By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Life Science Weekly — From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Fujimoto, Ichiro (Saitama-shi, JP); Higuchi, Yo (Saitama-shi, JP); Yamamoto, Hiroshi (Sayama-shi, JP); Ozaki, Fumihiro (Saitama-shi, JP), filed on April 26, 2012, was made available online on July 3, 2014 (see also Lotte Co., Ltd.).
The patent’s assignee is Lotte Co., Ltd.
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Prior-art candies related to the present invention are disclosed, for example, in PTL1 to PTL4.
“PTL1 proposes a chewing candy which contains 0.5 to 5 wt % of pullulan and 0.2 to 2 wt % of gelatin.
“PTL2 provides a soft candy which contains 0.5 to 3 wt % of pullulan and 2 to 5 wt % of gelatin and has a specific gravity of 0.6 to 1.1.
“PTL3 provides a soft candy which contains 0.5 to 5 wt % of gelatin, 20 to 50 wt % of disaccharides excluding sucrose, and a balance of 45 to 79.5 wt %.
“PTL4 provides a soft candy which mainly contains sugar, starch syrup and oil, wherein a higher melting point vegetable oil having a melting point of not lower than 38.degree. C. and not higher than 45.degree. C. is blended in a proportion of not less than 6 wt % and not greater than 30 wt %.”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Technical Problem
“Conventionally, it is proposed to blend both the pullulan and the gelatin in the soft candy (e.g., PTL1 to PTL3). If only the pullulan is blended in the soft candy, the soft candy is liable to be sticky to teeth. If only the gelatin is blended in the soft candy, it is difficult to impart the soft candy with a rich eating texture.
“In PTL2, it is disclosed that a pullulan dough and an aerated dough are blended together to reduce the specific gravity of the candy. Thus, the soft candy is provided, which is imparted with a glutinous and resilient eating texture without increasing the chewing hardness and is free from stickiness to teeth (Paragraph in PTL2).
“Where the method described in PTL2 is employed to produce the soft candy by aerating a solution (syrup) containing sugar, starch syrup and gelatin by means of a foaming machine, cooling the resulting aerated dough, and mixing the pullulan dough with the aerated dough, the resulting soft candy has a specific gravity of 0.6 to 1.1, but is unsatisfactory in eating texture and sticky to teeth.
“In view of the foregoing, it is a major object of the present invention to provide a soft candy which is less sticky to teeth, and has a light and rich eating texture and a sufficient chewability, and to provide a production method for the soft candy.
“Solution to Problem
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 1, there is provided a soft candy which comprises a candy dough comprising 0.2 to 5 wt % of pullulan and 0.2 to 2 wt % of gelatin and impregnated with gas bubbles.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 2, the soft candy of claim 1 is a soft candy obtained by imparting the candy dough with a specific gravity controlled to not greater than 1.2 by the impregnation of the candy dough with the gas bubbles, and shaping the candy dough imparted with the specific gravity controlled to not greater than 1.2.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 3, the specific gravity of the soft candy of claim 2 is 0.8 to 1.2.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 4, the soft candy of any one of claims 1 to 3 is a soft candy which is produced by controlling the impregnation of the candy dough with the gas bubbles by means of a pulling machine including at least two rotary arms disposed in spaced relation and a roller disposed between the two rotary arms by stretching the candy dough between one of the two rotary arms and the roller, and holding an intermediate portion of the stretched candy dough by the other rotary arm and stretching the candy dough by a rotary force of the other rotary arm to fold the candy dough at the portion of the candy dough held by the other rotary arm.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 5, there is provided a soft candy production method, which includes the steps of: preparing a candy dough containing 0.2 to 5 wt % of pullulan and 0.2 to 2 wt % of gelatin; and stretching and kneading the candy dough to aerate the candy dough to impregnate the candy dough with gas bubbles.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 6, the step of impregnating the candy dough with the gas bubbles includes the step of imparting the candy dough with a specific gravity controlled to not greater than 1.2 by the impregnation of the candy dough with the gas bubbles, and the soft candy production method of claim 5 further includes the step of shaping the candy dough imparted with the specific gravity controlled to not greater than 1.2.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 7, the step of impregnating the candy dough with the gas bubbles includes a pulling step to be performed by means of a pulling machine including at least two rotary arms disposed in spaced relation and a roller disposed between the two rotary arms, and the pulling step includes the steps of: stretching the candy dough between one of the two rotary arms and the roller; and holding an intermediate portion of the stretched candy dough by the other rotary arm and stretching the candy dough by a rotary force of the other rotary arm to fold the candy dough at the portion of the candy dough held by the other rotary arm in the soft candy production method of claim 5 or 6.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 8, the pulling machine includes a predetermined number of rotary arms disposed in spaced relation to each other, and a predetermined number of rollers disposed between respective adjacent pairs of rotary arms in the soft candy production method of claim 7.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 9, the candy dough stretching step and the candy dough folding step are repeatedly performed in the pulling step in the soft candy production method of claim 7 or 8.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 10, the step of imparting the candy dough with the controlled specific gravity includes the step of controlling the specific gravity of the candy dough to 0.8 to 1.2 in the soft candy production method of any one of claims 6 to 9.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 11, there is provided a soft candy which comprises 0.2 to 5 wt % of pullulan and 0.2 to 2 wt % of gelatin.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 12, the soft candy of claim 11 is impregnated with gas bubbles.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 13, the soft candy of claim 11 or 12 has a specific gravity of 0.8 to 1.2.
“According to an inventive aspect of claim 14, the soft candy of any one of claims 11 to 13 has a specific gravity controlled by using a pulling machine.
“Advantageous Effects of Invention
“According to the present invention, the soft candy contains 0.2 to 5 wt % of pullulan and 0.2 to 2 wt % of gelatin and, therefore, is substantially free from stickiness to teeth, and has a sufficient chewability, a moderate resilience, and a light and rich eating texture.
“Further, the soft candy is impregnated with the gas bubbles and has a specific gravity of not greater than 1.2. Therefore, when the soft candy is put in a mouth of an eater, the eater can enjoy a light and rich eating texture and a sufficient chewability. In order to impregnate the soft candy with the gas bubbles or to impart the soft candy with a specific gravity of not greater than 1.2, the candy dough is stretched and kneaded to be aerated to be impregnated with the gas bubbles. Therefore, the gas bubbles can be generally uniformly and evenly distributed in the candy. As a result, it is possible to alleviate the stickiness to teeth and to ensure a satisfactory and rich eating texture and a sufficient chewability.
“Further, the step of impregnating the candy dough with the gas bubbles is performed by means of the pulling machine. Thus, the candy dough stretching step and the candy dough folding step are repeatedly performed by higher speed rotation of the rotary arm to knead the candy dough and to evenly impregnate the candy dough with the gas bubbles. As a result, it is possible to further alleviate the stickiness to teeth and to ensure the light eating texture.
“The specific gravity may be reduced by using a pressure mixer or by mixing the candy dough with an aerated dough separately prepared. However, these methods do not involve the step of kneading the candy dough by stretching and folding the candy dough and, therefore, cannot take advantage of the characteristic properties of the candy dough. As a result, these methods fail to provide a candy which is less sticky to teeth and has a light and rich eating texture and a sufficient chewability.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
“FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an overall soft candy according to one embodiment of the present invention.
“FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a sequence of process steps for producing the soft candy according to the embodiment of the present invention.
“FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of a pulling machine to be used in a pulling step shown in FIG. 2.
“FIGS. 4(a) to 4(d) are diagrams for explaining the procedure of the pulling step.”
For additional information on this patent application, see: Fujimoto, Ichiro; Higuchi, Yo; Yamamoto, Hiroshi; Ozaki, Fumihiro. Soft Candy and Production Method for Soft Candy. Filed April 26, 2012 and posted July 3, 2014. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=3483&p=70&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20140626.PD.&OS=PD/20140626&RS=PD/20140626
Keywords for this news article include: Gelatin, Lotte Co. Ltd., Scleroproteins.
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