Patent ID: 6322843
Filing Date: 2001-11-27
Classification: A23D,C11C

Abstract:
The process for preparing a fat continuous spread in a production line to shorten residence time and increase the crystallization rate, the fat continuous spread having from about 30 to about 80% fat having a trans fatty acid level of less than about 10% the process comprising the steps of:(1) selecting a structuring amount of a hardstock fat having a level of trans fatty acids not exceeding 10% and prepared by randomly interesterifying a mixture containing 30-75 wt. % of an oil (i) in which at least 20% of the fatty acids residues consists of linoleic acid and 25-70 wt. % of a fat (ii) in which a least 80% of the fatty acid residues is saturated and has a chain link of at least 16 carbons and then fractionating the interesterified mixture to obtain an olein fraction having a solid fat content of:N.sub.10 =22-80, N.sub.20 =8-60, N.sub.30 =1-25, N.sub.35 =0-15;(2) selecting an amount of an oil which is liquid at room temperature selected from the group consisting of soybean oil, sunflower oil, fish oil, rapeseed oil, coconut oil and mixtures thereof;(3) combining the hardstock fat of step (1) and the liquid oil of step (2) to form a fat phase;(4) preparing an aqueous phase to combine with the fat phase of step (3) to provide a fat continuous emulsion having less than 80% fat in the total composition;(5) introducing the fat continuous emulsion into a scraped surface heat exchanger unit to cool the emulsion to an exit temperature of less than the temperature needed to transform a substantial amount of the fat crystal into an alpha phase to form a partially crystallized cooled emulsion;(6) passing the partially crystallized cooled emulsion unit for a shortened residence time sufficient to substantially convent the alpha phase crystals into beta prime crystals in the cooled emulsion;(7) passing the beta prime containing cooled emulsion into a second scraped surface heat exchange unit to cool the emulsion;(8) recirculating the beta prime containing cooled emulsion from step (7) into the partially crystallized emulsion of step (5) as the partially cooled crystallized emulsion exits the scraped surface heat exhanger unit and passes in the crystallizing unit of step (6) to introduce crystal seeds into the partially crystallized emulsion;wherein the throughput of the emulsion throughout the entire production lines x kilograms per hour, the shortened residence time of the emulsion in the crystallizing unit (C-unit) is y minutes and the recirculation flow rate of the emulsion recirculated into the cooled partially crystallized emulsion of step (8) is 0.2 x to 10 x ; and(9) packing the fat continuous spread to form a fat continuous product having less than 80% fat, less than 10% trans fatty acid, less than 5% free water and the product is not brittle due to post storage crystallization.