HEALTH FOOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a chitosan-contg. health food with diminished astringency or harsh taste unique to chitosan, improved in meltability in the mouth in a granular form so as to be ready to drink. SOLUTION: This health food is obtained, specifically, by the following procedure: 150 g of chitosan is put into 1,500 cc of distilled water followed by addition of 50 g of β-cyclodextrin under agitation followed by heating at 85 deg.C for one hour and then cooling to 45 deg.C; after cooled, the resultant system is incorporated with 500 g of a mixture of water-soluble dietary fiber and digestible dextrin, derived from natural starch, (trade name: Pine fiber (R)), followed by agitation for one hour and then addition of 6 g of grapefruit fragrance followed by agitation; the resulting aqueous solution is evaporated to dryness using a disk-type spray dryer with an inlet temperature of 150 deg.C and outlet temperature of 90 deg.C to obtain 669 g of a powdered product, which, in turn, is incorporated with 80 g of chitosan oligosaccharide, 80 g of chitin oligosaccharide, 120 g of palatinit, 18 g of L-ascorbic acid, and 18 g of citric acid, and the resulting mixture is charged into a fluidized bed granulator where the mixture is agitated for 15 min, and the resulting granular product with 15% Pine fiber (R) solution as binder is recovered.