The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 17, 2001
Mary E. Myers, Lititz, PA (US);
Chigozie V. Nwosu, Hackettstown, NJ (US);
Eric J. Whitacre, Elizabethtown, PA (US);
John F. Hammerstone, Jr., Nazareth, PA (US);
Mars Incorporated, McLean, VA (US);
Abstract
The invention provides food products, including confectioneries and chocolates, having conserved concentrations of polyphenols, and in particular cocoa polyphenols. The method of this invention avoids the significant and detrimental losses of polyphenols that occur during conventional manufacture by controlling the handling of ingredients in batching processing to provide a product having a significant amount of the cocoa polyphenol concentration present in the raw materials conserved in the finished product. Additionally, the production steps of milling/refining and conching may also be controlled and modified to provide the confectioneries of the present invention having conserved concentrations of cocoa polyphenols relative to the concentration of the polyphenols present in the starting ingredients. The cocoa polyphenol ingredient may be a cocoa ingredient, an extract of a cocoa ingredient (beans, liquor, or powder, etc.) or may be a synthesized derivative thereof, or may be a synthesized polyphenol compound or mixture of polyphenol compounds or derivative thereof.