Patent ID: 7655268

Claim:
A process for thickening a liquid or pourable product consisting essentially of the steps of i) preparing a first and a second portion of one or more PME-comprising fruits or vegetables; wherein the first and the second portion are from the same vegetable or fruit species; wherein the fruits are selected from bananas, apples, oranges, pineapples, edible berries, cherries or mixtures thereof and wherein the vegetables are selected from the group consisting of onions, carrots, celery, celeriac, and mixtures thereof; ii) PME-deactivating the first portion; iii) combining the first and the second portion in a weight ratio of about 2:8 to about 8:2 to form a fruit or vegetable mixture; wherein the fruits or vegetables are comminuted at one or more of steps i)-iii); iv) drying the fruit or vegetable mixture to form a dried fruit or vegetable mixture; v) incorporating the dried fruit or vegetable mixture in the product to be thickened.