Solid nutritional foods and methods of making the same
AssigneeMcKenzie International, Inc.
InventorRussell G. McKenzie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved solid, edible nutritional food such as a bar or cube for supplementing the diets of both humans and animals is provided. Broadly, the foods comprise bars which include a sugar-based sweetening ingredient, a quantity of fat, and a formulated quantity of various vitamins, minerals, medicaments, and/or other supplemental ingredients. The bars can be formulated to provide 100% of the daily requirements of the supplemental ingredients, or alternately can be formulated to provide extra amounts of a particular component which is lacking in the animal or human's diet. In one embodiment, the bars weigh approximately 1 lb. and are scored into bite-sized pieces for easy consumption, thus providing a method for delivering exact quantities of supplemental ingredients to animals or humans.
Claims33
An edible nutritional food in the form of a solid, self-sustaining body comprising:
- a sugar-based sweetening ingredient;
- a quantity of fat, at least a portion of said fat being a hydrogenated vegetable oil;
- and
- a quantity of a supplement mixed with said sweetening ingredient and fat, said supplement comprising vitamins and minerals,
- said sweetening ingredient being present in said bar at a level of from about 47-82% by weight, based upon the total weight of the bar taken as 100% by weight,
- said bar having a hardness of at least about 70 and a total moisture content of less than about 5% by weight, based upon the total weight of the bar taken as 100% by weight.
A method of forming a nutritional food product comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a mixture comprising a sugar-based sweetening ingredient and a quantity of fat, at least a portion of said fat being a hydrogenated vegetable oil;
- (b) cooking said mixture by heating to a temperature of from about 240-280.degree. F. to vield a cooked liquid mixture;
- (c) mixing said liquid mixture with a quantity of dry materials including an ingredient selected from the group consisting of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and mixtures thereof;
- (d) cooling said mixture resulting from step (c) to a temperature of from about 90-120.degree. F. to form a pliable sheet of material;
- and
- (e) forming said sheet of material into edible portions having a hardness of at least about 70, said sweetening ingredient being added in step (a) at a level of from about 47-82% by weight, based upon the total weight of all ingredients used taken as 100% by weight.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.