Fruit and Vegetable Snack Sheets With Visible Pieces and Bimodal Texture

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing snack food manufacturing processes struggle to produce non-fried snacks with visible pieces of fruits or vegetables due to high moisture content and require the use of dehydrated materials or juices/purees, limiting the ability to create snacks with recognizable fruit or vegetable pieces as leading ingredients.

Innovation Solution

A method involving a hybrid cooking process using microwave and hot air convection cooking, followed by dehydration, to create a non-fried snack food with a bimodal texture and visual appearance by incorporating fresh or frozen vegetable and fruit pieces into a potato starch matrix, maintaining their natural cellular structure.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If fresh or frozen vegetable and fruit pieces are incorporated into a starch matrix, then the snack food contains high vegetable/fruit content with recognizable pieces, but the high moisture content of these ingredients hinders the forming and dehydration process

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevegetable and fruit contentVSAvoidforming and dehydration process

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The vegetable and fruit pieces are pre-treated by blanching or microwaving before being incorporated into the starch matrix. This preliminary action reduces their moisture content and prepares them for the subsequent forming and dehydration processes, making the manufacturing feasible despite their inherently high moisture content

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The physical state and moisture content of the vegetable and fruit pieces are changed through pre-treatment processes (blanching, microwaving) before incorporation. This parameter change enables the pieces to be successfully integrated into the starch matrix and processed through forming and dehydration without causing manufacturing difficulties

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Ease of manufacture

If traditional manufacturing processes (extrusion, sheeting, moulding, cutting) are used, then the snack food can be formed and shaped, but these processes require a fairly smooth mix which necessitates using fruit and vegetable in the form of juices or purees rather than visible pieces

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveforming and shaping processVSAvoidvisible pieces of fruit and vegetable

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSShape

Solution Approach 1:

The snack food is segmented into two distinct components: a starch matrix and incorporated vegetable/fruit pieces. This segmentation allows the matrix to be formed using traditional processes requiring smooth consistency, while the vegetable and fruit pieces maintain their discrete, visible form throughout the manufacturing process

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The starch matrix acts as an intermediary medium that binds the pre-treated vegetable and fruit pieces together. This intermediary allows the pieces to be incorporated without disrupting the smooth mix required for traditional forming processes, while still maintaining their visible identity in the final product

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

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 method allows for the production of non-fried snacks with high vegetable/fruit content, retaining recognizable pieces and providing a distinct bimodal texture and visual appeal through the combination of starch-based matrix and vegetable/fruit cellular structures.

Implementation Method 1

microwave heating the dough mixture to a temperature sufficient to cook the potato starch matrix and the vegetable and/or fruit pieces

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectMicrowave heating: Dielectric Heating

Implementation Method 2

hot air convection cooking, followed by dehydration

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectConvection heating: Convection

Data Source

PatentEP3989739B1Vegetable- and/or fruit-containing snack foods and manufacture thereof

Publication Date: 2025.11.12 FRITO LAY TRADING CO GMBH

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AI summary

A vegetable- and/or fruit-containing snack food, the snack food comprising a sheet having a thickness of from 1 to 8 mm, the sheet comprising a rigid starch matrix comprising potato starch and a plurality of individual pieces of vegetable and/or fruit randomly distributed throughout the matrix, wherein at least 50 % by number of the pieces have a minimum dimension of at least 0.75 mm and a maximum dimension of up to 7 mm, wherein the matrix defines therein a first cellular structure of first cellular pores having a first pore size distribution and the pieces define therein a second cellular structure of second cellular pores having a second pore size distribution, at least some of the second cellular pores are defined by polysaccharide cell walls of the respective vegetable and/or fruit, and the first pore size distribution has a larger number-average pore size and a wider distribution than the second pore size distribution. A method of manufacture is also disclosed.