Lever Brothers Company

Unilever Patent Holdings B.v.

Lipton, Division of Conopco, Inc.

Jan Kuiper

Adrianus M Ledeboer

Robert Vreeker

Janos Bodor

Walter M Verhue

Jan Cornelis De Smit

Pieter M Klapwijk

Marinus Theodorus Pleijsier

Yvon Maria Ijsseldijk

Dairy spreads, especially fresh cheese, are sensitive for heat treatments. The heat treated products are often grainy, mealy and chalky. The invention relates to a method of producing a dairy spread wherein a cheese milk or cream or a combination thereof is acid coagulated in the presence of a suitable culture, wherein the culture comprises an exopolysaccharide producing lactic acid bacterium capable of reducing the graininess of the heat treated dairy spread.

Method of preparing a dairy spread

The present invention relates to an aroma composition with a low water content comprising alpha-acetolactic acid at a relatively high concentration level, and of which the rest consists mainly of edible carrier material.

Aroma composition containing alpha-acetolactic acid

Unsaturated fatty acid derivatives which, besides fatty acids with two double bonds, contain fatty acids with more than two double bonds, are hydrogenated in the presence of a palladium, platinum or rhodium catalyst which has been treated with ethylenediamine or a homologue and/or a derivative thereof and at a temperature of -20.degree. to 100.degree. C. The hydrogenation progresses very selectively while very little isomerization to trans-fatty acids occurs. For example, in the hydrogenation of soya bean oil to a linolenic acid content of 2%, the linoleic acid content only decreases to 45-52%. Under identical conditions an untreated catalyst leads to a linoleic acid content of about 35%.

Process for the selective hydrogenation of triglyceride oils with a

Triglyceride oils, which contain besides fatty acids having two double bonds, fatty acids having more than two double bonds, are hydrogenated using palladium, platinum, rhodium and/or iridium as a catalyst, the catalyst being treated with dry ammonia. The hydrogenation is carried out at a temperature of at least 100.degree. C. The hydrogenation progresses in a particularly selective manner. On using, for instance, soyabean oil, which contains about 55% of linoleic acid and 7% of linolenic acid, the amount of linolenic acid can be reduced to 2%, whereby more than 45% of linoleic acid is retained in the hydrogenated product. In case the catalyst is not treated, said amount is only about 35%.

The selectivity of the hydrogenation of compounds containing more than one double carbon-carbon bond in the presence of a metallic catalyst of group VIII of the periodic system is improved and trans isomer formation is reduced by treating the catalyst with a basic compound before addition of the catalyst to the substrate or in situ. The basic compound is a quaternary ammonium hydroxide, an alkali or alkaline earth hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide, a salt with a weak acid of such a hydroxide or an alcoholate of the cations of these hydroxides.

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Vlaardingen, Netherlands

Jan Kuiper