Coated Bulking Agent Particles for Sugar Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for reducing calorie content in fat-based food products comprising sugar often compromise on viscosity, texture, and organoleptic properties, and fail to significantly reduce both sugar and fat content while maintaining rheological and sensory qualities.
Innovation Solution
Development of coated bulking agent particles comprising 30-98% sugar, 0.05-12% surface active agent, and 0-70% bulking agent, where 50-100% of the sugar is in crystalline form, which are prepared through a process involving mixing, spray drying, and heating to create a composition that can replace granulated sugar, retaining the product's properties and reducing calorie and fat content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If sugar is replaced with a bulking agent to reduce calories, then calorie content is reduced, but viscosity, texture and sweetness are adversely affected
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a composite particle system combining bulking agent (cellulose or fibrous material) with sugar particles (40-90 wt%) and optionally protein (10-30 wt%). This composite structure allows the particle to function as both a bulking agent for calorie reduction and a sugar substitute for maintaining viscosity, texture and sweetness properties in fat-based food products.
2Reliability
If a limited amount of sugar is substituted by cellulose or fibrous bulking agent, then viscosity and organoleptic properties are maintained, but calorie reduction is minimal
Solution Approach 1:
The composite particle enables higher substitution levels (40-90 wt% sugar content) while maintaining product properties, achieving both significant calorie reduction and preservation of viscosity and organoleptic characteristics that were previously only possible with limited substitution.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates particles with non-uniform composition where sugar and bulking agent are distributed in specific ratios within each particle. This local quality variation allows different regions of the particle to contribute differently to sweetness, bulk, and viscosity, enabling higher overall substitution while maintaining product quality.
3Loss of energy
If amorphous porous particles are used to substitute sugar, then sugar content is reduced by 10 to 35%, but rheological properties such as Casson viscosity and Casson yield are not maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the physical state parameter of sugar from amorphous (in previous solutions) to crystalline form (40-90 wt% crystalline sugar). This parameter change enables the particles to maintain rheological properties like Casson viscosity and Casson yield while achieving higher sugar reduction levels of 10 to 35% or more in fat-based food products.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The coated bulking agent particles achieve up to 70% reduction in sugar content while maintaining the rheological and organoleptic properties of fat-based food products, ensuring similar processing, uniformity, and pick-up weight as sugar, thus addressing the limitations of previous methods.
Implementation Method 1
The mixture is spray dried to form coated bulking agent particles
Implementation Method 2
The coated bulking agent particles are heated to remove residual moisture and achieve a water content of not more than 5 wt %
Data Source
AI summary
Novel coated bulking agent particles for reduction of calories in fat-based food products comprising sugar. A coated bulking agent particle comprising from 2 wt % to 70 wt % bulking agent and from 30 wt % to 98 wt % coating composition comprising sugar and surface active agent; wherein the ratio of sugar to surface active agent in the composition is from 2000:1 to 4:1 and from 50 wt % to 100 wt % of the sugar is in crystalline form; wherein the bulking agent is coated with the coating composition; an agglomerated coated bulking agent particle; a process of preparing the particles and a fat-based confection composition comprising the coated bulking agent particles.