JPS6283314A - Processing of potassium chloride - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce sharply or to eliminate disagreeable taste such as bitterness due to KCl, etc., at low cost without using any particular treating substance by evaporating water from aq. soln. contg. sea water contg. KCl as solute. CONSTITUTION:Aq. soln. contg. sea water prepd. by diluting >=0.45pts.wt. sea water with drinking water such as drinkable well water, distilled water, deionized water, etc., and 1pt.wt. KCl having >=99% purity obtd. by separation and purification from rock salt is dissolved in the prepared water together with, if necessary, an org. acid such as citric acid or a salt thereof. Water is evaporated from the mixture by evaporating to dryness, spray drying, vacuum drying, or hot air drying, etc., to crystallize mixed crystals of KCl dissolved in the mixture with several components dissolved in the sea water.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a method for processing potassium chloride, and in particular to a method for processing potassium chloride to eliminate the bitterness, bad aftertaste, etc. that potassium chloride has by processing it with water containing seawater. This invention relates to a method for processing potassium chloride that significantly reduces or eliminates unpleasant taste.

(Prior art and its deficiencies) Female strain agents are important flavoring agents used in food processing and cooking, similar to sweeteners, sour agents, flavoring agents, etc., and a typical example is sodium chloride (salt). be. This sodium chloride is important not only for producing female plants, but also as an antiseptic and anti-mold preservative, and is used in the salting of seafood and in the production of various foods such as delicacies, tsukudani, pickles, miso, and soy sauce. It is a well-known fact that it is commonly used in food and has a close relationship with dietary habits. However, in recent years, it has been pointed out that there is a causal relationship between circulatory system diseases such as hypertension and heart disease, which are so-called adult diseases, and excessive intake of sodium chloride.

It is recommended to reduce the intake of sodium chloride for the treatment and prevention of liver cirrhosis, etc. Therefore, even healthy people tend to choose so-called salt-free or low-salt foods that do not contain sodium chloride or have a low sodium chloride content. is getting stronger. However, female agents such as sodium chloride also have the function of an auxiliary agent that enhances the sweetness when coexisting with sweeteners, etc. Therefore, foods that do not contain sodium chloride have a so-called ``savoury'' taste. It is inevitable that the taste will be inferior. Furthermore, if the use of thorium chloride is eliminated in various processed foods, their shelf life will naturally decrease.

Therefore, various studies have been conducted on female plant agents to replace sodium chloride, and various alternative substances have been proposed. Among these, potassium chloride, which is the object of the present invention, is a typical substance. Potassium chloride is relatively inexpensive, has no problems under the Food Sanitation Act, and has molecular weight, crystal structure, solubility, etc. similar to sodium chloride, and also has antiseptic and anti-mold effects similar to sodium chloride. To avoid this problem, female strain preparations in which part of the sodium chloride is replaced with potassium chloride have already appeared on the market. However, increasing the mixing ratio of potassium chloride produces so-called "bitterness" and an unpleasant aftertaste, which is a taste different from that of sodium chloride, and therefore it has not been widely used in the food industry or in the daily life of ordinary households.

For this purpose, that is, in order to eliminate the above-mentioned defects of potassium chloride on taste, various attempts have been made in the past, but these attempts have been made to mask the bitterness etc. that potassium chloride has. What we do is the mainstream,
For example, attempts have been made to solve the problem by adding and mixing organic acids such as citric acid, various amino acids or their salts, sweeteners, and flavoring agents to potassium chloride. However, since all conventional alternative compositions of this type are made by mixing powdered raw materials, there is a possibility that classification may occur during the distribution process or use, and there are also various mixing methods and mixing ratios. I have issues. That is, when the amount of the taste improver added to potassium chloride is small, it is extremely difficult to mix the taste improver uniformly.

If the amount added is excessive, the taste improver will develop its own unique taste, and this taste will not harmonize with the taste of the food itself.
There are considerations that lead to an unpleasant taste overall.

For this reason, research has been conducted not only to hide the bitterness of potassium chloride, but also to fundamentally suppress the bitterness and produce female plants that are similar to common salt6. 59-198953, 1) A mixture in which the weight ratio of sodium chloride and potassium chloride is within the range of 1:9 to 1:1 and 1 to 20% by weight of the total amount of powdered solid bittern dissolved in fresh water. 2) Weigh out sodium chloride and powdered solid bittern in a fixed ratio, crystallize it by the above-mentioned recrystallization method, etc., and convert the resulting mixture into particles of a fixed particle size. and potassium chloride of a certain particle size are weighed out in a certain ratio and mixed by a conventional method, or by recrystallizing potassium chloride and bittern and mixing this with sodium chloride, or 3) Discloses a low-sodium salty seasoning obtained by a method of weighing and mixing sodium chloride of a certain particle size, potassium chloride of a certain particle size, and fine powder of solid bittern at a certain ratio. has been done.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) According to the above-mentioned prior art measures, at least 1 part by weight of sodium chloride is added to 9 parts by weight of potassium chloride, and powdered bittern is added in an amount of 1-20% by weight based on the total amount. is added to remove the bitter taste of potassium chloride. Therefore, this female plant composition has an essential problem in that the amount of sodium chloride used is excessive, and it also has a problem in that it absorbs moisture due to the large amount of bittern used, and because of this, it tends to form into baby lumps. be.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is not to simply hide the unpleasant taste of potassium chloride, that is, the bitterness and unpleasant aftertaste, but to actively eliminate these unpleasant tastes. The essential purpose is to minimize the amount of sodium chloride used and to ensure that the resulting material does not exhibit hygroscopic properties. A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for processing potassium chloride which is easy to operate and does not require special processing materials, thereby minimizing cost increases.

(Means and effects for solving the problem) According to the present invention, the above problem is solved by dissolving potassium chloride in water containing seawater, and then evaporating the water in the solution. This problem can be solved by processing potassium chloride.

In the present invention, "seawater" refers to standard seawater that is used for salt production, has a Baume degree of approximately 3.6, and has a composition of Ca5040.138% by weight and Mg50.
0.210% by weight, MgBr70.008% by weight, M
The average values are gC1□0.328% by weight, KClO, 072% by weight, and NaC12,669% by weight (``Chemistry Handbook'', 2nd edition, p. 1334), but it varies slightly depending on the collection area. Although different, the ratio of the above main components is approximately constant. Of course, the definition of "seawater" in the present invention includes synergic water obtained by concentrating seawater, acupuncture lake water, acupuncture spring water, etc., and also includes crude salt or rock salt obtained by boiling synergic water. Note that solutions in water are also included. However, since the potassium chloride whose taste has been improved by the method of the present invention is intended for food use, it is natural to avoid using it if it is contaminated with bacteria or heavy metals.
If dust or the like is present, it is a matter of course that these should be removed by filtration or the like before use.

"Water containing seawater" used in the method of the present invention refers to seawater as described above, drinking water such as tap water, drinking well water, mineral water, drinking water such as drinking spring water, distilled water, deionized water, etc. It is prepared by diluting with

The "potassium chloride" used in the method of the present invention is not exclusive, but it is separated and purified from rock salt, and
It refers to food-grade potassium chloride that contains 99% or more of potassium chloride when determined after drying at about 5°C for 2 hours.

According to the method of the present invention, first, potassium chloride is added and dissolved in the seawater-containing water described above. The solubility of potassium chloride is 34.4 g at 20° C. and 45.9 g at 60° C. per 100 g of water, and the amount added can be appropriately set in consideration of the temperature of the dissolved water.

In order to sufficiently remove unpleasant tastes such as bitterness that potassium chloride has, it is necessary to use at least about 0.4 parts of water containing seawater in terms of standard seawater per 1 part by weight of potassium chloride.
It is preferable to add 5 parts by weight (see the test section below).

In this case, there is no particular reason to restrict the upper limit, but in order to avoid excessive intake of sodium chloride, it is desirable to ensure that the amount of sodium chloride in seawater does not exceed the amount of potassium chloride.

In addition, various additives can also be mixed into the dissolution water. For example, in the case of organic acids such as citric acid and malic acid or their salts, it is about 1% by weight or less based on potassium chloride, and in the case of amino acids such as glycine and glutamic acid or their salts, it is about 2% by weight based on potassium chloride. It is advantageous to add and dissolve potassium chloride at a ratio of about 50% or less, and in the case of such a blending ratio, a synergistic effect is brought about in the processing of potassium chloride, that is, in improving the taste. However, the actual amounts of these organic acids, organic acid salts, amino acids, amino acid salts, etc. to be added should be carefully considered so as not to exhibit their own flavor.

According to the method of the present invention, water in the potassium chloride solution prepared as described above, that is, prepared by dissolving potassium chloride in seawater-containing water, is evaporated in the next step and the dissolved chloride is added. Mixed crystals of potassium and various components dissolved in seawater are crystallized. In this case, what should be kept in mind is that after preparing a concentrated solution of potassium chloride, it is recrystallized by taking advantage of the solubility difference, and then dehydrated using a centrifuge, etc., to reduce the water content of the residue to a predetermined level. The potassium chloride obtained by this process does not show any processing effect (taste improvement effect) and is similar to untreated potassium chloride, which indicates that water evaporation treatment is a requirement of the present invention. .

This water evaporation can be carried out by a method known per se, for example, an evaporation to dryness method, a spray drying method, a vacuum drying method, a hot air drying method, etc., or a suitable combination thereof.

(Examples, etc.) Next, the method of the present invention will be explained in more detail using Examples and Test Examples.

Example 1 Seawater collected off the coast of Yugawara in the Kanagawa system was filtered using qualitative filter paper No. 2 manufactured by Toyo Roshi Co., Ltd.

250 g of tap water was added to 200 g of the obtained filtrate to prepare water containing so-called seawater. 100 g of potassium chloride was added to this solution, heated until it boiled to dissolve the potassium chloride, then cooled to 60° C., and then concentrated under reduced pressure using a rotary evaporator until the water content became 18% by weight. Take this concentrate in a porcelain dish and
Dry in a hot air dryer at ℃ to reduce moisture content to 0.3% by weight.
I did it. Next, this dried product was processed through a 20-mesh (JIS standard) sieve to obtain a seawater-treated potassium chloride product. The sodium chloride content in this product was 5% by weight.

On the other hand, a control product was prepared as follows according to the method described in JP-A-59-198953. That is, first, a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride with a weight ratio of 1=9 was prepared, and separately from this, natural Nigari powder (water content 14% by weight) manufactured by the Natural Salt Promotion Association was added to the entire amount of the above mixture. The above mixture and Nigari were dissolved in tap water and concentrated using a rotary evaporator to collect crystals, and the crystals were heated at 80°C.
A dried product with a water content of 0.3% by weight was obtained by processing in a hot air dryer. This dried product was sieved through a 20-mesh sieve and used as a control product.

A sensory test was conducted on both of the above samples by an expert panel (20 people). Judgments were made according to Kramer's test method with a risk rate of 5%, with the sample having a taste similar to that of common salt ranked first.

The results are shown in Table 1 below, and the potassium chloride product obtained by the method of the present invention has a taste closer to common salt than the control product, despite having a lower sodium chloride content than the control product. It has been found.

Similarly to Yuya JL Carp Example 1, after dissolving potassium chloride in tap water containing seawater, the water content was reduced to 13% by weight on a hot water bath.
The mixture was evaporated until the water content was 0.3% by weight, and then dried in a hot air dryer at 75°C until the water content was 0.3% by weight. The obtained dried product was sized to within the range of 20-30 meshes to obtain the product of the present invention.

On the other hand, a control product was prepared as follows according to the method described in JP-A-59-198953.

A mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride in a weight ratio of 1=9 is first prepared. Next, natural powder bittern produced by the Natural Salt Promotion Association (moisture content 14 weight) was collected in an amount of 20 weight solids from the total amount of the above mixture, dissolved in tap water, and then placed in a flat pot. The crystals are deposited by direct heating and concentrated, the crystals are dehydrated by centrifugation, and further dried in a hot air dryer at 75°C to reduce the water content to 0.
After drying to a concentration of 3% by weight, the powder was sized to 20-32 sieve size and used as a control product.

A panel test was conducted on both of the above samples in the same manner as in Example 1. The results are shown in Table 2 below, and the potassium chloride product obtained by the method of the present invention has a taste closer to common salt than the control product, even though it contains less sodium chloride and bittern components than the control product. It has been found.

Test Example: 4.16.1.11 each for 1 part by weight of potassium chloride
．． 0.67. 0.45 and 0.35 parts by weight of seawater were added to distilled water, and potassium chloride was dissolved in each solution. The water content of each solution was evaporated to 13% by weight on a hot water bath, and then dried with hot air at 75°C. A dry product with a water content of 0.3% by weight was obtained by processing in a machine. The obtained dried product was sized to a size of 20 to 30 meshes and used as a test product.

On the other hand, potassium chloride was dissolved in distilled water and then treated in the same manner as above to obtain a dried product, which was used as a control product.

A panel test was conducted in the same manner as in Example 1 for each of the above test samples and control samples. The results are shown in Table 3 below, and 0 as seawater per 1 part by weight of potassium chloride.
．． It has been found that when 45 parts by weight or more is added, the desired effect, that is, the bitterness of potassium chloride disappears and the taste becomes close to that of common salt, is brought about.

, ≦T knee, 7+1□ ＞! Note) In the table, 4.16.1.11.0.67.0
．． 45 and 0.35 are based on 1 part by weight of potassium chloride,
It means a test product obtained by processing using the amount (parts by weight) of seawater indicated by these numbers.

(Effects of the Invention) By processing according to the method of the present invention, unpleasant tastes such as bitterness originally present in potassium chloride can be significantly alleviated or eliminated. Therefore, potassium chloride obtained by the method of the present invention can be used as a partial or complete substitute for sodium chloride (salt), thereby reducing the sodium intake rate and, by extension, treating and preventing cardiovascular diseases. This brings about the effect that can be achieved without relying on the so-called "low-salt diet" which is almost tasteless.

Potassium chloride processed by the method of the present invention can be used as powdered products such as table salt, sesame salt, and garlic salt, as well as in the production of general processed foods such as snack foods, snack food, miso, and soy sauce, and in food preparation. It has the versatility to be used for various purposes, and sodium chloride can be used in combination with it.

Furthermore, the processing according to the present invention merely consists of a step of dissolving the raw material potassium chloride in water containing seawater and a step of evaporating water from the resulting solution, and does not require the use of seawater used to dissolve the raw material. can be obtained easily and at low cost in our country, so the present invention is extremely advantageous in terms of cost.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A method for processing potassium chloride, which comprises dissolving potassium chloride in water containing seawater, and then evaporating water from the solution. (2) The processing method according to claim 1, wherein the water containing seawater is used in an amount of at least about 0.45 parts by weight of seawater per 1 part by weight of potassium chloride.