Nutrient-fortified, reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable food product and processes for making same

Abstract

A reduced-calorie fruit and/or vegetable spread product, optionally fortified with additional nutrients, including whole, natural fruit(s) and/or vegetable(s), or combinations thereof, having improved flavor, texture (e.g., mouth feel), color, and nutritional value as compared to fruit and/or vegetable spread products made with conventional processes. More particularly, the present invention includes a fruit and/or vegetable spread product having reduced caloric and carbohydrate content and having increased soluble dietary fiber content, optionally fortified with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, and processes for making, or preparing, the same.

Description

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, m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[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

Problems solved by technology

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.

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.

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).

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.

The calcium is bulky, however, making the resulting food product gritty or otherwise texturally unsatisfactory.

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