Novel fruit fillings, methods for their manufacture and their use in nutritional products
A fruit filling containing pureed fruit and wheat gluten is described. A nutritional bar comprising such fruit filling also is described. Methods of producing the fruit filling and bar also are described.
1 . A fruit filling comprising fruit puree and wheat gluten.
2 . The filling of claim 1 , wherein said fruit puree comprises crushed fruit, pectin and sugar.
3 . The filling of claim 2 , wherein said filling comprises at least one additional ingredient selected from the group consisting of water, citric acid, sodium citrate, calcium citrate and phosphate.
4 . The filling of claim 1 , wherein said fruit puree comprises crushed fruit, pectin and sorbitol or fructose.
5 . The filling of claim 1 , wherein said wheat gluten is deamidated.
6 . The filling of claim 2 , wherein said crushed fruit is selected from the group consisting of blueberry, apple, apricot, peach, strawberry, blackberry, grape, cherry, and raspberry crushed fruit.
7 . The filling of claim 1 , further comprising about 0 to 25 percent by weight of water, about 0 to 66 percent by weight of sugar, about 0 to 62 percent by weight of fruit, about 0 to 0.75 percent by weight of pectin, about 0 to 0.5 percent by weight of citric acid, about 0 to 0.3 percent by weight of sodium citrate, about 0 to 0.3 percent by weight of calcium citrate, and about 0 to 0.06 percent phosphate.
8 . The filling of claim 1 , which comprises at least about 0.01 percent by weight of gluten.
9 . The filling of claim 8 , wherein said filling comprises less than about 10 percent by weight of gluten.
10 . The filling of claim 9 , wherein said filling comprises from about 0.1 to 5.0 percent by weight of gluten.
11 . The filling of claim 10 , wherein said gluten is deamidated gluten.
12 . A method of producing a fruit filling with reduced flowability comprising the steps of: (a) boiling about 2 kilograms of crushed fruit; (b) adding about 100 grams of pectin to (a); (c) mixing about 2 kilograms of sugar with about 20 grams of deamidated gluten; (d) adding the mixture of (c) to the mixture of (a) and (b); and (e) cooling the product of (d) to about 35 degrees centigrade, so as to produce a fruit filling that retains its form without spreading, flattening or flowing once shaped by cutting.
13 . A bar comprising a confectionery layer and a fruit filling layer, wherein said fruit filling comprises fruit puree and wheat gluten.
14 . The bar, wherein said confectionery layer comprises peanut flour.
15 . The bar of claim 7 , which is enrobed with high protein chocolate.
16 . The bar of claim 13 , which is a nutritional bar.
17 . The bar of claim 13 , which further comprises other filling or confectionery layers.
18 . The bar of claim 16 , which further comprises nutritional additives selected from the group consisting of vitamins, minerals and elements.
19 . The bar of claim 16 , wherein the confectionery layer comprises a high protein dough.