Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Normally noningestible chewable material or process of... – Packaged – structurally defined – or coated
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-05
2002-09-10
Corbin, Arthur L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Normally noningestible chewable material or process of...
Packaged, structurally defined, or coated
C426S302000, C426S303000, C426S660000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06447821
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a novel sugar coated product wherein a hard coating is applied to an edible core material and, more particularly, a novel sugar coated product wherein an edible core material is coated with a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol, as well as a process for preparing the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Heretofore, there has been prepared a sugar coated product comprising an edible core material coated with a hard coating according to the process wherein an edible core material is charged into a rotary pan, an appropriate amount of a saccharide solution is added to the material, while rotating the rotary pan, the saccharide solution is uniformly applied over the surface of the edible core material to form a saccharide coating over said surface, moisture is evaporated from the coating to form a crystalline saccharide layer and then this procedure is repeated until a sugar coated layer of the desired thickness is obtained.
As the saccharide materials which may be used for forming a hard coating, sucrose has been most commonly employed and a variety of sucrose-coated products have been commercialized. Of these coated products, there may be typically mentioned those having a hard coating wherein an edible core material with, for example, a mint-taste, a fruity taste or a coffee-taste is coated by a hard coating using sucrose.
However, when a fruity taste with both of a sweet taste and a sour taste is expected from a sugar coated product wherein an edible core of fruity taste is coated by a hard coating using sucrose as a saccharide material, the finished product has a drawback that a prolonged time is required for the edible core to dissolve in the mouth and thus the desired fruty taste cannot be immediately felt. Thus, the finished coated product has not been quite satisfactory as a fruity sugar coated product.
Then, it might have been conceived to prepare a saccharide solution by adding a sour agent to a saccharide solution for a hard coating and use the resulting solution for a hard coating. However, it is known that, when a sour agent is added to sucrose, the sucrose is partly decomposed to glucose and fructose by an acid component in the sour agent, whereby evaporation of moisture was remarkably retarded, and, in an extreme case, evaporation of moisture was made entirely infeasible, when a hard coating is applied using the saccharide solution. Then, it has not yet been attempted to add a sour agent to a saccharide solution as depicted above.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Kokai 7-67554 discloses a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product using a soft coating, not a hard coating, by coating an edible core material with a powdery saccharide material together with a sour agent. However, this prior process is directed to a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product by a soft coating and then it is essentially distinct from a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product by a hard coating. The sugar coated product thus prepared is lacking in crispness and brittleness which the sugar coated product by a hard coating inherently possesses, while an amount of the sour agent to be added was only 0.006% by weight (0.01 part by weight in a sugar coated layer) in the finished product obtained according to the Test Example of the said prior art and then the said amount was simply of a negligible level without any need for considering the decomposition of sucrose to glucose and fructose by an acid, this being the reason for avoiding a combined use of sucrose with a sour agent as depicted above.
Further, there has been suggested a process for hard coating wherein a sour agent is added in a larger amount than the usual one and sucrose or a sugar alcohol such as maltitol is used. However, quite similarly, a fresh fruity taste could not be enjoyed immediately after eating and a sour taste could be first felt only when the core part begins to dissolve in the mouth, while the time required until an inherent fruity taste was felt could not be essentially shortened.
Moreover, there is suggested, for example, in Japanese Patent Kokai 6-292511 a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product with a low calorie value using a sugar alcohol instead of sucrose or the high calorie sugar used as a material for forming a sugar coated layer, but it is the primary object envisaged in this prior art to provide a low calorie product without paying any attention to the taste of a sugar coated product.
Accordingly, it has been desired to provide a sugar coated product which can be prepared by applying a hard coating to an edible core material and have the inherent crispness and brittleness which a sugar coated product prepared by a hard coating may have and can provide a sour taste immediately after eating, for instance, a sugar coated product with a fresh fruity taste which may be enjoyed immediately after eating.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present inventors have made earnest studies to solve the above problems and, as a result, found that an excellent hard coating on an edible core material can be obtained by a hard coating using as a saccharide material a sugar alcohol, instead of sucrose, having no reducing end-groups susceptible to decomposition by a sour agent, that is to say, by a hard coating of an edible core material using a saccharide solution composed of a sugar alcohol and a sour agent, and that the sugar coated product thus prepared may have similar crispness and brittleness when eaten to those of the product prepared in the prior art by using sucrose as a saccharide material. This invention has been completed on the basis of the above findings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
More particularly, this invention is concerned with a sugar coated product which comprises an edible core material, the surface of which is coated with a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol, a layer of said hard coating containing a sour agent.
According to one aspect of this invention, there is provided a sugar coated product in which a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol is formed by applying a saccharide solution comprising a sugar alcohol and a sour agent over the surface of an edible core material.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a sugar coated product in which a hard coating composed of a sugar alcohol is formed by applying a saccharide solution composed of a sugar alcohol alone and a solid sour agent or a solution containing a sour agent separately and individually over the surface of an edible core material.
This invention is also concerned with a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product having a coated layer containing a sour agent which comprises applying over the surface of an edible core material a saccharide solution prepared by adding a sour agent to a sugar alcohol and evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of application of the saccharide solution and evaporation, thereby forming a hard coating of saccharide layers.
Further, this invention is concerned with a process for the preparation of a sugar coated product having a coated layer containing a sour agent which comprises applying over the surface of an edible core material a saccharide solution prepared from a sugar alcohol and separately applying to the surface of an edible core material a solid sour agent or a solution containing a sour agent and evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of application of the saccharide solution and evaporation, thereby forming a hard coating of saccharide layers.
More specifically, according to an embodiment of this invention, there is provided a sugar coated product which has a coated layer containing a sour agent by applying a saccharide solution, which has been prepared by adding the sour agent to a sugar alcohol, over the surface of an edible core material, for example, in a rotary pan and evaporating moisture and then repeating said steps of application of the saccharide solution and evaporation to form a hard coating of saccharide layers.
I
Hakamata Tetsuya
Mochizuki Yasuhiro
Noda Yasuo
Corbin Arthur L.
Vag Linda A.
Warner-Lambert & Company
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