Confectionery product

Abstract

The invention relates to a confectionery product comprising a plurality of beads, each bead comprising an aqueous core, a hydrophobic first coating layer surrounding the aqueous core, and a hydrophilic second coating layer surrounding the first coating layer; to a confectionery product comprising these beads. The invention also relates to a method of production thereof.

Claims

1. A method of preparing a confectionery product comprising the steps of: a. preparing an emulsion of an aqueous core material and a hydrophobic first coating material; b. forming droplets of emulsion, thereby providing a droplet with an aqueous core and a hydrophobic first coating layer; c. coating the droplets with a hydrophilic second coating material to form beads with a second coating layer surrounding the first coating layer, wherein the hydrophilic second coating layer is a panned sugar coating; and d. incorporating a plurality of the beads into the confectionery product.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the emulsion is formed at a temperature above the melting point of the hydrophobic first coating material and the aqueous core.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the droplets of emulsion are cooled to below the melting point of the hydrophobic first coating material.

4. A method according to claim 1 comprising the additional step of coating the droplets formed in step b with a powder.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the emulsion droplets are coated in a panning process.

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the panning process is a soft panning process.

7. A method according to claim 5 wherein the panning process is a hard panning process.

8. A method of preparing a confectionery product according to claim 1 comprising a step selected from: embedding a plurality of the beads on the surface of the product; mixing a plurality of the beads into at least a portion of the product so that they are substantially entirely encased within the product; or a combination thereof.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the product is selected from a chocolate product, candy, chewing gum or a combination thereof.

Description

EXAMPLES

(1) In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, it will be described further with reference to the specific examples and the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a bead in accordance with the present invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a bead in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

(4) FIG. 3 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a bead in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a bead in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and

(6) FIG. 5 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a confectionery product incorporating a plurality of beads in accordance with the present invention.

(7) With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a simplified view of a bead 10 which has an aqueous core 12 surrounded by a hydrophobic layer 14 formed from an emulsion. The hydrophobic layer 14 is in turn surrounded by a hydrophilic layer 16 formed of a soft-panned sugar coating.

(8) Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a simplified view of a second embodiment of a bead 20 which has small multiple aqueous portions 22 dispersed throughout a large hydrophobic emulsion portion 24. The hydrophobic emulsion 24 is surrounded by a hydrophilic layer 26 formed of a soft-panned sugar coating.

(9) In FIG. 3, there is illustrated a simplified view of a third embodiment of a bead 30 which has small multiple aqueous portions 32 dispersed throughout a hydrophobic fat portion 34. The hydrophobic fat portion 34 is surrounded by a hydrophilic layer 36 formed of a soft-panned sugar coating.

(10) With reference to FIG. 4, there is shown a simplified view of a fourth embodiment of a bead 40 which has a number of small aqueous portions 46, each of which are surrounded by a hydrophobic layer 44 which is formed from an emulsion 46. The aqueous portions 46 which are surrounded by the hydrophobic layers 44 are dispersed throughout a fat portion 42. The hydrophobic fat portion 42 is surrounded by a hydrophilic layer 48 formed of a soft-panned sugar coating.

(11) Lastly, with reference to FIG. 5, there is shown a simplified view of a confectionery product 50 in the form of a chocolate bar 52 which incorporates two beads 10 of the first embodiment as described above. Alternatively, or additionally, a plurality of beads as illustrated in FIGS. 2-4 could be included in the chocolate bar 52.

(12) Ice Quenching

(13) The beads of the invention may be prepared using an ice-quenching technique. An emulsion of aqueous core material and hydrophobic first coating material may be prepared using standard techniques (for instance, mixing) at a temperature of about 45° C. The aqueous core material in this example is an aqueous 10% sugar solution and the first coating material is cocoa butter.

(14) The emulsion is deposited drop wise into iced water thereby causing droplets to form as the cocoa butter solidifies. The droplet size is in the range 1-3 mm. The solid droplets are then filtered from the iced water, dried and coated with icing sugar to prevent sticking.

(15) The coated droplets are soft panned to produce a soft coating by placement in a coating pan and coating with an appropriate carbohydrate syrup, for example, a combination of sucrose syrup and glucose syrup or a solution of maltitol powder and maltitol syrup. The droplets may again be coated with icing sugar or suitable polyol and this two-step process repeated until a sugar layer has been built up on the fat droplets resulting in an bead of the invention. Alternatively a hard panning process may be used with the appropriate carbohydrates.

(16) Jet Cutting

(17) The beads of the invention may be prepared using a jet cutting technique such as discussed in DE 4424998 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,699 (both to Klaus-Dieter Vorlop) the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

(18) An emulsion of aqueous core material and hydrophobic first coating material may be first prepared using standard techniques at a temperature of about 45° C. The aqueous core material in this example is an aqueous 8% sugar solution containing 0.2% strawberry flavouring and the first coating material is cocoa butter.

(19) The emulsion is then ejected under pressure from a nozzle and mechanically separated into defined slugs. Division occurs by the physical removal of sections of the jet, leaving distinct slugs of emulsion to continue along the trajectory of the original jet. The slugs of emulsion reorder themselves to become approximately spherical before they are passed into a hardening environment such as a refrigerated portion of the cutting apparatus.

(20) Due to partial separation of the constituents of the emulsion during processing, the droplets formed are in the configuration of small confectionery beads comprising one or more aqueous cores which are surrounded by the emulsion. In this example, each bead is roughly spherically formed from an emulsion of the aqueous 8% sugar solution containing 0.2% strawberry flavouring and cocoa butter—where the aqueous sugar solution (and optionally) the 0.2% strawberry flavouring partially disassociates from the emulsion so as to form small pockets of aqueous material throughout the emulsion. However, the example can be adapted so that only a single pocket of aqueous material is disposed within the emulsion.

(21) The droplets may then be soft or hard panned as described above.

(22) Example Bead Composition

(23) A bead is prepared in accordance with the invention from the components listed below using the ice quenching technique described above:

(24) TABLE-US-00001 Component Approximate Level Aqueous core of: 60 wt % of the entire bead 15 wt % solution of sugar in water 99.3 wt % of the aqueous core Strawberry flavour 0.5 wt % of the aqueous core Carmoisine colouring (red) 0.2 wt % of the aqueous core Hydrophobic first coating layer of: 15 wt % of the entire bead Cocoa butter 100 wt % of the hydrophobic first coating layer Hydrophilic second coating layer of: 25 wt % of the entire bead 40 wt % solution of sugar in water 50 wt % of the hydrophilic second coating Icing sugar 50 wt % of the hydrophilic second coating

(25) Example Cooling Bead Composition

(26) A bead is prepared in accordance with the invention from the components listed below using the jet cutting technique described above:

(27) TABLE-US-00002 Component Approximate Level Aqueous core of: 50 wt % of the entire bead Acesulfame-K 1 wt % of the aqueous core Xylitol 50 wt % of the aqueous core Mint flavour 0.5 wt % of the aqueous core Water QS Hydrophobic first coating layer of: 20 wt % of the entire bead Cocoa butter 100 wt % of the hydrophobic first coating layer Hydrophilic second coating layer of: 30 wt % of the entire bead 40 wt % solution of xylitol, and 50 wt % of the hydrophilic second 2 wt % acesulfame-K in water coating Icing sugar 50 wt % of the hydrophilic second coating

(28) Example Chewing Gum Composition Containing Beads

(29) A chewing gum tablet is prepared using conventional techniques. The beads of the invention are incorporated into the gum base by mixing until evenly distributed.

(30) TABLE-US-00003 Component Approximate Level (wt %) Gum base 27.27 Raspberry Flavoured beads 5.0 Sorbitol 55 Xylitol 6.0 Acesulfame-K/aspartame 1.2 Peach flavouring 3.6 Colloidal silica 0.49 Magnesium stearate 1.44

(31) Example Candy Composition Containing Beads

(32) A hard candy is prepared by adding the beads to a molten sugar candy composition at a temperature of approximately 75° C. and mixing until evenly distributed. The candy is then poured into moulds to cool. The resulting hard candy is translucent pink through which the pink beads are visible. The composition is as outlined below.

(33) TABLE-US-00004 Component Approximate Level (wt %) Sugar 42.7 Polydextrose 34.8 Citric acid 0.2 Cherry flavour 0.1 Red Coloured beads 8.0 Canthaxanthin Colouring (pink) 0.05 Water 14.15

(34) It should be appreciated that the compositions and methods of the invention are capable of being incorporated in the form of a variety of embodiments, only a few of which have been illustrated and described above.