Moist botanical pouch processing and moist oral botanical pouch products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9516894-B2
Application number	US-201313768054-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2013
Priority date	Dec 18, 2008
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

An oral pouched product comprising a pouch containing moist botanical beads comprising compacted loose, fibrous moist botanical material and method of manufacture thereof. The loose, fibrous moist botanical material can comprise moist smokeless tobacco. The pouch comprises a porous outer web, and the beads comprise a majority amount of loose, fibrous moist botanical material having a moisture content of at least about 50% OV.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of making an oral pouched product comprising:
forming beads comprising compacted loose, flavored, moist botanical fibers having a moisture content of about 50% OV to about 60% OV;
feeding a porous outer web along a feed path;
folding the porous outer web into a tubular formation;
forming a longitudinal seam along overlapping edges of the porous outer web and a lower transverse seam across the tubular formation;
feeding a quantity of an inner filling material comprising the beads through a nozzle and into the tubular formation above the transverse seam; and
forming an upper transverse seam across the tubular formation to enclose the filling and form an oral pouched product,
wherein the beads are adapted to at least partially unravel after said forming the upper transverse seam; and
wherein the loose, flavored, moist botanical fibers are not dried and/or heated to reduce moisture after forming the beads.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oral pouched product is packaged in a container without adding moisture to the pouched product.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the beads include strands of the loose, flavored, moist botanical fibers, the strands having a length greater than a maximum dimension of the beads.

4. The method of claim 1 , further including spraying the oral pouched product with a liquid to increase a total moisture content of the oral pouched product by about 0.5% OV to about 5% OV.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the beads have a maximum dimension of about 1 mm to about 5 mm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the loose, flavored, moist botanical fibers consist essentially of moist smokeless tobacco.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the loose, flavored, moist botanical fibers consist essentially of short strands ranging in length from about 0.2 mm to about 15 mm and ranging in width from about 0.2 mm to about 2.5 mm.

Assignees

• Philip Morris Usa Inc

Inventors

• Gee Diane L
• Golob David
• Zimmermann Stephen G

Classifications

• B65D65/46

  Applications of disintegrable, dissolvable or edible materials · CPC title

• A24B15/16

  of tobacco substitutes · CPC title

• A24B15/308 Primary

  vitamins · CPC title

• A24F23/00

  Cases for tobacco, snuff, or chewing tobacco · CPC title

• A24B15/30 Primary

  by organic substances {(A24B15/281 takes precedence)} · CPC title