Patent ID: 7241467

Claim:
A process for making a stabilized milk product, the process comprising the steps of: a) blending a fluid milk product with a pectin stabilizer in a weight ratio of fluid milk to pectin stabilizer of from about 80 to 1 to about 20 to 1 to form a blended milk/pectin mixture; b) heating and homogenizing the milk/pectin mixture, wherein the temperature of the mixture is raised to a temperature of at least about 150°; c) blending the homogenized milk/pectin mixture with juice; and d) heating and homogenizing the blended milk/pectin/juice mixture, wherein the temperature is raised to a temperature of at least about 170° F.; wherein the process is effective to produce a stabilized milk product having: i) from about 0.25 to about 10.0% by weight of milk protein including solid milk protein particles; ii) from about 5 to about 98% by weight of juice; iii) from about 0.01 to about 2.5% by weight of cations; and iv) from about 0.01 to about 5.0% by weight of a stabilizer; wherein the stabilized milk product is an aqueous fluid having a pH in a range from about 3.2 to about 6.5, in which the solid milk protein particles are suspended in the stabilized milk product and remain suspended for a period of greater than six weeks after production; wherein the average particle size of the solid milk protein particles range from about 1.0 to about 22.0 micrometers.