Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Foam or foamable type
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-19
2003-07-08
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Foam or foamable type
C426S602000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06589586
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a powdered creamer, which is cold water soluble down to freezing temperatures and which exhibits freeze/thaw stability through multiple freeze thaw cycles. It relates also to a beverage that includes such a creamer and to a method for the production of such a creamer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Powdered non-dairy creamers are well known and are widely used, particularly as coffee or tea creamers. Typically these creamers contain about 35 to 50% by weight of fat, about 25 to 40% by weight of a sugar-based sweetener, about 3 to 10% of a protein, and emulsifiers, stabilizers and buffers. The amount of the sweetener may increase to about 70% if sugars such as corn syrup are used. These powdered creamers are typically produced by subjecting a solution containing the components to spray-drying.
In these creamers, the fat used is usually a fat or oil which is bland or neutral in flavor and which remains stable over long periods. Coconut fat, in particular has been widely used. The protein used is usually a milk based protein such as casein; often in the form of sodium caseinate. Corn syrups are commonly used as the sugar-based sweetener.
When dissolved in hot water, these powdered creamers dissolve rapidly to whiten the beverage and provide a creamy mouthfeel. When added to cold water for example at 20° C. or below, however, they tend to be sparingly soluble, usually merely floating on the surface of the liquid, even if added with stirring. This makes these powdered creamers unsuitable for use in cold beverages. As there is an increasing demand for cold versions of traditionally warm milk-type beverages, this creates a need for a powdered creamer that will provide a milk-type drink when reconstituted in cold water and that can be stored at about freezing point until required to be dispensed.
Certain beverages, such as coffee-flavored granitas, are prepared and served in a semi-frozen ice slurry state. In such a beverage, there is at least a pseudo-equilibrium between continual melting of ice and simultaneous generation of additional ice. This continual freezing and thawing causes conventional creamers to break down, which is manifested by formation of white specks and a visible oil scum in the product. The white specks and the oil scum make the product visually unappealing. If the ice slurry beverage is to contain a creamer, the creamer must be capable of withstanding the continuous freezing and thawing which occurs while the product is on display and available for purchase.
Many conventional creamers must be initially dispersed into a hot water solution. Obviously, delay and expense are incurred when cooling this hot product down to the point where it becomes suitable for addition into a chilled ice slurry. Addition of a powdered creamer directly into an ice slurry product would greatly reduce preparation time.
An effort to produce a cold-water soluble creamer was addressed in published Japanese Patent Application No. 59-118,043. The application discloses hydrogenation of specified oils to raise the melting point in order to improve the stability of the product, followed by fractionation or ester exchange to remove unwanted by-products. This process was done in order to produce the oil comprising one ingredient of the creamer. It was also mentioned that olive oil and camellia oil could be used with no further processing required. The application teaches that the creamer resulting from such oils will easily disperse in water temperatures of 1-3° C.
Despite this, a creamer for an iced product possessing freeze/thaw stability properties and being dispersible in an ice slurry would provide a substantial competitive advantage over existing products. Thus, there remains a need for a cold beverage creamer that can exist with stability in the frozen state and undergo repeated freeze/thaw cycles without breaking down into its components or losing dispersibility. The present invention now satisfies this need.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a powdered creamer which can remain soluble and/or stable in an environment which is undergoing continual freezing and thawing. This creamer is also readily dispersible in iced water slurries.
In one aspect, this invention provides a water-soluble creamer comprising a fat, a sweetener, protein and an emulsifier, in relative proportions effective to render the creamer capable, after dispersion in use, of remaining in stable dispersion in a dynamic freeze/thaw equilibrium. It was surprisingly found that a creamer comprising agglomerated particles that contain about 25-45% of oil, about 30-70% of sweetener, about 0.5-6.0% of protein and about 0.3-1.5% of an emulsifier, is capable of remaining in stable dispersion in a dynamic freeze/thaw equilibrium.
In another aspect, the invention provides a process for the preparation of a creamer, the process comprising providing a sweetener, a water-dispersible or water-soluble protein, an emulsifier, and an edible oil having a bland flavor and a melting point below about 20° C. and mixing these components together in relative proportions selected to render the creamer capable of remaining in stable dispersion in a dynamic freeze/thaw equilibrium.
The invention extends further to a method of preparing a cold creamy beverage, such as granita-type beverage, the method comprising the steps of providing a creamer mixture as described above and forming an aqueous solution containing this mixture. The method in a preferred form comprises providing an ice-slurry and mixing the creamer mixture into the slurry. The method comprises further holding the ice-slurry and creamer mixture in a state of at least a pseudo freeze/thaw equilibrium, in which state the mixture may be served for consumption.
In still another aspect, this invention provides an ice-slurry beverage product containing a water-soluble creamer, where the creamer comprises an oil and an emulsifier in relative proportions selected to render the creamer capable of remaining in stable dispersion in a dynamic freeze/thaw equilibrium.
In another aspect, this invention provides a cold-water soluble creamer for use in preparing an ice-slurry beverage product, the creamer comprising a sweetener, a water-dispersible or water-soluble protein, an emulsifier, and an edible oil having a bland flavor and a melting point below about 20° C., with the components being in relative proportions selected to render the creamer capable of remaining in stable dispersion in a dynamic freeze/thaw equilibrium.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In the description that follows, the term “oil” refers to any edible vegetable oil or fat.
The term “stable dispersion” refers to the ability of the creamer formulation of the present invention to resist emulsion breakdown or separation in cold solutions such as those which are at 20° C. or lower temperatures.
The term “dynamic freeze/thaw environment” refers to an environment where an ice-slurry beverage is held under such conditions that ambient heat coming in causes some degree of melting of the ice particles, but where such melting is offset by additional cooling which acts to create additional ice crystals by freezing. This approach maintains at least a pseudo-equilibrium between the ice melted and the ice generated such that there is substantially no net accumulation or loss of ice in the system.
The term “freeze/thaw cycle” refers to the freezing of a liquid product containing the creamer formulation of the invention to a solid state, followed by subsequent thawing back to liquid solution form. A product capable of withstanding at least six such freeze/thaw cycles occurring immediately sequentially and, thereafter, in liquid form exhibiting no readily observable signs of separation or emulsion breakdown, is accepted to exhibit a high degree of freeze/thaw stability.
The creamer in powdered form is made up of agglomerated particles. These comprise at least protein, oil, emulsifiers and optionally, buffers. Preferably, they further contain sweeteners and fla
Beeson Christine A.
Pascual Tersita B.
Nestec S.A.
Paden Carolyn
Winston & Strawn
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