Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Surface coated – fluid encapsulated – laminated solid... – Readily identifiable fruit or vegetable derived
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-16
2002-05-07
Corbin, Arthur L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Surface coated, fluid encapsulated, laminated solid...
Readily identifiable fruit or vegetable derived
C426S105000, C426S138000, C426S284000, C426S637000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06383535
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns tubular hand held and convenience snack food products comprising potato shreds. In a preferred embodiment, the product comprises cylindrically shaped hollow casings comprising potato shreds and savory fillings, such as meats, cheeses or other processed dairy products, flavorings, spices, sauces and the like or combinations of savory fillings. The snack food is formed, cooked by frying, baking, par-frying, par-baking or combinations thereof, or otherwise, and then frozen. The product can be reconstituted by re-heating through conventional means, such as heating in an oven, toasting in a conventional residential toaster or toaster oven, or by microwave cooking. In a preferred embodiment, two or more ropes are connected through an axial indented ridge type connector to make a convenience snack food product with pull apart functionality.
The casing comprises potato shreds, starch, preferably modified starch, and cellulose gum. The potato shreds can be either fresh cut, dehydrated or combinations of fresh cut and dehydrated. The cellulose gum and starch independently interact with the potato shreds, and other ingredients of the casing, to support a potato shred matrix with a film on exposed surfaces and fill voids in the matrix at the exposed surfaces of the casing which allows the casing to be extruded and maintain its shape. This is particularly important when the casing is extruded in the form of hollow continuous ropes, to maintain the center core, axial cavity, during and after extrusion.
The gum, starch and potato shreds form a structural matrix, and the gum and starch form a film around the outer shell of the casing. The film serves a number of functions including providing a moisture barrier to regulate fat pick-up during frying of the product and to inhibit fat from leaching during reconstitution. The casing has the texture of processed hash brown potato patties that enhances product acceptability.
The invention also relates to methods for making the tube shaped snacks. The method comprises mixing potato shreds, either fresh cut, reconstituted dehydrated shreds or combinations thereof, with other ingredients, including starch and cellulose gum. The mixture is extruded through a nozzle or multiple nozzles, to form one or two or more continuous ropes on a conveyor system. The continuous ropes can be solid, or in the preferred embodiment, hollow (i.e. with an axial cavity, as in a tube). When filling is desired, the filling can be either extruded into the axial cavity defined by the inner walls of the hollow continuous rope, such as co-extrusion in the casing, or injected into the axial cavity. The continuous ropes can be physically moved together to form co-joined continuous ropes to obtain two or more ropes in an axial side-by-side arrangement which can be cut to a desired lengthwise size. After two or more ropes are arranged side-by-side, the product can be compressed. When two or more ropes are connected an axial indented ridge type connector is formed lengthwise along adjacent ropes. The axial indented ridge type connector provides the product with pull apart functionality. As such, when two or more continuous ropes are connected to form the product, the ropes can be broken apart at the axial indented ridge type connector without causing the casing around the filling to break or lose significant structure.
2. The Related Art
Hand held convenience snack foods having a filling surrounded by a casing typically have casings made from bakery formulas involving pastry dough. Bakery formulas generally involve grains and flours and the pastry dough tends to be homogenous which is both easy to form by extrusion or other means, or otherwise easy to fill. An example is cereal bar mixes made with pastry dough comprising multi-grains, and although these materials tend to have coarser grains compared to other pastry dough ingredients, the particles have substantial uniformity thus facilitating extrusion and filling.
Potato shreds are nonuniform and have bigger and longer particle size compared to grains and flours. As a result, dough comprising potato shreds lacks uniformity and is more difficult to handle and extrude. Dough comprising potato shreds will have the tendency to form open surfaces after extrusion or during the forming or filling process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,856 describes hash brown type potato products made from de-hydrated formed or fabricated potato shreds which can be re-hydrated and formed into patties said to simulate fresh cut potato products. The re-hydrated mass has a moisture content of 40% to 55% so that the product can be sheeted with a 1 to 2 millimeter opening between sheeting rolls. The potato dough made from the shreds described in this patent cannot be extruded because of needed high extrusion pressures which are said to rupture a significant portion of the potato cells. Non-critical ingredients for these products are carboxymethylcellulose, which is said to be a processing aid for the sheeting operation, and certain food gums to reduce fat or oil pickup (uptake) during frying. U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,704 describes a process for making potato strands comprising shreds for use in hash brown potatoes, and re-hydration of the shreds in the form of sheets to make a hash brown potato product is exemplified in the patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,596 describes potato mixtures shaped by extrusion or otherwise that are processed as a reduced fat flash frozen potato product. The formed potato shapes are made from blended potato pieces, and the blended product contains small pieces and, thus, not potato shreds. U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,062 describes dehydrated granular products, such as crushed dehydrated potatoes, containing some aggregates of individual cells, re-hydrated at low temperature in the presence of cellulose ether thermal gelling agent and extruded to obtain a french fried potato product.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,549 describes agglomerated dehydrated potato products made from dehydrated potato particles that, after re-hydration with a binder, are extruded to form french fries. The binder may be either a gum, such as guar gum, or free starch from modifying the potato solids. U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,210 describes an extruded french fried potato product comprising dehydrated potatoes in the form of flakes, granules, flour, diced pieces or mixtures thereof with a binder comprising more than about 25% amylose starch. The starch is said to retrograde when heated with water to form a film around the product and provide an oil barrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,673 describes extruded french fried potato products comprising dehydrated mashed potatoes, methyl cellulose and polygalacomannan gum, which are said to be essential ingredients. The combination of ingredients reportedly provide the product with an irregular external crust which permits the product to pick up a modest amount oil during frying. U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,699 addresses an application of a hydrocolloid coating to potato strips to provide an exterior crust when the strips are blanched or par-fried which may also retard oil adsorption into the potato strip. U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,727 concerns use of low molecular weight ionic hydrocolloid compositions to make film to reduce oil uptake. U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,688 concerns immersion of potato into a batter comprising sodium alginate for moisture control, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,573 concerns batter comprising hydroxypropyl methylcellulose which is said to function as an oil barrier.
Fat absorption/uptake of fried foods is one of the major concerns of consumers, particularly with respect to dietary concerns as fat provides approximately 9 calories per gram to the food. Also, fat leaching from a prepared product during re-heating or reconstituting causes a greasy feel to food, and imparts undesirable organoleptic qualities to the food.
An object of the invention is to make a hand held convenience snack food product that comprises a casing with potato shreds that can be extruded and filled and then partially or fu
Baggen Marc
Panarisi Joseph
Sheen Shiowshuh
Slesinski Alan J.
Bestfoods
Corbin Arthur L.
Plotkin Ellen
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