Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Normally noningestible chewable material or process of... – Packaged – structurally defined – or coated
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-24
2001-02-20
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Normally noningestible chewable material or process of...
Packaged, structurally defined, or coated
C426S003000, C426S004000, C426S302000, C426S303000, C426S304000, C426S305000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06190705
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to coatings for comestibles, and particularly to chewing gum pellet coatings and syrups therefore that are made using an emulsion of flavor, acid or both.
Comestibles, and chewing gum in particular, often in pellet form, are frequently enclosed with a hard or soft coating. Coatings provide an opportunity for the manufacturer to vary product characteristics such as taste, appearance and nutritional value.
Historically the coatings were made from sugar syrups. In resent years, efforts have been devoted to producing sugarless hard coatings for use on chewing gum. Sugarless coatings which have been investigated include coatings containing compounds such as xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, hydrogenated starch hydrolyzates, enythritol, and mixtures thereof. For example, See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,248,508; 5,207,061 and 5,376,389; and PCT Publication Nos. WO 95/07622 and WO 95/07625.
Many coatings for comestible, and particularly for chewing gum, include a flavor. Most flavors used in coatings are oil based. The coatings are typically made from aqueous syrups. The coatings are built up by applying an aliquot of syrup to the product to be coated and allowing the syrup to coat the product and then dry. Often the flavor is applied between coating layers of syrup, but may be mixed with the syrup. One difficulty arises from the fact that the coating syrups are applied in a hot liquid state so that they can more rapidly dry. As a result, volatile flavors, such as fruit flavors, cannot be mixed into the coating syrup because the volatile components of the flavor will evaporate during the coating operation. Even if the flavors are preblended with the coating syrup just prior to being applied to the cores, there is still undesirable flavor loss.
Sometimes it is desirable to use food grade acid, such as citric acid, in a coating so that the coating will have a tart taste. One problem is that if acid is mixed with a hot aqueous sugar syrup, the sugar will start undergoing inversion, and will then not form a hard coating and will be difficult to dry because the inverted sugar prevents crystallization.
Also, it has been discovered that when acid is added to sugarless syrups which are then used to make a sugarless coating, the resulting hard shell coating has a tendency to crack.
Thus, while there have been many improvements made to coatings, and particularly sugarless coatings, there is still a need for a way to reduce volatilization of flavor compounds used in making coatings, and overcome the drawbacks noted above when including a food acid in a coating.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has been discovered that by mixing the flavor, the acid, or both, with an emulsifier and forming an emulsion before combining the flavor and/or acid with the coating syrup, the above noted deficiencies are overcome. In a first aspect, the invention is a coating syrup for use in forming a coating on a comestible, the coating syrup comprising a flavor emulsion which contains water, an oil based flavoring agent and an emulsifier; a bulk sweetener; and a solvent.
In a second aspect, the invention is a coating syrup for use in forming a coating on a comestible, the coating syrup comprising an acid emulsion which contains water, a food grade acid and an emulsifier; a bulk sweetener; and solvent.
In a third aspect, the invention is an emulsion comprising an oil based flavoring agent; a food grade acid; water; and an emulsifier.
In a fourth aspect, the invention is a coated comestible comprising a core and a coating covering the core, the coating comprising a bulk sweetener and an oil based flavoring agent mixed with an emulsifier.
In a fifth aspect, the invention is a coated comestible comprising a core and a coating covering the core, the coating comprising a bulk sweetener and a food grade acid mixed with an emulsifier.
In a sixth aspect, the invention is a method of forming coating on a comestible comprising the steps of providing a core; providing a solution of a bulk sweetener and a solvent; providing an emulsion of an oil based flavoring agent, water and an emulsifier; combining the bulk sweetener solution and the emulsion together and applying the combination to cover the core; and drying the solvent to form a dry coating on the core.
In a seventh aspect, the invention is a method of forming a coating on a comestible comprising the steps of providing a core; providing a solution of a bulk sweetener and a solvent; providing an emulsion of food grade acid, water and an emulsifier; combining the bulk sweetener solution and the emulsion together and applying the combination to cover the core; and drying the solvent to form a dry coating on the core.
The present invention provides improved flavor an/or tartness to sugar and/or sugarless coated comestibles, and chewing gum products in particular. For sugar coated chewing gum, this invention allows acids that give flavor tartness to be added to the coating without causing inversion of the sugar syrup used for coating. For coatings where an acid is added to give flavor tartness with sugarless sweeteners such as xylitol, problems with the shell cracking can be eliminated. This invention allows for a wide variety of potential uses of tart/acid type flavors not previously available in coated pellet gums.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, flavors are emulsified with gum arabic and then added to the coating, resulting in improved flavor retention. In addition, acids can be added to this emulsion or, in the case where no flavor is added, acid is premixed with a solution of gum arabic or another gum-type emulsifier, and then blended with the coating syrup as it is applied to gum cores. In this way, there is minimal contact between the acid and the coating syrup and minimal detrimental effects on the sugar or sugarless coating.
These and other advantages of the invention will be best understood in light of the following detailed description of the invention and its preferred embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS THEREOF
All percentages herein are weight percentages unless otherwise specified. The term “chewing gum” also includes bubble gum and the like.
Conventional panning procedures generally coat with sucrose, but recent advances in panning have allowed the use of other carbohydrate materials to be used in the place of sucrose. Some of these components include, but are not limited to, dextrose, maltose, xylitol, hydrogenated isomaltulose and other new polyols or a combination thereof. These materials may be blended with panning modifiers including, but not limited to, gum arabic, maltodextrins, corn syrup, gelatin, cellulose type materials like carboxymethyl cellulose or hydroxymethyl cellulose, starch and modified starches, vegetable gums like alginates, locust bean gum, guar and gum tragacanth, insoluble carbonates like calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, and talc. Antitack agents may also be added as panning modifiers, which allow the use of a variety of carbohydrates and sugar alcohols to be used in the development of new panned or coated gum products.
Chewing gum products of the present invention may be made with a variety of chewing gum pellet compositions.
In general, a chewing gum composition typically contains a chewable gum base portion which is essentially free of water and is water-insoluble, a water-soluble bulk portion and flavors which are typically water insoluble. The water-soluble portion dissipates with a portion of the flavor over a period of time during chewing. The gum base portion is retained in the mouth throughout the chew.
The insoluble gum base generally comprises elastomers, elastomer solvents, plasticizers, waxes, emulsifiers and inorganic fillers. Plastic polymers, such as polyvinyl acetate, which behave somewhat as plasticizers, are also often included. Other plastic polymers that may be used include polyvinyl laureate, polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidone.
Elastomers may include polyisobutylene, butyl rubber, (isobutylene-isoprene copoly
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Sayala Chhaya D.
Shurtz Steven P.
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
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