Process of modifying texture of food products

Details Process of modifying texture of food products Process of modifying texture of food products

1999-05-14

2001-01-02

Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...

Gels or gelable composition

C426S574000, C426S575000, C426S576000, C426S577000, C426S660000

Utility Patent

active

06168820

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a process for controlling softness of food products, particularly for food products which tend to lose water during storage.
BACKGROUND ART
Water is a commonly used food plasticizer, which to a great extent determines the texture and softness of various food products. However, water is easily lost to the environment either by evaporation or by migration from areas of high water activity to areas of low water activity within the food product during storage of the product. The result of such evaporation or migration of water is that the texture, appearance or flavour of the food product may be altered during storage. In order to overcome this problem, other plasticizers such as polyols are commonly used. These plasticizers are advantageous to use because they do not easily migrate between areas of high and low water activity, they do not support microbial growth and they do not evaporate in the environment during prolonged storage periods. The longer the desired shelf life of the food product, the higher the amount of plasticizer that needs to be added to counteract the hardening of the food product due to water loss.
In several cases, however, the maximum amount of plasticizer added to the food product is limited by processing requirements. For example, in cases of food products which are deposited, molded or extruded, the process requires that the food product is hard enough to maintain its shape during forming and subsequent processing. This is particularly the case with various “composite” food products which consist of various layers or regions of varying composition, texture, and water activity such as filled cereals and baked products, breakfast and nutritional bars, or confectionery products, etc.
SUMMARY FO THE INVENTION
We have found that by first immobilizing the plasticizer and then adding it to such a food product, the two conflicting requirements described above are both satisfied, i.e. more plasticizer may be added for prolonging product shelf life and the shape and texture of the food product may be retained during processing. Immobilization of the plasticizer can be achieved by any well known technique such as gelation of the plasticizer or encapsulation in a suitable wall material using a variety of encapsulation techniques. During production of the food product, the gelled, encapsulated or otherwise immobilized plasticizer is sufficiently retained within the gel, capsule or other matrix so that no or very little plasticization of the food product occurs. During storage of the food product, the gelled, encapsulated or otherwise immobilized plasticizer slowly diffuses out of the immobilizing matrix and into the food product thus imparting to the food product the desired softness or other plasticization effect.
According to the present invention there is provided a process for controlling the softness of a food product which tends to lose water and become progressively harder during storage which comprises adding an immobilized edible plasticizer to the food product.
The food product may be the sole component or one component: of a multi-component food product.
The food product may include systems where polyol or polyol/water mixtures are sometimes used in order to plasticize the food system but which cause processing problems such as deformation of the food product, stickiness, sliminess, etc. Examples of such products are centre filled cereal and bakery products which contain regions of different water activity or a confectionery product such as grained product consisting of a mixture of some or all of the following substances: sucrose, invert sugar, corn syrup, molasses, vegetable fat, sorbitol, salt and dairy ingredients. Advantageously, the food component may be pumpable or extrudable, e.g. when the component is a grained product such as fudge, it may be extruded into a rope which may be divided into portions to be used as the centre of a product such as candy bar which is coated with components both hydrophilic and hydrophobic in nature.


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