Coated Bite-Sized Snacks with Nut Butter Core
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Solution Overview
Problem
Convenience foods and snack foods containing nut butters often lose their soft, smooth, and creamy textures during storage and handling, failing to retain the pleasing organoleptic properties of nut butter, and are not shelf-stable or portable.
Innovation Solution
A bite-sized snack comprising a soft nut butter inner core with a stabilizer, coated with a crunchy grain-based outer coating, which maintains its texture and stability over four weeks at various temperatures, with a texture profile analyzer measuring peak force and positive area within specific ranges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If nut butter is incorporated into convenience foods and snack foods, then shelf stability and portability are improved, but the soft, smooth, and creamy texture is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the snack into two distinct components: a soft nut butter inner core and a crunchy outer coating. This segmentation allows each component to maintain its own textural properties independently, resolving the contradiction between shelf stability and texture quality by preventing the nut butter from becoming dry and crumbly while still providing convenience food portability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a composite snack structure combining soft nut butter material with a crunchy outer coating material. This composite approach allows the snack to exhibit both the desired softness of the nut butter core and the structural integrity needed for shelf stability and portability, effectively resolving the texture loss problem.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If nut butter is made shelf-stable for extended storage, then storage duration is improved, but oil and moisture loss occurs causing texture degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies a crunchy outer coating to the nut butter inner core before storage. This coating acts as a protective barrier that prevents oil and moisture loss during extended storage, cushioning the nut butter against degradation and maintaining its soft, smooth texture even after weeks of shelf storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The crunchy outer coating functions as a protective shell around the soft nut butter core. This shell structure prevents direct exposure of the nut butter to air and environmental factors, thereby reducing oil and moisture loss during storage while allowing the product to remain shelf-stable for extended periods.
3Strength
If nut butter is processed into a soft plastic-like material, then mouthfeel and organoleptic properties are improved, but structural integrity for portable consumption is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the snack into a soft inner core for mouthfeel and a structured outer coating for integrity. The soft nut butter core provides the desired mouthfeel and organoleptic properties, while the separate crunchy coating provides the structural integrity needed for portable consumption without mixing the two conflicting requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies different quality characteristics to different parts of the snack: the inner core has soft, smooth, creamy properties for optimal mouthfeel, while the outer coating has crunchy, structurally intact properties for portability. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between mouthfeel quality and structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to small edible portions (i.e., bite-sized snacks) comprising a soft nut butter inner core coated with a crunchy grain-based outer coating. The bite-sized snacks have an equivalent spherical diameter of about 1 to 3 cm. Texture analysis of the bite-sized snacks determines that the bite-sized snacks have a soft texture with an average peak force in the range of about 800-5,000 g and an average positive area in the range of about 2,000-15,000 g*sec. The bite-sized snacks unexpected have both a soft and crunchy texture and are surprisingly shelf stable.