Appeal No. 1996-3469
Application No. 08/268,708
Representative Claims
1. A bottled non-carbonated, sugar-free, fruit-flavored
beverage comprising fruit flavor, aspartame, citric acid
and citrate buffer salt wherein the beverage has a pH of from
3.2 to 3.6, a weight ratio of the citric acid to the citrate
buffer salt of 2.7-3.5:1 and a sour taste which is equivalent
to fruit-flavored beverages having a pH of about 2.9, and
wherein the sweetness of the beverage is provided
by aspartane alone or by aspartame for a majority of the
sweetness in combination with the other intensive sweeteners
selected from the group consisting of
alitame, acesulfame-K, saccharin, sucralose and combinations
thereof.
9. A method of raising the pH of a non-carbonated, sugar-
free, citric acid-containing and citrate buffer salt-
containing fruit-flavored, bottled beverage wherein the
sweetness of the beverage is provided by aspartame alone or
by aspartame for a majority of the sweetness in combination
with the other intensive sweeteners selected from the group
consisting of alitame, acesulfame-K, saccharin, sucralose and
combinations thereof, from below 3.0 to above 3.2
without lowering the sour taste of the beverage comprising
the steps of adjusting the level of citric acid, increasing
the level of citrate buffer salt, and decreasing the weight
ratio of citric acid to citrate buffer salt to 2.7-3.5:1.
The references relied upon by the examiner are:
Sakai et al. (Sakai) 4,770,889 Sep. 13, 1988
Wakabayashi et al. (Wakabayashi) 4,849,238 Jul. 18, 1989
Sabatura 4,876,106 Oct. 24, 1989
The rejections are:
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8-12, and 14-20 are rejected under 35
U.S.C. ' 112, first paragraph, as the specification does not
contain a written description of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8-12, and 14-20 are rejected under 35
U.S.C. ' 103 as being unpatentable over Sakai and Wakabayashi
in view of Sabatura.
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