Cultures Encapsulated With Compound Fat Breakfast Cereals Coated With Compound Fat and Methods of Preparation

A food product, comprising:

• a dried food base having a water activity ranging from about 0.1 to about 0.35;
• and
• a compound fat including an edible fat having a melting point ranging from about 25-45° C. (77-113° F.), a nutritive carbohydrate sweetening ingredient having a particle size of less than 50 micron in a weight ratio of fat ingredient to a sugar ingredient range of about 10:1 to about 10:50, and sufficient amounts of freeze dried, viable pro-biotic cultures homogeneously dispersed there through such as to provide at least 106 to about 109 colony forming unit's (“cfu”) per gram in a compound fat encapsulated pro-biotic, said compound fat encapsulated pro-biotic being a coating or portion or phase of the food product;
• wherein the compound fat has a water activity (“Aw”) of less than 0.3;
• and
• the weight ratio of food base to compound fat encapsulated pro-biotic ranges from about 100:1 to about 100:400.

A method of preparing coated food comestible with an inoculated compound fat coating, comprising the steps of:

• A. providing a melted compound fat, comprising:
• a fat having a melting point ranging from about 25-45° C. (77-113° F.);
• sugar;
• and,
• having a temperature of 50° C. (122° F.) or less
• a water activity of 0.3 or less,
• B. admixing sufficient amounts of freeze dried viable pro-biotic cultures to form a homogenously inoculated melted compound fat having 103 to 109 colony forming units per grams;
• C. combining the inoculated melted compound fat with a comestible base to form a composite comestible base having an inoculated compound fat portion in a weight ratio of comestible base to inoculated compound fat portion ranging from about 100:1 to 100:400;
• and
• D. cooling the coated comestible to below the melting point of the fat of the compound fat to form a compound fat coated comestible having encapsulated viable pro-biotic cultures.