Hard taco shell and method for producing hard taco shell

Abstract

The taco shells (10) are produced by applying a plasticizer (coating 100) to the base or spine portion (25) of the hard taco shell, such as by targeted spraying, rolling, brushing, or dipping of the taco shell, thereby softening the base or spine portion (25) over a strip width of preferably 4 mm to 20 mm. As a result, when the taco shell (10) is bitten into, the softened base portion (25) has some hinge-like flexibility or pliability, reducing the likelihood of crack propagation. Thus, the structural integrity of the hard taco shell (10) can be better maintained during eating, resulting in retention of ingredients and reduced messiness. If desired, a migration inhibitor can also be applied to ensure containment of the plasticizer in the targeted area.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to the art of food production, and more particularly, to the production of hard taco shells. [Background technology]

[0002] As the everyday activities of modern life place a demand on consumers' time, the preparation of food and meals from scratch has decreased, and the popularity of prepared or semi-prepared foods has increased dramatically. One such product is the hard taco shell. A taco shell is essentially a hard, roughly U-shaped baked or fried tortilla designed to hold a variety of ingredients. Due to the hardness of the taco shell, the shape of the shell, the placement of the ingredients, and the typical way such tacos are eaten, the taco shell tends to break apart relatively easily at various locations, not just at the exact location where it is bitten. Most problematic is the undesirable cracking of the base or bottom section of the shell, often referred to as the shell's spine, as this results in a loss of shell integrity and an overall messy eating experience with ingredients falling out of the taco shell. Since one of the advantages of tacos is that they do not require utensils, it is desirable to provide a taco shell that minimizes the tendency of the shell to break apart at the base in order to minimize dropping of the ingredients during consumption. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The present invention achieves the above objectives by applying a plasticizer to the base or spine portion of the hard taco shell to soften the base portion, so that when the taco shell is bitten into, the softened base portion has some hinge-like flexibility or pliability, reducing the likelihood of crack propagation, and thus allowing the hard taco shell to better maintain its structural integrity during eating, thereby retaining ingredients and reducing messiness.

[0004] The plasticizer may be applied in any one of a variety of ways, but is preferably confined to the base region. In a preferred embodiment, the plasticizer is applied in strips of width between 4 and 20 mm, more preferably on the order of 8 to 16 mm, and most preferably about 14 mm. Application may take a variety of forms, including targeted spray, roll, brush, or immersion application to preformed taco shells. Although other plasticizers may be used, a preferred embodiment uses glycerin, which has been found to be effective in raising the associated Aw to the rubber region. If desired, a migration limiting agent may be applied to confine the plasticizer to targeted base or spine regions. For example, one or more hydrocolloids may be provided either before or after application of the plasticizer to limit or even prevent migration of the plasticizer outside of the targeted region.

[0005] Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof when considered in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters refer to common parts in the several views. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0006] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a hard taco shell including a coated base or backbone section in accordance with the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a package of hard taco shells made in accordance with the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0007] Detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the present invention, which may be embodied in various alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of specific components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein should not be construed as limiting, but merely as representative basis for teaching those skilled in the art to use the present invention.

[0008] Although not shown, it is known to produce hard taco shells in a variety of ways. From a mass production perspective, typically a sheet of dough made from corn, wheat flour, or other flour is prepared and the dough sheet is fed under a cutter assembly to establish individual pieces of dough, each having a perimeter that generally defines a circle. After the dough pieces are cut, they are folded over a mold to form the desired shape, e.g., a U-shaped piece of dough. The shaped dough pieces are then fried or baked to produce a hard taco shell that retains the desired shape. In this regard, it should be recognized that the dough pieces may take on other shapes depending on the mold (not shown) used to hold the dough pieces during the cooking process. Most notably, the dough pieces may be shaped to produce a taco shell with a flat base (flat bottom as opposed to a curved bottom U-shaped shell), or even a more acute bottom (generally V-shaped). In either case, a shaped hard taco shell is shown in FIG. 1 and designated by the numeral 10. Taco shell 10 has a first sidewall portion 15 that is substantially parallel to a second sidewall portion 20, and a base or spine portion 25. Taco shell 10 also has a first end 30 and a second end 35 that are spaced longitudinally from one another along taco shell 10, with sidewall portions 15 and 20 including upper perimeter portions 40 and 42, and lower sections 43 and 44, all extending from first end 30 to second end 35.

[0009] For purposes of describing the present invention, regardless of whether the taco shell 10 has a U-shaped, flat, or otherwise shaped base portion, the base portion 25 interconnects the first and second sidewall portions 15 and 20 to establish a unitary product. Of course, a wide variety of base / sidewall dimensions are possible. Additionally, for purposes of this description, the base portion 25 includes a bottom portion 50 that leads to angled corner or connecting portions 60 and 65, which connect to the first and second sidewall portions 15 and 20, respectively. In this regard, it should be recognized that the connecting portions 60 and 65 can take on a variety of geometric shapes, with the bottom portion 50 connecting to the respective sidewall portions 15, 20 via curved or angled (right angle or otherwise) connecting portions. More importantly, as will be more fully detailed below in connection with the present invention, the connecting portions 60 and 65 essentially establish hinges between the remainder of the base portion 25 and the sidewall portions 15 and 20.

[0010] In a conventional hard taco shell, for example, when a consumer grasps the taco shell and bites one end, the taco shell will naturally tend to squeeze and crack across both sidewalls as well as along the base, with the location of the particular crack depending on the bite size, squeezing force, etc. In fact, the taco shell often actually cracks both at the bite location and at a location relatively far from the bite location, resulting in a messy eating experience with ingredients falling out of the taco shell. To minimize or prevent this problem, one or more longitudinally extending sections of the base portion 25 are made flexible or pliable. The extent to which the base portion 25 is made flexible or pliable can vary from the entire base portion 25 to at least only the connecting portions 60 and 65 (preferably the entirety from the first end 30 to the second end 35), but the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 will be described in further detail as an exemplary embodiment. As shown therein, base portion 25 has coating 100 applied thereto, and coating 100 is applied to both bottom portion 50 and connecting portions 60 and 65 to soften and render flexible those coated sections.

[0011] The coating 100 may be applied in a variety of ways, including targeted spray, roll, or brush application, or even partially immersing the taco shell 10 in the coating. The coating itself is a plasticizer. While a variety of plasticizers can be used, the preferred embodiment uses glycerin, which has been found to be effective in raising the associated Aw into the rubbery region. In the most preferred form of the invention, for a standard size hard taco shell, the plasticizer is applied to the base portion 25 to establish a longitudinal strip 125 having a width on the order of 4 mm to 20 mm, more preferably 8 to 16 mm, and most preferably about 14 mm. Again, other plasticizers may be used, alone or in combination, and in concentrates or solutions, including propylene glycol; sugar alcohols such as maltitol, sorbitol, xylitol, and erythritol; low molecular weight carbohydrates such as glucose, maltose, and sucrose; and / or polysaccharides such as inulin. In the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the coating 100 is applied to the entire base portion 25, although again, sections of the base portion may be targeted, such as only the central section of the bottom portion 50, the connecting portions 60 and 65, or a combination of both with spaced apart sections in between. If desired, a migration limiting agent may be applied separately from the coating 100 or as part of the coating 100 to define targeted base or spine regions. For example, one or more hydrocolloids may be provided either before or after application of the plasticizer to limit or even prevent migration of the plasticizer outside of the targeted regions. For example, in FIG. 1, the migration limiting agent is applied as strips 140 and 145 across the side walls 15 and 20 at the junctions with the connecting portions 60 and 65, thus limiting or preventing migration of the plasticizer to the side walls 15 and 20. Of course, additional strips of migration limiting agent may also be used if spaced apart coatings of plasticizer are applied.

[0012] Generally, hard taco shells are known to be brittle or otherwise rigid, plastic, and prone to cracking. However, according to the present invention, the plasticized region is flexible and pliable, or otherwise elastic and resistant to cracking. Strictly speaking, there is no significant difference in the peak force or overall hardness of the shell (only a change of about 5-8%), but the plasticizer increases the toughness of the system. This is supported by the fact that the plasticized region actually takes longer to reach its maximum hardness during formation. In tests, 100% of conventional (fragile and brittle) hard shell tacos broke (cracked) when exposed to simulated chewing forces. In contrast, shells plasticized in narrow strips (about 4-6 mm as outlined above) made according to the present invention broke only 1 / 3 or about 33% when exposed to the same simulated chewing forces, and the remaining about 66% of these shells simply deformed in the plasticized region or actually bounced back elastically after deformation. In comparison, when wide band plasticized shells were established by expanding the plasticized region to the preferred 8-16 mm and up to 20 mm ranges outlined above, none of the shells fractured when exposed to the same simulated chewing forces. More specifically, the wide band plasticized shells under this scenario simply deformed or rebounded at a roughly equal rate across the wide band plasticized shells tested.

[0013] 2 shows an exploded view of a package 150 of hard taco shells 10 made in accordance with the present invention, where a series of hard taco shells 10A-10F, each having at least one section coated with a plasticizer, are nested together, a spacer 155 is provided between the side walls of the first nested taco shell 10A, and the nested taco shells 10A-10F are wrapped in a transparent outer film 160 for sealing purposes. The nested and wrapped taco shells 10A-10F are shown removed from an outer container 165, preferably made from paperboard. Essentially, this view simply illustrates how the hard taco shells of the present invention can be packaged in the same manner as conventional taco shells.

[0014] Based on the above, it should be readily apparent that, according to the present invention, one or more sections of the base or spine portion of a hard taco shell have a plasticizer applied thereto, thereby softening the base or spine portion in this targeted area. As a result, when the taco shell is bitten into, the softened base or spine section has a degree of hinge-like flexibility or pliability, reducing the likelihood of crack propagation. Thus, when a consumer eats a hard taco of the present invention, the sidewall portions can be squeezed together without cracking the base portion, thereby better maintaining the structural integrity of the hard taco shell during eating, thereby retaining ingredients and reducing messiness. While certain preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown, it should be understood that various changes or modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. 1. A method of making a hard taco shell having two sidewall portions joined by a base portion, comprising applying a plasticizer along at least one targeted section of the base portion to soften the at least one targeted section, thereby increasing the hinge-like flexibility or pliability of the at least one targeted section to better maintain the overall structural integrity of the hard taco shell upon subsequent consumption.

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasticizer is applied to a strip width of 4 to 20 mm.

3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plasticizer is applied to a strip width of 8 to 16 mm.

4. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plasticizer is applied to a strip width of about 14 mm.

5. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasticizer is applied as a coating via one of spraying, rolling, brushing, or dipping onto the taco shells.

6. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the plasticizer is glycerin.

7. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the plasticizer comprises propylene glycol; a sugar alcohol; a low molecular weight carbohydrate; and / or a polysaccharide.

8. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasticizer is confined to the base portion of the hard taco shell.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising applying a migration limiting agent to confine the plasticizer in the at least one targeted section of the base portion.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the migration limiting agent comprises a hydrocolloid.

11. 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising packaging a plurality of said hard taco shells by nesting said hard taco shells, wrapping said nested hard taco shells, and placing said wrapped hard taco shells in a carton.

12. A hard taco shell made according to the method of claim 1.

13. A hard taco shell, a first hard shell sidewall; A second hard shell sidewall portion; and a base portion connecting the first and second hard shell sidewalls, at least a targeted section of the base portion being softened by a plasticizer applied only to the targeted section, thereby rendering the base portion flexible or pliable like a hinge to better maintain the overall structural integrity of the hard taco shell upon subsequent consumption; Comes with a hard taco shell.

14. 14. The hard taco shell of claim 13, wherein the plasticizer is encapsulated in a strip width of 4 to 20 mm.

15. 15. The hard taco shell of claim 14, wherein the plasticizer is encapsulated in a strip width of 8 to 16 mm.

16. 16. The hard taco shell of claim 15, wherein the plasticizer is encapsulated in a strip width of about 14 mm.

17. 17. The hard taco shell of any one of claims 13-16, wherein the plasticizer is glycerin.

18. 17. The hard taco shell of any one of claims 13-16, wherein the plasticizer comprises propylene glycol; a sugar alcohol; a low molecular weight carbohydrate; and / or a polysaccharide.

19. 17. The hard taco shell of any one of claims 13-16, further comprising a migration limiting agent that confines the plasticizer in the at least one targeted section of the base portion.

20. 20. The hard taco shell of claim 19, wherein the migration limiting agent comprises a hydrocolloid.

21. 14. The hard taco shell of claim 13, wherein the hard taco shell is nested with additional hard taco shells, wrapped and placed in a carton.

22. 14. The hard taco shell of claim 13, wherein the softened base portion has a degree of hinge-like flexibility or pliability that reduces breakage due to chewing by at least 66% compared to a hard taco shell without a plasticizer.

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