Food paste

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016113309-A1
Application number	US-201514881353-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 23, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for applying indicia to food products comprises a dispenser for successively dispensing a quantity of food paste onto a respective surface of a portion of food. The food paste comprises a carrier, a setting agent and a contrasting agent. A fusing unit fuses a dispensed portion of the paste to provide at least one solid indicium on the food product, the indicium optically contrasting with the portion of food.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A food paste comprising a carrier, a setting agent and a contrasting agent, a portion of said paste being selectively fusible to define a solid indicium optically contrasting with an underlying portion of food.

2 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said setting agent changes color or opacity when fused.

3 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said setting agent comprises a sugar which caramelizes when heated.

4 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said carrier comprises one of: from 20-70% ethanol; from 20-70% acetone; or from 10-50% water by weight.

5 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said setting agent comprises one of: from 10%-60% Glucose-Fructose syrup; or from 10%-50% Fructose by weight.

6 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said contrasting agent comprises from 10%-50% TiO2 by weight.

7 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 further comprising one or more of:
preservatives; antioxidants; emulsifiers; stabilizers; or thickeners/gelling agents.

8 . A food paste as claimed in claim 1 wherein said paste comprises 44% ethanol, 19% TiO2 and 37% fructose by weight.

9 . A system for applying indicia to food products, the system comprising a dispenser for successively dispensing a quantity of food paste onto a respective surface of a portion of food, said food paste comprising a carrier, a setting agent and a contrasting agent; and a fusing unit for fusing a dispensed portion of said paste to provide at least one solid indicium on said food product, said indicium optically contrasting with said portion of food.

10 . A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said fusing unit is arranged to produce at least one focused light beam.

11 . A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said light beam is a laser light beam.

12 . A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the focused light beam is arranged to cause a change in color or opacity of an exposed fused portion of said paste.

13 . A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the focused light beam is arranged to ablate an exposed portion of said paste while fusing a side wall of the ablated portion to cause a change in color or opacity of said fused side wall.

14 . A system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the system is arranged to allow an unexposed portion of said paste to set passively.

15 . A system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the focused light beam is arranged to cause a change in color of a portion of a surface of said food product exposed by said ablation.

16 . A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the food product comprises skinless meat.

17 . A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said quantity is 50 μL.

18 . A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said light beam has a wavelength of between about 9.4 μm and 10.6 μm.

19 . A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said light beam has an output power of between about 10W and 60W.

20 . A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said fusing unit comprises a CO2 laser with an output power of 10W.

21 . A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein said laser is arranged to traverse said portion of food at a speed of 2000 mm/s.

22 . A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said fusing unit is arranged to define one of a datamatrix code, or a QR type code on said portion of food.

Assignees

• Univ Dublin

Inventors

• Ward Shane
• Corkery Gerard
• Cushen Maeve
• Brennan Liam
• Carton Justin

Classifications

• A23P1/085

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23V2002/00

  Food compositions, function of food ingredients or processes for food or foodstuffs · CPC title

• A23L1/09

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23P2001/089

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23L1/0047 Primary

  Human Necessities · mapped topic