Appeal No. 1999-2509
Application 08/752,917
to col. 3, line 42)
a process for plasticizing and extruding a fat-containing confectionery material which
comprises applying pressure to a fat-containing confectionary material, which is in a
substantially non-pourable state, to pass it through a zone of convergence to plasticize
it and extruding the material to obtain the material in a substantially non-pourable
state. By proceeding in accordance with the process of the present invention, an axially
homogeneous extruded product having a cross-section that is of substantially the same
profile as a die orifice of an extruder from which it is extruded is obtained.
. . . .
The fat-containing confectionery material is most advantageously a chocolate, be it
plain, milk or white chocolate, although caramel, toffee and butterscotch, for example,
may be employed. Advantageously the material is in a granulated form, and chocolate
buttons are especially preferred.
Surprisingly, it has been discovered that, particularly in the case of a set chocolate,
the process of the present invention is substantially isothermal. It has been found that
the temperature of the set non-pourable chocolate does not increase materially to effect
a change in character from the non-pourable state, and in practice, the temperature may
be found to remain substantially constant. . . . [T]he physical state of the chocolate is
such that its general deformation behavior during extrusion alters only to that of a
plastic nature rather than that of a viscous fluid, and since the product is “cold”
extruded, cooling means typically employed for chocolate product preparation, such as
cooling tunnels, are not necessary.
Mackey further teaches (col. 5, lines 27-44) that
[t]he extrusion die shapes provide for preparing solid or hollowed profiled products,
e.g., bars, rods, spirals, twists, springs, hollow sections such as tubes and more
complex shapes such as the letters of the alphabet, as well as thin films having a
thickness which may be as little as 100 microns. . . . .
Two or more fat-based materials may be co-extruded in accordance with the
process of the present invention, and the fat-containing confectionary material may be
co-extruded with other food materials, such as ice-creams, fondants, etc., such being
advantageous when the fat-containing confectionery material is extruded in a hollow
or tubular form. Hence, in such embodiments, a multi-orifice die and/or associated
equipment, as are known to those skilled in the art, may be employed.
In Mackey Example 8, a FLORIN extruder with a centered “torpedo” position in the barrel
produces “solid non-pourable hollow tubular sections,” and it is further disclosed that
[c]o-extrusion with fondant may be carried out by using a “torpedo” provided with a
longitudinal channel through which the fondant flows to give a chocolate coated
fondant. [Col. 8, lines 6-16.]
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