Method for making a shaped snack chip

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10375968-B2
Application number	US-201414207196-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2014
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

The invention is an improved process and system for producing a shaped snack chip. A shaping oven, which uses a chain edge conveyor having transverse slats with at least one spring affixed to the slats, is used to convert dough pieces into shaped pre-forms, which can optionally be further dehydrated to form shaped snack chips.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for making a plurality of shaped food products, said method comprising the steps of:
providing flat food product preforms;
transferring said flat food product preforms onto a conveyor of a shaping oven to form shaped preforms, wherein said conveyor further comprises a plurality of convex molds attached to a planar surface of the conveyor, and wherein the transferring step causes the food product preforms to engage one or more of the plurality of convex molds; and
drying said shaped preforms inside said shaping oven to form the shaped preforms rigid enough to maintain their shape, wherein said method lacks any alignment step that aligns the food product preforms with the plurality of convex molds.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each said shaped preform comprises an undulating shape.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one of said plurality of convex molds comprises a coil spring.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of convex molds comprises a wire mesh spring.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said providing comprises: sheeting a dough and cutting said dough into said food product preforms.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising finish drying said shaped preforms to produce shaped snack chips.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said finish drying consists of at least one of hot oil frying, hot air drying, vacuum drying, impingement drying, infrared drying or microwave drying.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein at least one of said convex molds comprises a bar affixed to said conveyor, and wherein said finish drying step produces said shaped snack chips having a rolled shape, wherein the rolled shape further comprises a U-shaped cross-section.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said conveyor further comprises a wire mesh conveyor having said plurality of convex molds attached.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said conveyor further comprises a chain edge conveyor with slats attached to said chain edge, wherein said plurality of convex molds is affixed to said slats.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein said dough is at least one of a masa dough, a potato flake dough, and a wheat-based dough.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein substantially all of the food product preforms at least partially touch at least one mold surface during said drying step.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transferring step further causes at least some of the food product preforms to also engage the planar surface of the conveyor.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein a spacing between each of the plurality of convex molds is less than a major diameter of the food product preforms.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the spacing between each of the plurality of convex molds is at least 50% less than the major diameter of the food product preforms.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein one or more of the plurality of food product preforms engage at least two of the plurality of convex molds.

Assignees

• Frito Lay North America Inc

Inventors

• Johnson Timothy Allen
• Richey Scott Alan
• Ruegg Richard James
• Sambashivan Sidharth
• Williams Rogers

Classifications

• A23P30/10

  Moulding · CPC title

• A23P10/10

  Securing foodstuffs on a non-edible supporting member · CPC title

• A21D8/06 Primary

  Baking processes · CPC title

• A21C9/088

  Folding or bending discrete dough pieces or dough strips (twisting strips of dough A21C3/08; with filling action A21C9/063; forming toroid-shaped dough pieces A21C11/002) · CPC title

• A23L19/19

  from powdered or mashed potato products (A23L19/135 takes precedence) · CPC title