Lever Brothers Company

Van Den Bergh Foods Co., Division of Conopco, Inc.

Peter B Ernsting

Jan Van Heteren

Wilhelmus A Castenmiller

Pieter M Holemans

Cornelis Van Der Struis

Tjaard R Niemeyer

Belinda Alaers

Allan K Chesters

The invention relates to a method of preparing a low-calorie butter-based spread, and to low calorie butter-based products obtainable by those methods and provides: a process for the preparation a low fat spread in which a lacteal fluid, preferably dairy cream, containing less than 45% wt. butterfat is: a) enriched to 55%-75% wt. fat,

Process for the preparation of a low calorie butter spread and products

A process for preparing an edible plastified dispersion comprising a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase, said process comprising the steps of:

Process for preparing an edible dispersion

An edible plastified dispersion having a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase, in particular low-calorie spread, is prepared by a process that includes (i) cooling a constituted emulsion having a continuous aqueous phase and a dispersed fat phase and comprising essentially no solid fat, by passing it through a static heat exchanger to cause partial crystallization of fat, the emulsion leaving the heat exchanger as a dispersion having a continuous aqueous phase and containing crystallized fat, and (ii) feeding the dispersion from step (i) directly to means for imparting kinetic energy so as to invert the dispersion into a dispersion having a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase. The use of scraped-surface heat exchangers can be dispensed with, without adverse effects on the product properties.

An edible plastified product comprising a continuous fat phase and a dispersed gas phase which includes helium. The products according to the invention exhibit an improved spattering behavior when used for frying. A process for preparing an edible plastified product involves incorporating gas that includes helium in the composition that is to constitute the product and subjecting the gas-containing composition to plastifying conditions at super-atmospheric pressure. It is an advantage of this process that, with the use of gas containing helium, relatively small gas bubbles can be obtained relatively easily.

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Delft, Netherlands

Peter B Ernsting