Process for making a reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable spread

Abstract

A process for making, or preparing, a reduced-calorie fruit and / or vegetable spread product including whole, natural fruit(s) and / or vegetable(s), or combinations thereof, having improved flavor, texture (e.g., mouth feel), color, and nutritional value as compared to fruit and / or vegetable spread products made with conventional processes. More particularly, the process of the present invention includes a pasteurization step, using a swept-surface heat exchanger, for making fruit and / or vegetable spread products having reduced caloric and sugar content and having increased soluble dietary fiber content. The minimal processing of the present process enables the produced fruit and / or vegetable spread products to retain flavor, texture, color, vitamins and other nutrients which are, typically, lost in traditionally-processed fruit and / or vegetable spread products. The process' preferable use of squeeze tube packaging eliminates the need for cutlery in order to use or consume the fruit and / or vegetable spread products and serves to make the products more portable.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of low-calorie fruit and vegetable spread preparations and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, to methods of making or preparing low-calorie, natural, whole fruit and / or vegetable spread preparations fortified with dietary fiber. Background technique [0002] Many people prefer to spread fruit or vegetable spreads such as jams, jellies, purees and dried fruit on top of other food products to take advantage of the flavor and nutritional content of the fruit or vegetable spread to enhance the flavor and nutritional value of other food products . Typically, such fruit or vegetable spreads contain a fruit or vegetable component and a sugar component, but also contain nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners, spices, acidulants, pectin (i.e., in sufficient amounts to compensate for the fruit or vegetable natural deficiencies in), buffers and anti-foaming agents, preservatives and other ingredients or agents use...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, certain varieties of fruit (particularly berry varieties) cannot be used in fruit spread preparations made by the Waredorf method as the fruit must be stable against processing stresses

Furthermore, fruit spread preparations made by the Waredorf method have or tend to have a texture similar to gelatin jelly (e.g., JELL-O®), which is very watery and unsuitable for spreading, e.g., on toast

In addition, fruit spread preparations prepared using the Waredorf method have an extremely short shelf life even at refrigerated temperatures.