Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Surface coated – fluid encapsulated – laminated solid... – Isolated whole seed – bean or nut – or material derived therefrom
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-08
2001-06-19
Paden, Carolyn (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Surface coated, fluid encapsulated, laminated solid...
Isolated whole seed, bean or nut, or material derived therefrom
C426S621000, C426S625000, C426S629000, C426S512000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06248379
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to puffed cereal cakes, in particular to puffed rice cakes. The present invention also relates to processes for the manufacture of such puffed cereal cakes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rice cakes are commercially available products formed from puffed rice grains that are bonded together by heat and pressure, without the use of a binding matrix. The rice cakes have low density, and low moisture content, and are typically the shape and size of a cookie or rusk. Similar puffed (also known as expanded) cereal cakes can be made with many other cereal grains including (but not limited to) wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley or corn.
Rice cakes are currently made by a process comprising the steps of: (1) providing a mold comprising a plurality of mold elements including a reciprocally moveable piston element for compressing rice gains inside the mold; (2) introducing a predetermined quantity of unpuffed rice to the mold, the average moisture content of this rice being from 12 to 17% by weight; (3) compressing the rice grains in the mold at from 3 MPa to 15 MPa (30 to 150 bar) pressure; (4) heating the rice grains in the mold to a temperature of 170-320° C.; (5) moving the piston element to expand the mold by a predetermined amount, whereupon the heated rice grains expand and bond to form the rice cake, followed by (6) removing the finished rice cake from the mold.
Typically, the steps of heating, compressing and expanding the mold are carried out substantially concurrently in a suitably adapted mold apparatus that can provide high pressures and temperatures, together with precisely controlled expansion of the mold in the puffing step. Such rice puffing molds are described in a number of patent specifications, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,593 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,588, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
A disadvantage of the above-described existing methods of forming rice cakes is that the edible inclusions that can be incorporated into or onto the rice cakes are very limited. Most edible materials, such as vitamins or chocolate, are degraded by the high temperatures used to form rice cakes. Furthermore, these high temperatures result in rapid build-up of burnt (carbonised) deposits on the mold, resulting in unacceptable equipment down time required for cleaning of the mold. As a result, existing rice cakes generally only contain rice and salt, with flavoring agents optionally applied to the surface of the rice cake after it has been formed. This results in limited consumer acceptability for existing rice cakes.
WO 98/25479 describes processes for the production of flavored puffed cereal cakes in which pre-puffed cereal grains are coated with a binder, and then bonded together with ultrasound at ambient temperatures to form puffed cereal cakes. The binder may comprise a sugar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,842 (May) describes the production of flavored puffed cereal products, in particular flavored popcorn, by contacting a hulled cereal grain, that is to say a grain still having the bran (pericarp) attached thereto, with a flavorant such as sugar under aqueous liquid phase conditions at 15-95° C. to impregnate the starchy endosperm of the grain with the flavorant, followed by drying and puffing the flavored grains in conventional fashion. There is no disclosure of flavoring milled, parboiled cereal grains. Nor is there any suggestion that the flavored cereal grains could be formed into a puffed cereal cake.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,180 describes puffed cereal cakes wherein the improvement comprises pretreatment of the cereal grains by steaming the grains to partially gelatinize the starch therein. It is suggested that, either preceding or following steaming, the cereal grains may be mixed with seasonings, salt, flavors or colors to produce a desired flavor, texture or appearance in the final product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,506 describes impregnating parboiled rice grains with an aqueous solution of an enzyme or enzymes that improve the cooking properties of the rice, including the expansion of crisped rice grains. The enzymes do not alter the flavor properties of the rice.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide puffed cereal cakes having improved flavor compared to existing puffed cereal cakes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide puffed cereal cakes having improved texture compared to existing puffed cereal cakes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide puffed cereal cakes having improved nutritional properties compared to existing puffed cereal cakes.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved process for the production of puffed cereal cakes having the above-defined improved properties.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved process for the production of puffed cereal cakes having a shorter puffing cycle time and reduced energy requirement for puffing compared to existing processes.
In order to accomplish the foregoing objects there is provided in accordance with one aspect of the present invention a process for the preparation of a puffed cereal cake comprising the steps of: providing a cereal grain impregnated with at least one organic food ingredient; introducing said grain into a mold; and puffing said cereal grain in said mold under pressure to form a shaped flavored cereal cake.
In specific embodiments of the present invention the cereal grain has a moisture content of 10 to 20 wt. % when it is introduced into the mold.
In other specific embodiments of the present invention the food ingredient is impregnated in an amount from 0.01 to 60 wt. % based on the dry weight of the cereal grain. In specific improved embodiments the food ingredient is impregnated in an amount of 0.5 to 35 wt. % or from 1 to 25 wt. % both based on the dry weight of the cereal grain.
In specific embodiments of the present invention the organic food ingredient has a molecular weight of less than 1,000.
In specific embodiments the organic food ingredients are selected in the group consisting of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, emulsifiers, edible dyes, organic flavorants and mixtures thereof.
In a specific embodiment sugar is used. The sugar is usually selected from a group consisting of sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, mannose, lactose, galctose, trehalose and mixtures thereof. Alternatively it could be selected from carbohydrate, syrup, maple syrup, partially inverted refinery syrup, honey, fruit juice, fruit syrup or a combination thereof.
In a specific embodiment of the present invention the process includes a step of providing the cereal gra followed by impregnating the cereal grain with a dispersion of the organic food ingredients.
In specific embodiments the cereal grain cm be selected from the group consisting of rice, wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley, com and mixtures thereof. In the preferred embodiment rice is the cereal grain.
In an alternative embodiment the cereal grain can be milled to substantially remove the bran (pericarp) therefrom.
In preferred embodiments the present invention of the cereal grain is at least partially parboiled.
An additional embodiment of the present invention includes puffed cereal cake obtained by the process described above.
The preferred embodiment of the puffed cereal cake is a puffed rice cake.
Other and further objects, features, and advantages will be apparent from the following description of the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, which are given for the purpose of disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that various substitutions and modifications may be made to the invention disclosed herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
The present invention is based on the unexpected finding that puffed cereal cakes can be made from cereal grains that have been impregnated (infused) with an orga
Baillie Catherine V.
Capodieci Roberto A.
Gargaro Fabiana F.
Jach Theodore
Yonemoto Lucio H.
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
N.V. MasterFoods S.A.
Paden Carolyn
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