Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Assembling plural edible preforms having extraneous binder,...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-13
2004-04-20
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Assembling plural edible preforms having extraneous binder,...
C426S643000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06723362
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the processing of shrimp, seafood, and meat products. Stated more particularly, disclosed and protected by the present patent is a method for forming larger shrimp, seafood, and meat products by coupling plural smaller products and to the resulting larger products formed by that method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One knowledgeable in the art of food processing techniques will be well aware that larger food products often have higher value per unit weight than their smaller counterparts. The higher value of larger food products of course derives from their being more desirable to consumers. Although this is true of a number of meats and types of seafood, possibly nowhere else is the value differential more pronounced than relative to shrimp, which of course is a most popular seafood delicacy. Accordingly, the present discussion will focus primarily on the processing of shrimp with it being explicitly noted that the invention is equally applicable to a plurality of other food products.
As the astute reader may surmise from the foregoing, shrimp are commercially available in a wide range of sizes. They are commonly sorted into groups of similar size and then sold according to the number of shrimp required to form one pound of the seafood product. This number is commonly referred to as the count of the shrimp. At one end of the spectrum, shrimp as small as in the 500 count range have been found to be commercially useful while fully-grown tropical shrimp weighing one-third of a pound effectively establish the opposite end of the spectrum.
Although shrimp defining these ends of the spectrum are available, shrimp are most commonly commercially sold ranging from roughly a 16 count to approximately a 150 count. Shrimp between a 30 count and a 150 count typically are sold for normal consumption. However, shrimp in the 16 count to 25-count range are normally considered “Jumbo” shrimp such that they are considered a particular delicacy. With this, the Jumbo shrimp are exceptionally desirable to consumers. Disadvantageously, Jumbo and other larger size shrimp are significantly less common than their smaller counterparts. This is true relative to ocean caught specimens and also relative to those raised in shrimp farms. Taken in combination with their natural desirability, the rarity of larger and Jumbo-sized shrimp causes them to merit a premium price per unit weight.
As one would expect in light of the added value per unit weight of larger shrimp and their relative rarity as compared to smaller shrimp, a number of inventors have endeavored to craft larger shrimp or shrimp-simulating structures often from plural smaller shrimp and sometimes from other food products. Although their methods and resulting products have differed widely, these inventors have worked toward the common goal of increasing the value per unit weight of smaller shrimp or other food product by simulating or roughly approximating larger shrimp of a lower count.
One common type of prior art method for forming larger shrimp has begun by first grinding small shrimp product or other food product into a coarse or fine paste. Then, the ground product is extruded or formed into a simulation of a larger shrimp. The 1990 U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,957 to Ikeuchi et al. may be considered exemplary of such processes. There, minced fish material is injected into a split mold that has a cavity in the shape of a shelled shrimp. Then, a V-shaped device makes a longitudinal groove in the minced fish material. Finally, the mold and the material are heated to yield the shrimp-shaped food product.
Unfortunately, shrimp-shaped products formed according to such methods suffer from a number of shortcomings. As one might expect, the resulting product, although having a shape similar to that of a large shrimp, has a markedly different texture than solid shrimp that makes its composition easily discernible and often tactilely offensive. Furthermore, the shrimp-shaped products typically have a significantly different appearance than solid shrimp because, for example, the separate minced pieces can be visually perceived unless the shrimp-shaped product is prepared in a breading or the like. Still further, such molding or extruding processes can not practically produce a tail-on shrimp where, as its name would suggest, the actual tail is left on the shrimp.
A second method commonly practiced by the prior art has been to couple two or more pieces of shrimp together to create a larger mass of shrimp that arguably belongs to a class of lower count shrimp. One such method was disclosed by Kou in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,938. There, Kou taught making a composite seafood product by assembling plural smaller bufferflied shrimp, with all but one being tailless, into a structure resembling a single, large butterflied shrimp. The resulting structure can then be battered and fried to obscure the fact that plural smaller shrimp have been joined. Corser et al. discloses another representative method in U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,558 wherein a centerpiece substrate shrimp with its tail on and cut into a butterfly configuration is surrounded by a second shrimp in the shape of a ring.
Disadvantageously, the larger products produced by these types of methods also exhibit a number of shortcomings. For example, such processes typically demand that the shrimp to be coupled be cut into a butterfly configuration such that the resulting shrimp can not be prepared to simulate larger shrimp of other configurations such as shell-on tail wherein only the head is removed from a shrimp or peeled round where the shell is removed from the tail. Just as importantly, such processes yield products that, although they comprise a larger resulting structure, do not have the appearance of an actual large shrimp. For example, unless the resulting structure is battered and fried or otherwise coated, the multiple different smaller shrimp can be readily perceived by a consumer as being separate pieces. This is particularly true since the joined shrimp typically have different muscular orientations.
Also, the shapes of the resulting structures often bear little resemblance to the shapes of actual larger shrimp. Additionally, the resulting products normally must be blast frozen to maintain their configuration and then must be cooked prior to thawing to prevent their coming apart. Even further still, cutting the component shrimp into the necessary configurations results in appreciable losses in food product. Yet further, the relative sizes of the component shrimp must be chosen carefully for the process to be possible. Finally, such processes typically require specialized equipment including, most basically, specialized trays and the like.
In light of the foregoing discussion relative to the art of shrimp processing, it becomes clear that there remains a need for an improved method for creating larger shrimp and other food products from a plurality of smaller shrimp or other food products. Indeed, one skilled in the art will appreciate that a method for processing shrimp and other food products that provides a solution to each of the abovedescribed deficiencies exhibited by the prior art while demonstrating a number of heretofore unrealized advantages thereover would comprise a marked advance in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Advantageously, the present invention sets forth with the broadly stated object of meeting the needs left by the prior art while providing a number of heretofore unrealized advantages thereover.
Stated more particularly, a most basic object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for forming larger shrimp, seafood, and meat products by coupling plural smaller products and to the resulting larger products formed by that method.
A more particular object of the invention has been to provide a process and product thereof that yields a larger shrimp from plural smaller shrimp that is essentially imperceptibly different in appearance, texture, and taste as compared to an actual larger shrimp.
An underlying o
O'Connell Law Firm
Paden Carolyn
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