General Mills, Inc.

Malathy Nair

James W Geoffrion

Mark A Kooyman

Maeve C Murphy

James E McGuire

Ann S Touhey

The present invention provides improvements in dairy products especially cultured dairy products such as stirred style yogurt. The improvement provides aerated or whipped yogurt products and methods of preparing such improved whipped yogurt products. The improvement resides in part in the post fermentation addition of a hydrated emulsifier blend to cultured yogurt.

Whipped yogurt products and method of preparation

Disclosed are annatto-caramel food colorant blends having a pH of about 9.1 to 10 that exhibit improved stability against precipitation and provide a rich brown color. The colorant blends are particularly useful for use in RTE cereals. The blends are characterized by low ammonia contents (<0.05%). Also disclosed are methods for preparing low ammonia content caramel color solutions. The methods involve adding KOH to a caramel solution to a pH of >10, off gassing ammonia to reduce the ammonia content to <0.05%, and acidifying the caramel colorant to a pH of 6.5 to 7 to provide a treated low ammonia neutral aqueous caramel colorant. An aqueous annatto colorant having a pH of about 12.5 to 13.5 is admixed with the treated low ammonia neutral caramel solution in a solids weight ratio of about 1:1 to about 4:1.

Stabilized annatto-caramel food colorant

Annatto-caramel food colorant blends having a pH of about 9.1 to 10 that exhibit improved stability against precipitation and provide a rich brown color are particularly useful for use in RTE cereals. The blends are characterized by low ammonia contents (<0.05%). Methods for preparing low ammonia content caramel color solutions involve adding KOH to a caramel solution to a pH of >10, off gassing ammonia to reduce the ammonia content to <0.05%, and acidifying the caramel colorant to a pH of 6.5 to 7 to provide a treated low ammonia neutral aqueous caramel colorant. An aqueous annatto colorant having a pH of about 12.5 to 13.5 is admixed with the treated low ammonia neutral caramel solution in a solids weight ratio of about 1:1 to about 4:1.

Stabilized annatto-caramel food colorant for RTE cereal

Disclosed are annatto-caramel food colorant blends having a pH of about 9.1 to 10 that exhibit improved stability against precipitation and provide a rich brown color. The colorant blends are particularly useful for use in RTE cereals. The blends are characterized by low ammonia contents (&lt;0.05%). Also disclosed are methods for preparing low ammonia content caramel color solutions. The methods involve adding KOH to a caramel solution to a pH of &gt;10, off gassing ammonia to reduce the ammonia content to &lt;0.05%, and acidifying the caramel colorant to a pH of 6.5 to 7 to provide a treated low ammonia neutral aqueous caramel colorant. An aqueous annatto colorant having a pH of about 12.5 to 13.5 is admixed with the treated low ammonia neutral caramel solution in a solids weight ratio of about 1:1 to about 4:1.

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis Park, MN, United States of America

Malathy Nair