CA1099575A - Fast conched candy coating and method - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A fast conched candy coating is provided herein. The coating is prepared by providing a mixture of fat and sugar, optionally with milk solids, emulsifiers, flavoring, cocoa or cocoa butter, heating the mixture to a temperature above the melting point of the fat but below 150°F, and conching the mixture in a high speed shearing and mixing de-vice. The mechanical energy imparted during the shearing and mixing raise the conching temperature to between 150°F and 250°F in less than 30 seconds. The coating can thus be produced in a fraction of the time necessary for producing a conventionally conched compound coating for candies.

Description

~99575 ~he present invention relates to a process of fast conching a candy coating and to the coating ~ich resuLts therefrom. ~ore par- L
ticuLarly, the prese~t invention relates to a process and coating which can be produced in a fraction of the time necessary for producing a con-ventionally conched comp~und coating for candies and the like.
~any confectionaries are coated with a flavored candy coating.
The coating helps to preserve the confectionary, imparts a desired eye- L
appeal and adds flavor. Bakery produced cakes, ice cream bars and Popsicles, (registered Trade Mark~ candy pieces and candy bars are con-ventionally coated with such flavored coa-tings. ~hile these coatings can be flavored with any desired natural or artificial flavor, ~hey are m~st often flavored with cocoa or chocolate liquor to form a chocolate fla-vored coating.
Chocolate coatings can be produced in the traditional way of making milk chocolate. m is process, however, requires a rather expen- ~-sive ingredient, i.e. cocoa butter. For this reason and for other rea~ ~- r sons, milk chocolate candy coatings are relatively expensive and are not used on popularly priced confectionaries and in lieu thereof a com~ound coating is used. Compound coatings do not require a ccoking step and are, generally speaking, simply a mechanical n~xture oE, principally cocoa, sugar and fat.
As can be appreciated, the solid ingredient and the fat of a co~ound coating must be so intimately mixed that the texture, ~outh feel and taste o tha compound coa-ting will approxImate that of milk chocolate. ~he process wherein these ingredients are mixed to that re~
q~ired extent is referred to in the art as the conching step. As is well-known in the art, conching must pulvarize the sugar, cocoa and other in-gredients to the point that the compound coating has no ''gritty" texture or mouth feel and to the extent that the oocoa is mechanically w~rked into the fat.
Traditionally, the o~nching step takes place on a "concher"
which operates with rolling pressure to slowly grind and pulvarize the _ ~ _ ~ !
~9~75 sugar, cocoa and other ingredients into the fat.
Also during the conching step, the mois-ture content o~ the ingredients is reduced to-very low levels, i.e., to three percent or less and m~ore often to 0.5 percent or less. Water sensitive emulsifiers, e.g., lecithin, are added near the end of tl~e conching step when the mois-ture content has been reduced to the ranye of these low~r levels.
me time required to complete a conching step of the foregoing nature ~Yill depend upon the quality of the co~pound coating desired. For better compound coatings up to 80 to 85 hours on the concher are required and even for the very poor and generally unacceptable grades of compound coatings, at least 8 hours will be required. While t~ s operation re-quires a minimum of supervision, it does require extended amounts of -po~Yer and the long use of relatively expensive capital equlpment. Ac-cordingly, it would be ~ost desired in the art to provide a method of conching which will considerably shorten the conching time, but which will provide the superior quality of long conching time compound coat-ings.
It is therefore an object of one broad aspect of this invention '-to provide a process and compound coating wherein the conching step ~ay be completed in a fraction of the time requir~d for co~ventional conching and which conched compound coating will have properties at least equal to the long time conched compound coatings conventionally produced in the art.
The present invention is based on ~hree principal discoveries.
Firstly, it has been discovered that by careful selection of the ingred-ients for compound coatings, it is possible to conch those ingredients at a fraction of the time required by conventional conching processes.
Secondly, it has been discovered that those selected ingredients can be extr~mely quickly conched when the prImary forces are shear forces, as opposed to compressive forces normally exerted ~y the rolling pressure f,~ Vof conventional cQnch mg ~achines. Thirdly, it was discovered that when using the careful selection of ingredients with the shear forces, rela-~.'1 --_ tively critical temperatures and tImes must be observed, or othe~wise a ~ satisfactory conching will not take place.
Thus, broadly stated, the present invention Lncludes a process for producing a candy coating which ccmprises providing a mIxture in paste form having from 30 to 65 parts of fat and 40 to 70 parts of su-gar, optionally with 0 to 8 parts milk solids or demineralized whey so-lids, 0 to 2 parts er~llsifiers, 0 to 12 parts cocoa and 0 to 2 parts ~lavors and then conching the paste ~ixture b~ high speed shearing and nuxing, wherein the mixture is Isubjected to shear m g forces h~ving an average shear component of 75 or greater to produce an essentially mechdnically generated conching tenpYrature in said ~ixture of 150F to 250F in a conching time of less then 30 seconds and to r~duce the mDis-ture content of the conched mixture to 5~ or less. The mixing during the shearing operation ~ st supply sufficient n~chanical energy into the mixture so as to raise the conching temperature of the heated mixture to at least 150F, but no greater ~an 250F. The time for raising the n~xture to this conching ten~rature must be no greater than 30 seconds and during this shearing/nuxing time, the ~Disture content of the conched m~xt.ure-must be reduced to 5~ or even 3% or even 2 or 1~ or less.
~hereafter, the conched mixture is quickly cooled to less than 180F, if the conching te~perature is greater.
By a variant of the invention, the ingredients are 30 bo 35 parts fat ,45 to 55 parts sugar, 4 to 12 parts cocoa, and 3 to 8 parts miIk and/or whey solids; or the ingredients are 30 to 35 parts hard butter ,45 to 55 parts sugar9 and 1 to 4 parts cocoa butter; especially where ~he ingredients also include 0.1 to 0.8 parts enulsifier and 0.1 to 2 parts flavor.
By another ~ariant, the ingredi~nts are 30 to 65 parts fat, 40 to 60 parts sugar, and 0.1 to 2 parts flavor; especially where the in~
gredients also include 0.1 to 0.8 parts em~lsifier and 3 -to 8 parts nilk and/or whey solias.
By another variant, the conching te~erature is below 175F, .~
~".

-especially 150F to 175F and ~lore par-ticularly between 15~~ and 17~F.
By another broad variant, the average shear co~ponent is at 85 or greater~ particularly at 87 or greater.
By still another variant, the conching time is less than 15 seoonds, preferably less than lO seconds.
The ingredients may be chosen so as to provide the essential taste of a conventional cocoa compound coating, iOe., fat, sugar, cocoa, ~ilk or demineralized whey solids, em~lsifiers, and fla~ors. A coating similar to a chocolate coating may he produced with Hard butter an~/or cocoa butter in lieu of part of the Hard butter,or the coating may be si~ilar to a conventionally artificially flavored compound coating, e.g.
banana, cherry, etc., wherein larger amounts of fat and sugar are used, f`
- but additionally an artificial flavor is used in lieu of the cocoa.
- A process has bePn disclos~d heretofore by applicant wherein a fast conched coating is prepared with the present coating composition `` by high speed shearing and mlxing so that the fast conched nuxture which results has sheared particles having at least one dimension of 40 ~-crons or less in a cQnch~ng time of less than 30 seconds and a conching temperature of 190F to 220F. A feature of that process is the very rapid but also simultaneously reducing of the particle size of solids in the muxture and mlxing, at the elevated tempera-tures accomplished by the mechanical energy input, until conching is accomplished and the flavor is developed.
That process provides that the conching temperature must be extremely rapidly by mechanical energy sufficient to reach conching temFeratures of 190F to 250F in less than 30 seconds, since longer periods at these elevated temperatures increase the possibilities of over-heating. For similar reasons, the conched ~ixture must be rapidly cooled to below 185F after the conching operation.
It has now been further found that not only are the lower tem~ _ peratures possible hut arer indeed, preferable, when microsugar is used.
Indeed, in the process of aspec-ts of the present invention little or no particle size reduction need be carried out a-t all during the conching step, so long as the various solid ingredients of the oc~Eosition fed to the conching step, e.g. sugar, o~coa, milk solids, etc., have parti-cle sizes below 60 to 65 microns but preferably below 40 microns. This allows lower conching te~peratures with the same through-put times, ~
thus, even further reducing -the risk of overheating. ~i Further, if the conching temperature is k~pt below 185F, e.g.
180F or 175F, the cooling step can be eliminated altogether.
It should be understood, however, that the process of aspects of the present invention may be carried out at higher conching temperatures (with a cooling step if 185F or greater conching temperature is used) and the process of aspects of the present invention still has the added advantage that little or no parti-cle size reduction of solids in ~he mLcture to be conched is r~quired.
The prepulvarization sugar may be added to the co~position to ke conched, or it may be pulvarized while in that mixture, prior to conching, or it may be contained in co~mercially available compound coatin~s or the like.

In the first case, -the sugar may be pulvarized by a convention-al pulvarizing hammer mill, ball m;ll or the like or it may be purchased c~mmercially as pulvarized sugar.
In the second case, simple granulated sugar or partially pul-varized sugar may be added to the composition and the total comFosition, or a portion thereof, containing the sugar, may be passed through a mill, ~
e.g. a ball mill or ha~mer mill, to cause an in situ pulvarization of i_ the sugar (as well as the other solid ingredients in that portion).
In the third case, compound coating and the like with pulvarized sugar therein ~ay be ccmmercially purchased and that compound coating can then be conched in the present mhnner to further develop the flavor ''~ 30 by further conching.
In any event, the ~uxture heing fed to the conching step should have ~article sizes of the solid ingredients of 60 to 65 microns, pre-~Qt~9S75 \
-~ ferably 40 n~crons, or less. ~dd;.tionally the ~ux-ture being fed to the conching step should ~e a uniform m~xture. Tb achieve this result, the fat must be heated to above its melting pOint so as to produce a liquid for uniformly mixing wit_h the solid ingredients.
Procedures for obtainin~ particle sizes of the above ranges are well known in the art and will not be described herein in any detail. t.-However, it is noted that some of the starking particles, e.g. cocoa, t milk solids, may have particle sizes in the required range but s-~c~
; particles may be agglomerated to larger lumps. The muxing taught by aspects of the present invention will properly deagglomerate t_he lumps.
The ~lxing may take place in any desired type of mixing device, ,;but a scraped wall heated mixing device is a preferred form in which the process of an aspect of this invention should be carried out. Since this continually removes the ingredients from the walls where heat trans-fer takes place and prevents local over heating of the ingredients dur-ing this inltial mlxing process. Many apparatus suitable for such opera-tion are known in the art and include heated ribbon blenders, swept wall heat exchangers, sigma b1ade mixers and the like. A particularly con-venient apparatus for this purpose is manufactured b~v the LITTLEFORD !~
Ccmpany and model FKM and ~del KM are particularly suitable in this regard.
Irrespective of the kind of mixer used to mix the melted fat and dry ingredients, mlxing must be continued untiL a flowable slurry, referred to hereafter as a "paste" is formed. In a high speed conching operation of the nature of the process of an aspect of the present in-vention, the incoming feed must be homogenous in nature, i.e. a portion of the initial feed must have essentially the same distribution of in~
gredients as a later portion of the feed. Oth~rwise, the conching will not be uniform in such a short period of time. The paste need not be a permanent slurry or suspension, and it is only required that the paste uniformly distribute the dry ingredients for time sufficient to feed that paste to the conching l~chanism. Gcnerally speaking the paste ... .

-^ should be stable for at least three to our minutes, but more usually, the paste will be s~able for several hours or more (i.e., no substan-tial settling of the solids will take place within the foregoiny time periods~
The heated paste ~ixture should be mainta m ed at a temperature above the melting point of the fat. Otherwise, the paste will conyeal or solidi~y. In the process of an aspect of the present t invention the feed must be in fluid form, as opposed -to the convention-al concher where part of the feed could be in solid form. Under the circumstances, if the paste is allowed to solidify and then reheated, the chances of nonuniformity of solids distribution greatly increases.
On the other hand, if the -temFerature of this mixture exceeds 150F, the chances of undesired deterioration of the fat or cocoa or other flavors substantially increases. Additionally, the sugar may slowly change in undesired character. For improved safety in this re-yard, it is preferred that the tempera~ure be maintained at less than 140F, and m~re preferably less than 120F.
The heated mixture is then passed to the conching operation.
As noted above, the conching skep r~st be carried out with prep~var-ized sugar, i.e. having a particle size of 65, preferably 40 microns or less. If it further preferred, however, that the particle sizes be 35 microns or less and more preferably less than 30 microns.
A satisfactory range is an average particle size of between 15 and 25 microns, e.g. 20 microns. If solid ingredients, okher than sugar, are ad~ed to the mixture, they must also be in these micron ~
ranges, prior to feeding to the conching step. m is size range may be ~~~
provided in the same n~nners as discussed akove in connection with the sugar.
~he sheariny and n~ixing during the conching skep mus-t rapidly heat the h~ated paste mixture to a temperature of 150CF ko 250F. This temperature must be reached within 30 seconds, since a slow increase in temperakure will require too long especiall~ at the elevatcd tempera~

~95~

tures, i.e. , as the temperatures approach 190F. Such extended dwell at temperatures approaching 190F will cause undesired and unacceptable properties in the o~nched ~ixture. Therefore, the lower tempera-tures above 150F are preferred.
In this latter regard, heat mg the ~ixture during the conching operation by heat transfer is too slow to accomplish the rapid tempera-ture rise which is necessary. As ~he mi~ture conches, heat-transfer is severely reduced between the heat transfer surface and the mixture, due to the pasting out and coating of heat transfer surfaces. Tb accomplish `10 the rapid te~perature increase it is necessary that the temperature rise be mechanically accomplished. In this regard, the term "mechanically" ~
m~ans that mechanical energy is converted to heat in the mixing by vir- ~c tue of friction, shear and the like generated during the conching opera-tion. mis does not mean, however, that no heat ~ay be added by heat transfer. It does mean, however, that the major amount of heat is gen-erated by t~e mechanical energy input.
In order to accomplish a conching in SUCh a short time, it is necessary that the conching forces be essentially shear forces, as opposed to campressive forces which are the majority forces in th~ stan-dard concher of the prior art conching operation. These shear forces can be best generated by mills which use an anvil rotating in a slotted head where the anvil forces the material to be milled through the slotted head. This apparatus, however, is well known to the art and is comN~rcially available. Accordingly, the details of the apparatus will not be presented in order to retain conciseness in this specification. ~;
Indeed, reference to this particular apparatus is by way of illustration primarily, to explain th~ principle involved, rather than a cri-ticality in the apparatus p~r se.
Basically, h~ever, a series of blades are held in position in the slotted head by appropriate holding rings an~ the blades form an annular arrangement thereabout. The blades are spaced apart a s~all dist~nce, i.e. bet~een 0.005 and 0.3 inch, depending upon the particle _ 9 _ sizes of the solids in the paste to be conched, the feed rates, the temperature of the paste, and the rate of ~eed. Generally, however, the blades are spaced apart 0.15 inch. The blades are set near the radii generating from the axis. The blades are actually offset from the radius by an angle ~t (the angle bek~7een the blades and the radii of the blade. ~lis angle will induce at leas-t s~me shear co~onent which is less than 90, for the reasons explained more fully hereinafter.
An impeller is carried within the circular space defined by the blades. The outermost ends of the in~ler surface have a square sihear surface. The impeller rotates on a shaft which is in ~echanical co~muni-cation with a power source.
The impeller fits within the array of blades such that the dis-tance between the shear surface and the blades is very small ~i.a., be-tween 0.1 and 0.01 inch). As the impeller shaft rotates, the i~peller, which is mechanically fixed thereto, also rotates. The heated paste is fed into the rotating impeller and is impelled outwardly toward the blades. As the paste contacts the blades, a shear force, in the direc tion of rotation, is created between the blades and the shear surface.
Solid particles are therefore sheared between the blades and the impel-ler in such a manner that the particles are cut or sliced rather than gr~und or crushed as was the prior art technique with conventional conchers.
It has been found, however, that if the average shear component is 90 (~ equa~ 0) then undesired heating may take place between the shear surface and the blades and in extreme cases can cause caramelizing ~`
of the sugar. Therefore, the average shear componen-t is preferably less than 90, although that shear co~ponent can very closely approach 90 with impunity. It appears that the undesired heating takes place only when the 90 shear ccmponent is very closely approached. ~hus, the ,~^
~, 30 average shear co~ponent should be ak least 7S ~l order ko insure khat proper shearing takes place, but preferably the average shear co~onent will be bet~7een 85 and 89.9 and more preferably, bet~7een 87 and 89.5.

r .
preferred avera~e shear component is 8g (~ = 1).
since the temperature must be raised extremely rapidly, the feed input to the conching device must be adjusted so that with moxing, ~earing and extrusion of the conched mixture between the blades, suf-ficient mechanical energy is generated to raise the conching tempera-ture to 150 to 250F in less than 30 seconds. It is preferred, ho~ever, that these temperatures be hetween 150 and 220F and optimum -temperatures are between 150 and 175F. Additionally, since the longer periods of dwell at high temperatures give rise -to greater possibilities of un-desired overheating, it is preferred that the conching temperature be maintained for less than 15 seconds, and more preferably less than 10 seconds. Accordingly~ hy adjusting the feed to have this short dwe~l _ time in the conching device and by allowing the conched m~xture to con-tact a~bient temperatures after exit from the conching device, the short dwell time will not require a positive cooling step. In any event, the S
conched mixture should not remain above 150 in order to prevent unde-sired affects and m~re preferably below less than 120F. 'Ib avoid any ~-overheating, this cooling should take place in less than 60 minutes and more preferably less than 30 minutes and ~ost preferably in less than ~i 5 minutS~s.
During the conching operation, the moisture content, by virtue of the high temperatures, will ke reduced to 5 percent or less. ~qore preferably, however, the moisture content wlll be 2.0 percent or less and moisture contents as low as 1.0 to 2.0 percent are preferred. S
With the foregoing process, various ccmpositions may be conched~ ~
mus~ 30 to 3~ parts of fat, 45 to 55 parts of sugar, 4 to 12 parts of P~--cocoa, and 3 to 8 parts of milk solids or demineralized whey solids pro-duce com~ound coating~ Preferably, that coating will also include 0.1 to 0.8~parts of emulsifier, e.g. lecith~l, and from 0.1 to 2 parts of flavors, e.g. salt, vanilla, etc.
Alternately, 30 to 35 parts of cocoa butter, 45 to 55 parts of sugar, 4 to 12 parts of cocoa, 1 t~ 5 parts of milk solids and preferably 5~i ` -``\ up to 4 parts of choclo~ate liquor will ~roduce a COatLng which is very sImilar to miIk chocolate. Here again, it is preferred that that com-position includes 0.1 to 0.8 parts of e~lsifier, e.g. lecithin, and from 0.1 to 2 parts of flavoring, again e.g. salt and vanilla.
Plternately, fruit flav~rs and other flavor coatings ~ay be produced. In this connection 30 to 65 parts of fat, 40 to 60 parts of sugar and 0.1 to 2 parts of artificial flavor will be used, and again 0.1 to 0.8 parts of~enulsifier cmd 3 to 8 parts of milk or whey solids may be used.
m e invention in its various aspects will now be illustrated by the following examples. In the specification, the follcwing examples and claims, all percentages and parts are by weight, unless othexwise indicated.
Example 1 '~hirty-three parts of hard hutter, having a nelting point of 98 - 101F, was heated in a steam jacketed mixing tank to 106F. m e melted fat and the following solid ingredients were placed in a LITILE-FORD F~5-6000 mixer: 8.19 parts of cocoa; 51 parts of microsugar (aver-age particle size of 20 microns); 5 parts of non-fat milk solids; 0.4 parts of le~ithin; and 0.41 parts of flavors (vanilla and salt). The fat and solids were mixed until a smcoth paste was obtained. l~he mixing deagglomerated the cocoa, milk solids and lecithin to particles of less than 40 micron~.
m e "pHste" mixture was conched by feeding the mixture to an URSCHEL C~ RQL*1250 high speed shearing and mixing ~achine. The blades were set at 1 (90 shearing). The feed of the mixture and the rotation of tlle impeller, were adjusted until the mLxture rernained in the machine for 6 seoonds to develop the flavor. The conching t~mpera-ture of the ~ixture entering the machine was 110F; ~he ~uxture exiting frQm -the ~achine lwas 170F and the moist1lr~ oontent of th conched ~ixture was 3~O
Thc conch~d muxture was ccoled innediately on exiting the n~-chine by ambient air to 150F in 30 nunutes.

*Tradernark ~9575 The ~K~ure was pun~ed to a hold m g tank and used to coat caramels, i.e., ~os~ ~r~ the Trade ~rk ~ILK DUDS*and a taffy/nut candy bar, i.e. th~se known by the Trade Mark CL~K* The resulting oo~ting was at least equal in taste, mouth-feel and shelf properties bo conventional compound coating.
Exa~ple 2 Example 1 ~s repeated except that 60 parts of microsugar was ~sed and the cocoa was replaced by 0.4 parts o~ artificial kanana flavor.
0.05 parts of VSDA yellow ~5 was also used.

m e resulting product was the same as Example 1 except that it had a bana~a flav~r rather t~an a choaolate flavor.
Example 3 ~ commercially available compound coating containing 40 parts of fat, 50 parts of microsugar, 3.5 parts of milk solids, 0.1 parts of lecithin, 6 parts cocoa and salt is passed through the apparatus of Example 1 under the same conditions. m e chccolate flavor is greatly enhanced.

-*Tradem~rk i ~ '

Claims (13)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A process for producing a candy coating comprising:
(1) providing a mixture in a paste form having the following ingredients:
(a) 30 to 65 parts fat, (b) 40 to 70 parts sugar, (c) 0 to 8 parts milk and/or whey solids (d) 0 to 2 parts emulsifier, (e) 0 to 12 parts cocoa, and (f) 0 to 2 parts flavors; and (2) conching the paste mixture by high speed shearing and mixing, wherein the mixture is subjected to shearing forces having an average shear component of 75° or greater to produce an essentially mechanically generated conching temperature in said mixture of 150° F.
to 250° F. in a conching time of less than 30 seconds and to reduce the moisture content of the conched mixture to 5% or less and rapidly cooling the conched mixture to less than 185° F., when the conching temperature exceeds that temperature.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the ingredients are: 30 to 35 parts fat; 45 to 55 parts sugar; 4 to 12 parts cocoa; and 3 to 8 parts milk and/or whey solids.

3. The prcoess of claim 1 wherein the ingredients are: 30 to 35 parts hard butter; 45 to 55 parts sugar; and 1 to 4 parts cocoa butter.

4. The process of claims 2 or 3 wherein the ingredients also include 0.1 to 0.8 parts emulsifier and 0.1 to 2 parts flavor

5. The process of claim 1 wherein the ingredients are: 30 to 65 parts fat; 40 to 60 parts sugar; and 0.1 to 2 parts flavors.

6. The process of claim 5 wherein the ingredients also in-clude 0.1 to 0.8 parts emulsifier and 3 to 8 parts milk and/or whey solids.

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the conching temperature is below 175° F.

8. The process of claim 7 wherein the conching temperature is between 150° and 175°F.

9. The process of claim 8 wherein the conching temperature is between 150°F and 170°F.

10. The process of claim 1 where the average shear component is at 85° or greater.

11. The process of claim 10 where the average shear component is at 87° or greater.

12. The process of claim 1 wherein the conching time is less than 15 seconds.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein the conching time is less than 10 seconds.