The Quaker Oats Company

Robert J Meschewski

David P Bone

John J Smith

Robert M Champion

Kathryn M Brophy

Craig W McKinney

The present invention relates to a reduced fat, readyto-eat cereal ingredients, said cereal comprising: a base component and a coating component thereon, said base component comprising from about 30 parts to about 90 parts by weight cereal flakes and from 0 parts to about 10 parts by weight milk solids; said coating component comprising from about 5 parts to about 60 parts by weight sugar, from about 1 part to about 10 parts by weight water-soluble dietary fiber composition, from about 1/2 part to about 5 parts by weight of a sugar solution, and sufficient water to make the coating component liquid. The present invention further comprises a process for preparing such a reduced fat, ready-to-eat cereal.

Reduced fat, ready-to-eat cereal

A new class of ready-to-eat cereals is disclosed. These products are baked bite sized pieces produced from a cookie dough, but having a bowl life of at least 3 minutes, and preferably containing fat in the amount between 3 and 17 percent, in which an effective bowl-life extending amount of an additive selected from the group free fatty acid, edible insoluble metallic salt of fatty acid, and mixtures thereof, is added. A preferred additive for providing bowl life in emminently satisfactory ranges is magnesium stearate.

Ready-to-eat cereals

A method and apparatus is described for producing a continuous strip of simulated bacon by low temperature extrusion of three differently colored doughs to form a common strip containing three or more distinctly different colored zones which are continuously and randomly varied in width. Differences in extrusion rates among the doughs may be used to impart crinkling and curling of the strip which is heat treated after extrusion, thereby setting the structure and preserving the crinkling and curling. The strip contains an emulsion which is designed to be stable during processing, and during storage, but which is unstable during cooking. During frying or baking the emulsion becomes unstable, thereby rendering out oil upon the cooking surface, making it unnecessary to add oil, grease, or frying aids during cooking, and thereby closely simulating the cooking attributes of real bacon.

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East Dundee, IL, United States of America

Robert J Meschewski