Method of flavor encapsulation through the use of a drum coater

1. A method of coating flavorants on oral pouch products comprising:

rotating a drum coater containing oral pouch products;

spraying a flavoring solution to coat the oral pouch products while the oral pouch products are tumbling in the rotating drum coater, and

flowing heated air through the drum coater so as to remove water from droplets of the flavoring solution to form encapsulated flavorant particles before the droplets contact and coat the oral pouch products;

wherein the flavoring solution contains water, a flavorant, an encapsulation agent, and an adhesive agent.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spraying is performed with one or more spray nozzles at a nozzle pressure between about 3 psi and about 30 psi to atomize the flavoring solution into droplets.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heated air has a temperature sufficient to remove water from the droplets to form encapsulated flavorant particles before the droplets contact the oral pouch products, the encapsulation agent forming an encapsulation layer which envelopes the flavorant; and the adhesive agent forming an adhesive layer on the encapsulation layer and promotes adhesion of the droplets to the oral pouch products.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oral pouch products include a tobacco-free filling in a porous pouch wrapper, sized to fit comfortably in a human mouth.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein removing the water from the droplets comprises flowing heated air from about 80° C. to about 95° C. through the rotating drum with an air flow rate from about 20 cubic feet per minute to about 60 cubic feet per minute.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spraying is terminated when an add-on weight to the oral pouch products is between about 2% and about 200%.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drum coater is rotated between about 20 and about 40 revolutions per minute.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flavorant is between about 1% by weight and about 10% by weight of the flavoring solution.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive agent is up to about 5% by weight of the flavoring solution.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encapsulating agent is between about 15% by weight and about 55% by weight of the flavoring solution.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encapsulating agent is gum arabic, modified food starch or mixtures thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive agent is sodium alginate, carrageenan, hydrocolloids or mixtures thereof.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flavorant is oil-based, the flavoring solution includes an emulsifying agent, the flavoring solution is mixed by applying high-shear agitation and homogenization before spraying the flavoring solution.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flavorants include:

(a) savory, sweet, vegetable, dairy, spice, or wine and distilled beverages;

(b) the savory flavorants include beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, seafood, ham, meat broth, nut, macadamia, peanut, pecan, pine, walnut, pistachio, almond or chestnut;

(c) the sweet flavorants include strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, banana, peach, mango, passion fruit, green tea, red tea, black tea, apple, grape, caramel, watermelon, chocolate or coffee;

(d) the vegetable flavorants include celery, lettuce, broccoli, tomato, green pepper, cucumber, carrot, radish, horseradish, washbi, beet, leek, shallot, onion or garlic;

(e) the dairy flavorants include butter, cheese, sweet cream, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, vanilla or ice cream;

(f) spice flavorants include clove, oregano, lemon, lime, jasmine, garlic, ginger, eucalyptus, geranium, dill, cumin, cardamom, cassia, coriander, rose, rosemary, basil, star anise, sweet fennel, sweet marjoram, thyme, violet leaf, spearmint or peppermint; and/or

(g) the wine and distilled beverages flavorants include red wine, white wine, whisky, brandy, cognac, rum or gin.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising spraying a different flavoring solution to coat the same oral pouch products while the oral pouch products are tumbling in the rotating drum coater.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein a flow rate of the flavoring solution is controlled by a pumping arrangement; or a peristaltic pump operated between about 20 and about 25 RPM.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flavoring solution has a viscosity of between about 100 centipoise and about 1,200 centipoise at room temperature.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the emulsifying agent is diacetyl tartrate ester of monoglyceride.