Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Packaging or treatment of packaged product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-20
2002-05-21
Cano, Milton I. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Packaging or treatment of packaged product
C426S412000, C426S392000, C426S106000, C426S573000, C426S576000, C426S577000, C426S589000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06391358
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention generally relates to a process in which a food product to be packaged is converted from a soft, fluid-like state to a firmer state in two or more stages. More specifically, the passage of the food product through these stages is useful to provide the food product with desired flow characteristics as it moves through the packaging equipment, and for obtaining the desired finished product body and texture.
Food products which are fluid during processing, such as jelly, food sauces, and dessert gels, may be difficult to process or package. For example, if the food product is extruded, or is required to pass over rollers, its passage through a packaging machine may be physically impeded if the viscosity of the food product is too low (see, e.g., FIG.
5
), also causing problems with proper weight control of the packages. Conversely, the product body and texture may be physically damaged if the viscosity is too high, as further described below.
It is known to add a thickener, such as a consumable gel, to food products. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,454 to Bogdan, disclosing the use of gelatin, fruit pectin and food starch to provide jelly with “optimal flexibility and shape-retaining qualities” (col. 6, lines 12-14), and also disclosing a recessed container in which the finished product shape may be formed. However, food gels have typically been allowed to form in an undisturbed state in order to gel properly. If shear forces are applied to the gel as a result of packaging, the gel may be damaged, resulting in a fractured and unacceptable finished product, as has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,745 to Thota et. al as follows:
A problem with utilizing a continuous extrusion process to obtain a set extrudate is that when the product begins to set within the extruder, the possibility of degradation and physical break up of the extrudate during conveyance increases after the transition of the mixed ingredients from a liquid phase to a highly viscous solid or gel phase. The high viscosity of the setting gel increases shear forces throughout the extrudate as it is conveyed through the extruder. When the final mixture of the product is shear sensitive, the extrudate tends to degrade and break apart, at least sporadically, as it is conveyed through. the extrusion die, significantly limiting the ability to continuously convey, shape, form and cut the extrudate in an efficient and continuous manner.
(Col. 2, lines 7-20).
Delaying gel formation until the product is in a packaged and finally-formed state, however, may present problems during earlier stages of the packaging process. The product may simply be too thin or runny to package properly as it passes through packaging machinery, such as high-speed slice forming equipment. Thus, problems have been encountered in packaging food products that are either relatively low or high in viscosity.
Some packaging equipment has been designed to move slowly enough to accommodate gel formation. With increasing food plant size and increased equipment automation, line speeds have increased. Packaging equipment requires fast through puts to justify equipment costs. The food products made in these plants must not only be acceptable upon shipment, but must also be able to tolerate these rapid line speeds. Packaging equipment has been specially designed to allow the passage of solid state food products (see, e.g., the Thota patent, describing the use of a low viscosity fluid continuously flowing over a channel in an extrusion die to induce laminar flow of a gelled food product). However, it would be more economical to provide food products designed to progress through existing packaging machines than to specially design machines to handle fluid food products.
In addition, packaging materials or operations may require the food product itself to provide its own structural support, e.g., when a particular shape, such as a cookie or candy, is extruded and deposited on a tray.
Various gel shapes have been described in the patent literature. See, e.g., the Bogdan patent; EPO Patent Application 99-13 0904703 to Fassin et. al., “Slice-shaped filling for sandwiches”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,990 to Soedjak, describing multi-layered gelled products; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,783,241 to Bocabeille et. al., “Method For Producing Cylindrical Gel Food Products”, in which gelling is induced internally and externally of an extruded food product using a calcium bath. However, no provision for commercial high-speed processing and packaging of a food product using a multi-stage gel or thickener appears to be described.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gelling or thickening system which will introduce sufficient integrity to a food product so as to facilitate packaging of the food product.
It is another object of the invention to provide a multi-stage gelling/thickening system that provides the food product with sufficient viscosity during all relevant stages of food product formation and/or food product packaging, while also imparting desired shape and texture characteristics to the food product.
It is a further object to provide a gelling/thickening system adaptable for use with existing packaging machines, such as extruder machines for packaging individual slices of food items, without the need to specially re-design such machines.
It is yet another object to provide a gelling/thickening system which provides a food product with desired viscosity to allow proper weight control over the food product packages.
It is still another object to provide a multiple-stage gelling/thickening system which is consumable, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly.
DEFINITION OF CLAIM TERMS
The following terms are used in the claims of the patent as filed and are intended to have their broadest meaning consistent with the requirements of law. Where alternative meanings are possible, the broadest meaning is intended. All words used in the claims are intended to be used in the normal, customary usage of grammar and the English language.
“Gel” is used here as that term is normally understood to those of ordinary skill in the art, and refers to a colloid in a form more solid than a sol.
“Gelling agent” means a substance(s) that causes or facilitates the formation of a gel.
“Set” means for a gelled product to reach a substantially constant viscosity.
“Thickeners” mean constituents for increasing the viscosity of a food product, including gelling and non-gelling agents.
“Package” means any encapsulation or covering for a food product.
“Compatible” or “Compatibility” means that two or more gels or thickening agents present in the same food product will not interfere with the: gelling or thickening process of the other(s) in a manner that is substantially deleterious to packaging of the food product or its consumer appeal.
“Food Product” means any edible or consumable product.
“Jelly” means any gelled food product, including all types of jellies, jams, preserves, marmalades, fruit butters, desert gels, gelatin slices, and the like.
“Disrupt”, “disrupting”, “disruption” or “disrupted” means an interference with the texture of the thickening or gelling agent composition or food matrix which occurs during or after the food product has been initially inserted within a packaging material.
“Texture” means the physical sensation of a food product as it interacts with the human senses, including its appearance and its mouth-feel upon mastication.
“Enable” or “enabling” means to simply provide an environment for a reaction or change as well as to cause that change using chemical or other means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The objects mentioned above, as well as other objects, are solved by the present invention, which overcomes disadvantages of prior art thickener or gelling systems, while providing new advantages not previously obtainable.
This invention has its genesis in the surprising finding that two or more gelling or thickening agents may be added to a food product, with a first (e.g., rapid-setting) gel or thickening agent pro
Finnie Kevin J.
Frinak Susan C.
Olsen Robert L.
Cano Milton I.
Madsen Robert
Niro Scavone Haller & Niro
Schreiber Technologies, Inc.
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