Appeal No. 95-0969 Application 07/945,586 To remedy the deficiency in Terada, the examiner relies upon Yokobori. This reference teaches that blooming of chocolate can be reduced by adding to hard butter used to make the chocolate, 0.05 to 20 wt% of a polyglycerol fatty acid ester which is made using saturated or unsaturated fatty acids having up to 24 carbons and which has an average of four or more moles of fatty acid bound to polyglycerol having an average of five or more hydroxyl groups (col. 1, line 61 - col. 2, line 21; col. 3, lines 8-11). Yokobori states that it is preferred that all of the3 hydroxyl groups of the polyglycerol are esterified, but indicates that fewer of the hydroxyl groups can be esterified (col. 2, lines 22-35). The examiner asserts that Yokobori discloses use of polyglycerol fatty acid esters as emulsifiers (answer, page 4). As pointed out by appellants (reply brief, page 3), Yokobori teaches that it was known in the art to use emulsifiers in chocolate (col. 1, lines 17-19), but does not indicate that the polyglycerol fatty acid ester added to hard butter according to his invention serves as an emulsifier. Thus, the examiner has 3According to appellants, “blooming” is the formation of white powder on the surface of chocolate during storage and is considered to be due to growth of fine crystals of oil fat in the chocolate (brief, page 12). -4-4Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007