Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Foam or foamable type
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-11
2001-03-20
Sherrer, Curtis E. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Foam or foamable type
C426S573000, C426S601000, C426S602000, C426S603000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203841
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to whippable food products having desirable organoleptic characteristics, improved temperature stability, and improved whipping performance. According to the practice of the invention, the improvements in the aforementioned products, and in the whipped confections prepared therefrom, are made possible in part through the selection of particular combinations of emulsifiers and triglyceride fats, and optionally proteins and stabilizers, for inclusion therein, and through the techniques whereby the foods are prepared and the confections whipped.
REPORTED DEVELOPMENTS
There is a recognized but unmet demand for whippable food products and confections produced therefrom in which whipping performance and temperature stability are improved, and caloric content is reduced, over available products and confections. This demand is particularly noteworthy with respect to icings and toppings for cakes and tortes, and fillings for creme pies, donuts, eclairs, creme puffs, parfaits and mousses.
With respect to the preparation of large quantities of such products for sale, numerous performance characteristics have been identified improvement of which would improve the value of the product. Representative performance characteristics include greater temperature stability of a whipped confection to weeping, crazing, bleeding, cracking, sliding or, for example, melting from off a cake; greater stability as measured by the time period after preparation of a whipped confection that it remains spreadable; longer shelf life of both unwhipped and whipped products and whipped confections under refrigerated, freezer or ambient temperature conditions; the conditions under which whipping can be performed including time to whip, optimum or maximum whipping temperature, whether whipping can be conducted as a continuous operation, and the overrun yield thereof.
At the same time it is recognized that consumer acceptance of such products, and also the performance and quality thereof, is an important determining factor in the marketplace. In this regard, consumer acceptance is known to be dependent on several and interrelated factors including, for example, cracking, wilting, weeping or hardening of confections; the presence of fresh cream-type taste with rich creamy appearance, and the absence of off-flavors or odors associated with numerous vegetable oils or vegetable oil fractions. In particular, consumer acceptance of such products is also dependent upon the lack of perception by the consumer of a lingering or waxy taste to the above-mentioned products associated with the presence therein of a significant percentage of high temperature-melting triglyceride fat.
It has been suggested that selection for inclusion in such products of particular emulsifiers, stabilizers, water-soluble solids including sweeteners and inorganic salts, proteins (whether or not water soluble), triglyceride fats, and/or combinations thereof, would be key to the preparation of such products and confections, so that improvements in all of the aforementioned areas (temperature stability, perceived organoleptic characteristics, and whipping performance) would be enhanced. Identification of particular combinations of ingredients that provide these performance characteristics has proved difficult.
With respect to the selection of particular triglyceride fats and emulsifiers useful in the preparation of such improved whippable food products, different approaches have been used in the art.
A first approach has been to provide as a starting material for inclusion therein a “temperate latitude” or “domestic” oil including, for example, one or more of soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, rapseed oil, safflower oil, low linolenic soybean oil, low linolenic canola oil, high oleic sunflower oil, or such other similar oils as these terms would be understood in the art, or one or more fractions thereof, such oils being characterized generally as containing no more than about 5% thereof of fatty acids that are of C14 length or less; generally no more than about 15% of C16 length fatty acid; and more than about 50% combined of C18 (saturated, mono, di and tri-unsaturated) fatty acid. Such triglyceride fats are recognized to have certain advantageous features when at least partially hydrogenated including, for example, that they are readily available, that they are of appropriate solid fat index, and have neutral flavor.
However, such oils are recognized to require substantial hydrogenation when used in whipped products. In this regard, it is generally recognized that such domestic oils must be hydrogenated to a resultant iodine value of about 65 to about 75 in order to be useful in the formulation of a stable whip topping, icing or filling. Such oils (for example, soybean oil) result in a fat component which may typically be about 23% saturated C18:0, about 72% monounsaturated C18:1 and about 5% polyunsaturated C18:2 and C18:3.
With respect to formulation of oils of this kind, a most preferred triglyceride composition is believed to be CENTRACOTE® available from Central Soya Company, refined oil division, Fort Wayne, Ind. This product is defined by that company to be a partially hydrogenated soybean oil “selectively processed to give a clean, bland flavor, and extra stability for an extended shelf life” and stated to be suitable, for example, for non-dairy applications such as whip toppings and frozen desserts. The defined characteristics of the product are stated to be iodine value of 65-70, melting point (by the Mettler drop point method) of 105-111° F., with a solid fat index (percent of solid fat) of 59-63 at 50° F., 57-62 at 70° F., 42-47 at 80° F., 22-26 at 92° F. and 1-4 at 104° F. Toppings made from this oil tend to be excessively sensitive to whipping shear, cannot be continuously whipped, have poor whipped stability, and leave a waxy (greasy) coating in the mouth when consumed, referred to in the art as having poor “getaway”.
In general, such oils are, if not further refined at substantial cost, recognized as having (1) off-odors uncharacteristic of a dairy topping and (2) the presence therein following hydrogenation of a sufficient concentration of high molecular weight-saturated fat (stearic acid, C18:0, has a melting point of about 158° F.) that they leave a waxy aftertaste in the mouth that coats, but does not easily clear from the palate following tasting thereof.
Emulsifiers that have been used with the above oils include, for example, polysorbate 60, polyglycerol esters, and lecithin, and combinations thereof. Certain advantages have been identified with respect to the use of such emulsifiers. Such products may be freeze-thaw stable, that is, they remain whippable when thawed from the frozen state. However, such products typically have exhibited lack of extended whip stability regardless of whipping conditions used.
An alternate approach to the provision of suitable combinations of triglyceride fat component and emulsifier involves the use of the “high lauric” or tropical oils, as they are known in the art, and that are perceived by consumers to have very desirable cream or butter-like organoleptic properties. Such oils (including hydrogenated forms or fractions thereof) have, typically, very high degrees of saturation, and yet surprisingly low melting points owing to the high contribution to average molecular weight of the triglyceride therein made by the short length C14, C12, and lower carbon fatty acids.
Representative of such good organoleptic oils are babassu oil, coconut oil, tucum oil, palm kernel oil, and any combinations of the above. Inclusion of such oils (including hydrogenated forms or fractions thereof such as partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, fully hydrogenated palm kernel oil (meaning to an iodine value of about 1), partially hydrogenated coconut oil, fully hydrogenated coconut oil or combinations of any thereof) in the triglyceride fat component of whippable products is recognized to facilitate whippability
Lynch Robert J.
O'Mahony John Sean
Kenyon & Kenyon
Rich Products Corporation
Sherrer Curtis E.
LandOfFree
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