Non-contact printed comestible products and apparatus and method for producing same
AssigneeWm. Wrigley Jr. Company
InventorsRonald L. Ream, Enrique Valdez, Dennis W. Rybolt, William R. Gleffe
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides apparatuses and methods for non-contact printing on comestible products. The apparatus includes an extruder for extruding a slab of an edible substrate and a non-contact printing device for printing an edible ink on the slab. The apparatus provides versatility as the printing device may be placed anywhere along the apparatus. The printing device may be positioned along the apparatus as desired to operate in cooperation with other components of the apparatus.
Claims18
A method for producing a comestible product comprising:
- extruding a slab of an edible substrate, wherein the edible substrate comprises a chewing gum;
- and
- printing an edible ink onto the slab using a printing device without contacting a surface of the slab with the printing device,
- wherein the edible ink is disposed as a layer added to a surface embossment of the edible substrate, and
- wherein the method comprises dispensing an organoleptic component onto the slab using a dosing controller in operative communication with a weight detector, and wherein the weight detector is configured to detect a weight of the slab and the dosing controller is configured to dispense a quantity of the organoleptic component to the slab based on the weight of the slab detected by the weight detector.
A method for producing a comestible product comprising:
- extruding a slab of a chewing gum;
- and
- printing an edible ink on the slab, wherein the printing comprises non-contact printing wherein the chewing gum has a moisture content of about 0.5% to about 20% by weight, wherein the method comprises dispensing an organoleptic component onto the slab using a dosing controller in operative communication with a weight detector, and wherein the weight detector is configured to detect a weight of the slab and the dosing controller is configured to dispense a quantity of the organoleptic component to the slab based on the weight of the slab detected by the weight detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.