Snack bars and methods of making
AssigneeKellogg Company
InventorsGuoshen Yang, Jennifer Elegbede, Vara Prodduk
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Snack bars incorporating a prebiotic, probiotic and natural fibers, and methods of making such snack bars are described herein. The snack bar may incorporate waxy grains held together by a binder comprising inulin and may be enrobed with a yogurt coating. The methods may include mixing inulin into a binder syrup at low temperature and a slab-bake process for reducing water activity.
Claims23
A snack bar having natural fiber, prebiotics, and probiotics, the snack bar comprising a waxy grain composition comprising discrete pieces of waxy grains as the natural fiber, the waxy grain composition held together in the form of a bar by a binder comprising inulin as the prebiotics, the inulin having a high molecular weight as evidenced by 30% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 3 to 9, 50% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 10 to 20, and 20% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 20 to 50, and the binder having 20 to 30 weight percent of the high molecular weight inulin;
- and a yogurt coating on the bar, the yogurt coating comprising the probiotics;
- wherein the waxy grain composition comprises discrete pieces of waxy wheat, waxy barley, waxy corn, or waxy sorghum, or any combination thereof, and wherein a majority of the discrete pieces of waxy grains have a diameter of about 4 to about 20 mm and a volume of about 12 to about 600 mm3.
A method of making a snack bar, comprising:
- mixing inulin in a syrup composition having a temperature of below about 140° F. to form a binder slurry and then heating the binder slurry to above 140° F. to 190° F. to dissolve the inulin in the binder slurry and before adding dry ingredients to the binder slurry, the inulin provided by a powder and having a high molecular weight as evidenced by 30% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 3 to 9, 50% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 10 to 20, and 20% of the inulin having a degree of polymerization of 20 to 50, and the binder slurry having 20 to 30 weight percent of the high molecular weight inulin;
- mixing a waxy grain composition comprising discrete pieces of waxy grains with the binder slurry;
- wherein the waxy grain composition comprises discrete pieces of waxy wheat, waxy barley, waxy corn, or waxy sorghum, or any combination thereof, and wherein a majority of the discrete pieces of waxy grains have a diameter of about 4 to about 20 mm and a volume of about 12 to about 600 mm3;
- forming a slab from the mixture of the waxy grain composition and the binder slurry;
- and
- baking the slab at a temperature of from about 250 to about 400° F. for about 4 to about 20 minutes to reduce the water activity of the slab to below about 0.3.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.