Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1~S~2
IMPROVEMENTS IN CONFECTIONERY ARTICLES
AND METHODS OF MANUFACTURING THEM
.
This invention relates to improvements in
confectionery articles and methods of manufacturing them
and in apparatus therefor. In particular example it
relates to the production of frozen confections which have
relief features or complex shapes, for example ice
con~ections which have been produced in sculptured moulds.
~Various methods for producing such products with
;~ eye-appealing features of shape and configuration, eg
relief or complex shapes are known, for example from
GB Patent Specification Nos. 698 814 (Randall) and
1 025 383 (Oldham). GB Specification No~ 1 508 589
(Unilever) describes a more recent method, which has been
put into commercial use. Among the aesthetic or
eye-appealing~complex shapes that can be produced by such
15~ methods in frozen confection form are forms of human,
humanoid or animal-like figures and parts thereof, figures
of model aeroplanes, cars, boats, etc, among many possible
` ~ designs.
Other methods are also known for producing frozen
confection forms with interesting attractive appearances
given by surface-marked designs, eg stencil-spraying, as
described in GB Specification No. 2 01~ 198 ~Unilever).
It is however found that it is hard to print or spray
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accurately on to froæen edible products with relief
features, and such accuracy would normally be desirable
because the printed or sprayed matter would usually need to
be related to the design formed by the relief features.
Accordlng to the present invention, contrast of colour
or tone is given to different parts of a confectionery
articles having surface relief Eeatures, b~ applying to the
article a coating of solidifiable material which adheres to
the article with sufficiently uneven thickness, and which
has a colour or brightness tone of sufficient depth, and of
sufficient contrast with the brightness or tone of the
uncoated article, that on solidification the coated
material forms areas of contrasting colo~r or tone.
Accordingly, the invention provides an improvement in
the process of applying visual pattern or design to an ice
confectionery article which comprises applying to the
surface of the ice confectioner~ article a decoration
material with a tone or brightness which contrasts with the
tone or brightness of the material of which the ice
confectionery article is made, the pattern or design being
ormed by the pattern or design of the distribution of
various amounts of the decoration material on the surface
of the ice confectionery article, the improvement being
characterised in that the decoration material is applied as
an overall coating of solidifiable material to an ice
confectionery article with surface relief features such as
projections and concavities, and in that the solidifiable
decoration material is made to adhere to the confectionery
article with uneven thickness, and made to solidify to form
decorated areas of contrasting tone or brightness, with
concavities of the article containing thick coatings of the
decoration material to show the characteristic colour or
brightness of the decoration material, and the projections
of the article bearing thinner contrasting coatings.
Confection products according to the invention can
bear concave features of surface relief having therein
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preEerentially thick accretions of coating materials giving
colour and/or brightness contrast with other areas o~ the
products.
For example, the coating thickness can be thick enough
in concavities of the surface relief of the article to give
such concavities substantially the colour or tone of the
coating material itself, while in other areas the coating
thickness is thin enough to leave a contrasting colour or
tone, eg a colour or tone substantially similar to that of
the uncoated article, ie the coating on such other areas
can be substantially colourless and transparent.
The coating material can for example be applied by
dipping the article in a bath of flowable coating material
or by spraying the coating material on/ eg from a
directional spray.
The coating material can have any of a number of
combinations of colour or tonal intensity, viscosity, and
temperature of application~ to ensure the descri~ed
contrasty result when it is applied by the chosen method.
For example, aqueous coating materials can be applied
to frozen confectionery articles by dippiny the articles
into the liquid coating materials, and allowing excess
coating material to drain and the remainder to freeze on to
the article.
It has been found that contrasting features of colour
or tone can be easily and accurately located by this method
in desired association with relief features oE an ice
confection of complex, eg moulded, eye-appealing shape,
without the need to bring apparatus for applying such an
uneven coating into precise registration with such
features.
For example, referring to the accompanying
diagrammatic drawings, an ice lolly 1 on a stick (shown in
plan in Figure 1) can be made to a design in the form of an
animal figure 2 with surEace texture representing, for
examplet eyes 3p locks of fur, buttons 4, etc, by the
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method described in GB Patent Specification No. 1 50~ 589
using a mould of appropriate design, or otherwise. A
desirable colour contrast can be applied by for example
firsk having the bo~ of the lolly frozen from a confection
containing mix of conventional type and for example a pale,
eg yellow, e~ible colour using a permitted colouring
material, and then dipping the frozen lolly in an aqueous
coating material coloured by, for example, about 1-2~ by
weight of (ordinary brown~coloured) caramel and for example
up to about 10~ total sugar content, or else coloured by eg
0.1-0.2~ of a permitted colouring material of intense
colour, eg of red, blue or green colour.
When the aqueous colour coating material is at about
15C and the ice lollies are at about -18C to -20C for
example, and the dipping is done for example for a fraction
of a second, it i5 found that the smooth parts (eg 5) of
the lolly (referring to Figure 2, a diagrammatic section on
line II--II in Figure 1) retain only a thickness of for
example about 0.1 to 0.14 mm of solidified (frozen)
coating material, insufficient to impart deep coloration,
while concavities (eg 6, 7) acquire thicker coatings, eg
above about 0.5 mm and up to about 1-5 mm thick~ having a
deep brown, red, blue or green coloration for example, in
striking visual contrast to the (eg) predominantly pale
yellow colour of the remainder of the lolly~
Appropriate areas of desired colour or tone contrast
can of course be arranged by suitable design for the shape
of the lolly to be differentially coated. Concavities can
be of for example rectangular or triangular transverse
section or irregular other orms capable of retaining a
desired thickness of for example about 1-5 mm, eg 3-4 mm of
visually contrasting coating material. Such concavities
can for example be of depth approximately equivalent to
their width, and will of course be dictated largely by the
artistic requirements of whatever design is chosen.
For example, confections in the form of figures having
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eyes and/or clothing bearing buttons, can be given colour
or tonal contrast in regions corresponding to eyes or
buttons by making such regions in concave form with a depth
of about l-~ mm, eg 3~4 mm, and width about equal to or
somewhat larger or smaller than the depth, and applying
contrasting coating materials as described herein at least
to such cuncave regions, ey by dipping or spraying~ so that
such materials preferentially solidify in such concave
regions to give visual contrast, whether in colour, tone,
or both.
After the application of colour or tone-contrast as
described, further treatment can of course be given, such
as for example a further partial coating to represent a hat
Eor the design figure, either in chocolate or other fatty
couverture or in colo~red aqueous coating of suitable
colour intensity and viscosity.
It is apparent that these methods can be applied on eg
confectionery freezing machinery having modules or stations
of known form, eg stick inserting, moulding, freezing,
dipping and/or spraying stations of known kind/ to reach a
wider variety of shapes and patterns of product than would
previously have been attainable otherwise than by the use
of hand-manufacture or potentially by the use of complex
precision equipment for applying coatings differentially.
Many modifications and variations can be applied to
the processes and products described~ For example, the
inventlon does not depend at all, of course, on the
particular type of design used for the article or the
particular moulding or other method used to produce it.
By way of further example, the coating to be applied
unevenly to give the contrast may contain or be based on
fat, eg a couverture of fat and sugar optionally with
chocolate or other coloured material. Such a coating can
be applied for example to the head region only of a figure
with a head, by having such a head region located at the
opposite end to that of insertion of a stick by which the
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article is held during partîal dipping of the figure to the
extent only of the head region. Such a coating can for
example be substantially transparent and be then used to
enhance the visual contrast of a subsequent aqueous or
non~fat coating applied to the article by rendering it
non-adherent to the fat-coated part. Yet further coatings
can comprise emulsified material such as milk solids for
example.
Generally the coatings can be varied, combined and
permuted according to the varying contrasting design
concepts to be realised in confection forms bearing surface
relief by the aid of this invention.
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