Method for making a cubed nut cluster
AssigneeFrito-Lay North America, Inc.
InventorsDavid Wallice Graham, Carol McCall, Mohan Rao, Scott Sullivan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for creating hexahedron or cubed nut cluster having a high level of nuts or seeds. The invention is an improved process for manipulating and shaping high content nut and seed food products. In one aspect, the invention manipulates processing conditions to provide a nut slab high nut content nut slab that is conducive to slicing and cutting. In one aspect, the invention manipulates unit operation conditions so as to provide a method of slicing a high content nut slab into longitudinal strips in a continuous operation that minimizes or eliminates jamming at the cutting and/or slabbing conveyors.
Claims12
A hexahedron-shaped nut cluster made by the method comprising the following:
- a) admixing a raw food material with a binder syrup into a nut mixture such that said nut mixture comprises between 65% to about 85% of said raw food material, wherein said raw food material is raw or roasted nuts or seeds, wherein said binder syrup comprises at least one ingredient selected from the group consisting of corn syrup, brown rice syrup, rice malt, and honey;
- b) placing said nut mixture having a controlled slab temperature on a slab conveyor moving in a longitudinal direction;
- c) compressing said nut mixture to make a nut slab with at least one compression roller;
- d) using at least one rotary slitter that comprises a rotational speed greater than a slab speed to simultaneously pull and slice said nut slab into longitudinal strips;
- and
- e) cutting said longitudinal strips in the transverse direction to form a plurality of hexahedron-shaped nut clusters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.