Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Molding – casting – or shaping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-14
2003-01-28
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Molding, casting, or shaping
C426S516000, C426S559000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06511691
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to food products prepared using co-injection molding techniques. Co-injection molding processes of the invention allow for the layering or enrobing of one food stream around another to produce a layered or enrobed shaped food product. Preferably, the product has at least one layer that expands (“puffs”) upon heating.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Consumers are offered a large number of food products that have been prepared and/or treated in numerous ways for considerations such as convenience, storage, stability, and organoleptic considerations, e.g., taste or feel during mastication, and appearance. Food producers are continuously seeking ways to differentiate their products from others by means of coloring, flavoring, design and/or other characteristics.
It is highly desirable to produce a product that has a 3-dimensional shape to mimic, e.g. the shape of well known images or characters, or to otherwise generate an interest with the consumer. It is also important, as mentioned above, that the products simultaneously have the requisite aesthetic properties, e.g. taste and mouthfeel. Such products are desirable because they provide excellent product recognition. Various types of products meeting these criteria are commercially available.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,772 discloses a puffable gelatinized dough pellets which pop upon microwave heating in a consumer microwave oven. The pellets include an outer methylcellulose skin or casing of sufficient tensile strength to allow buildup of internally generated steam pressure upon microwave heating. Upon sufficient buildup of steam pressure, the skin fails suddenly, allowing the pellet to puff explosively thereby simultaneously causing an audible popping sound. The pellets are prepared from starchy compositions such as cooked farinaceous dough or dehulled popcorn.
Molding processes have been used in the plastics industry to produce numerous products of varying size and shape. Such processes have also been used to make biodegradable articles from foodstuffs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,669 to Lim et al. discloses a biodegradable thermoplastic composition made of cereal grain that is treated with an organic solvent to extract lipids that may undergo undesirable reactions duling thermal processing of the composition. The cereal grain may further be treated with a cross-linking agent that binds the proteins and/or starches together such that the resultant product has improved water resistance compared to articles made without the cross-linking agent. The thermoplastic composition may then be formed, e.g. by injection molding, into an article of desired shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,658 to Aung discloses a composition said to be suitable for forming shaped articles, e.g. biodegradable packaging material, comprising a mixture of flour, starch, and water. The flour and starch may be obtained from natural sources, e.g. cereal grains. The mixture heated and mixed under a sufficient pressure, temperature and moisture content and for a sufficient period of time that when the pressure is decreased the mixture expands to form a composition which is rigid when cooled and stable over a predetermined temperature. A shaped article, e.g. a may be formed from the composition by injecting the composition into a molding press and forming the composition into a shaped article.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/189,447 filed Nov. 10, 1998, incorporated herein by reference, describes food products prepared by injection molding techniques that puff upon heating.
Alternate methods of producing improved shaped layered or enrobed food products and processes for preparing the food products are desirable. The present invention provides such improved shaped food products as well as methods and apparatus for preparing the food products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improved shaped food products having at least two foodphases which are distinguished by at least one characteristic such as composition, color, flavor, expandability. The shaped food product is prepared by co-injecting two distinct foodstreams into a mold. The shaped food product can assume a variety of forms, such as layered (sandwiched) or enrobed. Preferably, at least one of the phases is expandable (“puffable”) upon heating, e.g., with a microwave oven. The products are prepared from a variety of starting materials, including fruits, farinaceous grains or grain derivative products such as grain flour, starches such as tapioca, candy or confection bases such as chocolate or sugar based compositions, batters, pastes, or any form that is sufficiently flowable to be used in the co-injection process. The food products produced by the co-injection process may be a final product or may be the form of a half-product which will be further processed, typically by the consumer, to yield the final product. For example, an expandable product in unexpanded form is a half-product that will be further processed by the consumer to produce the final product which is in expanded (“puffed”) form. Expandable products may be puffed by heating e.g. by exposure to microwave radiation, heating in a conventional oven, or by deep-frying in a fat or fat-substitute.
The shaped products of the invention may be prepared in many forms including layered in sandwich-like fashion, enrobed, i.e. an outer layer enrobing a core, tubular, or the like. Preferred expandable half-products include an expandable inner core and an outer layer that substantially and preferably completely surrounds the inner core. It is preferred that the food product, if expandable, yield an audible sound “pop” when heating, mimicking the sound of an expanding popcorn kernel. The particular arrangement of layers or the number of layers in the final product is not critical to the invention. Expandable products preferably expand to from 1 to 20 times the dimensions or volume of the corresponding half-product.
Other starch sources may be added, e.g. potato starch, tapioca, can also be added in addition to or instead of the grain or grain derived material. Amylopectin is the preferred starch, and sources high in this starch are preferred for inclusion in the formulation. Formulations high in amylopectins tend to have better expansion qualities compared to formulations having comparable amounts amylose.
The products of the invention are prepared by co-injecting at least two foodstreams into the mold of a co-injection device, such as those commercially available and commonly used in the plastics industry. The food streams may be the same, but typically will differ from one another in at least one aspect. The foodstreams may be in a variety of forms including a batter, paste, liquid, solution, suspension, syrup, dough, or any other form that is capable of being injected into a mold are independently or simultaneously injected into the mold to form a product having an inner core enrobed by an outer layer, or a product having two distinct layers, i.e., a sandwich type structure.
In a preferred embodiment, expandable products are obtained by injecting a foodstream comprising an expandable farinaceous material into a mold to partially fill the mold. The expanded product is then prepared by adjusting the temperature of the mold either upward downward in comparison to the temperature of the foodstream to puff the product, which is then ready for consumer use. The temperature adjustment will depend, primarily on the composition of the foodstream. In this embodiment, it is preferred that the expandable food product includes a gas or a compound that will produce a gas, e.g. edible carbonate salts, upon heating of the mold, which puffs the product. Expansion can also be accompanied by decreasing the internal mold pressure to the farinaceous material expands to form the puff product inside the mold.
The invention is described in more detail below.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The shaped food products of the present invention can be prepared in a variety of forms with greater detail than prior art
Larrivee Gary A.
Willoughby Chris L.
Howard & Howard
Kellogg Company
Yeung George C.
LandOfFree
Food products and co-injection processes for preparing same does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Food products and co-injection processes for preparing same, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Food products and co-injection processes for preparing same will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3023092