PROCESS FOR PREPARING A CONFECTIONERY COMPOSITION

Abstract

A process for the production of a confectionery composition and a confectionery composition producible by the process. The process comprises introducing discrete droplets of a liquid filling (20) into a flowing matrix material (12) by means of an array of nozzles(16). The matrix material comprising the droplets of liquid filling is then deposited into a mould or a confectionery shell(14). The matrix material may be moving at a speed of at least 0.01 ms.sup.1. The matrix material may be chocolate and liquid filling filling may have a very low viscosity.

Claims

1. A process for the production of a confectionery composition comprising introducing discrete droplets of a liquid filling into a flowing matrix material by means of an array of nozzles; and depositing the matrix material comprising the droplets of liquid filling into a mould or a confectionery shell.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the flowing matrix material is moving at a speed of at least 0.01 ms.sup.1.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the array of nozzles dispenses the discrete droplets of liquid filling at a pulsation frequency of at least 10 Hz.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein at least one nozzle has an internal diameter of from 1 to 5 mm.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the array of nozzles comprises from 7 to 55 nozzles.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the edible shell is a chocolate shell.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the liquid filling is selected from one or more of fruit juice; vegetable juice; fruit puree; vegetable puree; fruit sauce; vegetable sauce; honey; corn syrup; sugar syrup; polyol syrup; hydrogenated starch hydrolysates syrup; emulsions; vegetable oil; glycerin; propylene glycol; ethanol; liqueurs; ganache, dairy- based liquids, fondant and an isomalt-comprising solution.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the liquid filling is a flavoured sugar or sugar-substitute syrup.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein the liquid filling is caramel.

10. The process of claim 1 where the liquid filling has a pour point of less than 10 C.

11. The process of claim 1, wherein the liquid filling has a viscosity measured at 25 C. of no more than 5 Pa.Math.s.

12. The process of claim 1, wherein the matrix material is chocolate.

13. The confectionery composition producible by the process of claim 1.

Description

[0059] Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only in which:

[0060] FIG. 1A is a diagram showing a process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

[0061] FIG. 1B is a cross-section of the product of the process shown in FIG. 1A;

[0062] FIG. 2 shows a nozzle array for use in a process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; and

[0063] FIG. 3 shows another nozzle array for use in a process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0064] Referring to FIG. 1A there is shown a hopper 10 comprising molten chocolate 12. The hopper has an aperture in its base, through which the molten chocolate 12 flows into a pre-formed chocolate shell 14. An array of nozzles 16 is arranged so that each nozzle 18 extends into the hopper 10. Discrete droplets of a liquid filling 20 are pulsed from the nozzles 18 into the flow of molten chocolate 12. The molten chocolate 12 comprising the droplets of liquid filling 20 is then deposited into the chocolate shell 14.

[0065] The nozzle array 16 is arranged parallel to the direction of flow of the molten chocolate 12. The droplets 20 travel in the same direction as they pass through the nozzles 18, into the molten chocolate and into the shell 14.

[0066] The shell 14 containing the chocolate 12 and the droplets of liquid filling 20 is subsequently backed off with additional chocolate 22 as shown in FIG. 1B.

[0067] FIG. 2A shows a circular nozzle array 24 found to be suitable for use in the process of the invention. The array 24 comprises 7 nozzles 26 in total; one nozzle at the centre and the remaining 6 equally spaced around in a circle. The nozzles 26 are spaced from one another by a distance G. The inventors have found that G should be at least 2 mm to prevent coalescence of the droplets; G is 4.5 mm in this case.

[0068] A single nozzle 26 is shown in FIG. 2B. The nozzle has an internal diameter D of 4.4 mm and a wall thickness T of 0.2 mm. The nozzle 26 is a cylindrical tube having a length of 60 mm. The internal diameter D corresponds approximately to the diameter of the resulting droplets.

[0069] FIG. 2C shows a perspective view of the nozzle array 24 comprising nozzles 26.

[0070] FIG. 3 shows another circular nozzle array 28 for use in the invention. The array 28 comprises 55 nozzles 30. Each nozzle 30 is a cylindrical tube of length 60 mm and internal diameter 1.9 mm. There is a gap of 2 mm between nozzles 30 which equates to one average diameter.

METHODOLOGY

[0071] The viscosity of a liquid filling was determined using a Bohlin CV050 rheometer at constant temperature (25 C.) with shear stress being increased from 1 to 10 Pa. The following example shows the measurement of the viscosity of a commercially available caramel syrup (Le sirop de Monin caramel, available from Monin (Bourges, France)). The syrup has the following ingredients: sugar, water, flavouring, natural plant extracts, colouring agent: E150a, acidifying agent: citric acid.

TABLE-US-00002 Viscosity @ 25 C. (Pa .Math. s) Shear Rate (1/s) Shear Stress (Pa) Viscosity (Pa .Math. s) 16.3 1 0.0612 20.9 1.29 0.0617 26.7 1.67 0.0624 34.3 2.15 0.0628 44.1 2.78 0.0631 56.6 3.59 0.0634 72.9 4.64 0.0636 94.2 5.99 0.0636 121.5 7.74 0.0638 156.5 10 0.0639

[0072] It can be seen that the viscosity of the caramel changes only slightly as the shear rate increases from 16.3 to 156.5 s.sup.1; it is around 0.06 Pa.Math.s under the conditions of measurement.

EXAMPLE 1

[0073] A chocolate bar consisting of a chocolate shell having filling, the filling being chocolate with caramel dispersed throughout in the form of droplets.

[0074] The chocolate is a conventional milk chocolate. The caramel (liquid filling) is as described above. The droplets of caramel (approximate diameter 4.5 mm) were dispersed in a flow of molten chocolate as shown in FIG. 1 using the nozzle array shown in FIG. 2. The caramel was pulsed at a rate of 15Hz and the chocolate containing the droplets of caramel was deposited into a chocolate shell. The caramel constituted 15% of the filling in the chocolate shell.

EXAMPLE 2

[0075] A chocolate bar consisting of a chocolate shell having a filling being chocolate with a raspberry syrup dispersed throughout in the form of droplets.

[0076] The chocolate is a conventional milk chocolate. The raspberry syrup (liquid filling) had water activity 0.7, viscosity: Newtonian, 0.06 at 25 C. and density 1333 kg/m.sup.3. The droplets of raspberry syrup (approximate diameter 1.8 mm) were dispersed in a flow of molten chocolate as shown in FIG. 1 using the nozzle array shown in FIG. 3. The raspberry syrup was pulsed at a rate of 41 Hz and the chocolate containing the droplets was then deposited into a chocolate shell. The raspberry syrup constituted 15% of the filling in the chocolate shell.