal flour, which comprises: i cleaning & soaking cereals in excess water for a period in the range of 8-3 6 hrs, germinating the said soaked cereals for a period in the range of 1 to 5 days, drying the sprouts, removing the rootlets by mild abrasion, kilning the resultant dried and derooted green malt either by air or by contact heat at a temperature in the range of 40°C to 80°C for a period in the range of 30 to 90 mins, ii Dehusking malted cereals, if required to 100% shelling, iii Moistening the seed coat of malted cereals and bran layer of brown rice malt if rice is malted separately with 2-10% additional water, tempering for 5-15 min and milling separately by conventional methods, iv Sifting the milling fractions separately through 60-120 mesh sieves (British Standard Sieves), to obtain different flour fractions blending the above said flour fractions proportionately to obtain milled malted cereal flour. 2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cereals used are such as barley, rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, triticale, millet and germination is effected under humid conditions optionally in the presence of antifungal agents. 3. A process as claimed in claims 1 & 2 wherein the drying of the sprouts is effected to 10-16% moisture level.. 4. A process for the preparation of milled malted cereal flour substantially as herein described with reference to the examples.

Documents:

1691-del-1995-abstract.pdf

1691-del-1995-claims.pdf

1691-del-1995-complete specification (granted).pdf

1691-del-1995-correspondence-others.pdf

1691-del-1995-correspondence-po.pdf

1691-del-1995-description (complete).pdf

1691-del-1995-description (provisional).pdf

1691-del-1995-form-1.pdf

1691-del-1995-form-2.pdf

1691-del-1995-form-4.pdf

1691-del-1995-form-6.pdf

1691-del-1995-petition-others.pdf