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Nutrient-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable food product and processes for making sameRelated Patent Categories: Food Or Edible Material: Processes, Compositions, And Products, Products Per Se, Or Processes Of Preparing Or Treating Compositions Involving Chemical Reaction By Addition, Combining Diverse Food Material, Or Permanent Additive, Plant Material Is Basic Ingredient Other Than Extract, Starch Or ProteinNutrient-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable food product and processes for making same description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070128332, Nutrient-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable food product and processes for making same. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
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, manufacturers have introduced traditional foods fortified with vitamins, minerals, fiber, digestive aids such as probiotics, and other nutrients into the marketplace. [0004] 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. [0005] 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. For fruits and vegetable spreads enhanced with nutritional supplements, a manufacturer must take a great deal of care to kill the microorganisms present in the fruit without destroying the integrity of the supplements and without compromising the taste, texture and appearance of the product. [0006] Many individuals apply fruit or vegetable spreads, such as jams, jellies, relishes, purees and preserves, to other food products in order to enhance the flavor and nutritional value of the other food products with the taste and nutritional content of the fruit or vegetable spreads. Such fruit or vegetable spreads, generally, include a fruit or vegetable ingredient and a saccharide ingredient, but may also contain nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners, spice, acidifying agents, pectin (i.e., in an amount sufficient to compensate for natural deficiency in fruit or vegetable), buffering and antifoaming agents, preservatives, and other ingredients or agents for improving or preserving their taste, nutritional value, and quality. The saccharide ingredient in jams, jellies and preserves is typically sugar, which provides sweetening, bulk, texture, and mouth feel. The sugar also reduces the water activity level, thereby reducing pathogen growth. [0007] Typically, the preparation of jams, jellies, purees and preserves comprises a number of steps. Initially, fruit ingredients in a pulverized form, sweeteners and water are blended together. A stabilizing solution, such as pectin, is then prepared and added to the fruit, sweetener, and water blend to produce a mixture. During subsequent cooking of the mixture in vats, unwanted water is evaporated to create a cooked mixture having a desired soluble solids content. Finally, the cooked mixture is placed in suitable receptacles, such as jars, through a hot-filling process. 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). [0008] One approach to the problem of nutrient loss is to fortify the jam, jelly, fruit or vegetable spread or food product with vitamins, minerals, fiber, or other nutrients, either alone or in combination. Through fortification, a manufacturer can supplement the nutritional value of a food by adding additional nutrients. [0009] Several fortified food products are already known in the art. For instance, confectionary foods, breakfast cereals and nutritional drinks are available which are fortified with fiber and/or calcium. 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. [0010] Calcium is often used as a binding agent for supplemental nutrients added to fortified foods. The calcium is bulky, however, making the resulting food product gritty or otherwise texturally unsatisfactory. [0011] Other inventors and manufacturers, in response to studies indicating that excessive amounts of sugar in food products may contribute to or exacerbate many health problems and to the resultant desire among consumers for low-sugar fruit spreads, have attempted to enhance the healthiness of food products by employing sugar substitutes to produce low-calorie, low-sugar products. 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. [0012] Still other inventors and manufacturers have attempted to produce jams, jellies and other food products with a reduced caloric content by substituting oligofructose and/or inulin in place of some of the sugar, while taking advantage of the known bulking properties of such fructans. 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. [0013] Finally, still other inventors and manufacturers have attempted to resolve the, as yet undiscussed, problem of microbiological contamination which may occur during the preparation of some food products, particularly those incorporating fresh fruit and/or vegetables. 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.RTM.), 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. [0014] 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. The changes in texture, taste, odor and shelf stability caused by adding vitamins and minerals to food products have been discussed, but a method to preserve the manufacturing quality of fortified food products, especially those containing fresh fruit, has not been disclosed. [0015] Therefore, there exists in the industry, a need for a process for making a nutritionally-fortified, reduced-calorie, natural, whole-fruit and/or vegetable food product with an adequate shelf-life which does not diminish the natural flavor, texture, mouth feel, color, or nutritional content of the fruit(s) and/or vegetable(s) therein, and for addressing these and other related, and unrelated, problems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [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. [0019] The process of the present invention further avoids the flavor, texture, mouth feel, and nutrient losses that occur during conventional vat processing of fruit and/or vegetable spread products which are enhanced with supplemental nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fiber. The supplemental nutrients, as defined herein, are combined with a dietary fiber and added to a slurry of fruit and/or vegetables and other ingredients. Preferably, the supplemental nutrients are bound to a dietary fiber, such as inulin, rather than to a bulky binding agent such as calcium. The fortified fiber-fruit and/or vegetable slurry is then exposed to a high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization process instead of traditional vat cooking and evaporation processes. The process of present invention results in a fruit and/or vegetable spread product, as defined herein, having enhanced nutrition and improved texture, mouth feel, and flavor. [0020] According to the preferred embodiments described herein, the process of the present invention uses less sugar than is used in traditional fruit and/or vegetable spread processing. Such reduction of the sugar content lowers the incidence of discoloration in the resulting fruit and/or vegetable spreads products (i.e., as compared to the discoloration which occurs in traditionally, or conventionally, prepared fruit and/or vegetable spread products) which occurs as a consequence of non-enzymatic browning (also referred to as "Maillard Browning"). The process' use of less sugar also results in higher water activity levels during preparation that are more amenable to pasteurization, thereby enhancing the pasteurization process. 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