Improve Adherence of Batters and Breadings to Muscle Foods

The battering and breading of muscle foods has been an industrial process for about 40 years. Yet we still have a problem with coating these muscle foods with a batter that will stick not only while baking but while frying, freezing and thawing also. The attack of this problem with other coatings like gels and semi-permeable layers has not shown such a shocking effect on adhesion. The best results have come from coating with either a modified food starch or methylcellulose. Both of these I propose for my process.

I propose that with Bind-Tex or Firm-Tex, both modified food starches made by National Starch, and METHOCEL, a methyl cellulose gum made by Dow Chemicals, that the adhesion of the batters currently in use will increase to foods like fish, chicken, and other commonly battered and breaded foods.

To carry out this process the industry currently uses large conveyor batterers or breaders. This mixed with the right batter will produce the battered and breaded food we all love. But what about when the breading is falling off and the batter is not sticking to the fish, etc. and is falling off. This is a major concern for companies especially because it deals with product appearance and texture. Using BINDTEX a modified food starch de-rived from waxy maize will solve this problem of loss of adherence by gelling at low temperatures to maximize adherence. Also of the similar type is FIRM-TEX another starch de-rived from waxy maize and also helps as a thickener. A third additive that could be used is METHOCEL food gums. These are said to help give batters more uniform coating and adhesion to food substrates. During frying, they help reduce batter blowoff, oil absorption, and moisture loss. And they help keep batters on food products during frozen storage. The batters would be mixed separate and applied with the same equipment on similar food products. There would be a sample of control with no additives and normal conditions, then one with BIND-TEX added to the batter, another with FIRM-TEX, and another with METHOCEL added. After cooking the products will be weighed for product pick-up and yield to asses the adhesive properties of the batters alone and then retention after cooking. Next a sensory panel would be assembled to address texture, flavor, crispness, color, and juiciness of the different samples for sensory tests. With the additives in the batter the product should comeout with a fuller texture and therefore crispier taste and with the gels even a juicier meat.