Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Surface coated – fluid encapsulated – laminated solid...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-21
2003-06-03
Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Surface coated, fluid encapsulated, laminated solid...
C426S594000, C426S651000, C426S535000, C426S597000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06572905
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to compositions for providing aroma at the time of preparation of a food from a dehydrated food composition, to dehydrated food compositions containing such aromatizing compositions, and to methods of preparing foods from said dehydrated food compositions.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The production of dehydrated food compositions often involves processing conditions such as elevated temperature, which causes loss of desirable food aroma. One known technique of overcoming such loss is to add additional aroma and flavor to dehydrated foodstuffs and beverages. There is an abundance of art on the preparation of natural and artificial aromas and flavors for addition to dehydrated foodstuffs or beverages. Such aromas and flavors are usually complex, comprising many organoleptically active compounds, which combine in effect to create the characterizing aroma of the product. Since aromas and flavors are extremely powerful and typically unstable in their undiluted state they are combined with a carrier to render them stable and easier to handle. The carriers are neutral or complementary in organoleptic impact and do not contribute to the characterizing aroma of the product.
Carriers can be water-soluble solids or liquid. In cases where a liquid carrier is used, it is often encapsulated in a solid, water-soluble matrix to further preserve the characterizing aromas from loss or damage. The carrier, often referred to as a solvent in liquid systems, functions as an aroma base and is used to adjust the level of otherwise powerful aroma and taste substances to levels similar to those that exist in nature. Desirable characteristics of carriers for liquid systems include blandness and miscibility with other liquid carriers and with liquid aromas. Traditional carriers include ethanol, propylene glycol, glycerol, vegetable oil, benzyl alcohol, triacetin, tripropionin, triethyl citrate, and tributyrin.
The aroma constituent of an aromatizing composition characterizes its aroma, i.e., the innate quality that gives the aroma its special attributes among and over other aromas. The aroma constituent may, and often does, include a plurality of aroma ingredients which together result in the characterizing aroma.
When a preparation aroma is desired upon rehydration of such flavors and aromas in a dehydrated food or beverage such composition are limited in effectiveness because of poor aroma release. When a solid carrier is used, the release or aroma is poor because the diffusion of rehydrating liquid into the particle during rehydration inhibits the counter-diffusion of aroma out. In this way the vast majority of the characterizing aroma constituents end up in therehydrating liquid. An aroma burst can be obtained by increasing the loading of characterizing aroma constituents into the carrier but this typically leads to an overwhelmingly strong or unbalanced flavor in the product when consumed.
Likewise poor aroma release is obtained when traditional liquid carriers are used, whether or not they are encapsulated. Those which are water-soluble, suffer the same problems as with soluble solid carriers. The flux of water into the carrier inhibits the diffusion of the aromas out. Furthermore many carriers have a density greater than 1.0 g/cc so they sink in the product during hydration and aromas are released into the rehydrating liquid rather than being released at the surface to effect preparation aroma. Finally those conventional carriers which do float and are insoluble in water are of an oily or fattynature. Though these can be arranged to release aroma at the surface they leave an unsightly and often organoleptically and visually undesirable “slick” at the surface of the product.
Natural essential oils from botanical sources are typically intensely flavored and naturally aromatic due their inherent volatility. This makes them an ideal choice as aromatizing constituents for use in the manufacture of food products. Unfortunately, volatile essential oils do not exist in all food sources used to manufacture food products. In addition, essential oils that do occur naturally in some foods are often not sufficiently abundant or readily extracted to permit their economical use in processed foods, and some are not approved for food use. Furthermore, many processed foods, due to their intended use, are not able to be manufactured with natural food ingredients that may contain essential oils.
For example, instant beverage powders typically must quickly and completely dissolve in water without producing insoluble floating or suspended matter or sediment in order to be acceptable to the consumer, and foods or ingredients derived from foods that do contain naturally occurring volatile oils typically are not completely water soluble. In response to these limitations, natural or synthetic flavoring agents are typically used to impart the desired character and identity to such food products. In many cases, especially when economically favored, the flavoring agent may contain a natural essential oil, such as in the widespread use of encapsulated orange oil powders used to flavor imitation or orange-flavored instant beverages. Orange oil is readily and economically pressed from discarded orange peels, an abundant byproduct of the orange juice industry.
One well known example of food processing that results in loss of aroma is the manufacture of “instant” (or soluble) coffee powder. Unless additional steps are taken in its manufacture, there is very little aroma associated with hot coffee beverages prepared from instant coffee powder relative to the aroma of hot coffee beverages prepared by brewing roast and ground coffee. Many attempts have been made to enhance the aroma of instant coffee products, including the use of particular types of coffee beans, the use of particular coffee roasting conditions, and the addition of coffee aroma.
A particular problem which has been noted in connection with instant coffee is the relative lack of coffee aroma that is generated at the time that a hot instant coffee beverage is prepared compared to the coffee aroma that is generated when brewing coffee. This problem of poor preparation aroma (i.e., poor aroma burst or “above-cup aroma” at the time of preparation of an instant coffee beverage) is noted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,368 assigned to Nestec S.A. and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,178 also assigned to Nestec S.A. Each of these patents describes several prior art attempts to provide an initial burst of above-cup coffee aroma, such as by coating soluble coffee powder with an aqueous emulsion of an aromatic coffee substance, or by employing particulate aromatized coffee glass. It is reported in each of these U.S. patents that these and other previously known procedures had not been successful in achieving good preparation aroma. The '368 patent proposes a method of coextruding capsule particles in which a liquid core material containing aromatized coffee oil is encapsulated within a shell of hardened coffee glass. The shell encapsulates a core of aromatized coffee oil saturated with an inert gas under pressure. The '178 patent also describes known techniques for aromatizing instant coffee and notes that techniques which may provide good package aroma (i.e., aroma in a coffee container) do not provide good preparation aroma. The '178 patent reports that the method of the '368 patent provides excellent entrapment of the aroma but that complex machinery and careful control are required. The '178 patent proposes a modified method of preparing the aromatized coffee capsule particles which method is said to have the advantage of simplicity.
The amount of preparation aroma which can be achieved by incorporating aromatized coffee particles, such as those described in the '368 and '178 patents, in an instant coffee product, depends in part on the amount of such particles employed. Good preparation aroma can be achieved by employing a sufficient amount of the aromatized capsules. However, the more capsules that are employed
Ceriali Stefano
Gaonkar Anilkumar G.
Wragg Anthony
Zeller Bary L.
Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.
Larson & Taylor PLC
Weier Anthony J.
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