Cooked Caramel Compositions and Related Food Products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016353764-A1
Application number	US-201514731121-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 4, 2015
Priority date	Jun 4, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Cooked and uncooked caramel slurries and products prepared using the cooked caramel slurries, and methods of preparing caramel slurries and coating a cooked caramel slurry onto a food piece.

First claim

I/we claim:

1 . A cooked caramel-coated food piece composition comprising about 40 to about 95 weight percent food piece, and about 5 to about 60 weight percent cooked caramel coating over at least a portion of the food piece, wherein the cooked caramel coating has sucrose crystallinity of greater than 10 percent.

2 . A food piece composition according to claim 1 wherein the composition comprises a plurality of cooked ready-to-eat cereal pieces, the coating being located over a portion of the plurality of pieces.

3 . A food piece composition according to claim 1 wherein the cooked caramel coating comprises from 35 to 80 weight percent sucrose (on a dry basis) and exhibits a sucrose to soluble solids ratio in a range from 0.6 to 0.85.

4 . A food piece composition according to claim 1 wherein the cooked caramel coating comprises
from 30 to 80 weight percent sucrose,
from 5 to 25 weight percent non-sucrose sugar,
from 5 to 25 weight percent fat, and
from 0.1 to 5 weight percent protein, on a total solids (dry) basis.

5 . A food piece composition according to claim 1 wherein the cooked caramel coating has a crystallinity of greater than 20 percent.

6 . A food piece composition according to claim 1 wherein the cooked caramel coating has a crystallinity of greater than 40 percent.

7 . A cooked caramel-coated food piece composition according to claim 6 wherein the cooked caramel coating comprises a sweet oil coating.

8 . An undiluted cooked caramel slurry comprising from 30 to 80 weight percent sucrose, from 5 to 25 weight percent non-sucrose sugar, from 5 to 25 weight percent fat, and from 0.1 to 5 weight percent protein, each on a total solids (dry) basis, and at least 5 weight percent water, wherein the slurry is undiluted, the water being also present during cooking of the slurry.

9 . An undiluted cooked caramel slurry according to claim 8 having a viscosity of less than about 2000 centipoise as measured using a TA Instruments AR-G2 Rheometer fitted with 40 millimeter parallel plate geometry on a peltier plate temperature control, being run at a shear rate of 10 sec-1 and reading the viscosity at 30 seconds, at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

10 . An undiluted cooked caramel slurry according to claim 8 comprising a mixture of slurry ingredients comprising from 30 to 80 weight percent sucrose, from 5 to 25 weight percent non-sucrose sugar syrup, from 5 to 30 weight percent butter, oil, or a combination thereof, and from 5 to 25 weight percent milk solids, each on a total solids (dry) basis.

11 . In combination, a food piece and the undiluted cooked caramel slurry according to claim 8 , wherein the undiluted cooked caramel slurry is present as a coating layer on a surface of a food piece.

12 . A process of providing a cooked caramel slurry, the process comprising:
providing a slurry comprising sucrose, non-sucrose sugar, fat, and protein, and having a moisture content of at least 6 weight percent moisture, cooking the slurry in a closed cooking system to produce a cooked caramel slurry having a moisture content that is the same as the moisture content of the pre-cooked slurry.

13 . A process according to claim 12 wherein the cooked slurry contains at least 95 percent of the moisture present in the slurry before the step of cooking in the closed cooking system.

14 . A process according to claim 12 wherein the cooked caramel slurry has a moisture content in a range from 6 to 20 percent.

15 . A process according to claim 12 comprising cooking the slurry in the closed system at a temperature in a range from 240 to 310 degrees Fahrenheit.

16 . A process according to claim 12 comprising heating the slurry to a temperature in a range from range from 240 to 310 degrees Fahrenheit before the step of cooking in the closed cooking system.

17 . A process according to claim 12 comprising cooking the slurry in the closed system for a time in a range from 2 to 20 minutes.

Assignees

• Gen Mills Inc

Inventors

• Green Daniel R
• Severova-Epp Katia
• Gosey Jazmine N
• Lafavor Joel R

Classifications

• A23G3/32 Primary

  Processes for preparing caramel or sugar colours · CPC title

• A23P20/10

  Coating with edible coatings, e.g. with oils or fats · CPC title

• A23G3/44

  containing peptides or proteins (containing dairy products A23G3/46) · CPC title

• A23G3/54

  Composite products, e.g. layered, coated, filled · CPC title

• A23G3/42

  characterised by the carbohydrates used, e.g. polysaccharides (containing dairy products A23G3/46) · CPC title