Gelled food composition including fruit pieces and its preparation

A process for preparing a gelled food composition containing fruit pieces comprising:

• blending ingredients into water to obtain a jelly ground mass, the ingredients comprising, in amounts by weight based upon jelly ground mass weight, sugar in an amount of from 15% to 30%, xanthan in an amount of from 0.4% to 0.7% and a gelling agent which is a composition or a combination of compositions selected from the group consisting of (i) a carrageenan composition in an amount of from 0.5% to 1.5%, (ii) a carrageenan composition in an amount of from 0.4% to 1.0% and locust bean gum in an amount of from 0.1% to 0.5% and (iii) gellan gum in an amount of from 0.1% to 0.5% and wherein the ingredients are blended at a temperature so that the ingredients are suspended in the water;
• heating the jelly ground mass to a temperature and for a time to at least pasteurize the jelly ground mass and then cooling the so-heated jelly ground mass, but only to a temperature which is not below a temperature which effects gellation of the jelly ground mass, to obtain a temperature-treated jelly ground mass;
• preparing a fruit composition which comprises fruit pieces and xanthan wherein the xanthan is in an amount, by weight based upon the weight of the fruit composition, of between 0.4% and 0.7% and which has a sugar content which differs from the jelly ground mass sugar content so that a difference between the jelly ground mass specific gravity and the fruit composition specific gravity does not exceed 0.02 g/ml so that upon subsequently combining the jelly ground mass and the fruit composition at a temperature above 70° C., the fruit composition is present and distributed within the jelly ground mass;
• heating the fruit composition to a temperature and for a time to at least pasteurize the fruit composition and cooling the so-heated fruit composition to obtain a cooled fruit composition and maintaining the cooled fruit composition under aseptic conditions;
• providing a stream of the temperature-treated jelly ground mass having a temperature which is not below a temperature which effects gellation of the jelly ground mass and injecting the fruit composition, at a temperature of from 10° C. to 20° C., into the jelly ground mass stream to combine the cooled fruit composition into the jelly ground mass stream to obtain a combined composition stream containing, in amounts by weight based upon the combined composition weight, the jelly ground mass in an amount of from 50% to 90% and the fruit composition in an amount of from 10% to 50%, and then heating the combined composition stream to a temperature above 70° C. for preventing gellation to obtain a heated composition for filling into a container;
• filling the heated composition into a container and sealing the container to contain the composition in the container to obtain a packaged product mass;
• and
• cooling the packaged product mass to gel the product mass to obtain a gelled product mass in the container.