Nutrient-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable food product and processes for making same

Abstract

A reduced-calorie fruit and / or vegetable spread product, optionally fortified with additional nutrients, 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 present invention includes a fruit and / or vegetable spread product having reduced caloric and carbohydrate content and having increased soluble dietary fiber content, optionally fortified with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, and processes for making, or preparing, the same.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 422,611 (now pending) filed on Apr. 23, 2003, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 803,127 filed on Mar. 8, 2001 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,555) that is specifically incorporated by this reference as if set forth herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates, generally, to the field of fruit and vegetable spread products and, in its preferred embodiments, to a reduced-calorie, natural, whole-fruit and / or vegetable spread product fortified with dietary fiber, vitamins and / or minerals. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A growing awareness of the link between a healthy diet and improved physical health has led to new product development in the food manufacturing business. Because busy lifestyles often prevent consumers from consistently making the healthy food choices necessary to realize improved health, m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016] Briefly described, the present invention comprises a nutritionally-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and / or vegetable spread product (as defined herein) including whole, natural fruit(s) and / or vegetable(s) (as defined herein) or combinations thereof and processes for making, or preparing, the same. More particularly, in its preferred embodiments, a process of the present invention comprises a pasteurization step for making a fruit and / or vegetable spread product having reduced caloric and sugar content and having increased soluble dietary fiber and increased nutritional content. The nutritionally-fortified fruit and / or vegetable spread product may, for example and not limitation, be molded into sticks, pops, patties, or frozen novelties such as is done with margarine or ice cream, and / or transferred to a container (such as a jar, tub, or tube) or wrapper for packaging and subsequent sale as a standalone product. The nutritionally-fortified fruit and / or vegetable spread product may also be used as a base for other food products such as, for example and not limitation, yogurts, drinks, beverages, smoothies, snacks, pie fillings, puddings, ice cream toppings, condiments, fruit toppings, dressings, baby food, curd, cheeses, dips and sauces. Additionally, the nutritionally-fortified fruit and / or vegetable spread product may be spread onto other foods, for example and not limitation, like a jam, jelly, preserve, puree, marmalade, dressing, topping, condiment, cheese, dip or sauce.

[0017] Importantly, the processes produce a fruit and / or vegetable spread product, as defined herein, without the discoloration and the reductions in flavor, texture, mouth feel, and nutrients that occur with fruit or vegetable spread products made with conventional processes which include a vat cooking and / or evaporation step. Additionally, the process produces a fruit and / or vegetable spread product without the gritty mouth feel and the reductions in product quality that occur with food products made with conventional process which include fortified nutrients. The fruit and / or vegetable spread products produced by the process of the present invention provide: flavor approaching that of fresh fruits (or vegetables); texture and mouth feel superior to that of traditionally-prepared jams, jellies, purees and preserves; enhanced nutrients, including vitamins, minerals and fiber; and reduced caloric content as compared to traditionally-prepared fruit or vegetable spread products.

[0018] The process of the present invention avoids the flavor, texture, mouth feel, and nutrient losses that occur during conventional processing of fruit and / or vegetable spread products by using a high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization process instead of the traditional vat cooking and evaporation processes. By combining whole fruit(s), vegetable(s), or a combination thereof with a homogenized slurry of other ingredients, including at least (i) sweetener, such as, for example and not limitation, fruit juice concentrate, invert syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrups, maltose, cane syrup, honey, polyols such as sorbitol, mannitol, glycerol, propylene glycol, fruit juices or any mixtures thereof, (ii) soluble dietary fiber such as, for example and not limitation, fructo-oligosaccharide or inulin, and pectin, and by then pasteurizing the combined mixture in, preferably, a swept-surface heat exchanger, a shelf-stable fruit and / or vegetable spread product having less sugar (and, hence, reduce caloric content) and more dietary fiber is produced, and (iii) nutrients (as defined herein) including, but not limited to, vitamins and minerals. The resulting fruit and / or vegetable spread products have good textural quality and mouth feel, intense flavor, and maintain the color and structural integrity of the whole fruit(s) and / or vegetable(s) present therein.

Problems solved by technology

Adding nutritional supplements to food products, however, often results in certain complications such as a loss of flavor or texture of the food.

Additionally, the appearance of the product may be compromised by mineral residues and grittiness which can remain on the surfaces of food packaging.

These problems are especially evident when the food product contains fresh fruits and / or vegetables since consumers tend to equate the integrity of the fruits and / or vegetables with the freshness and quality of the overall product.

A further complication of processing fruits and vegetables, especially those fortified with additional nutrients, arises due to the fragile nature of the microorganisms present in these products.

Unfortunately, the steps of cooking and evaporation cause the fruit spread to lose flavor intensity (i.e., through boiling-off), texture and mouth feel (i.e., through breakdown of the fruit fibers into mush), natural color (i.e., through darkening or oxidation), and nutrients (i.e., through boiling-off).

However, the addition of fortifying nutrients often affects the taste and / or mouth feel of the product, imparting bitterness or grittiness to the food.

Foods containing fruits and / or vegetables are especially difficult to fortify if preserving the texture and integrity of the fruit and / or vegetable is important to the final product.

The calcium is bulky, however, making the resulting food product gritty or otherwise texturally unsatisfactory.

However, such sugar substitutes and processes for making food products which incorporate them, tend to create products having various difficulties, including deficiencies in sensory (sweetness intensity, quality and flavor), visual (color, clarity and gloss), and textural (firmness, body, mouth feel, and spreadability) properties as compared to their naturally sweetened counterparts.

Some inventors, attempting to resolve such deficiencies, incorporate a multi-component gum system to impart desirable textural properties to pectin or carrageenan gel, but use conventional heating methods of preparation and, as a result of heat breakdown of the gums, produce a food product deficient in flavor.

Unfortunately, traditional food processing tends to degrade the oligofructose and / or inulin at high temperatures and low pH, and because the shelf-life of products containing oligofructose may be inadequate, these attempts have proven difficult.

In an attempt to extend the shelf-life of products containing oligofructose, pasteurization processes have been used, even though it is known that the pasteurization conditions may cause the oligofructose to degrade and, hence, be detrimental to the quality of the products.

Unfortunately, because the fruit and / or vegetables must be stable against processing stress, certain varieties, especially berry varieties, of fruit cannot be used in food products made with high-heat processes.

Moreover, fruit spread products made with such process have, or tend to have, a texture similar to that of gelatin desserts (e.g., JELL-O®), which are very watery and not suitable for spreading, for instance, on toast.

Further, even at refrigerated temperatures, fruit spread products prepared using the heated process have an extremely short shelf-life.

Until now, there has seemingly been no attempt to resolve the difficulty of manufacturing a nutritionally fortified low-calorie food spread while maintaining the texture and mouth feel of whole fruits or vegetables.