General Mills, Inc.

James N Weinstein

Scott A Tolson

Steven C Robie

Peter A Huberg

James R Borek

Thomas G Cremers

Bernhard H Van Lengerich

Philip K Zietlow

Craig E Zimmermann

Michael P Waldherr

Barmack Rassi

Goeran Walther

Thomas L Smith

Timothy J Gluszak

Richard O Benham

Thomas M Jarl

Kevin H Wright

Laurie Burgess

Julie L Holmstrom

Gregory A Clanton

Jason Herzog

James M Olive

Jennifer M Mcaab

Gerald J Rudolph

Thomas Leuhrs

Patrick E Allen

Troy Alan Heuring

Dean W Creighton

Daniel L Laughlin

Darryl J Ballman

Thomas Luehrs

Adam Fiegen

Frank S Volkers

Robert Erickson

Ryan D Gifford

Michael L Johnston

Roger G Fuentes

Karen M Garrity

Natasha A F DSouza

Kevin P Simon

Louis W Woehrmann

Jacy Rose Weissburg

Jenny Maack Mcaab

Cereal food piece

Cereal piece

A crimping and cutting assembly includes a first roller engaged with a second roller including a honeycomb pattern of polygonal crimping and cutting members. Various transversely spaced, internally filled dough ropes are fed between the first and second rollers, causing each rope to be continuously crimped and cut at longitudinally spaced locations to create multi-sided food products, specifically polygonal food products having two to six crimped and cut sides. The ropes can permissibly shift or wander laterally during production, resulting in slightly different size or shape food products, while the honeycomb pattern acts to re-align the ropes so as to be tolerant to the ropes wandering while still preventing puncturing of the ropes which could lead to loss of filling and extended production downtime.

Method and apparatus for crimping and cutting pouched dough products

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for producing an extruded protein product. In particular, a system for making an extruded protein product using a system that includes a die including channel having a transverse cross section that is a continuous loop along at least a portion of the length of the die is disclosed.

System and method for producing an extruded protein product

Visually distinct, flaked Ready-to-Eat cereal products with varied texture and thickness are produced by forming a cereal dough and forcing the same through an extrusion die assembly including various spaced openings which establish a plurality of dough streams which are merged prior to reaching a die outlet. Directly at the die outlet, a resulting dough extrudate is sliced by a cutter unit to form dough discs which are then dried and cooled, during which the discs curl and form cereal flakes having varying textures defined, at least in part, by distinct sets of surface bumps. The number and configuration of the bumps can be altered by changing the number, shape and/or position of the various spaced openings of the die assembly, while the thickness of the resulting cereal flakes can be varied by just altering an operational speed of the cutter unit.

Method and apparatus for making cereal flakes

Food product

Visually distinct, flaked Ready-to-Eat ('R-T-E') cereal products with varied texture and thickness are produced by forming a cereal dough and forcing the same through an extrusion die assembly including various spaced openings which establish a plurality of dough streams which are merged prior to reaching a die outlet. Directly at the die outlet, a resulting dough extrudate is sliced by a cutter unit to form dough discs which are then dried and cooled, during which the discs curl and form cereal flakes having varying textures defined, at least in part, by distinct sets of surface bumps. The number and configuration of the bumps can be altered by changing the number, shape and/or position of the various spaced openings of the die assembly, while the thicknesses of the resulting cereal flakes can be varied by just altering an operational speed of the cutter unit.

Pizza product

An apparatus for forming a single extrudable food stream such as a cooked cereal dough into a plurality of differently colored and/or flavored dough streams is disclosed including an extruder having screw augers for advancing a plastic food mass, a head or manifold for dividing the plastic food mass into a plurality of substreams each in turn in fluid communication with a plurality of sub-divided dough passageways, and a die head having a plurality of die ports. Each subpassage is separately supplied an additive and has disposed therein a multiplicity of in-line static mixer elements to admix the additive into the substreams of the plastic food mass before passage through the die ports. In a preferred form, first and second substreams are intermixed in a non-homogenous manner before reaching the exit ports. The extrudates are severed into individual pieces by a rotary cutter.

Methods for producing multiple food extrudates

Apparatus and methods for fabricating food items include extruding a first hot plastic food mass through multiple passages and co-extruding a second hot plastic food mass through a feed stem received in each of the multiple passages and through nozzles. Each nozzle includes a first portion in communication with the feed stem but not the passage and a second portion in communication with the passage but not the feed stem. The nozzles are rotatable in gearing relation with the drive gear of a servomotor. The co-extruded ropes are conveyed at a linear speed rate less than or equal to the discharge speed from the nozzles, cooled, and cut into individual pieces in the form of peelably separable strands.

Apparatus and methods for fabricating food items

Apparatus and methods for fabricating food items include extruding a first hot plastic food mass through multiple passages () and co-extruding a second hot plastic food mass through a feed stem () received in each of the multiple passages () and through nozzles (). Each nozzle () includes a first portion () in communication with the feed stem () but not the passage () and a second portion () in communication with the passage () but not the feed stem (). The nozzles () are rotatable in gearing relation with the drive gear () of a servomotor (). The co-extruded ropes are conveyed at a linear speed rate less than or equal to the discharge speed from the nozzles (), cooled, and cut into individual pieces in the form of peelably separable strands.

Cereal flake

Growing community of inventors

Maple Grove, MN, United States of America

James N Weinstein