General Mills, Inc.

Thomas M Jarl

Bernhard H Van Lengerich

James N Weinstein

Steven C Robie

Philip K Zietlow

Daniel R Green

Peter A Huberg

James R Borek

Scott A Tolson

Jamileh Lakkis

Jekaterina Severova-Epp

Patrick E Allen

Steven J Leusner

Darryl J Ballman

Aimee Mortenson

Benjamin Lee Heitke

Lily Leung

Young Kang

Katia Severova-Epp

Disclosed are methods and systems for continuously coating food pieces. The methods include a steps of directing and uncoated food stream through an enrober to apply a first coating to at least a portion of a surface of each food piece to form a coated stream and continuously redirecting a portion of the coated stream back through the enrober along with the stream of uncoated food pieces to apply at least one additional coating to the portion of the coated stream.

Continuous coating method

Cereal food piece

A stabilized emulsion is employed to produce shelf stable, controlled release, discrete, solid particles or pellets which contain an encapsulated and/or embedded component, such as a readily oxidizable component, such as omega-3 fatty acids. An oil encapsulant component which contains an active, sensitive encapsulant, dissolved and/or dispersed in an oil is admixed with an aqueous component and a film-forming component to form an emulsion. An antioxidant for prevention of oxidation of the active, sensitive encapsulant, and a film-softening component or plasticizer for the film-forming component may be included in the emulsion. The emulsion is stabilized by subjecting it to homogenization. The pellets are produced by first reducing the water content of the stabilized emulsion so that the film-forming component forms a film around the oil droplets and encapsulates the encapsulant. In embodiments of the invention, the water content of the homogenized emulsion may be reduced by spray-drying to produce a powder. In other embodiments of the invention, after homogenization, the water content of the emulsion may be reduced by admixing the emulsion with at least one matrix material to thereby encapsulate the film-coated oil droplets within the matrix material. After the water content of the emulsion is reduced, a protective coating is applied on the film-coated oil droplets to obtain pellets.

Encapsulation of sensitive components using pre-emulsification

A complexly patterned extrudate is constituted by a confectionery food piece having a main body which is formed from a compressible material, such as foam. More specifically, the body has a first color and is provided with at least one fine line or plane of a second color or hue. The fine line or plane preferably extends through the body and has a thickness of less than 1 mm.

Confectionery food piece having colored fine line

A mineral or vitamin fortification ingredient which does not deleteriously affect palatability and appearance of foods is obtained by encapsulation of the mineral or vitamin in a grindable, glassy matrix composition. The glassy matrix composition includes an oligosaccharide, such as &bgr;-2-1 fructofuranose materials, preferably fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin, which not only forms a glassy matrix, but also beneficially increases the fiber content of the food. At least one edible oil is included in the encapsulating composition to prevent substantial adverse interaction between the mineral or vitamin encapsulant and the glass-forming oligosaccharide matrix material, and to achieve controlled release of the encapsulant from the glassy matrix.

Oligosaccharide encapsulated mineral and vitamin ingredients

Apparatus (,) and methods are disclosed where plastic extrudable food product is provided such as by an extruder or pump and is combined with another food product without intermixing to form a complexly patterned food product, such as by a pattern forming die (,). The cross-sectional area of the patterned food product is reduced from an inlet end (,) to an outlet end (,) by a factor of 4:1 to as much as 50:1 at an average convergence angle of 5 to 65&deg; while maintaining the cross-sectional pattern to form a reduced cross-sectional patterned food product, and then is extruded through a die port having an opening equal to the reduced cross-sectional area to form a complexly patterned extrudate.

Apparatus and methods for making multiple, complexly patterned extrudates

Growing community of inventors

Golden Valley, MN, United States of America

Thomas M Jarl