Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact... – Lacteal derived containing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-30
2002-11-05
Corbin, Arthur L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Inhibiting chemical or physical change of food by contact...
Lacteal derived containing
C426S582000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06475545
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to spreadable ricotta cheese blends that are stable to storage at refrigerated temperatures for extended periods of time. The invention further relates to methods of preparing the ricotta cheese blend, and to meal or lasagna kits incorporating the ricotta cheese blend.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Food products that minimize the preparation time in the home without sacrificing flavor and texture are in great demand in contemporary society. Some pasta dishes can be made quickly in the home kitchen; others, however, require time-consuming preparation if made from scratch. Lasagna, although a popular dish which contains flavorful components such as ricotta and other cheeses, herbs, spices, and a tomato based seasoned sauce, does require significant preparation time. Other pasta dishes containing ricotta cheese, including, for example, stuffed shells, manicotti, and the like, are also popular but time consuming when prepared in the home kitchen. With the limited time available in the modern family for food preparation, such dishes—especially if prepared from scratch—are often eliminated from, or only used sparingly in, the home menu. This is in spite of the popularity of such pasta dishes with the public.
If the desired flavor, aroma, and texture are to be developed, such pasta dishes must be made using fresh ingredients—including the ricotta cheese ingredient—and prepared largely, if not entirely, from scratch. As an example of this burden, the lasagna noodles in a baked lasagna preparation are typically cooked, or at least partially cooked, before being layered with cheese and sauce ingredients. The pre-cooking of the noodles, the arrangement of the various layers, and then the baking time requires both significant time and effort. For this reason, lasagna and other similar pasta dishes are often not prepared in the modern family kitchen where time for meal preparation is often limited.
A prepackaged ricotta cheese blend and/or a complete lasagna kit containing all necessary ingredients (including prepackaged and seasoned ricotta cheese blend) which are available for purchase in a retail grocery store would be a great convenience in the preparation of a baked lasagna dish. Its availability would significantly reduce the time and effort required in the assembly of the layered lasagna preparation prior to baking. Such a prepackaged ricotta blend would require a treatment at the time of packaging to ensure its stability during the shelf life prior to purchase, and after purchase, prior to its actual use. Extended periods of stability are required to achieve this objective. Moreover, the stabilized ricotta cheese blend would need to retain its spreadability during the extended shelf life, so that it could easily be layered into a lasagna preparation prior to baking. Such a spreadable and stabilized ricotta cheese blend and seasonings would further reduce preparation time and provide further convenience for the consumer. Such a stabilized, spreadable ricotta blend could be included as part of a lasagna kit, offering still further convenience to the consumer.
There thus remains a need for a stabilized, spreadable ricotta cheese blend which can be prepackaged for retail sale to the consumer. There also remains a need for a lasagna kit that includes the stabilized ricotta cheese blend as an important component thereof. The present invention addresses these needs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of preparing a spreadable stabilized ricotta cheese blend, a stabilized ricotta cheese blend composition, and a lasagna kit that includes the stabilized ricotta cheese blend, optional shredded cheese, tomato-based sauce, and uncooked or precooked lasagna noodles. The ricotta cheese blend is stabilized by treating the cheese blend containing ricotta cheese and, optionally, other cheeses and/or ingredients at a temperature in the range of 160° F. to 170° F. for a time sufficient to provide a shelf life at refrigerated temperatures against the growth of
Clostridium botulinum
of at least 20 weeks. In an important embodiment of the method, the cheese blend is treated at a temperature of about 165° F. Importantly, in spite of the stabilization treatment, the ricotta cheese blend remains spreadable at refrigerated temperatures.
The ricotta cheese blend may also contain other ingredients or additives such as, for example, one or more additional cheeses other than ricotta, salt, spices, herbs, edible acids, and preservatives. Preferably, a mixture of two or more of these additives are employed in the cheese blend. Suitable second or others cheeses to be included in the cheese blend include, for example, Neufchatel cheese, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, Cheddar cheese, Mozzarella cheese, Provolone cheese, cream cheese, and a mixture of any two or more of these cheeses. Suitable edible acids include, for example, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, acetic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, phosphoric acid, and the like. Suitable preservatives include sorbic acid and/or salts thereof. Of course, other conventional additives, such as colorants, flavorants, and the like, can be included in the ricotta cheese blend if desired.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a spreadable, stabilized ricotta cheese blend suitable for use in preparing pasta dishes such as baked lasagna, stuffed shells, manicotti, and the like. The ricotta cheese blend is treated to render it stable to microbiological contamination for at least 20 weeks at refrigerated temperature (i.e., about 4 to 8° C.). In general, dairy products routinely sold at retail are stable for at least a short time under proper storage conditions. However, the ricotta cheese blends of the present invention advantageously include herbs, spices, and other additives to impart flavor to the baked lasagna preparation. The inclusion of such herbs and spices, however, may increase the microbiological contamination or burden beyond that which would normally be present in the dairy composition itself. Thus, a ricotta cheese blend similar to that of the present invention, except without the stabilization treatment provided in the present invention, could be a safety risk to the consumer. The stabilization treatment of the present invention significantly reduces that risk and provides a safe and stable product when stored and used properly.
Growth of pathogenic microorganisms, or of benign microbiological contaminants whose presence results in rejection by consumers, must be prevented in a stabilized product such as the present ricotta cheese blend. Pathogens include
Clostridium botulinum, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium,
and the like. More benign, but still objectionable, contaminants include yeasts, molds and the like. In order to achieve stability against the growth of such microbiological contaminants during the extended shelf life, the ricotta cheese blend must be treated to kill any microorganisms present. In this invention, a criterion for shelf life stability includes testing for the absence of
C. botulinum
growth during challenge experiments.
A common treatment intended to kill microbiological contaminants includes application of heat. Although a wide variety of such heating procedures are available to workers of skill in food science and may be employed for this purpose, they differ significantly from the heat treatment employed in the present invention. In pasteurization, for example, a liquid, such as a dairy liquid, is exposed to a temperature of about 161° F. for a short period of time (i.e., about 15 seconds). Such a pasteurization, if applied to the ricotta cheese blend of the present invention, would not be sufficient to stabilize the treated blend for an extended shelf life. In contrast, in the canning industry, for example, killing of microorganisms such as
C. botulinum
is accomplished by heating at temperatures of about 300° F. for a period of time in the range of about 3 about 6 secon
Borwankar Christine
Brenton Bennett Lee
Kelly-Harris Sandra Elaine
Li John Yen Hown
Corbin Arthur L.
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Kraft Foods Inc.
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