Crumb process

Abstract

A process for the production of crumb is disclosed in which a wet crumb feedstock comprising bulk sweetener, protein and water is formed and then simultaneously dried and comminuted in a thin layer rotary paddle dryer (20). The wet crumb feedstock is preferably formed into discrete, free-flowing granules prior to the simultaneous drying and comminuting. Apparatus for the production of crumb is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A process for the production of chocolate crumb comprising: Providing chocolate crumb granules having between 5 wt. % and 10 wt. % water to a dryer wherein the granules are dried, at ambient pressure, to have a water content of 4 wt. % or less in a time period of from 10 seconds to 15 minutes.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are dried to a water content of 2 wt. % or less water.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the drying is accomplished by exposing the chocolate crumb granules to air at a temperature of from 20? C. and 180? C. and a rate of between 0.08 m.sup.2/kg of crumb to 4 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are continuously stirred or agitated during drying.

5. The process of claim 1, further comprising, forming the chocolate crumb granules by conditioning discrete pieces of crumb.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the drying time is between 30 seconds and 5 minutes.

7. The process of claim 6, wherein the drying time is between 1 minute and 3 minutes.

8. The process of claim 2, wherein the drying time is between 30 seconds and 5 minutes.

9. The process of claim 8, wherein the drying time is between 1 minute and 3 minutes.

10. The process of claim 3, wherein the air temperature is from 50? C. and 120? C. and the rate is from 0.5 m.sup.2/kg of crumb and 1 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

11. The process of claim 2, wherein the drying is accomplished by exposing the chocolate crumb granules to air at a temperature of from 20? C. and 180? C. and a rate of between 0.08 m.sup.2/kg of crumb to 4 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

12. The process of claim 11, wherein the air temperature is from 50? C. and 120? C. and the rate is from 0.5 m.sup.2/kg of crumb and 1 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

13. The process of claim 5, wherein the conditioning comprises maintaining the discrete pieces of crumb at a temperature between 10? C. and 80? C. for a time period of from 0.5 to 120 minutes.

14. A process for the production of chocolate crumb comprising: Providing chocolate crumb granules having between 5 wt. % and 10 wt. % water to a dryer wherein the granules are dried, at ambient pressure, by exposing the granules to air at a temperature of from 20? C. and 180? C. and a rate of between 0.08 m.sup.2/kg of crumb to 4 m.sup.2/kg of crumb to have a water content of 4 wt. % or less.

15. The process of claim 14, wherein the air temperature is from 50? C. and 120? C. and the rate is from 0.5 m.sup.2/kg of crumb and 1 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

16. The process of claim 14, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are dried to a water content of 2 wt % or less water.

17. The process of claim 14, wherein the drying time is between from 10 seconds to 15 minutes.

18. The process of claim 14, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are continuously stirred or agitated during drying.

19. The process of claim 18, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are comminuted to form a powder of particles less than 1 mm in diameter.

20. A process for the production of chocolate crumb comprising: Providing chocolate crumb granules having between 5 wt. % and 10 wt. % water to a fluidized layer dryer wherein the granules are dried, at ambient pressure, to have a water content of 4 wt. % or less.

21. The process of claim 20, wherein the drying is accomplished by exposing the chocolate crumb granules to air at a temperature of from 20? C. and 180? C. and a rate of between 0.08 m.sup.2/kg of crumb to 4 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

22. The process of claim 21, wherein the air temperature is from 50? C. and 120? C. and the rate is from 0.5 m.sup.2/kg of crumb and 1 m.sup.2/kg of crumb.

23. The process of claim 20, wherein the fluidized layer dryer is a rotary paddle dryer.

24. The process of claim 23, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are comminuted during drying to form a powder of particles less than 1 mm in diameter.

25. The process of claim 13, wherein the temperature is between 40? C. and 60? C.

26. The process of claim 4, wherein the chocolate crumb granules are comminuted to form a powder of particles less than 1 mm in diameter.

Description

EXAMPLE 1

(1) The ingredients listed in the table below were metered into a seven section twin screw Buhler extruder BCTG62.

(2) TABLE-US-00001 Ingredients % by weight Sugar 52 Skimmed milk powder 20.3 Whey powder 5 Lactose 5 Cocoa mass 12 Water 5.7 TOTAL 100%

(3) The ingredients were mixed in the extruder at 60? C. and the resultant crumb paste was extruded through a die plate having 12 holes of 2 mm diameter and cut into 3 mm pieces, which were transferred to a conditioner and held at a temperature of 25? C. for 90 minutes, until the pieces had become brittle granules with hard surfaces. The granules were transferred into a thin layer rotary paddle dryer, the interior walls of which were at a temperature of 130? C., in which they were heated for 2.5 minutes. The granules were broken up inside the dryer by a rotor having a number of blades and rotating at 600 rpm, which also advanced the crumb through the dryer towards the exit point. Hot air at a temperature of 120? C. was pumped through the dryer at a rate of 50 m.sup.3 per hour. The crumb leaving the dryer after the 2.5 minute drying period was a powder with a water content of 1.8%.

EXAMPLE 2

(4) A white crumb, without cocoa mass, was produced by the process described above in Example 1 using the ingredients shown in the table below.

(5) TABLE-US-00002 Ingredients % by weight Sugar 55 Skimmed milk powder 37 Cocoa butter 2 Water 6 TOTAL 100%

EXAMPLE 3

(6) The ingredients listed in the table below were used to form crumb:

(7) TABLE-US-00003 Ingredients % by weight Sugar 17.5 Fresh whole milk 79 Cocoa mass 3.5 Water 0 TOTAL 100%

(8) Fresh whole milk was condensed to 40% solids and the sugar was added and dissolved. The cocoa mass was added and the resultant mixture concentrated to 5% solids to form a paste. The paste was then conditioned by shearing and cooling in a Z blade mixer for 20 minutes at 30? C., until granular in texture. The granular material was dried in the thin layer paddle dryer as described above in Example 1.

EXAMPLE 4

(9) The ingredients listed in the table below were mixed together in a Z blade mixer for 4 minutes to form a crumb paste:

(10) TABLE-US-00004 Ingredients % by weight Sugar 50 Skimmed milk powder 20 Whey powder 5 Lactose 5 Cocoa mass 12 Water 8 TOTAL 100%

(11) The paste was formed into strips 1 m?10 cm?5 cm in size and dried in a vacuum oven at 170? C. and a pressure of 85 mbar for 30 minutes until the average water content of the paste was 5%. The partly dried strips were removed from the oven, allowed to cool and ground into pieces having a diameter of less than 5 mm. The pieces were fed into a thin layer rotary paddle dryer and dried as described in the previous examples.

EXAMPLE 5

(12) The ingredients listed in the table below were used to form crumb:

(13) TABLE-US-00005 Ingredients % by weight Sugar 17.5 Fresh whole milk 79 Cocoa mass 3.5 TOTAL 100%

(14) The fresh whole milk was condensed to 40% solids and the sugar was added and dissolved. The cocoa mass was added and the resultant mixture was concentrated to 15% solids. The slurry was deposited on a heated drum and the water content was reduced to 5%. The partly dried product was scraped from the drum in flakes and the flakes were fed into a thin layer rotary paddle dryer and dried as described above in the previous examples.

EXAMPLE 6

(15) A paste containing 8% water was made as described in Example 4. The paste was fed into a standard paddle dryer type Komline 1.6 W and dried to 5% moisture content to form a granular material. The granular material was fed into a thin layer rotary paddle dryer and dried as described above in the previous examples.

(16) Comparative Test

(17) Samples of chocolate made from crumb produced by processes according to the invention (CHOC.sub.inv) were tested by an expert sensory panel of 20 people, along with samples of chocolate made from crumb produced by existing crumb making processes (CHOC.sub.std). The tests were carried out as blind tests in a controlled environment and for each sample, the panel was asked to identify certain flavours in the sample and rank the level of each flavour on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 corresponds to an absence of the flavour and 10 corresponds to a strong flavour. Such tests are routinely carried out for new chocolate products. The table below shows the average value for each type of flavour for chocolate made from crumb produced by a conventional technique and chocolate made from crumb produced by processes according to the invention. For each flavour attribute, the scores for CHOC.sub.inv and CHOC.sub.std were analysed for statistical difference.

(18) TABLE-US-00006 FLAVOUR CHOC.sub.std CHOC.sub.inv Cocoa 5.38 5.52 Sweet 7.59 7.54 Cream 4.65 5.08 Cooked Milk 6.03 6.32 Caramel 5.81 5.58 Caramelised 1.47 1.59 Acid 2.65 2.81 Sour Milk 0.43 0.22 Throatburn 4.31 4.48 Vanilla 3.56 3.03 Treacle 0.01 0.13

(19) As can be seen from the table, the flavour levels in the chocolate made from crumb produced by processes according to the invention are very similar to those in the chocolate made from crumb made by conventional techniques and therefore, the products produced using processes and apparatus according to the invention will be indistinguishable to the consumer from currently available products. The statistical analysis showed that for all of the flavour attributes the two sets of scores were not significantly different at the 95% confidence level.

(20) While in the embodiment described the process uses ingredients which are suitable for the production of a crumb intended for the production of chocolate, it will be appreciated that a process or apparatus according to the invention could be used to produce a wide variety of crumb based products containing bulk sweetener, protein, water and other optional ingredients.

(21) It will also be appreciated that, while in the embodiment described the temperature and duration of the conditioning step are specified within a particular range, the conditions required in the conditioning step in order to obtain the desired properties of the granules will depend on the ingredients used in the crumb. It will be apparent to the skilled man how the parameters of the process and apparatus can be adapted in order to achieve the same results for different crumb compositions.

(22) While in the embodiment described, the drying process takes place in a thin layer rotary paddle dryer, it will be appreciated that the drying (and combined comminuting) steps in processes according to the second and third aspects of the invention can be achieved in other types of dryers. It will also be appreciated that, while in the embodiment described the formation of the crumb pieces is achieved by extruding the crumb paste through a die plate having a plurality of holes followed by cutting, pieces can be formed in other ways and extrusion is not an essential part of the formation process. A process according to the invention may be carried out with granules of a different shape and/or size to those described in the embodiment, and the granules may be the same or slightly different shapes and sizes to each other.

(23) While in the embodiment described, the final crumb has a particular water content and particle size, it will be appreciated that a process and apparatus according to the invention can be used to produce crumb having a different water content and/or a different particle size.

(24) While in the embodiment described, the drying step is carried out at atmospheric pressure, it will be appreciated that drying can also be carried out under vacuum.