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Sachets comprising plant sterol

Sachets comprising plant sterol description/claims

The invention relates to a porous sachet comprising plant sterol, emulsifier and a particulate component.

Today, a variety of products that claim to lower blood cholesterol levels is available from supermarkets. People consume these foods regularly to ingest a daily dosage of plant sterols which are known to lower cholesterol levels in blood. Examples of plant sterols are beta sitosterol and beta sitostanol.

Plant sterols are known to be difficult to apply in foods because of their poor solubility in fat and in aqueous systems. Researchers have presented various ways to circumvent this problem.

EP 594612 teaches that the esterification of stanols to fatty acids will lead to increased solubility in fat. Therefore stanol fatty acid esters may be incorporated into fat based food products such as margarines or butter in a relatively high level of around 10 to 20 wt %, such that average daily intake of these products will lead to ingestion of a suitable dosage of stanol ester for cholesterol lowering.

EP-A-1059851 teaches that inclusion of sterols in suspensions is simplified by including a thickener in the system under ommission of emulsifier. The resulting compositions are claimed to be storage stable.

WO-A-02/28204 also addresses the problem of including sterols in an aqueous dispersion. This document presents the finding that, when plant sterols and an emulsifier are heated together in the absence of other components, they are brought into homogeneous contact with each other while being fused, to form fine micelles which are as small as nanometers in size, when using subsequent homogenisation or high speed stirring processes. It is also allegedly found that in beverages, nanoscale micelles are superior in bioavailability, having no influence on the characteristic taste and flavor of the beverages, and applicable to almost all beverages such as tea.

We have found that this process might give suitable products for application of free sterols but certainly for the use of plant sterol fatty acid esters in tea or tea based beverages it is unlikely to lead to suitable products. We found that the general mixing of tea leaves with plant sterol fatty acid esters and emulsifier and inclusion of this mixture in tea results in quick formation of plant sterol ester droplets on the tea-surface. These droplets make a less attractive impression and therefore are preferably avoided or reduced. This phenomenon is also referred to as “creaming” of the plant sterols.

It is an object of the invention to provide at least a partial solution to the problem of creaming of plant sterols in tea or similar beverages.

We have surprisingly found that the inclusion of plant sterols with emulsifiers in a porous tea bag containing tea, significantly delays the formation of plant sterol droplets and also reduces the droplet size of any plant sterol droplets formed, which makes them less visible.

Therefore the invention relates to a porous sachet comprising plant sterol, an emulsifier, and a particulate component.

Where weight percentages are used they are based on total product weight unless otherwise is indicated.

The porous sachet comprises plant sterol, emulsifier and a particulate component. Suitable particulate material is such that it can serve as a beverage precursor material. The particulate component is preferably selected from the group comprising tea, coffee, bouillon, fat, herbs or a combination thereof.

The particulate component is preferably chosen such that by immersing the sachet in an aqueous component such as water, a suitable beverage such as tea, or a soup or a sauce can be made from the composition in the sachet.

The particulate component may be chosen from components that give a taste and flavour on extraction with hot or cold water or may be a component that dissolves partly or entirely in water. Optionally the sachet is suitable for use in an oily substance such as an emulsion of water and oil, or a cooking oil.

It is preferred that the particulate component is tea. In the context of the invention, the wording tea covers tea leaves, including crushed and/or otherwise treated tea leaves, tea infusion composition, or any other form of particulate components derived from the tea plant.

The sachet according to the invention may also be referred to as bag or infusion package or pouch or the like, all suitably referred to as “sachet” in the context of this invention.

This sachet may have any 3 dimensional form such as round, square, rectangular, triangular.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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