US-12616214-B2 - Vegetable containing snack product

US12616214B2US 12616214 B2US12616214 B2US 12616214B2US-12616214-B2

Abstract

A vegetable snack product includes a base starch, corn flour, whole vegetable flour other than potato and corn, vegetable powder other than potato and corn. The vegetable snack product provides at least 15% of real vegetables exclusive of potato and corn and has a bulk density between about 60 g/L to about 84 g/L. An exemplary method of making a vegetable snack product includes hydrating a dry mix containing a base starch, corn flour, whole vegetable flour other than potato and corn, and vegetable powder other than potato and corn to form a dough containing from 31.5% to 35.5% of moisture. The dough may be extruded through a die slot to form a continuous sheet that may be cut to form individual snack sized pieces, which are then fried pieces to form a vegetable snack product.

Inventors

Ajay Rajeshwar Bhaskar
Jorge C. Morales-Alvarez
Naveen Chikthimmah

Assignees

FRITO-LAY NORTH AMERICA, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230505

Claims (10)

1 . A method of making a vegetable snack product comprising: a. providing a dry mix that includes from about 50 wt. % to about 69 wt. % of a base starch that consists essentially of a mixture of potato starch and potato flakes wherein a ratio of potato starch to potato flakes is in the range of about 9:1 to 12:1 by weight and wherein the base starch is free of gluten; from about 3 wt. % to about 12 wt. % of corn flour; from about 20 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of whole vegetable flour other than potato and corn; and from about 1 wt. % to about 5 wt. % of vegetable powder other than potato and corn, wherein the vegetable powder differs from the whole vegetable flour; b. hydrating the dry mix to form a dough containing from 31-37 wt. % of moisture; c. introducing the dough to an extruder and applying a specific mechanical energy of about 50 W-h/kg to about 75 W-h/kg dough; d. extruding the dough through a die slot to form a continuous sheet having a width between about 2 in. and about 24 in. and having a thickness in the range of about 0.2 mm to about 2.0 mm e. cutting the sheet to form individual snack sized pieces and/or clusters of individual snack-sized pieces; and f. frying the individual snack sized pieces to form the vegetable snack product having at least 15 wt. % of real vegetables exclusive of potato and corn and a bulk density between about 60 g/L to about 84 g/L.
2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to cutting, perforating the sheet and tempering the perforated sheet to a temperature within a range between about 25° C. to about 35° C.
3 . The method of claim 2 further comprising, after tempering, joining one or more sheets prior to cutting such that after frying a three dimensional vegetable snack product is created.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the base starch consists of a mixture of potato starch and potato flakes.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the whole vegetable flour is selected from one or more of chickpeas, black beans, green peas, yellow peas, lima beans, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, Bambara beans, pigeon peas, lupins, vetches, yams, pumpkin, celery, zucchini, cucumber, onion, scallion, asparagus, or garlic.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the vegetable powder is selected from one or more of turmeric, beet, tomato, spinach, kale, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, peppers, squash, cauliflower, green beans, navy beans, or fava beans.
7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the vegetable powder is selected from one or more of tomato, beet, spinach or kale.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the whole vegetable flour includes a mixture of whole chickpea flour and whole yellow pea flour.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein a ratio of an amount of whole chickpea flour to an amount of whole yellow pea flour is between about 3:1 and 1:1 by weight.
10 . A method of making a vegetable snack product comprising: a. providing a dry mix that includes (i) from about 50 wt. % to about 69 wt. % of a base starch that consists essentially of a mixture of potato starch and potato flakes wherein a ratio of potato starch to potato flakes is in the range of about 9:1 to 12:1 by weight and wherein the base starch is free of gluten; (ii) from about 3 wt. % to about 12 wt. % of corn flour; (iii) from about 20 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of whole vegetable flour selected from one or more of chickpeas, black beans, green peas, yellow peas, lima beans, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, Bambara beans, pigeon peas, lupins, vetches, yams, pumpkin, celery, zucchini, cucumber, onion, scallion, asparagus, or garlic; and (iv) from about 1 wt. % to about 5 wt. % of vegetable powder selected from one or more of turmeric, beet, tomato, spinach, kale, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, peppers, squash, cauliflower, green beans, navy beans, or fava beans; b. hydrating the dry mix to form a dough containing from 31-37 wt. % of moisture; c. introducing the dough to an extruder and applying a specific mechanical energy of about 50 W-h/kg to about 75 W-h/kg dough; d. extruding the dough through a die slot to form a continuous sheet having a width between about 2 in. and about 24 in. and having a thickness in the range of about 0.2 mm to about 2.0 mm e. cutting the sheet to form individual snack sized pieces and/or clusters of individual snack-sized pieces; and f. frying the individual snack sized pieces to form the vegetable snack product having at least 15 wt. % of real vegetables exclusive of potato and corn and a bulk density between about 60 g/L to about 84 g/L.

Description

Methods of making a vegetable containing snack product, a dough for forming the vegetable snack product, and a vegetable snack product are described. The vegetable containing snack product contains at least about 15% real vegetables, e.g., legumes, pulses, and vegetables, other than potatoes and corn. BACKGROUND Increasingly, consumers seek snack products that provide a variety of tastes and textures and may be perceived as “healthy”. To that end, in the field of snack foods there has been a recent focus on producing snack foods that contain vegetable and/or fruit matter. A challenge to producing snack foods that contain vegetable matter is to provide an organoleptically pleasing product while providing a significant amount of vegetable matter, other than potatoes and corn, for which consumers are abundantly familiar with in the form of potato and corn chips. Thus, there is a need to provide snack food that contain more than an insignificant amount of real vegetables other than potatoes and corn, i.e., at least about 15% real vegetables. SUMMARY A method of making a vegetable snack product that contains a significant amount of real vegetables is described. The method may include forming a dry mix containing from about 50% to about 60% of a base starch ingredient, from about 20% to about 40% whole vegetable flour, where the vegetable flour is from a source other than potato or corn, from about 2% to about 12% corn flour, and from about 0.2% to about 5% of vegetable powder (where the vegetable powder is from a source other than potato or corn). The base starch ingredient may include one or more of a potato starch, potato-based ingredient, and/or potato flakes. The whole vegetable flour may be from any suitable vegetable flour other than potato or corn and, in some instances, is free of decorticated (e.g., dehulled) flours. For example, the whole vegetable flour may be provided by one or more of whole chickpea flour, whole pea flour, and/or whole yellow pea flour. The dry mix may be preconditioned by hydrating the dry mix with moisture to form a dough containing from about 30% to about 37% moisture. Following preconditioning, the dough may be extruded to form an extruded sheet having a thickness in the range of about 0.5 mm to about 3.0 mm. The extruded sheet may then be optionally perforated and thereafter, tempered to a temperature in a range of about 25° C. to about 35° C. with a moisture content between about 9% to about 13%, after which the extruded sheet may be joined with one or more similar extruded sheets. The joined sheets may then be cut, which may form individual snack-sized pieces and/or clusters of individual snack-sized pieces. Thereafter, the individual snack-sized pieces and/or clusters of individual snack-sized pieces are fried, causing the joined sheets that formed the individual snack-sized pieces to expand and form a three-dimensional shape which, if the extruded sheet has been perforated, will contain perforations. It is contemplated that the formed three-dimensional vegetable snack product may include two or more layers, (e.g., two, three, four, etc). Additionally or alternatively, one or more or all of the layers may include perforations (i.e., holes passing through one or more of the layers). The resulting vegetable snack product in an unseasoned state (i.e., does not contain an applied seasoning such as, but not limited to a topical seasoning) may contain from about 30% to about 50% of a base starch, from about 15% to about 36% whole vegetable flour (where the vegetable flour is from a source other than potato or corn), from about 1% to about 10% corn flour, and from about 0.5% to about 5% of vegetable powder (where the vegetable powder is from a source other than potato or corn), with about 1% to about 4% moisture. It is also contemplated that the vegetable snack product contains one or more natural colorants such as turmeric extract, annatto extract, beet powder, tomato powder, spinach powder, kale powder, broccoli powder, and/or carrot powder. The vegetable snack product may contain from about 4 to about 8 grams of protein in 100 grams of the vegetable snack product. In addition, the resulting vegetable snack product may be identified or marketed as being made with or containing “real vegetables”. In some aspects the resulting vegetable snack product may contain at least about 15% real vegetables (other than potatoes and corn). As used in the description and claims, the phrase “real vegetables” refers to vegetables other than potatoes and corn and refers to vegetables in a dried, powdered, and particulate state such as, for example, flour. With this in mind, the phrase “real vegetables” is intended to exclude whole, cut, diced, raw, cooked, or dried vegetables having a particle size greater than about 500 μm. It is contemplated that the resulting vegetable snack product may be flavored by applying, topically or otherwise, one or more seasonings to the vegetable snack product in any