Puffed food starch products and method for making the same

METHOD FOR MAKING AN INFLATED FOOD LAMP MATERIAL PRODUCT FROM A FOOD LAMP MATERIAL

Technical Field

This invention generally relates to methods for making inflated food starch products made from powdered food starches, in various forms. More particularly, the present invention relates to processes for preparing puffed rice snacks with improved crumbly, and visual appeal and physical texture.

Background of the Invention

Snacks have long been family items all over the world and range from treats to dietary supplements. However, not long ago, a nutrition trend found that chocolates, candies, ice cream and other natural and artificially sweetened confections, as well as fries, salted biscuits, cereal chips and the like, are replaced by more products healthy. The low-fat, fat-free and light terms have become the words of health awareness monitoring in the 1990s. The trend has seen that the popularity of inflated snacks, also called crunchy grain snacks, is steadily increasing. especially those made of cereal.

Very successful products have been made in the form of cakes usually made with cereal or puffed rice. While these products had an acceptable magnitude so far of crumbly, they suffered an unpleasant texture, usually as close to the cake core, resulting in the product sticking to the teeth. The products are shaped like a hockey puck (uniform in three dimensions) and lack the attractive visual texture of conventional snack foods. The tavern

PLC: 207,723 hsd of these sandwich cakes is also relatively large (approximately

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a disk-shaped cake of 7.5 to 10.5 cm). This size, as an individual, can lead to a substantial amount of waste for some consumers, especially children. To point to the problem of waste, a mini-cake, or smaller version of the original cake (a cake or cookie in the shape of a disk of about 2.5 to 5 cm) was presented. However, texture and appearance problems remained.

Examples of methods of making conventional grain cake products are disclosed in the methods described in US Patent No. 4,888,180 to Wu. These cake-forming devices are most frequently used with rice such as cereal grain since rice is capable of relatively easy expansion in the form of a self-soporated cake. Statistics show that rice availability and versatility not only made it a favorite industry, but also a consumer favorite. The annual rice harvest in the early 1990s exceeded 510 million metric tons, an increase of about 30 percent above the average during the period from 1979 to 1981. Rice grains are widely used as human food, constituting the main food of almost half of the human race. The main rice producers are, China, with 35 percent of world production in the early 1990s, and India, with 22 percent. In the United States, production averaged about 7 million metric tons; Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Texas were the main rice producing states.

Rice inflation methods and, in general, cereal inflation (or crunching cereal) are well established in the prior art. Generally, the methods known in the prior art are mainly based on a moisture content in the grains to be inflated. The moisture content can be varied by many processes, such as; dried up cooking; boiled and softening. Examples of improvements attempted in the methods of

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Processing are described in US Patent NM.284 / 593 for Gevaert, 4,328,741 for Yoshikazu, and 4,667,588 for Hayashi.

There are two methods generally used to expand or inflate grains: (1) heat the grain nuggets until they become extensible (that is, until the starch becomes amorphous or flowable) at which point the additional heating allows evaporation of moisture ( and degassing of some smaller amounts of other gases from within the grain) which causes the expansion (bubble formation) in the amorphous starch; (2) heating the grain nuggets to a flowable state at atmospheric pressure, then suddenly reducing the pressure (partial vacuum) again allowing improved vaporization and degassing, and again causing expansion (bubble formation) in the amorphous starch; and (3) heating the grain nuggets to a flowable state in a chamber where pressure accumulation is allowed (or caused), then suddenly reducing the pressure to atmospheric pressure allowing improved vaporization and degassing and causing expansion again (bubble formation ) in amorphous starch.

This last method, is the most conventionally used to make rice cakes of both the largest size and mini. This last method is carried out in what is commonly called rice crunch machines. These machines provide a chamber defined by heated chamber walls. Once the pre-inflated grain is placed in the chamber, it is closed to a pressure seal. Food starch is heated by contact with the chamber walls. The amount of food starch, that is, the amount of grain nuggets loaded into the chamber, in relation to the volume of the chamber, and the amount of expansion, make that the product is usually conformed in three dimensions to the shape. of the camera.

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A problem with conventional rice processes is that the filling of the entire volume of the crunch chamber after expansion may limit the size of the bubble formed, or the total expansion of the massive amount of food starch, or both. This can count for a less than fully crumbly product and a texture that sticks to the teeth of the resulting rice cake. He is surely responsible for the form of the hockey rubber disc of the product, which until now was considered desirable.

Another problem that exists in the use of rice crunching equipment is to try to balance providing enough time to present good conditions for complete expansion of food starch, while at the same time trying to minimize the residence time of chamber to achieve high rhythms. of production. So far, this balance has produced the conventional rice cakes discussed above.

It is known that the degree and ease of inflating is affected by many factors such as: the type of grain, the type of processing (for example, ground), the condition of the grain (for example, moisture content), and the type of starch contained in the grain. Another advance in inflating food starch is to inflate food starch that has been pulverized, and extrude it in discrete size and shape. Such extruded pieces are cooled and dried to a desired moisture content and hardness state for acceptable handling and storage. Until now, such inflation has been limited to homo inflation or deep frying. The resulting products, however, are relatively uniform throughout the sandwich piece, and provide a monolithic texture to the mouth when eaten. The same can be said of products made from the more conventional extrusion inflation process.

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The invention does not know that a cake type product has never been attempted using such granulated raw material. Furthermore, it seems that before the present invention, it has never been contemplated to employ such a granulated pre-product in a machine for making rice or related process crunch.

In sum, despite the improvements that are being made in the field of making puffed sandwich cakes from food starches, in particular rice grain, insufficient attention has been given to improving the overall visual appearance and physical texture (for example, crumbly) and the appearance of the product. The present invention points to these issues as well as to solve the problems discussed above and to provide other advantages which will become apparent to those skilled in the art with the reading of the specification and the accompanying claims.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides puffed food starch snacks having an improved crumbly texture and more aesthetic appearance and methods for preparations.

In general terms, the products are snack pieces, cakes, cookies or the like, made from food starch. Preferably, the starch material is provided primarily in the form of individual nuggets or beads of a cereal grain, such as rice, corn, wheat, rye, oats, millet, sorghum, barley or buckwheat, or mixtures thereof. Amounts of other food starches can also be used as a co-mixed constituent, or as the main source of dough starch material, for example, potato starch. A quantity of the food starch is inflated (expanded) in a way that forms a snack product of considerable crumbly, lightness, and unique texture for both the mouth and the eye.

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Inflated comprises an inflated starch body having a generally regular perimeter shape, and opposite upper and lower surfaces. At least one of the upper and lower surfaces has a substantially wavy contour such that it seems as if individual nuggets of grain were joined together. It is preferred that the substantially corrugated surface of the starch body comprises hills and valleys, marked by the rise and fall of the surface along a parallel plane.

In a preferred embodiment, the inflated snack product is composed primarily of rice starch, but may also include inflated corn starch, inflated wheat starch, inflated potato starch, or the like.

In another presently preferred embodiment, the inflated snack product may be composed primarily or predominantly of inflated corn starch, inflated wheat starch, or inflated potato starch, with combinations of other possible grains. Currently, a preferred perimeter shape of the food product is generally circular, hence a rounded cake in two dimensions. Alternatively, other embodiments may include a perimeter shape that is generally triangular, square, rectangular, or any other geometrical or fancy shape that can be thought of at the time of having advantages of consumer attraction or processing, handling or packaging.

According to another aspect of the invention, the dough cake product is composed of an amount of food starch in the form of a plurality of individual whole grain nuggets, inflated together. At least a portion of these whole nuggets can be rice nuggets, wheat nuggets, or both, and can additionally include corn grit.

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In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the body of thora ^ boc ^ Mc ^ is formed of a massive amount of food starch composed of a plurality of individual pearls (formed of starch flour) inflated together.

Such pearls are preferably made of rice flour, wheat flour, cornmeal, potato flour or the like, and may additionally include corn grit. A sufficient quantity of pearls (and corn grits, if desired) capable of becoming amorphous in the inflation chamber should be provided, so that all pearls, and grit, touch at least one other bead, or grit, then Of becoming amorphous.

According to another aspect of the invention, an inflation chamber is provided having interior surfaces and a chamber volume. An amount of dough from the food starch is placed inside the inflation chamber. The amount of dough in the food starch material is expanded in volume. The expanding food starch is restricted in its expansion by at least one dimension, while expanding the amount of dough in at least a second dimension.

The step of restricting the expansion may further include restricting the expansion of the amount of mass in a third dimension as well.

The restriction can achieve a definition of the general form of the final product in the first dimension, or in both the first and third dimensions. The defined form can be provided, in a particular embodiment, by restricting the expansion with certain of the inner surfaces of the inflation chamber. Preferably, for the snack cake disclosed in the example below, the second unrestricted dimension is height.

Another method of the present invention includes predetermining the amount of dough of the food starch material to be placed inside the chamber. The predetermination must provide sufficient quantity of whole nuggets (or with

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sand if desired) capable of becoming amorphous, so that all nuggets, and sand, touch at least one nugget, or sand, after making amorphous.

Where pearls are used, the method may also include forming the pearls generally at the size of a whole nugget of grain selected from the grain group inducing rice, wheat, barley, oats, rye and corn.

Another aspect of the invention is responsible for inflating a food starch capable of becoming amorphous by forming a food starch product, wherein the food starch is first pulverized, then pre-gelatinized in an extruder under a pressure and temperature. The food starch is then extruded and cut into pearls. The granulated food starch is placed inside an inflation chamber where the increasing pressure and temperature of the chamber causes the granulated food starch to become amorphous. By quickly reducing the pressure in the chamber, amorphous starch pearls expand.

It was believed that the pearls provide higher inflation (at least in relation to a cycle of time, temperature given in mass production) to whole nuggets. While not yet proven, it was believed that the advantages are that: (1) the pearls are pre-gelatinized and may allow more of the heat energy (in the given cycle time or amount of thermal energy) to contribute to vaporization of water and bubble formation (as opposed to providing energy to carry out a greater change of crystalline phase) than in a grain nugget); (2) the granulated rice has been pre-pulverized, hence the mechanical and physical limits of the cellular structure have already been broken leading to a more uniform expansion with less energy (heat) required to break the cellular structure; and, (3) the uniform pearl structure has a more uniform distribution of both moisture starch for crumbly, inflated, improved.

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Extruded foodstuffs can be cooled under sufficiently controlled parameters (slowly) to reduce stress on the beads (i.e. annealing of the beads). This should reduce the energy required for possible annealing in the crunch chamber. Also, slow drying should improve the duration of further manipulation without fracturing. Extruded pearls must be provided with sufficient drying to improve shelf life and to prevent pearls from sticking together during storage.

It is also possible that, once gelatinized, the beads are cooled in such a way as to reduce the re-crystallization of the starch. This can also help to inflate that for a fixed amount of energy income, energy is not unduly wasted in annealing in the inflation chamber. However, such cooling may be against slow cooling for tension reduction. While one type of cooling can be used as compensation for the other, stress reduction seems to be currently the preferred target.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a cutaway side view depicting an inflation machine used in the present invention in a fully open position;

Figure 2 is a similar view of the inflation machine of Figure 1 showing the placement of food starch inside a pair of chambers;

Figure 3 is a similar view of the inflation machine of Figure 1, showing the sealed chambers;

Figure 4 is a similar view of the inflation machine of Figure 1, showing just subsequent to breaking the seal on the chambers;

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Figure 5 is a similar view of the Fjguraÿr infladœdèla machine, showing the upper mold fully retracted;

Figure 6 is a similar view of the inflation machine of Figure 1, showing the final product being ejected from the mold;

Figure 7 is a top view of a plate its supply for the present invention;

Figure 8 is a perspective view of an inflated starch product made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 9 is a top view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 10 is a bottom view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 11 is a first side view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 12 is a second side view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 13 is a third side view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 14 is a fourth side view of an inflated starch product as shown in Figure 8;

Figure 15 is a perspective view of another inflated starch product made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 16 is a perspective view of another inflated starch product made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 17 is a perspective view of another inflated starch product made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

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Figure 18 is a flow chart illustrating a reahzqdóh d present method for producing an inflated food starch product; Figure 19 is a flow chart illustrating another embodiment of the present method for producing an inflated food starch product using granulated food starch;

Figure 20 is a flow chart generally illustrating the operation of the inflation machine.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

While the invention is capable of being carried out in many different ways, this disclosure will describe in detail preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to the illustrated embodiments.

Product

The inflated or crunchy food starch food products of the present invention provide a number of advantages over previous inflated food starch cake or cookie products. It is believed that the products are lighter, more crumbly and have a more attractive visual texture as well as texture to the mouth when consumed. In some cases it is believed that products made in accordance with the invention have a more unprocessed appearance more natural, as illustrated in Figures 8-17.

However, the natural, wavy appearance provides functional advantages over the prior art as well. The undulating surface allows sandwich dips to be more easily scooped out, much like potato chips or corn chips than cakes in the shape of a rubber disc for hockey. Additionally, the present product can be sprayed with flavoring during manufacturing, including appetizing flavors like barbecue, cream

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popular. The highly textured surface provides longer retention of crystalline or granulated flavor coatings. Additionally, as the upper and lower surface areas of each piece are larger than a standard flat surface of the cakes of the prior art, a greater amount of flavoring can be applied. More flavoring can improve the overall flavor of a product that has enjoyed previous commercial success.

The products according to the invention can be in the form of a piece of sandwich, cake, or cookie. They can be made from individual nuggets according to certain aspects of the invention and from individual beads of extruded food starch material according to other aspects of the invention. Cakes made from a grain of cereal, such as rice, corn, wheat, oats, millet, sorghum, barley, or mixtures thereof, are revealed here. An amount of grain is inflated (expanded) in a manner that forms a snack product of lightness and crumbly considered on prior inflated grain snacks.

The inflation phenomenon results from the sudden expansion of water vapor (steam) of the moisture contained within the starch material of the granule (and a little degassing). The particle is fixed in its expanded state by dehydration resulting from the rapid diffusion of water vapor outside it. The humidity level is considered an important factor to inflate grain. Before inflating, the grain or pearl should preferably be maintained at no less than 3% humidity to achieve the desired amount of inflation and crumbly of the final product. The preferred embodiment has a moisture content that falls within the range of from about 8% to about 18% (by weight) of moisture, with about 8% to about 13% (by weight) being more preferred, and around 10% to around 12% being the most preferred moisture content. Moisture contents outside the

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Rice grain is preferred for many reasons, including its ability to expand relatively easily by forming a self-supported cake product. Figures 8-14 show various views of an embodiment of a sandwich cake according to the present invention. The inflated snack product of the present invention comprises an inflated starch body 10 having a generally regular perimeter shape, and opposite upper and lower surfaces 12, 14. The perimeter shape of the body 10 is circular. Other shapes are contemplated, for example, other geometric shapes: triangulär, square, rectangular, etc; and fantasy forms can provide particular advantages in some cases. Figures 15-17 show food starch products with surface variations.

With reference to Figures 8-14, the upper surface 12 and the lower surface 14 have a substantially wavy contour, and each surface 12, 14 has a general appearance that allows visual discrimination between individual nuggets of grain 16 as they are joined together. It is preferred that the substantially undulating surface of the starch body 10 contain hills 17 and valleys 18, noted by the elevation and broth not reporting surfaces 12, 14.

While the preferred starch body 10 is primarily composed of rice, it can also include corn, wheat, potatoes, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes or any combination of these or other suitable sources of inflatable food starch. Hereinafter, the terms good or goods are intended to describe starchy materials, including cereal grains, seeds, and the like, which are used in the present process to compose the food starch of the starch bodies such as body 10

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or to compose the amount of starch mass alimentanticiÔAÇoIocadâ ec ... inflation chamber. Where applicable, these goods can be supplied in the form of base flour, whole nuggets, or in a granulated form. It is also possible to use mixtures of the goods in the form of flour, or mixed whole nuggets or mixed granules, in accordance with the present invention, with various results.

With respect to flour and whole nuggets, single goods or mixtures of goods can be used to create a suitable inflatable food starch composition. As rice is the preferred food starch in the disclosed embodiment of body 10, it should be understood that it will be the preferred predominant good used in mixtures for many of the disclosed methods. A predominantly rice mixture may contain rice flour in the range of about 51% to 100% by weight. Similarly, a predominantly cornmeal mixture would be predominantly cornmeal (that is, at least 51% by weight). The remaining percentage, up to 49% by weight, may be composed of any or more other goods in the form of flour. This is equally true for a predominantly mixture of rice grain, or predominantly corn grit (i.e. ground corn). It should be noted that the moisture content of the respective starch constituents is counted in their weight percentage.

Pearls are more variable than any whole flour or nuggets. The pearls themselves can be made of a mixture of goods of a form of flour, and the total composition can be composed of several different types of pearls. For example, pearls A can be formed from a mixture of 75% by weight of rice flour and 25% by weight of cornmeal, while pearls B can be formed from 60% by weight of rice flour and 40% by weight of potato flour. A first recipe can talk about 50% in

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Of the three forms of goods disclosed, pearls are a preferred form, according to a separate aspect of the invention. The pearls provide excellent texture features (for example, crumbly, contour, etc.), produce a high quality inflated product, and allow more precise control of moisture content. While rice is the preferred good for the granulated form in the present invention, other embodiments of the puffed sandwich product may also be composed primarily of corn, wheat, or an inflated potato starch, with combinations and other grains as well ( or starches from sources other than grains).

Part of what gives the present invention its unique surface contour is the composition of the food starch dough. The various goods will have different expandability, partially dependent on the moisture content and partially due to the different characteristics of starch, compositions, or pre-processing (such as pre-gelatinization). By assembling a food starch predominantly of rice dough, (whether flour, whole nuggets or pearls) inter-dispersed with, for example, the preferred corn grits, the inflated product will have natural surface and texture variations due to varied expansion. Therefore, to facilitate this effect in the present invention, at least a portion of the food starch dough in certain embodiments will be improved by including corn grits which do not expand as much as the pearls or rice nuggets.

With reference again to Figures 8-14, without considering the good (s) used, according to an aspect of the invention, the product has a generally predefined perimeter shape. Preferably, the perimeter form

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The food product is one that is attractive to consumers and is suitable for use in a camera-type crunch machine. The applicant has found that there may be texture advantages of the circular shape.

To form the preferred product, it is more easily understood with reference to the methods described, a sufficient amount of whole nuggets or pearls (and corn grits) capable of becoming amorphous should be provided, so that all nuggets or pearls ( and sandstones) touch or make contact with at least another whole nugget or pearl (or grit) after becoming amorphous. In other words, food starch dough is able to melt into a single flowable dough. This means that the amount of food starch dough used to make the product of the present invention is an important feature, as discussed below.

The contact area between two or more pips or pearls forms a connective limit after they became fluid. This limit defines the area of ​​connection between nuggets or pearls. The preferred inflated product is more easily broken at this limit, in contrast to breaking inside the body of the nugget or the inflated pearl. This adds to the aesthetic appearance of the product according to the present invention. Grain cakes of the prior art are typically composed of indistinct or less distinguishable boundaries between inflated nuggets, breaking along less visually determinable lines.

Another distinctive texture aspect of the present invention on the prior art relates to product thickness. The preferred product is typically a single layer, approximately one grain thick. This helps to ensure that contact occurs between nuggets, pearls or individual sandstones in no more than two dimensions (that is, mainly side-by-side connection). This, in turn, ensures the attractiveness of texture to the added corner of individual nuggets or beads in each inflated product. On the contrary, the cakes of the prior art are several

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NATIONAL FACILITY | DÊ INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY coarse grains, causing three-dimensional contact (ie, connections on the side, and top-bottom). Such three-dimensional contact removes the added aesthetics and crumbly texture and attractiveness of the individual nuggets or beads inside the cake. Again, this refers to the amount of food starch dough in relation to the volume of inflation chamber and the remaining area.

Processes

In many prior art processes, an amount of food starch (only in the form of a whole nugget) is added to the inflation chamber so that after expansion the food starch fills the entire chamber. The result is an inflated product conformed exactly to the size and shape of the chamber, substantially in the form of a disk. This is very different than the present invention.

A preferred method of making the inflated food starch product of the present invention, illustrated in Figure 18, utilizes a mass amount of a food starch previously described. The method revealed begins by providing an inflation chamber having interior surfaces and a chamber volume, and then placing a mass amount of the food starch material into the inflation chamber. Generally speaking, the amount of food starch dough is expanded in volume. In other words, food starch dough is inflated to several times its original size.

Inflation machines (usually having a plurality of cameras each) are widely known and understood by those skilled in the art. A suitable inflation machine is manufactured by REAL FOODS PTY, LTD. from St, Peters, NSW, Australia. With reference to Figures 1-6, the inflation chamber 20 is shown, generally having an opening 21 on the ring mold 22, the upper mold insert 24 (attached to

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an upper base 25), and a lower mold insert 26 (attached to unâ'bas.e.jbfêrior 27). Each of these components can be slidably movable on guide pins 28; although the ring mold 22 is typically fixed. The mold inserts 24, 26 (via bases 25, 27) can be hydraulically, pneumatically, or in any other suitable way. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the mold insert 24, 26 enters the opening 21 to form the inner surfaces of the inflation chamber.

The present preferred method requires restricting the expansion of the amount of food starch dough in at least a first dimension, while allowing expansion of the amount of dough in at least a second dimension. In other words, the food starch is capable of expanding to its potential total volume (taking into account the moisture content of the food starch, the temperature of the chamber, and the forces of gravity), while preventing it from expanding into one of the dimensions, height, width or depth. For example, if the height of the inflated product is restricted, then the width and depth of the inflated product increases proportionally. Where two dimensions are restricted, the third will compensate to reach the total volume expansion. At no time is the total volumetric expansion of the product inflated by the inner surfaces of the inflation chamber restricted, while dimensional expansion is restricted. Preferably, this can be achieved by predetermining the correct amount of amount of food starch dough placed inside the inflation chamber in relation to the total chamber volume in an unsealed (inflated) condition. The processes of prior art attempt to completely fill the chamber (at least after inflation).

The use of the inflation chamber for dimensioning restriction can be achieved by defining a general form of the product (as previously discussed) in the first dimension, or both in the first horn in the third dimension. The

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Restricted form can be provided, in a panicuiar embodiment, resmngienao the expansion with the inner surface of the inflation chamber.

Aspects of the present invention of unrestricted volumetric expansion (ie, correct sizing of the amount of food starch mass placed inside the inflation chamber) are balanced with the need to produce a single, single product of the inflation chamber. . With these competitive interests in mete, this method may also include predetermining the amount of food starch dough to be placed inside the chamber, so that there is sufficient quantity of whole nuggets or pearls (or corn grits) that all nuggets or pearls (and sandstones) touch at least one other nugget or pearl (or grit) after becoming amorphous.

While the exact mechanism of córrno food starch comes together in the inflation chamber is not fully understood, with reference to Figure 20, it is believed that a fusion occurs, or at least an amelioration or gelatinization of the food starch. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the inflation chamber 20 is heated to a temperature of about 246 ° C (about 475 ° F). However, inflation machines, as well as individual inflation chambers, can vary greatly from one to another. Due to such differences, and any other predominant condition that may exist (for example, the amount and type of food starch and its processing history), the chamber temperature may be in the range from about 177 ° C (350 ° F) up to about 288 ° C (550 ° F), including any combination or sub-combination of ranges within this range. As the chamber is sealed and the food starch is heated, the internal pressure of the chamber increases, although a final pressure has not been measured. No additional pressure is added to the chamber in the preferred embodiment, but it can be implemented for alternative embodiments.

With reference to Figure 7, an abas plate is shown

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30 Supply plate 30 is shown to have seven (7) openings 32, but may contain more or less to suit particular manufacturing needs. The openings are preferably about 1.43 cm (0.563 inches) in diameter by about 1.5 cm (0.591 inches) deep (about 0.37 cm)³ (0.147 cubic inches) to allow sufficient amount of food starch dough to pass through to inflate a product of approximately 5.08 cm (2 inches), but these dimensions may vary for larger or smaller products. The volume of the opening 32 determines the amount of food starch to be added to each chamber. Each opening 32 corresponds to a chamber 20 of the inflation machine. As the supply plate 30 moves through the open ring mold 22, it deposits the predetermined amount of dough material by filling each opening volume inside the chamber 20, to rest on the lower mold insert 26. The plate Supply 30 then retracts.

The chamber is closed as shown in the sequence of Figures 2-5, and the food starch dough is heated to an amorphous or extensible state. After a heating cycle time of approximately 5.25 to 6.75 seconds, the upper mold insert 24 rises to release pressure from chamber 20, as shown in Figure 4. The upper mold insert 24 rises completely and the lower mold insert 26 rises to level with the upper surface of the ring mold 22, as shown in Figure 6. Finally, the supply plate 30 returns to make a deposit Subsequently, pushing the inflated food starch products into a discharge duct (not shown) in the process.

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The amount of food starch used in the present invention is less than that used in prior art processes. There is a relationship between the mass of food starch used and the expansion of the final product, also considering the chamber volume (about 2.0 cm³ (0.79 cubic inches) in the present invention), cycle time, and chamber temperature. Basically, expanded food starch should not be restricted by the volume of the chamber, as discussed above. Another consideration, however, is the placement of food starch inside the chamber. If the food starch is fat or mounted on top of itself, then the expansion of the food starch will be diminished. Finely dispersed food starch will tend to swell more completely.

Where pearls are used in the present invention, it is considered to be within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to prepare suitable pearls. The JR SHORT COMPANY, Chicago, Illinois, manufactures such a pearl of rice. Basically, with reference to Figure 19, starting with a powdered food starch, the starch is gelatinized in an extruder under a pressure and a temperature. The food starch is then extruded and cut, forming individual beads. The beads, in the preferred embodiment, are generally formed to the size of a whole grain nugget. The grain size can be selected from the group of grains including rice, wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, etc. Extruded food starch pearls can be cooled sufficiently (i.e. slowly) to substantially reduce any stress on the pearl, and to provide sufficient drying to provide good shelf life and prevent extruded food starch pearls from sticking together. storage.

In a preferred embodiment of the present method, the Applicant found advantages in granulating the food starch material, and then placing a

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Amount can be as small as a pearl soybean, or as large as suitable for the size of the chamber. The pearls inside the chamber are then made to expand volumetrically and form a suitable cake or slice.

Another great advantage of using pearls over whole nuggets is that pearls do not need to be softened before inflating. That is, softening is a process by which whole nuggets are spun in a high humidity atmosphere (steam is often used). This is not necessary for pearls. The moisture content of the beads is controlled in manufacturing, more preferably within the range of about 10% to about 12% (by weight). ^ Additionally, the softening process is used to increase the inflability of the nuggets, as described above. Granulation seems to provide sufficient improvements to the inflability to deny the need for softening.

While a method for making an inflated food starch product from a granular mass amount of food starch material has also been described in the present application, as well as an inflated sandwich product made by different methods, and an apparatus for manufacturing such snack products, they are not part of the present invention, but are claimed in the patent application Minutes No. P 00 01 01416, of which the present application is a division, and in a co-pending patent application, respectively, which is also a division of the patent application Act No. P00 01 01416.