Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Foam or foamable type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-24
2003-04-22
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Foam or foamable type
C426S577000, C426S660000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06551647
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a fluid food composition capable of being preserved for an extended period of time in the liquid state and intended, before consumption, to be frozen in a refrigerator, even one for domestic use, to give an ice-cream product ready for consumption.
Ice-cream is a food composition comprising milk, cream or water, sweetening agents, flavourings, binding agents and emulsifying agents, which is brought to the solid or semi-solid state by freezing. In the preparation of ice-cream by industrial freezers or by means of devices for domestic use, the ice-cream mix, or rather the food composition on which the ice-cream is based, is subjected to agitation and beating under intense refrigeration for the purpose of causing the incorporation of air into the composition before or during freezing. Thanks to the presence of small air bubbles the ice-cream melts rapidly in the consumer's mouth giving a pleasant sensation of freshness and at the same time avoiding any unpleasant and excessive cooling of the mouth and teeth.
Industrial ice-cream is typically sold in a form ready for consumption or rather is preserved in a packaged form or in bulk under refrigeration and is removed from the refrigerated environment before being consumed. This involves the necessity for refrigerated transport both in the industrial distribution chain and on the part of the consumer after having acquired it; the possible liquefaction during transport involves a substantial loss of the organoleptic properties in that the subsequent freezing effected after a partial accidental unfreezing or liquefaction involves an unacceptable increase in the consistency.
The present invention therefore relates to a food composition which has the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics typical of conventional ice-cream, but is capable of being distributed to the consumer normally in the liquid state to be consumed after having been frozen in a normal domestic refrigerator in static cooling and freezing conditions; the product according to the invention, when frozen, even in the absence of mechanical beating to cause the incorporation of air and whipping of the product, has a substantially homogenous non-aerated microcrystalline structure without any crystals of ice perceptible to the consumer. Another peculiarity of the product to which the invention relates is the possibility of being subject to repeated cycles of freezing and liquefaction without this altering the possibility of obtaining a microcrystalline structure following final freezing.
A product of the above type is described in EP-A-0 192 753 the description of which is incorporated in the present specification by reference. The composition in the above-cited document utilises a stabilising and thickening composition comprising a salt acting as protein stabiliser, an alginate with gelling properties and a thickening agent constituted by a chemically modified starch. The procedure for preparation and use of the said stabilising composition aims at obtaining a liquid emulsion having a low viscosity in that it has been established that a low viscosity facilities the formation of the desired microcrystalline structure in the frozen product.
Even though the product described in the above mentioned patent has the desired structural characteristics upon freezing, the object of the present invention is that of providing a further improvement particularly in relation to the properties of flavour development and palatability upon consumption.
Other studies and researches carried out by the applicant have in fact established the possibility that in products conforming to EP-A-0 192 753, during the course of static freezing, an undesirable precipitation of the flavouring ingredients may take place which detrimentally affects the perceptible development of the flavour when the product is consumed.
The formation of micro-crystals of ice in static freezing conditions is in fact strongly conditioned by the composition of the superconcentrated solution from which they originate; all flavourings form part of such solutions with associated solvents and/or dispersants; the solubility ratio of the flavourings at the low temperatures of freezing (down to −24° C.) are very much more critical than at ambient temperature; if the competition from other solutions (carbohydrates-salts minerals-proteins) is added it will be understood that in the course of static freezing precipitation of the flavourings can occur due to supersaturation and segregation thereof in the structure of the frozen product. This risk of precipitation of the flavourings obviously does not occur in the production of industrial ice-creams in that the freezing takes place in dynamic conditions in continuous freezers in which intense agitation avoids local conditions of supersaturation.
The possibility of uniformly distributing the non-freezable part, of which the flavourings are a part integrated with the solutions present, onto the surface of all the micro-crystals as they are created, gives a rise, on the other hand, to an extraordinary flavour development during the melting phase, not otherwise obtainable with that type of product and with the same flavourings.
The problem of local supersaturation of the flavourings could on the one hand be resolved, at least in part, by increasing the quantities of solvents for such flavourings; however, since food solvents for such flavourings are principally alcoholic solvents, their use in excess of the minimum quantities necessary to put the flavourings into solution is generally undesirable.
According to another aspect it has been determined that products of the type described in EP-A-0 192 753 are normally subjected to freezing at temperatures which vary from −8° C. to −24° C.; for the purpose of achieving the best organoleptic and palatability characteristics for the consumer it is preferable that, after removal of the product from the refrigerator, it be maintained at ambient temperature for a certain period of time which varies as a function of the refrigeration temperature, but which is generally between 5 and 10 minutes. This waiting time is generally necessary to achieve the best characteristics of creaminess to the palate corresponding to the palatability of a conventional industrial ice-cream. In this respect, a further object of the present invention is that of providing an improved product which makes it possible to achieve the desired palatability characteristics after a shorter waiting time at ambient temperatures.
In view of these objects and others which will become apparent from the following description, the subject of the present invention is a confectionery ice-cream product in the form of a stable emulsion, preferably of the oil-in-water type, which is in a liquid state at ambient temperature, preservable at ambient temperature in the said state when packaged in sterile conditions and having a microcrystalline structure following freezing, even in the absence of beating or whipping, comprising alimentary fats, milk proteins, sweeteners, flavourings and water,
characterised in that it further includes a thickening and stabilising composition comprising a salt acting as a protein stabiliser, a hydrocolloid constituted by a chemically modified starch and at least one further hydrocolloid chosen from water soluble hemicelluloses, pectins with emulsifying properties having a high degree of esterification and their mixtures.
A water soluble hemicellulose, suitable for the present invention, derived from oil seeds and cereals, is described in EP-A-0 521 707 as a food additive for acidic and non-acidic protein products and for baked products. Its main sugar constituents are rhamnose, fucose, arabinose, xylose, galactose, glucose and uronic acid and it has an average molecular weight from 50,000 to 1,000,000, preferably from 100,000 to 400,000 and can be obtained by degradation of water-insoluble vegetable fibres containing protein in acid conditions preferably around the isoelectric point of the protein and at a temp
Bhat Nina
Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck
Soremartec S.A.
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