Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Gels or gelable composition
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-24
2001-02-06
Nessler, Cynthia L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Gels or gelable composition
C426S577000, C426S521000, C426S575000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06183801
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to food compositions which contain a food gel component and their preparation and particularly to gelled compositions which contain a fruit phase, more particularly fruit pieces, and to combining component ingredients to thicken, gel and stabilize the compositions.
It is already known to prepare a gelled dessert with juice and chunks. U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,810 concerns an aqueous dessert gel containing as gelling agents a combination of four polysaccharides, such as calcium sensitive low-methoxy pectin, locust bean gum, a potassium-sensitive carrageenan and a calcium-sensitive carrageenan. However, the complicated composition of thickener, the unsolved degradation of some of the thickeners during heat-treatment and the known reduction of thickening at elevated temperatures makes this system not useful in manufacturing practice. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,658,556 and 4,752,489 concern a process for preparing a gelled composition containing a homogeneous distribution of fruit pieces, said composition containing as gelling agents locust bean gum and carrageenan. In the process, the containers are rotated during sterilisation and cooled down to the setting temperature. The process requires a special handling which can be done only with canned products, but is not useful for cup filled desserts. Additionally, the movement during gel setting or just before induces uncontrollable variability of the gel texture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the present invention is to have the possibility of preparing a water jelly by hot filling in order to overcome microbiological contamination, that is at a temperature of at least 70° C., which is the necessary temperature for filling in cups on not aseptic or not ultrahygienic filling lines, and with a thickening system which provides sufficient high viscosity of the jelly mass at 70° C., without degradation of said thickening system at the above mentioned temperature.
The invention provides a refrigerated water jelly comprising a jelly ground mass and a fruit phase made of fruit pieces, said pieces being uniformly distributed in the jelly ground mass, the jelly ground mass consisting of 50 to 90% and the fruit phase of 10 to 50% of the water jelly, wherein the jelly ground mass comprises in weight 0.4 to 0.7% of xanthan, a gelling compound taken from the group consisting of 0.5 to 1.5% of carrageenan, 0.4 to 1.0% of carrageenan together with 0.1 to 0.5% of locust bean gum and 0.1 to 0.5% of gellan gum and 15 to 30% sugar and wherein the fruit phase has a sugar content near to the sugar content of the jelly ground mass and contains between 0.4 and 0.7% of xanthan.
All of the percentages above and set forth in the remainder of this specification are by weight based upon the weight of the final water jelly composition.
The present invention further provides a process for the preparation of the water jelly, wherein a jelly ground mass is prepared by blending the afore-noted jelly ground mass ingredients at a temperature, such as a temperature around 70° C., so that the ingredients are suspended in the water, the mixture is heated to a temperature and for a time so that the jelly ground mass is at least pasteurized and then is cooled to a temperature which is not below a temperature which effects gellation, such as above 70° C., and then stored, and a fruit phase is maintained under aseptic conditions after sterilisation or pasteurisation, and subsequently, the so-treated fruit phase, at a temperature of from 10 to 20° C., is injected into a stream of the jelly ground mass, and the mixture so obtained is heated to reach a temperature above 70° C. and then is filled in a container and the container is sealed to contain the product mass in the container to obtain a packaged product mass, and the packaged mass is cooled to gel the product mass to obtain a gelled product mass in the container.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
For obtaining water jelly according to the invention, it is possible to run the production on existing filling lines. With the system of gelling and thickening agents, it is possible to obtain an homogeneous distribution of the fruit pieces in the jelly ground mass and said agents provide sufficient high viscosity of said jelly mass at 70° C. Otherwise, positive or negative lift evoked by the difference of specific gravity between jelly ground mass and fruit pieces leads to floating or deposit of the fruit pieces before the gel sets. The gelling part of the system allows a control of the desired gel firmness and texture without uncontrollable interactions with the thickening agent. Also the influence of heat and low pH on degradation of polysaccharides can be minimised.
The jelly ground mass contains both a thickener and a gelling agent. The thickener has been selected by the ability to build up a high viscosity even at elevated temperature, with little influence on the gel structure, and by sufficient stability against degradation at high temperature and low pH. Dispersions of xanthan have ideal properties for the purpose of the invention as they show a strong pseudoplastic behavior which is practically independent from temperature. Thus xanthan provides a high yield viscosity just after filling and stabilises the homogeneous distribution of the fruit pieces. A xanthan with very good transparency due to an additional refining process is preferably used. The concentration varies between 0.4 and 0.7%. Lower concentrations do not provide sufficient yield viscosity, and higher concentrations will increase the viscosity of the raw mix to a level too high for the transport in the tubes. A concentration of 0.5% is preferred.
The gelling agent used can be carrageenan, preferably kappa-carrageenan, which builds up a transparent gel. A good result can be obtained by blending kappa- and iota-carrageenan. Both products provide a transparent, slight elastic gel. The firmness is controlled by the concentration which can vary between 0.5 for a weak gel up to 1.5% for a very strong gel. Another possibility as gelling agent is a combination of carrageenan and locust bean gum. This combination increases strongly the gel strength without inducing elasticity, and in this embodiment the amount of carrageenan varies between 0.4 and 1% and that of locust bean gum between 0.1 and 0.5%. A further appropriate gelling agent is gellan gum, which is a hydrocolloid obtained by fermentation of sucrose by
Pseudomonas Elodea.
Gellan gum provides a transparent, firm and rigid gel even when used in low concentrations, which may vary from 0.1 to 0.5%.
All the above mentioned gelling agents have a sufficient stability against acid and heat, if the proposed processing will be applied. There is no interaction with xanthan affecting the gel structure and appearance negatively. The gel strength depends strongly from the amount of free mono- and divalent cations (e.g. sodium, potassium and calcium). The water used for the preparation of the jelly has a calcium concentration of not more than 80 mg/l, which allows reaching an acceptable gel firmness.
The concentration of sugar depends primarily on the desired sweetness of the product and can vary in the jelly ground mass between 10 and 30%. The specific gravity of the jelly ground mass can vary between 1.04 and 1.13. The quantity of sugar in the fruit piece preparation, and thus in the fruit pieces, has to be adjusted to the quantity of sugar in the jelly ground mass and which then will adjust the specific gravity of the fruit piece preparation to that of the jelly ground mass. The adjustment of the specific gravity between both phases has to be carried out as exactly as possible in order to minimise the needed quantity of xanthan. Practically, the concentration of xanthan is set to 0.5%, while the difference in specific gravity between both phases should not exceed 0.02 g/ml, which corresponds to a difference in sugar concentration of at least 4.2%. This range of deviation is technically feasible in the industrial production for the jelly ground mass as well as for
Nessler Cynthia L.
Nestec S.A.
Vogt & O'Donnell, LLP
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