Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Having specific electrical or wave energy feature
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-17
2001-12-25
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Having specific electrical or wave energy feature
C426S111000, C426S115000, C426S120000, C426S126000, C426S394000, C426S395000, C426S603000, C426S663000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06333059
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to food products. More particularly, the present invention relates to microwave popcorn products and to their methods of preparation.
BACKGROUND
Popcorn is a highly popular snack food item. In the past, the at-home preparation of popcorn by the consumer involved adding kernel popcorn plus a cooking oil to a covered pot and heating until the popcorn kernels popped to make popcorn. As used herein, “kernel popcorn” refers to unpopped popcorn. The noun “popcorn” or synonymously “popped popcorn” refers herein to popped kernel popcorn. The adjective “popcorn” can refer to either. Once popped, the popcorn can be flavored such as by the topical addition of melted butter and/or salt.
More recently, microwave popcorn products have become extremely popular. At present, in the U.S., over 70 different brands of microwave popcorn products are available. In general, the more popular microwave popcorn products comprise an expandable paper bag containing a charge of kernel popcorn, fat and salt. The microwave popcorn article is adapted to be heated in a microwave oven for three to five minutes to produce the popped popcorn. More recently, improved microwave popcorn articles have been fabricated employing a metallized susceptor which facilitates the heating of the popcorn-fat charge and which, in turn, leads desirably to increases in popcorn volume and decreases in unpopped kernels. Microwave popcorn articles of this type are described in detail in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,180 (issued May 22, 1984 to J. D. Watkins entitled “Package for Increasing the Volumetric Yield of Microwave Cooked Popcorn” and incorporated herein by reference).
While extremely convenient and popular, microwave popcorn articles are not without certain disadvantages. In particular, due to their use as an occasional snack food, microwave popcorn products must be prepared to have an extended shelf life. Since butter and butter containing food products typically require refrigerated distribution and storage, conventional microwave popcorn products are prepared having a shelf stable non dairy fat constituent that is often flavored with an artificial butter flavor.
In the past, microwave popcorn products containing conventional butter have been known under the Act I brand by Golden Valley Microwave Popcorn. However, the butter containing microwave popcorn product required distribution through refrigerated or frozen channels. Due to the inconvenience of required refrigeration distribution, sale and consumer storage, such products never proved to be popular.
It would be desirable to be able to provide a microwave popcorn product containing at least a portion of its fat constituent provided by a real butter ingredient.
It would be further desirable to be able to provide a microwave popcorn product containing a minor but significant portion of its fat constituent provided by a real butter ingredient that did not require refrigeration.
Microwave popcorn articles are also known that contain conventional butter that do not require refrigeration. It is believed that such products can be made due to the extremely low concentration of the real butter. In such products, the butter content is less than 1% and typically about 0.1%.
Given the state of the art as described, there is a continuing need for new and improved microwave popcorn articles containing at least a portion of its fat constituent provided by a real butter ingredient. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved microwave popcorn articles.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide microwave popcorn articles including embodiments having a reduced fat charge, which upon microwave heating can provide popcorn containing at least a portion of its fat constituent provided by a real butter ingredient that nonetheless exhibits extended shelf stability.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods by which such microwave popcorn products can be prepared.
It has been surprisingly discovered that the above objectives can be realized and that improved microwave popcorn articles can be provided. The present invention resides in part in the surprising discovery that by incorporation of minor but significant amounts of a high fat butter ingredient, together with a conventional levels of antioxidants in the non dairy fat ingredient, that shelf stable butter ingredient containing microwave popcorn products can be realized. Furthermore, by adding the ingredients in a particular order, embodiments can be prepared that are unexpectedly superior in shelf stability compared to compositionally similar products prepared by alternate methods.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improved microwave popcorn articles containing a real butter ingredient and to their methods of preparation. In its article aspect, the present microwave popcorn resides in articles essentially comprising a microwave popcorn bag and a food product charge disposed therein comprising: 1) kernel popcorn, and a fat blend of non-dairy fat and a high fat/low moisture butter ingredient.
The kernel popcorn component essentially comprises about 60% to 98% of the food product charge.
The fat blend component essentially comprises about 2% to 40% of the charge.
The fat blend component essentially comprises about 1% to 20% of the fat blend component of a high fat low moisture butter ingredient. The fat blend component further essentially comprises about 80% to 99% of the fat blend component of a shelf stable non-dairy fat component having 100 to up to about 400 ppm of an antioxidant(s)
The food product charge essentially includes about 1% to 8% of the butter ingredient.
In preferred embodiments, the food product charge can further include about 1% to 6% salt.
In its method aspect, the present invention resides in methods for filling a microwave popcorn bag with a food product charge of popcorn kernels coated with a fat and salt slurry having a butter ingredient. The present methods comprise the steps of:
A. providing a microwave popcorn bag having a sealed bottom end and an open sealable top end defining a seal area in an open configuration; and
B. filling the bag with a quantity of a food product charge of kernel popcorn, fat and butter. This step in turn comprises the substeps of:
1. forming a slurry by forming a dispersion of: about 2% to 38% of the food product charge of a melted non-dairy fatty triglyceride and about 0.1% to 6% of the food product charge of salt, said dispersion having a temperature of about 112 to 132° F. (44.4 to 56.6° C.), to form a molten dispersion of the non-dairy fat and salt; wherein the non-dairy fat includes about 100 to 400 ppm of antioxidant.
2. heating about 1% to 8% of the food product charge of a high butterfat butter ingredient to form a liquid butter ingredient having a temperature of about 115 to 140° F. (46 to 60° C. ) to form a melted butter ingredient;
3. admixing the molten dispersion of the non-dairy fat and salt with the melted butter ingredient to form a butter ingredient containing fat and salt slurry; wherein the slurry has a temperature of about 112 to 130° F. (44.4 to 54.4° C.);
4. dispensing the kernel popcorn into the bag through the open sealable top;
5. spraying the slurry onto the popcorn.
The method further essentially includes the step of:
C. sealing the open top end of the popcorn bag.
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patent: 5075119 (199
Monsalve Adelmo
Palkert Philip E.
Peterson Gary V.
Diederiks Everett G.
General Mills Inc.
O'Toole John A.
Paden Carolyn
Taylor Douglas J.
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