Process for preparing simulated soft centered fruits
AssigneeLever Brothers Company
InventorsNoel James Bradshaw, David Savage, Michael Edwin Sneath
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fruit product having a texture which on eating is sensed as non-uniform like that of soft centered fruits such as gooseberries and cherries is prepared by a process in which fruit pulp or puree admixed with an alginate or pectate sol is brought into contact with a dissolved calcium ion so that part of the sol is gelled and the fruit pulp or puree is distributed between a fluid or plastic core of alginate or pectate sol and a firm exterior of calcium alginate or pectate gel and the product is heated to prevent the core from becoming a firm gel.
Claims12
A process for preparing a fruit product consisting essentially of the steps of
- (a) mixing fruit pulp or puree and an aqueous alginate or pectate sol to form a mixture;
- (b) extruding the mixture to form drops of the mixture;
- (c) treating the drops with an aqueous solution of an edible calcium salt to give the drops a skin of calcium alginate or pectate and a fluid or plastic core;
- and
- (d) while the drops still have a fluid or plastic core, heating the treated drops to a temperature of 70.degree. C to about 100.degree. C to prevent full gelation of the sol in the interior of the drops said process thereby producing said fruit product with a firm outer skin and a softer interior.
A process for preparing a fruit product consisting essentially of the steps of:
- (a) mixing fruit pulp or puree and an aqueous alginate or pectate sol to form a mixture;
- (b) extruding the mixture to form drops of the mixture;
- (c) treating the drops with an aqueous solution of an edible calcium salt to give the drops a skin of calcium alginate or pectate;
- (d) removing the treated drops from the aqueous solution of the edible calcium salt and putting the treated drops into an aqueous syrup;
- and
- (e) while the drops still have a fluid or plastic core, heating the treated drops in the aqueous syrup to a temperature of 70.degree. C to about 100.degree. C to prevent full gelation of the sol in the interior of the drops said process thereby producing a fruit product with a firm outer skin and a soft interior.
A process as claimed in claim 9 wherein the sol in step (a) is an aqueous alginate sol and the treated drops in step (e) are heated at 85.degree. C or above for at least two minutes. 13. A process as claimed in claim 9 wherein the treated drops are heated in the aqueous syrup within one hour of the treated drops being removed from the aqueous
- solution of the edible calcium salt. 14. A process as claimed in claim 13 wherein the treated drops are heated within 30 minutes of the treated drops being removed from the aqueous solution of the edible calcium salt.
- 5. A process as claimed in claim 9 in which the drops are treated with the aqueous solution of the edible calcium salt for about 10 to about 30
- minutes. 16. A process as claimed in claim 9 wherein the aqueous sugar
- syrup contains 0.1 to 0.5% by weight of an edible calcium salt. 17. A process as claimed in claim 9 in which the fruit pulp or puree is
- gooseberry pulp or puree. 18. A process as claimed in claim 17 in which the sol used is an alginate sol with a ratio of mannuronic acid residues
- to guluronic acid residues greater than 1:1. 19. A process as claimed in
- claim 9 in which the fruit pulp or puree is cherry pulp or puree. 20. A process as claimed in claim 19 in which the sol used is an alginate sol with a ratio of mannuronic acid residues to guluronic acid residues of less than 1:1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.