Continuous production of gelled chunks of foodstuffs
AssigneeSpillers Limited
InventorColin Wotherspoon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of producing chunks of gelled food in a slurry by forming a first slurry having a gelling agent, forming a second slurry containing a gel activator, at least one of the slurries containing comminuted food; bringing the slurries together and gently mixing thereby breaking said food-containing slurry into random and irregularly shaped chunks while the gel activator simultaneously reacts at the interface with the gelling material thereby forming a gel skin which encapsulates the chunks.
Claims43
A method of producing randomly formed and irregularly shaped edible chunks of comminuted material disposed in a matrix slurry, said chunks having an outer gel skin, comprising
- forming at least one first slurry comprising a soluble gellable material;
- forming at least one second slurry comprising a soluble gelling activator which will interact with said soluble gellable material;
- wherein at least one of said slurries contains a comminuted food material,
- bringing said slurries together while concurrently imparting a limited mixing action thereto and thereby breaking up said slurry containing food material into a plurality of randomly formed and irregularly shaped chunks surrounded by the matrix of the non-food slurry while simultaneously reacting the soluble gellable material with said soluble gelling activator at the interfaces of said shaped chunks to form a gel skin encapsulating each of said irregularly shaped chunks;
- said gellable material and said gelling activator being present in an amount sufficient to produce said gel skin encapsulating said chunks;
- said encapsulated chunks being sufficiently robust to remain in discrete form and sufficiently pliable to be pumped in the matrix of the non-food slurry directly to a high speed industrial container filler for packaging.
A method for producing chunky pet food comprising a plurality of randomly formed and irregularly shaped chunks of comminuted food material selected from the group consisting of meat, poultry, fish and mixtures thereof, said chunks being dispersed in a matrix slurry, each of said chunks having an outer gel skin with the food material in the interiors of said chunks being textured to substantially the consistency of one constituent of said food material prior to comminution, said method comprising
- forming at least one first slurry comprising a soluble gellable material,
- forming at least one second slurry comprising a soluble gelling activator which will interact with said soluble gellable material to form a gel, one of said slurries containing said comminuted food material,
- bringing each of said slurries together into a zone at a rate sufficient to enable an applied gentle stirring to break up said slurry containing the comminuted food material into a plurality of irregularly shaped chunks,
- gently folding said other slurry over said plurality of chunks and surrounding said chunks with said other slurry while simultaneously reacting the soluble gellable material with said soluble gelling activator at the interfaces of said shaped chunks to form a gel skin encapsulating each of said irregularly shaped chunks, said gellable material and said gelling activator being present in an amount sufficient to form said gel skin encapsulating said chunks
- said encapsulated chunks being sufficiently robust to remain as individual chunks and being sufficiently pliable to be pumped in the matrix of the other slurry directly to a high speed packaging apparatus for packaging in a container.
A method for producing chunky pet food comprising a plurality of randomly formed and irregularly shaped chunks of comminuted food material selected from the group consisting of meat, poultry, fish and mixtures thereof, said chunks being dispersed in a matrix slurry, each of said chunks having an outer gel skin with the food material in the interiors of said chunks being textured to substantially the consistency of one constituent of said food material prior to comminution, said method comprising
- forming at least one first slurry comprising a soluble gellable material,
- forming at least one second slurry comprising a soluble gelling activator which will interact with said soluble gellable material to form a gel, one of said slurries containing said comminuted edible material,
- said weight ratio of said slurry containing said comminuted food material to the other slurry being from 33 to 1 to 2 to 1 by weight of said pet food,
- said amount of soluble gellable material is from about 0.3 to 3% by weight of said pet food,
- said amount of gelling activator is from about 0.01 to 1% by weight of said pet food,
- said first slurry or said second slurry having a retarding agent therein, said retarding agent being present in an amount of from about 0.02% to 0.2% by weight of the pet food,
- bringing each of said slurries together into a zone at a different volume rate per unit of time, said slurry containing said comminuted food material entering said zone in substantially greater volume than said other slurry,
- applying gentle stirring in said zone to break up said slurry containing the comminuted food material into a plurality of irregularly shaped chunks,
- gently folding said other slurry over said plurality of chunks to surround said chunks with said other slurry while simultaneously reacting said soluble gellable material with said gelling activator at the interfaces of said shaped chunks to form a gel skin encapsulating each of said irregularly shaped chunks,
- said encapsulated chunks being sufficiently robust to remain as individual chunks and being sufficient pliable to be pumped in the matrix of the other slurry directly to a high speed packaging apparatus for packaging in a container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.