The present invention relates to a coconut milk powder

comprising coconut milk and coconut flour. A further aspect of the invention is a process for making the coconut milk powder.

Powdered coconut milk is used today practically worldwide in the preparation of Asian or Asian-like food dishes. Natural coconut milk comprises a lot of coconut fat and sugars, which makes it difficult to industrially process and dry,

particularly to spray dry, it into a dry, smooth and non sticking powder. So typically, coconut milk has about 15-55% fat content. For rendering coconut milk more spray-dryable, several solutions have been proposed, some of which are presently used industrially. For example, GB 1' 144' 256

describes the use and addition of specifically selected emulsifiers to coconut milk in order to facilitate spray drying. CN107348413 describes the use of casein protein, maltodextrin and sodium citrate for facilitating spray drying.

Modern consumers, however, are becoming more and more

conscious and concerned about the nature of ingredients they find in so-called 'natural' but processed food products, and which they would a priori not expect to be present in such natural food products. Hence, modern consumers are more and more averse to artificial ingredients such as artificial emulsiers and maltodextrin, and other ingredients not familiar to them.

Hence, there is a clear need in the art and industry to find alternatives and better solutions for spray drying coconut milk rich in fat and sugars, particularly for reducing the use of unauthentic emulsiers and maltodextrin. The object of the present invention is to improve the state of the art and to provide an improved solution to overcome at least some of the inconveniences described above.

The object of the present invention is to provide a solution for making a natural, consumer-friendly coconut milk powder, wherein the milk powder does not contain artificial or

unauthentic ingredients or only minimal amounts of such ingredients .

Particularly, the object of the present invention is to provide a solution for making a natural coconut milk powder, wherein the milk powder does not contain maltodextrin .

A further object of the present invention is to provide a solution for making a natural coconut milk powder, where the coconut milk powder only comprises ingredients, which derive and originate directly from coconut.

A still further object of the present invention is to make such a natural coconut milk powder by spray drying.

The object of the present invention is achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims. The dependent claims further develop the idea of the present invention.

Accordingly, the present invention provides in a first aspect a coconut milk powder comprising coconut milk and coconut flour, wherein the coconut milk powder is a spray-dried powder . In a further aspect, the invention relates to a process for making the coconut milk powder of the invention, comprising the steps of:

- heating the coconut milk to a temperature from 55°C to 90°C to obtain a homogenous solution;

- adding the coconut flour and optionally water to the

homogenous coconut milk solution;

- mixing the composition comprising the coconut flour, coconut milk and optionally water into an aqueous slurry;

- drying the aqueous slurry into a powder;

wherein the drying is spray drying.

The inventors surprisingly found that coconut milk can easily be spray dried, if the maltodextrin, as carrier for the spray drying and as suggested by CN107348413 (A) , is replaced by coconut flour. In fact, they even found that when replacing maltodextrin with coconut flour, also the amount of casein protein added in the prior art to coconut milk can be reduced or even omitted completely. Therefore, it now becomes possible to produce a spray dried coconut milk powder, which mainly or only comprises coconut milk and coconut flour; i.e. a spray dried coconut milk powder comprising mainly or only natural ingredients directly originating from coconut. The inventors believe that this is the first all-natural coconut milk powder, which can be produced by industrial spray drying and still has a high-fat content. Evidence for the working of the present invention is provided further below in the

Experimental section.

Detailed Description of the invention

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a coconut milk powder comprising coconut milk and coconut flour, wherein the coconut milk powder is a spray-dried powder. The term 'coconut milk' refers to the liquid that comes from a grated pulp of a mature coconut. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingredient consumed mostly in South and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and South America. Coconut milk typically has about 15-40 wt% (weight per-cent) fat, 1-5 wt% (weight per cent) proteins, and zero to a neglect-able amount of insoluble fibers .

The term 'coconut flour' refers to the soft flour made from the coconut pulp left-over after the production of coconut milk. It is the protein- and fibre-rich by-product of the coconut milk production. Typically, coconut flour is dried and in powder form. Coconut flour is gluten-free and it is free from wheat and other grains. Typically, coconut flour has about 5-25 wt% (weight per-cent) fat, 5-20 wt% (weight per cent) proteins, 15-50 wt% (weight per-cent) insoluble fibres, and a moisture content of up to 10 wt% (weight per-cent) .

The term 'coconut milk powder' refers herein to a dry, free- flowing powder, having a moisture content of below 10 wt%, preferably below 5 wt% or 3 wt%, more preferably of below 2 wt% or even below 1 wt% (weight per-cent) .

In one embodiment, the coconut milk powder of the present invention comprises at least 90 wt% (weight per-cent) of a combination of coconut milk and coconut flour. Preferably, the coconut milk powder comprises at least 95 wt% (weight per cent) of a combination of coconut milk and coconut flour. Even more preferably, the coconut milk powder consists only of coconut milk and coconut flour. Alternatively, the coconut milk powder of the present invention comprises at least 90 wt% (weight per-cent) ingredients directly originating from coconut, preferably at least 95 wt% (weight per-cent)

ingredients directly originating from coconut, and more preferably even consists of only ingredients directly

originating from coconut.

The advantage of the present invention is that the coconut milk powder of the present invention only comprises minimal amounts to no amounts of ingredients, which are not naturally present and derived from coconut. Hence, a coconut milk powder can be produced which has very little or no artificial or unauthentic emulsifiers, thickeners and/or spray dry carrier materials such as maltodextrin and/or starch, as for example denatured or modified starch. Hence, a coconut milk powder can now be produced which is 'clean label', i.e. without the addition of any coconut foreign ingredients, and which is 'all natural' and therefore much more appreciated by the modern consumer .

The coconut milk powder of the present invention is a spray- dried powder. There is an industrial advantage of drying large quantities of an aqueous food composition by spray drying as it allows drying of very large quantities of materials at large scale and under acceptable economic conditions. So far, spray drying of high-fat containing aqueous food compositions such as coconut milks was difficult and the use of

maltodextrin or starch as a carrier for the spray drying was considered necessary. However, the present inventors have found that maltodextrin or starch can be entirely replaced by coconut flour, which allows to readily spray-dry high-fat containing liquids such as coconut milks. In one embodiment, the present coconut milk powder of the present invention does not contain maltodextrin or starch.

In one further embodiment of the present invention, the coconut milk powder has a coconut fat content of at least 10 wt%, preferably a coconut fat content of at least 15 wt% (weight per-cent) . Particularly, the coconut milk powder of the present invention may have a coconut fat content from 10- 75 wt%, preferably from 20-55 wt%, more preferably from 25-45 wt% or from 35-50 wt% (weight per-cent) .

In one further embodiment of the present invention, the coconut milk powder has a coconut protein content of at least 1.5 wt%, preferably of at least 2.0 wt%, 2.5 wt%, or more preferably of at least 3.0 wt% or 3.5 wt% (weight per-cent) .

In one still further embodiment of the present invention, the coconut milk powder has a coconut insoluble fibre content from 1 to 10 wt%, preferably from 1.5 to 7 wt%, or more preferably from 1.7 to 5.5 or to 5.0 wt% (weight per-cent) .

"Coconut insoluble fibres" are defined herein as fibres which are originating from coconut and which are insoluble in water or in an aqueous solution.

In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a process for making the coconut milk powder of the invention, comprising the steps of:

- heating the coconut milk to a temperature from 55°C to 90°C to obtain a homogenous solution;

- adding the coconut flour and optionally water to the

homogenous coconut milk solution; - mixing the composition comprising the coconut flour, coconut milk and optionally water into an aqueous slurry;

- drying the aqueous slurry into a powder;

wherein the drying is spray drying.

In one embodiment of the process of the present invention, the step of "mixing the composition comprising the coconut flour, coconut milk and optionally water into an aqueous slurry" is for at least 5 minutes in a mixer, preferably for at least 10 minutes in a mixer. This allows good mixing of all the

ingredients into a homogenous aqueous slurry.

Preferably, the "mixing the composition comprising the coconut flour, coconut milk and optionally water into an aqueous slurry" is done at a temperature between 55°C and 90°C. At those temperatures, the coconut fat present in the coconut milk and flour is melted and consequently good mixing is improved .

Drying the aqueous slurry into a powder is by spray drying. As indicated earlier, spray drying is a preferred drying process when it comes to drying large industrial quantities of an aqueous slurry into a powder in an economic way.

Preferably, spray drying is done at a temperature from 110°C to 180°C. This allows on one hand to efficiently dry the slurry into a powder, and on the other hand not to overheat the composition in order to prevent or minimize burning and other deteriorating effects such as undesired Maillard

reactions .

In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a process, wherein the process of the present invention further comprises a step of milling the coconut flour before drying the aqueous slurry into a powder. It has been observed by the inventors that milling the coconut flour has an advantage of modifying the viscosity of the final aqueous slurry before the drying step and to thereby improve the spray drying process. Milling the coconut flour can be done either before or after adding said coconut flour to the coconut milk solution.

Preferably, the coconut flour consists of particles, at least 99% of which are no greater than 200 pm in size, preferably no greater than 100 pm in size, even more preferably no greater than 50 pm or 40 pm in size. More preferably, at least 99.9% of the coconut flour particles are no greater than 200 pm in size, preferably no greater than 100 pm in size, even more preferably no greater than 40 pm in size. The smaller the particles of the coconut flour in the final coconut milk powder, the less the consumer will detect those particles in his mouth upon consumption; I.e. the smoother and better the mouth feel of a reconstituted coconut milk powder will be upon consumption. For measuring the particle sizes of the coconut flour, the resulting dried powders after the spray drying can be suspended in water and the particle size distribution of the flour determined by using a Mastersizer 3000 from Malvern.

In a preferred embodiment, the aqueous slurry comprising the coconut flour, coconut milk and optionally water has a

particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) of 200 pm or below, preferably of 150 or 100 pm or below, more preferably of 50, 45, 40 or 35 pm or below. Even more preferably, the particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) is 30 pm or below.

In one embodiment of the present process, the amount of coconut milk in the aqueous slurry is from 80-95% (in wet weight per-cent) and the amount of coconut flour is from 5-12% or from 5-20% (in wet weight per-cent) . Preferably, the amount of coconut milk is from 85-95% (in wet weight per-cent) and the amount of coconut flour is from 5-12% or from 5-15% (in wet weight per-cent) . More preferably, the amount of coconut milk is from 88-95% (in wet weight per-cent) and the amount of coconut flour is from 5-12% (in wet weight per-cent) .

In one embodiment, the total solid content of the aqueous coconut milk-flour slurry is from 25 to 45% (dry weight/wet weight) , preferably from 30 to 42% or from 35 to 40% (dry weight/wet weight) .

In one embodiment, the process of the present invention does not comprise a step of hydrolysing the coconut milk or coconut flour, or partly hydrolysing the coconut milk or coconut flour. Particularly, the process of the present invention does preferably not comprise a step, wherein the coconut milk or coconut flour is treated by an enzyme or an acid for the purpose of hydrolysing for example proteins or fibres present in the coconut milk and coconut flour. Preferably, the process of the present invention does not comprise a step of treating the coconut milk and/or coconut flour with an enzyme. Omission of these process steps prevents a degradation or a reduction of the naturally present proteins and fibres from the coconut milk and flour in the final coconut milk powder product.

Thereby, the final coconut milk powder has a better

nutritional profile when compared to a corresponding product which underwent partial or complete hydrolysis. Furthermore, a non-hydrolysis of the proteins and/or insoluble fibres

provides an aqueous slurry in the present process, which can be better industrially dried by spray drying, particularly when no carrier material such as maltodextrin or starch is added .

Those skilled in the art will understand that they can freely combine all features of the present invention disclosed herein. In particular, features described for the product of the present invention may be combined with the process of the present invention and vice versa. Further, features described for different embodiments of the present invention may be combined .

Further advantages and features of the present invention are apparent from the figures and examples.

Example 1 : Mixing and Spray drying

Low fat (17% fat) and high fat (33% fat) coconut milks were obtained from Raps (Germany) and from the Kurunegala factory (Sri Lanka) , respectively. Coconut milk was heated to a temperature between 55°C and 90°C to recover a homogenous solution. Once the fat was melted, coconut flour was added at concentrations from 5 wt% to 12 wt% of the total mixture. Coconut flours were sourced from Cocofina (United Kingdom) , from Danlee (France), and by directly pressing from virgin coconut oil extraction (Sri Lanka) . The resulting slurry, where up to 0.5 wt% water was added, was mixed with a high speed mixer for 10 minutes. The Total Solid (TS) content of the final slurry was preferably between 37% and 40% (dry weight/wet weight) . The slurry was kept at a temperature of 75°C for 10 minutes under agitation in standard tank, before it was spray dried at 130°C in a pilot scale spray dryer with a bi-fluid nozzle or a rotative disc. Example 2: Trial 1 with 10% Cocofina coconut flour

Low fat coconut milk was first heated at 55°C to obtain a homogeneous solution. Subsequently, Na-caseinate, TriNa phosphate and coconut flour were incorporated with the help of a polytron mixer. The resulting slurry was heat treated at 75°C for 30 minutes. Total Solid content (TS) of the mixture was 40%. The final composition is presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Recipe of Trial 1 coconut milk-flour slurry

Half of the slurry described above was pumped at 60°C with a rate of 80 Kg/h towards a spray dry tower type MOBILE MINO (GEA, Denmark) equipped with bi-fluid nozzle. Inner

temperature of the tower was set to 130°C. The other half of the slurry was vacuum dried in a vacuum oven type Heraeus T6130P set at 0.1 mbar and 50°C overnight. The resulting coconut milk powder from the spray drying was white and free flowing without caking. The fat content of the powder was about 37 wt%.

Example 3: Trial 2 with 10% Danlee coconut flour

For this trial the coconut milk-flour slurry was prepared as described in Example 2, but where cocofina coconut flour (5% fat) was replaced with Danlee coconut flour (12.6% fat) . The resulting slurry was heat treated at 75°C for 30 minutes.

Total Solid content (TS) of the mixture was 37%. The final composition is the same as in Example 2 and as presented in Table 1, except for the different sourced coconut flour.

Spray drying was done in the same way as in Example 2.

However, spray drying with the use of a bi-fluid nozzle was difficult and more easily done with the use of a rotative disc. The resulting coconut milk powder was white and free flowing without caking. The fat content of the powder was about 39 wt%.

Example 4: Trial 3 with 10% Danlee coconut flour, without Na caseintate and TriNa phosphate

For this trial 3 the coconut milk-flour slurry was prepared in the same way as in the Examples 2 and 3, but with the

ingredients as listed in Table 2. Danlee coconut flour (12.6% fat) was used, Na caseinate and TriNa phosphate were omitted from the ingredients list. The resulting slurry was heat treated at 75°C for 30 minutes. Total Solid content (TS) of the mixture was 37%.

Table 2: Recipe of Trial 3 coconut milk-flour slurry

It was observed that the Danlee coconut flour had a somewhat bigger swelling capacity than the Cocofina coconut flour when suspended in coconut milk. Spray dry was done with a rotative disc in a spray dryer type MOBILE MINOR (GEA, Denmark) . The resulting coconut milk powder was white and free flowing without caking. The fat content of the powder was about 44 wt% .

Example 5: Trial 4 with 10% Cocofina coconut flour, without Na caseintate and TriNa phosphate, and milling of the flour

Coconut milk was first heated to 55°C to melt the coconut fat and to obtain a homogeneous solution. In a first step, 5 wt% of Cocofina coconut flour was added to the coconut milk and mixed in an Ystral mixer at 50°C for 10 minutes. The aqueous slurry was transferred to a Fryma MZ80-A bead mill and milled at llKg/h with a speed of 1'500 rpm. In a second step, another 5 wt% of Cocofina coconut flour was added to the slurry to obtain a final concentration of coconut flour of 10%. The aqueous slurry was then transferred again to a Fryma MZ80-A bead mill and milled a second time at llKg/h with a speed of 1'500 rpm. A third milling was then performed in the same mill at 21kg/h with a speed of 2 700 rpm. Thereafter, the slurry was homogenized in a Niro Soavi homogenizer (300/120 bars) and further pasteurized in a Meilibex tank (75 °C/ 30 mins) before spray drying. Total Solid (TS) content of the mixture was determined as 37.5%. The total recipe of the coconut milk- flour slurry is shown in Table 3. After cooling to 60°C, part of the slurry was spray dried in a Niro at 160°C with a bi fluid nozzle and the other part on the same spray dryer but with a rotative disc. The resulting coconut milk powders were white and free flowing without caking. The fat content of the powder was about 42 wt%. Table 3: Recipe of Trial 4 coconut milk-flour slurry

Example 6: Trial 5 with high fat coconut milk, 10% Cocofina coconut flour and milling of the slurry

For this trial 5 the coconut milk-flour slurry was prepared in the same way as in the Example 5, but with the ingredients as listed in Table 4. High fat coconut milk (33 wt%) from Sri Lanka and Cocofina coconut flour (5 wt% fat) were used. The coconut milk-flour slurry was heated at 55°C for 10 minutes followed by smoothening of the slurry with the use of a wet- ball mill type Alpine Hydro-Mill 90 AHM operating at 10 Kg/h, 3000 rpm, and 50°<T<60°C, using zirconium oxide beads. The resulting slurry was homogenized in a Niro Soavi homogenizer (300/120 bars) and further pasteurized in a Meilibex tank (75 °C/ 5 mins) before spray drying in a MOBILE MINOR (GEA,

Denmark) at T=160 °C . The total Solid content (TS) of the mixture was between 45 and 60%.

Table 4: Recipe of Trial 5 coconut milk-flour slurry

Example 7: Trial 6 with high fat coconut milk, 10% coconut flour from Virgin oil extraction and milling of the slurry

For this trial 6, the coconut milk-flour slurry was prepared in the same way as in the Example 5, but with the ingredients as listed in Table 5. Both high fat coconut milk (33 wt%) and coconut flour from Virgin oil extraction (8 wt% fat) sourced from Sri Lanka were used. Na caseinate was also used as an ingredient.

Table 5: Recipe of Trial 6 coconut milk-flour slurry

Coconut flour with 8% residual fat and initial partial size of D50 (v, 0.5) 180 (pm) was used in the trial. The slurry of coconut milk and coconut flour milled in wet to reduce the particle size and achieve narrow practical size distribution. The particle size reduction will help to have efficient spray drying process and reduce graininess in the mouth when used in the final application.

The coconut milk-flour slurry was heated at 55°C for 10 minutes followed by smoothening of the slurry with the use of a wet-ball mill type Alpine Hydro-Mill 90 AHM operating at 10 Kg/h, 3000 rpm, and 50°<T<60°C, using zirconium oxide beads. To have an effective and homogeneous particle size distribution the slurry was subject to several cycles of passage through the grinding chamber in the bead mill. Samples of un-milled initial slurry and at each passage were collected and analysed to measure the particle size distribution. Typically the particle size of around D (v, 0.5) 30 (pm) or lower was achieved after three passages; the particle size was characterized by laser diffraction using the Malvern Mastersizer 2000 in water.

The resulting slurry with reduced particle size was

homogenized in a Niro Soavi homogenizer (300/120 bars) and further pasteurized in a Meilibex tank (75 °C/ 5 mins) before spray drying in a MOBILE MINOR (GEA, Denmark) at T=160 °C .

The results showed that the coconut flour from Virgin oil extraction with 8 wt% residual fat had a particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) of ca. 180 pm before milling; the coconut flour and coconut milk slurry before bead milling had a particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) of ca. 160 pm. After the first milling pass, the coconut flour and coconut milk slurry had a particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) of ca. 40 pm, and after the 2 ^nd pass of ca. 35 pm. After the 3 ^rd pass, the coconut flour and coconut milk slurry had a particle size distribution D50 (v, 0.5) of ca. 30 pm.

The particle size of the coconut flour in the slurry of below ca . 50 pm, preferably of below 35 pm, before spray drying is a preferred parameter. This reduced particle size can be achieved either by dry or by wet bead milling of coconut flour and added to the coconut milk prior to homogenisation and spray drying. Fine particle size will have an impact on the spray drying during processing, on the colour of the final coconut milk powder after spray drying and the mouth feel after preparation of the final recipe by the consumer.