Frozen aerated product in a container and a method for manufacturing such

Abstract

A frozen aerated product in a container, the container having a wall delimiting a cavity and having an opening, the cavity containing a bag, the opening being closed by a valve having a product inlet and a product outlet, the bag containing the product inlet, the cavity containing a propellant, the frozen aerated product being contained within the bag and gastightly separated from the propellant by the bag, there being an annular hermetic seal between the bag and the wall; characterised in that the bag is resiliently inflatable and the frozen aerated product is under a gauge pressure of between 4 and 18 bar.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a frozen aerated product in a container and a method for manufacturing such. The present invention more particularly relates to products commonly referred to as aerosols. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0002] The availability of aerosol creams and toppings in a convenient and affordable form has led to their everyday use by consumers. Ice cream and similar frozen aerated products are often used as alternatives to whipped creams and toppings but currently there are no commercially available aerosol forms of such products. In addition, there has long been a need to provide soft-serve ice cream, a popular out-of-home dessert, in a form where it may be dispensed at home directly on removal from the freezer. [0003] A problematic feature of frozen aerated products is their high viscosity, especially at the temperature of a domestic freezer. Owing to such high viscosity, it is not possible to ensure that product will be adjacent t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0027] It has been found that such a container is inexpensive as there is no requirement for any special steps (e.g. such as insertion of a piston or bag before finishing of the container wall) while manufacturing the container wall. In addition, the use of high pressures and a resiliently inflatable bag which is hermetically sealed to the container wall allows for almost complete dispensing of frozen aerated products even whilst in their extremely viscous state at the temperature of a domestic deep freeze. Preferably the bag is attached to the valve as this aids in preventing the bag from being pushed into the product inlet of the valve.

[0045] It is a third object of the present invention to provide a frozen aerated product in a container, the container having at least two compartments (A) and (B), compartment (A) containing a propellant, compartment (B) containing the frozen aerated product and compartment (B) being provided with a valve; characterised in that the compartments are gastightly separated from each other by the membrane of a bag and the container has a dispensing residue of less than 0.1 g ml−1, preferably less than 0.05 g ml−1. Such a system is advantageous as, unlike the piston systems suggested in the art, it provides for aerosol formats of frozen aerated products that use containers made by blow moulding. Such formats are less expensive, easier to handle and produce less waste than existing formats. In addition, by ensuring that the dispensing residue is kept below the limits specified above, a frozen aerated product in a container within the prescribed legal size may be provided that dispenses a satisfactory amount of product resulting in good value for money and low wastage for the consumer.

Problems solved by technology

Ice cream and similar frozen aerated products are often used as alternatives to whipped creams and toppings but currently there are no commercially available aerosol forms of such products.

A problematic feature of frozen aerated products is their high viscosity, especially at the temperature of a domestic freezer.

Owing to such high viscosity, it is not possible to ensure that product will be adjacent to the inlet of an aerosol valve merely by inverting the can during dispensing.

It is notoriously difficult to control the collapse of the bag in bag-in-can and bag-on-valve systems such that the bag does not choke during dispensing.

Unfortunately, however, for extremely viscous products such as ice cream at the temperature of a domestic deep freeze (−18° C. to −22° C.)

, dip tubes do not provide a satisfactory solution to the choking problem. T

his is because the requirement for the product to flow through a long, narrow tube severely reduces the flow rate of the product.

Unfortunately, however, the piston-type aerosols also have several drawbacks.

Firstly, they are expensive to manufacture, requiring the piston to be inserted prior to finishing of the can body.

Secondly, the system only works with containers that have a constant cross-section.

Thirdly the system requires a precise fit of the piston with the container wall over the whole range of pressures encountered during the lifetime of a product.

Therefore such systems are not compatible with containers made from materials such as plastic, which undergo appreciable changes in dimensions as the pressure is changed.

Apart from the fact that such technology absolutely requires the use of a laminated container, bags with an external surface area the same as the internal surface area of the container wall and low pressures, we have found that use of bags made from non-resilient materials such as polyethylene for dispensing extremely viscous products such as frozen aerated products at a temperature of a domestic deep freeze, results in choking of the bag and incomplete dispensing of the product.

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