Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the field of food material processing. In particular, the invention relates to a process for the production of edible fat and protein products from animal sources, the products so obtained, and their incorporation in food products.

Background of the Invention

[0002] Animal fats have long been an important part of the human diet. However, the last few decades have seen a general trend toward the use of vegetable oils, and specifically poly- and mono-unsaturated vegetable fats, and a consequent decline in the use of saturated animal fats, in food preparation.

[0003] One factor leading to this decline relates to customer convenience. Vegetable fats such as canola oil and sunflower oil have relatively low melting points. When they are used in a margarine style product, they tend to be softer and so can be readily scooped and/or spread. In contrast, saturated animal fats, including butter, having higher melting points tend to be hard when refrigerated: less easy to handle and spread (or mix).

[0004] Because of their higher melting point, animal fat products tend to be packaged as blocks in ‘wraps’ of paper, foil or similar. This allows the desired amount of the fat material to be sliced off as required. However, this type of packaging is not sturdy, and relies on the stiffness of the fat product itself to maintain its correct shape when packed. This arrangement can be subject to temperature abuse, to the extent that a temperature rise can weaken the structure of the packed blocks, leading to misshapen blocks, unsaleable product and possibly separation of the fats in the product, leading to separation of the product fractions, leakage and staining of the packs.

[0005] Nevertheless, there remains a desire to use saturated animal fats in food production, for various reasons, including the often-superior flavour that it delivers, but also including the fact that certain essential fatty acids that are required in the human diet are often supplied via animal derived fats, such as from beef. Also, animal fats tend not to oxidise as readily under heat (cooking conditions) compared to many vegetable oils.

[0006] Wagyu beef tallow (such as derived from the waygu breed cattle developed in Japan) has been identified as a source of such superior animal fat materials. However, the inventors have discovered that some of the typical processes used to isolate and purify this material, such as centrifugation, do not allow the full natural benefits of the material to be realised.

[0007] Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a process for producing an edible animal fat products that provides a product quality or other improvement compared with prior art animal fat extraction processes.

Summary of the Invention

[0008] According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of obtaining a commercial packaged animal fat product; said method including the steps of: obtaining fat-bearing tissue from the commercial slaughter of livestock; subjecting the fatbearing tissue to a gravity separation step which facilitates the separation of the fat from any protein-based material, water or other impurities present; filtration, preferably doublefiltration, of the separated fat to remove other impurities; packaging of the filtered fat into lidded jars, tubs or the like for commercial distribution.

[0009] Preferably, the gravity separation step is carried out in batches at a temperature in the range 60°C to 90°C. The gravity separation step is preferably carried out in a tank of height between 1 metre and 3 metres, for between 15 and 20 hours per batch.

[0010] By incorporating the gravity separation step according to the above parameters in the manufacturing process, the quality of the fat product is enhanced due to the lower level of fat cell disruption enabled by the gravity separation process.

[0011 ] In a particularly preferred embodiment, the animal fat product is wagyu beef tallow. Herein, reference to the term ‘wagyu’ will be understood by those skilled in the art to refer to those breeds of cattle, originating in Japan but now farmed in other regions, that are predisposed to intense marbling of fat in muscle meat, and which have a distinct profile of fatty acids and fat compounds in said fat. In particular, in this document the term wagyu includes those cattle that are full-bloods, half-bloods and quarter-bloods of the breed, who nevertheless exhibit desirable fat properties.

[0012] However, the above inventive process also provides improved results to the qualities of animal fats derived from porcines, grain or grass-fed beef cattle, and lamb/muton. [0013] According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a packaged, stable edible fat product from wagyu beef cattle, porcines, grain or grass-fed beef cattle, and lamb/mutton, produced via a method incorporating the steps described above.

[0014] This product has some significant advantages over the prior art. Firstly, the meat derived from wagyu cattle is known to be particularly flavoursome, and this has been found to be true also of the refined fat obtained from wagyu cattle when subjected to the method steps defined above.

[0015] Secondly, fat derived particularly from wagyu beef represents a unique blend of fatty acids that are advantageous in that wagyu beef tallow is relatively healthier for the consumer than other animal fats, and the inventive method facilitates as greater retention of these properties.

[0016] Thirdly, said fatty acid blend has a relatively low melting point (around 38-48°C) compared with other animal tallow products, making the inventive method product easier to spread and easier to scoop out of jar-style or tub-style containers. This allows such types of more sturdy packaging to be used (as opposed to the traditional paper-type wrapping) which greatly enhances the ability to successfully transport the tallow, particularly in warmer climes.

[0017] Accordingly, the use of the process according to the invention allows for greater retention of these properties in the extracted fat product than is possible for more conventional separation processes

[0018] According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an edible protein material obtained from the method of described above. The protein extracted from the

[0019] According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a food product incorporating an edible fat product obtained by the method described above. The advantageous properties of wagyu beef tallow, both nutritionally and in terms of flavour, provide a superior quality to common foods, such as the hamburger patty. Use of the wagyu beef tallow in the formulation of a hamburger patty lifts both the flavour profile and the nutritional value of what otherwise would be a low-value food.

[0020] In addition, the low melting point and soft texture of the included tallow provide other benefits, including an improvement in texture and ‘chewability’, improved digestibility and an enhanced transfer of meat flavour to the taste buds. [0021] Now will be described, by way of a specific, non-limiting example, a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0022] Wagyu beef cattle, sometimes referred to as ‘Kobe beef’ cattle, have long been prized in Japan for the eating qualities of the meat. The name refers to specific breeds of cattle that have a tendency to produce highly marbled fat distribution in their meat, as well as having higher levels of unsaturated fat in their body fat. In particular, it includes those cattle that are full-breeds, half-breeds and quarter-breeds.

[0023] Wagyu cattle are highly valued in Japan, and increasingly in the rest of the world, for the superior flavour of their meat. Some research has also gone on into the potential health benefits of the distinct fat type produced by the Wagyu cattle. It appears that wagyu cattle's genetic predisposition yields a beef that contains a higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids than typical beef. The increased marbling is also thought to increase the ratio of monounsaturated fats to saturated fats relative to other beef varieties. Also, there appears to be a higher level of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in wagyu beef fat.

[0024] These characteristics have a number of implications. Nutritionally, it seems that wagyu beef fat is more beneficial for consumers due to its more advantageous profile of fatty acids and other lipids.

[0025] Physically, the lower overall level of saturation of the wagyu fat gives it a lower melting point. This means that the product will remain softer than other animal fats at room temperature, or at refrigeration temperatures.

[0026] Accordingly, the inventors have recognised that the isolation of the fatty material from slaughtered wagyu cattle, and purification into a stable commercial product, is both novel, and an inventive solution to the problems described in the prior art. Especially so, since the lower melting point of the wagyu fat allows far more convenient packaging of the wagyu beef tallow in jars or tubs. As the wagyu tallow remains relatively soft, it can easily be scooped or otherwise removed from such containers, whilst higher melting point animal fats would set hard and need to be heated, or scraped, to be removed from such containers. [0027] Accordingly, the higher melting point animal fats typically use a flexible ‘wrap’ as a packaging which leads to squashing of the package, leakage of the contents and other problems.

[0028] Allowing the use of sturdier packaging, such as jars or tubs, gives significant advantages to the wagyu tallow supplier, as the losses in transport will tend to be lower, and the product will be more convenient for the consumer to use.

[0029] The method used by the inventors to produce the wagyu beef tallow is as follows. However, the same process may be use to produce improved quality edible fats from other non-wagyu cattle, whether grass-fed or grain-fed, or from porcines, by simply substituting those materials for wagyu-derived materials as given below.

[0030] Firstly, fat bearing tissue from slaughtered wagyu cattle is collected. Usually this will include protein (meat) and other tissue (e.g. collagen) which needs to be separated from the lipid (fat) material, according to practices well known in the art.

[0031 ] The first stage in separation is a thermal treatment (cooking) stage. This is carried out at a temperature range of between 80°C and 120°C in an open batch cooker for the appropriate time. However, other commercial rendering equipment may be used. This stage causes separation of the fat as it is heated and tends to float away from the protein, collagen, and other material.

[0032] The separated fat is then skimmed off the top of the cooker and transferred to a gravity separation tank. The tank is typically a stainless-steel vessel having a working height of between 1 metre and 3 metres, to allows sufficient vertical separation from the fat form other materials. The tank is maintained at a temperature between 60°C and 90°C to maintain the fat as a liquid. The process usually takes between 15 and 20 hours and is done as a batch process.

[0033] Following this process, the fat is removed from the top of the tank and, if it required to be pumped to the next stage, it is preferred that a food grate low-speed positive displacement pump is used, to further avoid unnecessary disruption of the fat cells.

[0034] The separated fat is then purified further by filtration. Preferably, said filtration includes double filtration carried out via a micronic filter. [0035] The purified tallow is then packed into suitable rigid or semi-rigid containers, such as glass jars or lidded plastic tubs for distribution and sale.

[0036] The wagyu beef tallow product obtained above is useful for inclusion in a number of different foods. These include confit, sous vide products among others. This is where the full benefit of the inventive process is realised. Due to the gravity separation method, the product undergoes minimal heating/processing which benefits it's sensory properties, such as smoothness of texture and overall flavour. This gives great benefits in the marketplace, especially when in comparison with the sensory properties of vegetable-based oils.

[0037] With this processing as described above, fat molecule damage is reduced, and digestion of the fat molecule is thereby greatly improved. This in turn assists the body to efficiently use the oil thus produced as a source of energy.

[0038] A particular use for the wagyu beef tallow product is for inclusion in hamburger patties. Aside from the benefits of the superior flavour and nutritional benefits provided by the presence of the tallow, the softness and lower melting point of the tallow confers further benefits. These include an improvement in texture and ‘chewability’, improved digestibility and an enhanced transfer of meat flavour to the taste buds.

[0039] The protein (meat) material that is removed from the fat during the cooking stage above can also be further processed into a useful protein extract product. Upon removal from the cooker, it may be ground, sieved, or minced if required and then packed. This protein product is useful for providing a flavoursome protein level boost to a variety of prepared foods.

[0040] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above-described embodiment is merely one example of how the inventive concept can be implemented. It will be understood that other embodiments may be conceived that, while differing in their detail, nevertheless fall within the same inventive concept and represent the same invention.