SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a body of pow
der of a neutralized full-coagulum in the form of a sol
consisting essentially of glucomannan (referred to as
gel-particles of glucomannan coagulum herein) is a
thermally irreversible gel. Gel-particles of glucoman
nan coagulum disperse in water and cannot deteriorate
a peculiar touch of a food blended with the gel-particles
because of the dispersibility and size of each of the
gel-particles. Blending the gel-particles with a different
foodstuff and a natural gum in order to produce a bind
ing force having no adverse effect on the touch of a
final product including the gel~particles, stabilizes a
blended dispersion of the gel-particles, the different
foodstuff and the natural gum. For example, the gel~par
ticles give a syneresis prevention effect, a water~holding
effect, a thickening force, a gelling force and a freezing
and-thawing resistance. Application of an emulsifying
substance (i.e., emulsifier in a broad sense) to a foodstuff
including a fat, sufficiently stabilizes the foodstuff.
Therefore, displacing a lot of foodstuff contained in a
food with gel-particles of glucomannan coagulum of the
present invention cannot deteriorate the touch or taste
of the food including the gel—particles but can easily
retain the food in a single solid form.
In particular, fine gel-particles of glucomannan coag
ulum of the present invention cannot deteriorate a light
touch of a drink. Blending the fme gel-particles and
water with a drink provides a drink of .an excellent taste,
which conventional blending materials such as starchy,
proteinaceous and fatty materials cannot provide. In
this case, each gel-particle of the glucomannan coagu
lum has a fine particle size such as 150 Tyler mesh pass.
In the case of a viscous ?uid food such as a potage,
gel-particle of glucomannan coagulum having a particle
size such as 8-160 Tyler mesh pass give ?uidity to the
food, which can give the food body and keep the viscos- .
ity of the food constant when cooling the food.
Since a body of gel-particles of glucomannan coagu
lum according to the present invention is a swollen
coagulum including water having a weight 30-50 times
the weight of the glucomannan, it serves'as a functional
food essentially equal to the case in which water having
a weight 30-50 times the weight of the glucomannan
operates in the human stomach and intestines. This
provides a superior advantage to cellulose, which itself
deteriorates the touch of a food, is difficult to take in
and cannot be gelled with water whereby it serves as a
functional food only in proportion to the weight of
cellulose.