Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
10571Z6
The present invention relates to the production of confectionery
and more especially to the production of chocolate pieces having decorative
or other relief featuresO
It is known in the confectionery and pharmaceutical industries to
produce sweets or tablets having surface indentations such as letters or
numbers from dry sugar-based compositions by the use of embossed punches or
dies in a so-called tabletting press. Hitherto, however, it has not been
considered practicable to produce a piece having surface relief features from
a fatty material such as chocolate by a tabletting process.
Now, in accordance with this invention, there is provided a process
for the production of chocolate pieces from granular solid chocolate which
comprises the steps of: uniformly charging chocolate granules having a mean
particle size not less than 1 mm into a tabletting die, at least 80% of the
chocolate granules falling within the particle size range of 0.7 to 3.7 mm;
and compressing said granules at a forming temperature below 17C to form a
piece of chocolate.
The invention is particularly suited to the production of pieces
with surface relief features, which cannot be formed by the conventional
moulding process. Moreover, the invention is not confined to the production
2Q of tablets with indented indicia such as letters or numbers but can be
employed in the manufacture of chocolate pieces with any surface relief
pattern ordesign capable of being formed in a tabletting press.
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~0571Z6
~ he chocolate granules can be produced by milliIIg
~olid chocolate, which will normally be tempered, and the
granules are preferably conditioned before introduction into
the tabletting press.
Conditioning, the necessity for which decreases
the narrower the particle size range of the granules, is
carried out by holding the granu~es at a te~pera~ure within
the range Ol 17 to 22C for redistribution of properties.
~he mass of granules being conditioned will usually be agitated
because agitation greatly accelerates the conditioning prpcess.
If the granules are conditioned by rolling, this ~hould be
continued for at least three minutes but there is no critical
upper limit to the time of treatment. In an agitation process
such as rolling it is necessar~ to use a mass of granules of
sufficient depth to ensure that the passage of particles over
one anoth~r aotually occur~.
An alternative way of pro~iding chocolate granules
suitable for tabletting is by extrusion of "refinings" (i.e.
powdered chocolate as pbtained from a roller refiner) followed
by fragmentation and spheronization of th~ fragments.
In order to obtain accepta~le throughput of material
in extrusion it is preferred that the diameter of the extrudate
should be at least 2mm, and to provide gramlles of the preferred
size the diameter i9 pre~erabl~ not greater than 2.7 mm1 The
extruded particles art~ usually 1 - 4- cm in lenKth.
~0 57 ~ Z 6
The extrudate is cooled and fed into a spheronizer,
usually a cylindrical vessel in the bottom of which is a rotating
grooved plate (as in that sold under the tracemark "Marumerizer:'3.
The preferred input temperature is in the range 4 - 14C but
most preferably ~ - 12C. In the spheronizer t-he extrudate
particles are broken up and rolled into spheres, and dust
particles tend also to agglomerate into spheres. Since the
~pheronized product becomes warmed in the machiDe, for example
bo 23C, the spheres are conditioned by the end of the process.
- It is noteworth~r that, in contrast to the tabletting
of sugar-based compositions, it appears to be advantageous in
tabletting of chocolate that fines be restricted to a low
proportion. Particles of sizes of the same order as the die
diameter should also be avoided. ~he usually preferred range
f mean particle diameter is from 1 to 3 mm. ~herefore it is
preferred that at least 85% of weight of the material shou~d lie
within the particle size range of 0.7 to 3.7 mm.
~he preferred temperature for tabletting is in the
range 12 - 17C, although small deviations from this range may
be found practicable in some circumstances.
Formed tablets with indicia or like indented mar~ing~
can be smoothed by rolling, preferably at a temperature rather
above th~ forming temperature, say about 20C, to remove the
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~057~Z6
surface crazing corresponding to the individual granules.
Smoothing should, however, be halted before the indented
markings are rubbed excessively.
Where appropriate, a stronger contrast between 'he
marking and the chocolate can be achieved by filling indentations
with powder. This may be done by rolling the formed tablets
with the selected powder at a temperature rather below the smooth-
ing temperature, for ex~mple about 18C. An excess Or powder
over the amouht actually necessar~ to fill the indentations
should be used. Examples of powdered food grade materials that
may be uæed for thi~ purpose include skim or full cream milk
powder, lactose, starch, pu~verized sugar or mixtures of these.
~he powder may be coloured for decorative purposes.
.
After the powder has been rolled in, the excess may be
largely removed by a cool air blast and the powder filling the
indentations can be sealed in by ~he addition of an a~ueous gum
solution. The resulting surface provides a satisfactory base
for final polishing or glazin~.
~he following is a more detailed description of two
pref~rred procédures for the manufacture of chocolate sweets
in accordance with the invention, given by way of example.
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10571;Z6
Example 1
Solid chocolate, which has been tempered in the con-
ventional way, is granulated to a mean particle size of 1.7 mm
with a size distribution defined by the following weight per-
centages of the granules retained by the size of screen indicated:
retained by 4 mm 0%, 2.8 mm 9.0%, 2.0 mm 35.5%, 1.7 mm 50.2%,
1.4 mm 64.4%, 1.0 mm 76.1%, 0.5 mm 93.5% (6.5% passing). The
granules are then conditioned by rolling a mass of the granules
4 - 5 inches deep at a temperature of 19C for about 5 minutes.
The conditioned granules at a temperature of 13C
are supplied to a conventional tabletting press so that the
dies are evenly filled with granules before pressing, the press
being cooled by a supply of cool air at 10c.
After any flash or excess granules have been sieved
off, the tabletted sweets are rolled in a polishing pan at a
temperature of about 20C until the surface crazing disappears.
The resulting tablets may be considered satisfactory,
but if a strong contrast in appearance between the relief
marking and the chocolate is desired this may be achieved by
filling the indentations with powder in the manner described
above.
105~7~26
Example 2
Chocolate refinings are extruded at ambient tempera-
ture, say about 22C to a diameter of 2.5 mm. The extrudate is
cooled to 10C and fragmented and spheronized in batches in a
cylindrical ~essel with a grooved plate rotating at 450 r.p.m.
for 4 minutes with an exit temperature of 23C.
The resulting spheronized material had the following
particle size analysis: retained by 4 mm 0.5%; 3 mm 23.5%;
2.8 mm 42.0%; 2 mm 63%; 1.5 mm 70.5%; 1 mm 92.5%; remainder
retained by 0.5 mm.
The spherical granules are tabletted as in Example 1.
1057~Z6
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Supplementary Disclosure
~ he tabletting process causes an increase in the
temperature of the material being tabletted. Chocolate which
contains a proportion of relatively low melting fats must
therefore be fed into the tabletting machina below a temperature
at which liquid fat production will be significant. We have
-found this upper limit to be 17C. ~bove this temperature
liquid fat separating from the chocolate interferes with the
release of the tablets from the punches. In cases where the
chocolate granules are handled in open air a low temperature
limit, for example 4C, is required if condensation of water
vapour on the granules is to be prevented. In a perfectly dry
atmosphere successful tabletting has been carried out down to
-20 C.
~he state of the chocolate
~he crystal state of the chocolate granules used for
tabletting is very important in achieving a high quality tablet.
The melting properties of the chocolate fats are determined by
their crystal states and the chocolate employed in the process
of the invention should contain fat in the crystal state
consistent with high melting point fat. This is designated the
~ form of cocoa butter. Attempts to tablet granules which
contain fats in a low-melting state, namely the and ~ forms
of cocoa butter, meet with the sama failure as attempts to
tablet at too high a temperature. ~he "conditioniLg" process
described in this specification represents one way of ensuring
that the fat is in the required ~ condition, and may be
contrasted with "shock cooling" of granules, which leaves the
lOS71;~6
fat in an undesirable crystal state.
The type of chocolate
The total fat content of the chocolate to be tabletted
is an important variable and we have found that a total
fat content of less than 33% is required for successful
operation. Above this level, liquid fat separationoccurs
as mentioned above.
Particle size distribution
This is a critical factor for the production of con-
sistent tablets with good, smooth surfaces and especially
important where the tabletting is followed by another opera-
tion such as the filling of the surface indentations. Con-
trary to established practices for sugar-based tablets, a
relatively wide distribution of particle sizes is required.
It is noteworthy that, in contrast to the tabletting
of sugar-based compositions, it appears to be advantageous
in the tabletting of chocolate that fines be restricted to
a low proportion. Particles of sizes of the same order as
the die diameter should also be avoided.
ln general, the mean particle size should be within
the range 1 to 3 mm and at least about 80% of the particles
by weight should have particle sizes in the range of about
0.7 to about 3.7 mm. For best results, however, the granules
should conform to the following criteria, which have been
found critical for first class tablets of high defini-tion
and precision:
10571Z6
Mean particle size in the range 1.2-2 mm
Greater than 4 mm; less than 5% (by weignt)
Smaller than 0.5 mm: not less than 4~o
Standard deviation of particle size distribution
in the range 0 5-1.
These criteria are illustrated b~ the following
tabulated experimental results.
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o [CIE S~ZE (mm) ¦PAR~IC1E % ARD
~ %~4.0 Yo> 2~8 %72~ 0 %~1 . 7 ~1.4 %~1.C ~ SlZ~ 0~3-3.7 mm ~
1 0.89 4.22 45.25 70.46 90.31 98.87 1.56 95.2 0.44
2 O.29 7.28 65-~9 84.29 93.94 99.17 q,70 97.0 0.38
3 0.46 2.86 ~4.56 86.51 95.38 98.99 1.66 97.4 0.30
-~ii 4 0.22 3-15 72.42 88.83 94.56 98.57 1.72 96.1 0.33
0.38 2.22 52.35 70.42 84.93 95.42 1.65 91~3 0.48
6 9.0 35.5 50.2 64.6 76.3 93.61.72 84.4 ~.85
7 5.92 22.26 41.7 46.46 65.04 91.4 1.47 79.5 .82
85-7 24.8 ~9.5 5~.2 70.0 91.2 1.53 81.3 .81
96.0 30.0 47.0 65.0 78.0 96.0 1.67 87-~ .76
1016.1 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. 92.96 1~83 82.~ .77
116.24 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. 93.49 1.67 84.3 0.59
_ . .
12 14.16 49.26 63.~2 81.79 90.11 93.64 95.37 2.78 71.7 .28
13 26.8~ 63.81 87.61 90.65 N.A. 92.22 97~.63 3.29 : 58.3 .28
14 9.79 51.73 58.84 61.83 64.72 77.14 90.21 2.28 57.2 .63
. , . . _ . ......................... . , . .,
Of the ~ranule samples shown in the Table:
Experiments 1 to 5 formed tablets, but of poor surface quality;
Experiments 6 to q1 formed good tablets of high quality surface; and
Experiments ~2 to 14 formed incomplete tablets owing to inadequate
filling of the tabletting die.
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