Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Surface coated – fluid encapsulated – laminated solid... – Frozen material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-22
2001-09-04
Cano, Milton (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Surface coated, fluid encapsulated, laminated solid...
Frozen material
C426S089000, C426S090000, C426S091000, C426S101000, C426S132000, C426S134000, C426S421000, C426S512000, C426S516000, C426S518000, C426S660000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284294
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to multi-component, composite frozen confectionery products wherein the combined components provide a pattern.
Consumers have been offered articles of ice confectionery with new textures such as cakes or individual moulded portions such as cups or cones and the like containing inclusions of material of texture which is different from that of the body of aerated ice confection, e.g. crispy fat-based material.
European Patent Application Publication No. 0 221 757 an ice cream cone containing chocolate in the form of a plurality of flakes is produced by injecting chocolate into an extruded strand of ice cream provided with longitudinal grooves to form longitudinal thin strip-like chocolate layers in said ice cream strand, and the chocolate layers which solidify on contact with the ice cream break randomly into flakes when the strand is folded double to fill the cone wafer.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,767, to make a cup or cone having a flaky texture, superposed ribbons of ice cream and chocolate are extruded into a mold in the form of spirals by means of an extrusion assembly which comprises a flat extrusion tube and a spray tube and which receives a spinning movement resulting from an eccentric rotational movement and an ascending movement relative to the mold.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,070, a layered cone is made by extruding an aerated ice cream into a vertically descending helix rotating about a vertical axis and having spaced flights which define passages between the helix, spraying chocolate into passages of the extruded helix and depositing the sprayed helix in a cone so that a layered product having alternating layers of ice cream and chocolate is formed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,028, composite ice confection cakes comprising a multiplicity of superimposed successive thin layers of ice cream separated by interleaved very thin chocolate layers are made by successively extruding ice cream ribbons through slotted extrusion outlets on a conveyor, spraying thin chocolate layers on the ice cream ribbons and cutting portions transversally to the multilayered strand.
In the prior art, layered confectionery products made by extrusion have thus been produced either by forming alternate layers of ice cream and chocolate within a mold which gives its shape to the article or by sequentially depositing thin ribbon-like ice cream layers and spraying chocolate between the layers on a conveyor and cutting the thus formed multiple layer strand with a vertical blade cutter through the product transversally to the inclusion layers, which gives limited shapes.
The known methods do not provide layered articles such as stick-bar and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The objective of the invention is to produce coated frozen stick-bar and similar products with multiple thin patterns of an inclusion material of texture different from that of the aerated ice confectionery, for example of crispy texture such as fat-based or their inclusion ingredients, in a variety of well controlled shapes and orientations by extrusion. There are presently no products on the market, which satisfy this objective.
A secondary objective of the invention is to form the above-described patterning in a manner which permits transversal cutting with conventional hot wire cutters and transversal stick inserting. A further objective of the invention is to produce a variety of ice confectionery products requiring incorporation of one or more dissimilar patterns and with segmenting of the inclusion.
The frozen aerated confectionery product according to the invention comprises a bar which is cut transversally out of an extruded strand (e.g., a bar and referred to hereinafter principally solely as a “strand”) of aerated ice confectionery, which is extruded through, and preferably vertically downward from, a die which gives its outer shape to the strand containing with inclusions consisting of multiple thin patterns of material of texture different from that of the aerated ice confectionery, particularly of crispy fat-based material, wherein the inclusions are disposed as distinct substantially parallel transversal patterns extending from the center of the strand to the periphery of the strand and are separated one from another by inclusion-free zones to allow for transversal cutting with conventional hot wire cutters.
The term “inclusion” means an additive introduced into the aerated ice confectionery material having geometry, texture, taste, color characteristics different from the ice confectionery material. The “inclusion-free” zones denote ice confectionery only.
In an embodiment, the product consists of a core of a patterned aerated confectionery, as above, sandwiched between two wafers or biscuits and which can be partially enrobed with a confectionery fat-based coating.
In another embodiment, the product consists of a stick-bar comprising a core of a patterned aerated confectionery, as above in which the stick is inserted transversally into an inclusion-free zone, which stick-bar can be enrobed with a confectionery fat-based coating.
The method according to the invention comprises pumping an extrudable ice confectionery composition into a former structure provided with an extrusion die so that the composition contained within the former passes through the former to the die for extrusion via the die, and pumping inclusions of multiple thin patterns of material, particularly a fat-based material, of texture different from that of the ice confectionery through an assembly of a hollow spindle with nozzle(s), which extend transversely from the spindle, attached wherein the nozzle(s) is (are) provided with ports, particularly slots, for delivering the material into the ice confectionery composition stream in the former, and wherein the spindle is located and extends along and about an axis of the former within the ice confectionery stream and rotates about the axis and also translates axially in a reciprocating movement so that thin patterns of the material are formed in the ice confectionery to obtain a composite product having material inclusion zones and inclusion-free zones, and the composite product so-pumped is extruded via the die, preferably vertically downwards, to provide a strand which has a cross-section given by the die outlet opening, and then the strand is cut to provide slabs.
For clarity, one can consider the former to be the length where inclusions are deposited. The die typically is relatively short and defines the final product footprint.
The apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
a former with a supply for aerated ice composition, provided with an extrusion die through which a stream of aerated ice composition outflows as a strand, wherein the cross-section of the strand is given by the shape of the extrusion die,
an assembly of a hollow spindle with nozzle(s) attached, which nozzle(s) is provided with slot(s), and wherein the spindle and nozzle(s) assembly is located on the center axis of the former,
means for rotating and translating axially the assembly in a reciprocating movement within the ice confection stream flowing in the former,
means for supplying inclusion material through the spindle and nozzle(s) assembly through a rotary joint from a lateral inlet in a pulsed mode for forming thin patterns of inclusion and inclusion-free zones and
means for cutting the strand laterally in the inclusion-free zones into slabs.
In an embodiment, the apparatus may further be comprised of zones where it is heated with the intent of reducing the friction along the walls of the former and to assist in maintaining a planar patterning and this is one of several options to achieve planar flow.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the context of the present invention, the aerated ice confectionery is an aerated ice composition, for example an aerated ice cream, sherbet or sorbet or ice yogurt having a soft texture. The confectionery composition flowing through the former may consist of distinct ice cream, sherbet or sorbet of different col
French William
Lometillo Josephine E.
Cano Milton
Nestec S.A.
Vogt & O'Donnell, LLP
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