Micropellets of fine particle nutrients and methods of incorporating same into snack food products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9510617-B2
Application number	US-201213446570-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 13, 2012
Priority date	Apr 13, 2012
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Nutritious granular materials of fine particle sizes agglomerated within versatile micropellets are useful for inserting significant amounts of nutritious properties into snack foods. Expandable micropellet-containing formulations provide for introduction of fine particle ingredients such as proteins, minerals and other components or desirable nutrients into food processing lines not typically amenable to the fine particle sizes. Micropellet-containing formulations may consist entirely of micropellets, or may contain an expandable starch such as, for example, corn meal, sheeted doughs, and expanded collet products onto which the micropellets may be basted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An food-grade micropellet comprising:
a. an expandable starch comprising component; and
b. a plurality of fine particles agglomerated together with said expandable component, wherein said plurality of fine particles is derived from a non-starch source, and wherein said fine particles comprise a particle size of less than about 300 microns;
wherein said micropellet is a unexpanded solid pellet agglomerate comprising a spherical or cylindrical shape with a diameter of between about 500 to about 700 μm, said; food-grade micropellet incorporated in for the preparation of ready-to-eat snack foods.

2. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said expandable component is selected from the group consisting of corn, potato, rice and tapioca.

3. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said expandable component comprises corn meal.

4. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said micropellet is comprised of at least 60% of said plurality of fine particles.

5. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said fine particles comprise a protein.

6. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said fine particles comprise a mineral.

7. The micropellet of claim 6 wherein said micropellet comprises between about 35% to about 37% calcium.

8. The micropellet of claim 1 further comprising up to about 10% microcrystalline cellulose.

9. The micropellet of claim 1 comprising a bulk density of between about 500 to about 700 g/L.

10. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said plurality of fine particles is derived from dairy and is selected from the group consisting of a milk protein isolate, a soy protein isolate and a whey protein isolate.

11. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said micropellet comprises a fine particle to starch-comprising component of between about 1.5 to about 4.

12. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said expandable starch comprising component comprises a waxy corn starch.

13. The micropellet of claim 1 wherein said expandable starch comprising component comprises a modified potato starch.

14. The micropellet of claim 1 comprising a moisture content of about 8-10%.

15. The micropellet of claim 1 comprising a phase transition analysis softening temperature of between about 51.9° C. to about 54.2° C.

16. The micropellet of claim 1 comprising a phase transition analysis flow temperature of between about 111.2° C. to about 114.2° C.

Assignees

• Baier Stefan K
• Bhaskar Ajay Rajeshwar
• Bortone Eugenio
• Faa Pierre
• Hwang Chien-Seng
• Morales-Alvarez Jorge C
• Palta Deepali
• Frito Lay North America Inc

Inventors

• Baier Stefan K
• Bhaskar Ajay Rajeshwar
• Bortone Eugenio
• Faa Pierre
• Hwang Chien-Seng
• Morales-Alvarez Jorge C
• Palta Deepali

Classifications

• A23L7/161

  Puffed cereals, e.g. popcorn or puffed rice · CPC title

• A23L7/17

  by extrusion · CPC title

• A23P30/20

  Extruding · CPC title

• A23L7/117

  Flakes or other shapes of ready-to-eat type; Semi-finished or partly-finished products therefor (cereal granules or flakes to be cooked and eaten hot A23L7/143; cereal germ products A23L7/152) · CPC title

• A23L33/16

  Inorganic salts, minerals or trace elements · CPC title