Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 2960218 2017-03-07
Title:
PRE-BLENDED AND PACKAGED FROZEN SMOOTHIE NUTRITION MIX, METHOD AND
PRODUCT
This application claims priority from GB-1603900.0 having a filing date of
March
7, 2016.
Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to pre-blended and pre-assembled frozen
components for fast and convenient rendering, pairing, and re-using food
products into a finished and packaged frozen smoothie mix, which, can be
added to other ingredients and re-blended for retail or private consumption.
Background of The Invention:
Frozen drinks, slushies, flavored shaved ice, smoothies have long been known
and are widely consumed throughout the world. Frozen drinks of various types
have been made to enjoy on a hot day, or as a meal supplement. These drinks
have been provided throughout restaurants and households for many years.
Most frozen drinks are manually blended for consumption from individual
components, some frozen, some merely refrigerated, others stored at room
temperature, such as ice, syrups, fruit, sorbets, yogurt, coffee and tea.
There
are many ways these ingredients arrive at the traditional blending stage (the
last stage) when a frozen drink is prepared for consumption.
Most restaurants serving these beverages are required to have a significant
amount of freezer and other storage space for the variety of ingredients
necessary to supply customers, thus promoting:
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1. costly food waste in grocery stores, restaurants, and homes,
2. higher emissions,
3. taking away from floor space,
4. adding to high costs of hydro Et maintenance and
5. to make smoothies there are continuous and costly efforts for staff
training
to achieve and maintain a uniform consistency when manually mixing different
volumes of different ingredients hat have a different property state, while
mixing these different states together to achieve the consistency for each
individual drink blended.
Example: when liquid components meet frozen. When a frozen drink or slushy
beverage is prepared by staff, gloves or washing of hands is mandatory during
the making of the frozen beverage. Thus, the process is more time consuming,
and consumes more energy and results in confusion behind the counter. This
process does not work well for many establishments, particularly because of
constantly wasting time, money, and food. With large lineups, it is difficult
for
even the best frozen drink operator to blend consistent drinks with exact
recipes the same way, quickly, and every time, in accordance with stated
nutritional data claims that have been provided to the consumer. Such
nutritional information is increasingly required by regulation and industry
practice. Essentially the frozen components are organized from storage but
remain in a random sized condition with different sizes, shapes, dates of use,
sources and application.
Another concern is the amount of wasted fruits and vegetables in grocery
stores and restaurants that offer/sell produce and dairy.
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Of particular concern is utility in small space footprint operations which are
the
most used and least expensive retail space leasing arrangements. In these
situations, every element of supply, storage, assembly and delivery is subject
to regulatory and spatial constraints which directly affect timely production,
food waste and the bottom line, all in full view of the retail consumer.
In many occasions a grocery store, or other retail business, will have
spoilage of
fruit or vegetables if the demand decreases. Sometimes this is a significant
amount, particularity for grocery stores.
The term "slushy or smoothie" is commonly used in homes and restaurants for a
mixture of a food, ice and liquid blended together to form a drink. Typically
a
slushy would have a large component of shaved, but separate, ice particles in
a
flowable condition.
Smoothies often made from a collection of frozen components such as frozen
yogurt, frozen fruit sections or berries plus one or more solid food products
such as nuts, plus one or more powdered food products combined with a liquid
such as water or juice for processing. Many of these items require attention
and resources to maintain their condition and freshness while other must be
segregated altogether.
Basically each separate component must be provided its own separate staging
and preservation station and the skilled and attentive operator assistance to
provide for consistency across the myriad of choices available to the
consumer.
In the process as a whole, skilled and attentive labour is required at
separate
stages, firstly upon preparation and storage of the individual components,
and,
then, again upon assembly and finishing. Individual frozen components become
a noisy addition to the final stage especially if accompanied by an amount of
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hard unblended or partially blended water ice. This final blending not only is
irritating to the customers and the operator but is very hard on equipment,
shortening the lifetime of even the most durable and expensive commercial
machines. Additionally extra time is required in the processing step.
Prior Art
In successful prior art processes for smoothy preparation the steps include:
- packing, transporting and maintaining individual components,
cutting, segregating and, portioning irregular portions of individual foods,
freezing those which are perishable and benefit from storage while frozen,
assembling those not requiring storage in a frozen state,
assembly the food ingredients from this variety of sources at the time of
final
preparation for consumption,
adding liquid such as water or juice as a processing agent, and
grinding and blending the assembly into a smoothy or slushy.
Examples of the patent attempts to improve production of smoothy and slushy
food products are shown in;
CA 2,204,467 issued to The JEL Sert Co. - for a Freezable Confection And
Method For Making Same,
CA 2,841,908 - issued to Dole Packaged Foods, LLC - for a Yogurt Smoothie Kit
And Methods For Making The Same,
CA 2,577,163 - issued to Smoo PTY Limited - for a Sealed Pack Of Ingredients
For An Individual Smoothie, And Associated Methods And Apparatuses,
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And US Patent application 2007-0042090 applied for by Birds Eye Foods, now
abandoned.
Though such frozen drinks have achieved considerable popularity and
commercial success, there has been a continuing need for improvement to
quicken the process, save food before it is wasted, lessen costs, lessen
processing complexities and equipment, maintain uniformity and make it more
accommodating to serve frozen healthy drinks regardless of the size of the
business or potential risk of food waste.
Objects
It is the objective of the invention to provide a means for grocery stores and
many retailers to transform imperfect and non-display worthy fruits and
vegetables, and dairy that is close to its expiration date, into a new uniform
ingredient and/or product, stored in a different state (frozen), and may
achieve a new best before date. Absent processing, this food would ultimately
be deemed not fit for sale, and would be thrown in the garbage.
It is another object of the invention to provide a process that will help to
prevent waste, whether or not it processes is less than perfect, or bruised
elements, or dairy foods getting close their expiry date in grocery stores,
restaurants, buffets, cafeterias, lunchrooms, or for home use.
It is still another objective to speed up processing time, eliminate cost and
space requirements, make better and more cost effective use of skilled
resources and provide for a more uniform product in a retail environment with
unstable activity levels.
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It is a further object to have a single assembly step where any manual
measurements which may be required can be contained in a controlled
environment without the pressures of a retail counter or family gathering.
It is yet a further object to improve a method to make more use of a factory
environment.
A still further object is to reduce the noise and machine wear at the customer
level and make more and better use of industrial blending techniques.
It is an object of the invention to improve production of uniform smoothy
products.
It is a further object to make use of re-using food products that are less
than
ideal at retail or set to expire or have limited remaining shelf life or unit
for
sale due to bruising or imperfections.
The Invention
The invention provides an improved method of pre-forming a frozen smoothy
component comprising:
- assembly of the main ingredients in added water,
- shearing as in mixing and blending. The assembly by into a uniform
consistency,
- continually moving the blend mixture,
- freezing the moving blended mixture
- packing, shipping, storing and reblending the pre-blended mixture with added
Liquid components.
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In a another aspect this invention, pre-blending of ingredients creates a
uniform and consistent smoothie liquid which is the first stage of production
and not the last. After the pre-blended smoothie liquid is created, it is then
poured into a mold rather than into a cup for consumption. Once freezing the
mix has reached a frozen state, it can then be manufactured into a frozen
smoothie mixture component that can be packaged in consumption units
adapted to be re-blended with other ingredients into a liquid or frozen
smoothie finished product.
In another aspect the invention provides a method for making a liquid drink or
batch which consists of a pre-blended mixture of any combination of pre-
ripened fruits, vegetables, juiced fruits Et vegetables, nuts, yogurt, herbs,
spices, coffee, tea, vitamins, proteins, honey, pro-biotics, freeze dried
super
foods, fulvic plant and earth minerals, herbal or non herbal medicines which
are combined and mixed together in any quantity or variation with any possible
combination of ingredients including organic nutrients, vitamins, and all
medicines.
Preferred Embodiments
In a preferred environment food ingredients are assembled and pre-blended
into a desired consistency, including texture and flavor, preferably without
added water. They are then put into a container and continuously mixed, spun,
or turned together to maintain the desired consistency and volume, including
taste and texture, while accurately targeting key nutritional data for the pre-
blended mixed batches.
The continuous shaking, spinning or turning in the container avoids the
different ingredients settling or separating as the liquid is prepared, before
and
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during the pouring of the liquid into a mold or molds and frozen in that
blended
uniform and consistent state.
This liquid formation makes a blend of its own type and of its own unique
consistency and allows the manufacturer to control the taste and consistency
thereof when combined with other foods.
The process allows the manufacturer to create a desired flavor, texture, and
to
have predetermined quantities of ingredients in the liquid throughout the
freezing process.
This allows the manufacturer to meet the targeted
nutritional content to be exact in the pre-blended and packaged nutritional
frozen smoothie mixture.
The freezing stage preserves the exact nutritional content and taste of the
pre-
ripened and mixed ingredients after they are broken down and blended into
uniformity.
Once the blended mixture is frozen the manufacturer may accurately make
measurements of the weight and size of the already frozen mix and subdivide
the pre-blended mixture.
The frozen matter is evenly or unevenly divided into individually pre-blended
and packaged consumption units each a frozen smoothie mixture unit, which
then on its own can be once again blended and enjoyed as a frozen health
drink, or the frozen mixture can be added to other ingredients and sealed
before storing and preparing.
The combination of shearing or blending and maintaining motion achieves
uniformity in the consumption units and substantially decreases the energy and
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time required for subsequent re-blending as the consumer unit does note
contain substantial chunks of unblended water ice.
In a third aspect of the method of the invention ripened fruit or vegetables
are
blended as in mixed by violent shearing, in any combination with any variety
or
quantity of natural juices, juiced fruits and vegetables, nuts, yogurt,
juices,
milks, herbs, spices, coffee, tea, vitamins, proteins, freeze dried super
foods,
herbal and non-herbal medicines, fulvic plant and earth minerals and then
poured in a container or mixing drum where motion within the pre-blended
mixture maintains a uniform consistency.
Proper Nutritional values, taste and purity of the pre-ripened and blended
fruits or vegetables and including all other natural and organic ingredients
are
preserved through the change of state from liquid to frozen.
More particularly, combining yogurt, with milk, juices, fruits, protein,
vegetables and super foods are blended as by violent shearing to form a
particular texture. This container is then continuously shaken or spun or
turned
before Et while the mixed liquid batch is poured into the freezing mold. The
more intense the shaking or spinning of the closed container with the mixture
the more the process allows air to enter into the mixed liquid, making it
expand, giving it more volume which can ultimately change the density of the
pre-blended frozen nutrition mixture.
In a forth aspect, the pre-blended mixture contained in the freezing mold can
be in the mold by itself or it can have any other solid, powdered, or other
food
added to the individual freezer mold itself before or after it has changed
from
liquid into a solid frozen state altogether.
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In a fifth aspect of the invention, the method of the freezing molds
containing
the pre-blended mixture, with or without solid pieces or other foods added to
it, are then placed into freezing racks or on a conveyor belt going through
flash
freezing temperatures ranging from -5 to -75 degrees below Celsius. After
freezing is completed these individually frozen shapes can have a net weight
ranging upwards from 0.5 grams depending on the size of the mold that the
liquid was poured and frozen into. Different sizes of freezer molds, and
freezing temperatures determine the size and the weight and density of the
individual frozen nutritional mixture or frozen consumption units that are
added to a drink making machine (blender) and or packaged with other
ingredients. These molds can range in size upwards from 1 cm in diameter or 1
cubic cm including any and all varieties of different shapes and sizes. Any
shapes, sizes, and densities can be determined by the size of the mold that
the
pre-blended mixture batch is poured in.
For example: a long freezer mold can be put on a conveyor belt that runs
batches of pre-blended mixture through a flash freezing stage. When the frozen
pre-blended mixture is made in bigger freezer molds, it can be cut up and/or
and divided into desired sizes and weight while frozen. Some freezer molds are
much smaller and can be used to determine size and to control the weight of
frozen matter for pre-selected sizes of the pre-blended and packaged frozen
mixture mix.
The size of the freezer and subdivision of the bulk pre-blended mixture
accommodates the manufacturing specifications as needed to meet packaging
size, blender specifications, desired consistency, and targeted nutritional
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specifications that are preserved frozen in the package, and after other
ingredients are added to the frozen mixture.
After determining the weight and size of the frozen mixture, it is then sorted
and divided into small, medium or large packaging sizes and kept frozen. This
frozen mixture once packaged can be accompanied with any other frozen food
or any other solid food or powdered ingredients, then packaged again.
For example: Super foods, Frozen fruits and vegetables, or spices and herbs
can
be added to the frozen mixture in the package. The volume of frozen nutrition
mixture required to make the drinks is determined by the desired size,
nutritional data, and flavor that correspond to preparing that specific
individual pre-blended frozen mixture, and with the other ingredients added to
make a frozen smoothy.
The total size and frozen density of the individual frozen mixture plays a
major
role when the frozen contents in the package and other ingredients are mixed
with a liquid and blended to a desired liquid consistency for a finished
product.
If the frozen mixture or pieces are too big, or to dense, it will be difficult
for
blender blades to run and will cause more wear on the blender, increasing
heating of the product, making the drink too thick to drink or might take too
long to prepare for a customer. If the frozen matter is too small the outcome
of
the frozen health drink may be to liquidy, losing its desired consistency
after
blending stage (last stage). When packaging the frozen mixture, or pieces it
is
important to pre-measure density, weight and size being packaged. This will
determine the amount and size of other ingredients that can be added to a
package or when added to the blender to achieve the desired consistency of
the finished blended frozen drink. The frozen nutrition mixes, density,
weight,
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and size also determines the type of mixer or blender that is to be used and
programmed with an exact blender program to simplify quick preparation of
the frozen health drinks and reduce blender wear.
The pre-blended frozen nutritional mixture is best stored in freezing
temperatures -5 to -50 degrees Celsius before being added with other
ingredients into a package, or combining with a liquid inside a blender to
prepare a frozen health drink.
In all aspects once the frozen mixture or pieces are sorted, weighed and have
reached their desired frozen density, it is then they can be added to
packaging.
In addition to the frozen mixture or pieces that are being put into the
package,
any other solid or other food, powdered or freeze dried fruits and vegetables,
herbs, proteins and any other nutritious vitamins, herbal and non herbal
medicines can be added before the frozen product consumption unit is packed
and stored in any freezer that is set between the temperature of -5 degrees to
-50 degrees Celsius. The amount of frozen mixture or pieces of frozen food
matter that goes into the package is what determines the specific individual
sizes of the frozen drinks that are being packaged into a new product.
According to a still further aspect of the invention, when the frozen
nutrition
mixture by itself, or with other contents, are combined with any liquid and
are
blended together, it is then that all ingredients from the first stage to the
last
stage of this invention are transformed into a uniform, and evenly mixed
frozen
smoothy or slushy drink.
Many variables determine the outcome of the drink sizes as well the drinks
overall consistency and texture. These variables include, and are not limited
to:
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1. The density of the pre-blended frozen mixture may be determined by the
amount of time, and freezing temperature that the mixture is frozen in during,
and after production, the same rule applies for the ingredients that are
added,
and the package that it is stored in.
2. The individual sizes of the pre-blended frozen mixture or pieces of
additional food in the package.
3. The type of blender being used.
4. The blender blades shape.
5. The blender speeds or rpms, of the motor.
6. The predetermined program of the blender.
7. The amount of liquid added to blender before, during or after the frozen
mixture contents is added.
For example:
To reach the texture of a milkshake type consistency for a completed 12 oz
drink, the controlled variables are as follows:
1. The pre-blended frozen mixture is stored -18 degrees Celsius.
2. The sizes of the frozen mixture or pieces and or other food pieces in
package
are roughly 10 cm x 2cm rectangular or 20 cm in diameter. The total weight of
the contents of the package is 346 grams.
3. The type of blender being used is a commercial Vitamix(N). Model # 30169.
4. Blade size is 10 cm in length.
5. The blender has a total 3 horsepower output.
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6. Ramps up to MED (51%) for 10 seconds, then ramps up to HIGH (85%) for 10
seconds. Total blend time from when frozen meets liquid to finished product is
20 seconds.
7. The measured amount of liquid to be combined with frozen contents is 10
oz.
This is a new process to pre-blend and are manufacture foods, and foods that
are close to expiring, into one uniform ingredient, that is changed from
liquid
to frozen, and reversing its stages from frozen back to liquid, and used to
mix
and combine with other complimentary ingredients to arrive at a finished
product.
While the present invention has been described in connection with what is
considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is understood
that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is
intended
to cover various arrangements and methods included within the spirit and
scope of the broadest interpretations and equivalent arrangements.
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