AU2003204957B2

AU2003204957B2 - Snack Food And Producing Method Thereof

Info

Publication number: AU2003204957B2
Application number: AU2003204957A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Ikuko Watanabe
Original assignee: Terra Foods Corp
Current assignee: Terra Foods Corp
Priority date: 2003-06-27
Filing date: 2003-06-27
Publication date: 2009-06-11
Anticipated expiration: 2023-06-27
Also published as: AU2003204957A1

Description

SNACK FOOD AND PRODUCING METHOD THEREOF 5 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l.Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a snack food produced through a process using any oil other than the oil that 10 materials originally contain and a producing method thereof. 2.Prior art Generally, potato chips are very popular by their crispiness and crunchiness as a snack food. The potato chips 15 are one of the most famous snack foods in the world. Usually the potato chips produce by slicing potatoes, frying them, and spraying salts or other seasonings on them. However, many of the conventional snack foods such as potato chips are fried to obtain their crispiness and 20 crunchiness. This is the reason why the conventional snack foods have a high calorific value. Nowadays, many people are health-oriented to such an extent that prevention of corpulence and resultant diseases are drawing much public attention and snack foods with low 25 calorific values are much in demand. Given the situat1iTi, it may be proposed that snack foods are produced without frying. However, there are problems that such snack foods lack a sufficiently good taste and a crunching feel when it is bitten. 1 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is provided to solve said 5 problems. Its first object is to provide a snack food and a producing method thereof that are prepared without frying but give a crunching feel when it is bitten to the same extent as the conventional snack foods. 10 Its second object is to provide a snack food and a producing method thereof that are showing a low calorific value contributing to prevention of corpulence and resultant adults' diseases. According to a first aspect of the present invention, 15 there is provided a snack food produced by drying raw materials or pelletized materials, and inflating said dried raw materials or said dried pelletized materials. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a producing method of the snack food, 20 comprising the steps of preparing step for preparing raw materials or forming step for forming raw materials into a shape of pellet; drying step for drying said raw materials or said pellets to remove extra moisture contained therein; and inflating for inflating said dried raw materials or said dried 25 pellets. According to a thTud aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, wherein said raw materials or said pellets are adjusted their suitable amount of moisture by steaming or boiling before said drying step. 2 According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second or third aspect, wherein said drying step is made to dry said raw materials or said pellets by means of a far infrared ray or a microwave. 5 According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of second aspect to fourth aspect, further comprising the steps of seasoning step for seasoning said dried raw materials or said dried pellets with desirable taste; and baking step for baking said seasoned raw materials or said 10 seasoned pellets. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, wherein said baking step is made to bake said seasoned raw materials or said seasoned pellets by means of a far infrared ray or a microwave. 15 According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the second aspect to six aspect, wherein said inflating step causes said dried raw materials or said dried pellets to inflate while leaving said dried raw materials or said dried pellet at an atmospheric temperature and pressure 20 after being heated and pressurized. According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the fifth aspect to seventh aspect, wherein said seasoning step is to spray the seasonings to said inflated pellets. 25 Since the snack food according to the present invention adopts the afore-mentioned'structure, it is possible to obtain a sufficiently good taste and give a crunching feel when bitten while showing a low calorific value contributing to prevention of corpulence and resultant adults' diseases. 3 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a process flowchart of one example of the 5 snack food production according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a graphical process flowchart of concrete example of the snack food production according to the present invention. 10 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the invention relating to the method of producing a snack food will be explained. The method of producing a snack food in the embodiment 15 of the invention is shown on FIG. 1. Therein, potatoes will be used as a raw material. As a preparing step (Sl), the potatoes are subjected to skin paring or peeling. Moreover, it is possible to use other than the potatoes as a raw material, such as sweet potatoes and 20 so forth. Furthermore, it is possible to use various foods as materials such as vegetables, fruit, and fish and shellfishes. As a pelletizing step (S2), the potatoes are cut into small pieces, which are called pellets. The pelletizing step (S2) is to cut the potatoes into small pieces whose size are 25 radiuses of about lcm to 2cm and predetermined thickness about 4mm to 5mm. Hereinafter Thesmall piece of potato is called "Pellet". If materials are small before pelletizing, it is possible to use said small materials as it is.

As a steaming or a boiling step (S3), the pellets are steamed or boiled in order to equalize the percentage of the moisture contained in each pellet. As a drying step (S4), the steamed or boiled pellets 5 are dried in order to adjust the percentage of the moisture contained therein down to a predetermined value. In the drying step (S4), use of far infrared rays or a microwave is preferable, in which drying is done in a short time and all the way to the cores thereof and it is most preferable to give a 10 crunching feel all over the pellet when bitten. As an inflating step (S5), the dried pellets are heated and pressurized by means of a heating/pressurizing device. Then, after a passage of a predetermined time, the pellets are subjected to an atmospheric pressure such that the pellets 15 instantly inflate. The phenomenon of inflating will be explained as follows. When the pellets are heated and pressurized by a heating/pressurizing device,.the moisture contained in a fiber or a cell of the potato begins to evaporate. However, the 20 pellets are pressurized, so that the steam inside of the pellets cannot go anywhere. Then, the heated and pressurized pellets are released in the normal temperature and pressure. At this stage, the fiber or the cell inflates instantly caused by the expansive pressure of the steam. As a result of the 25 inflating, many cavities are formed inside of the inflated pellets by the steam bubble. The cavities make the snack food of the present invention crispy and crunchy. As a seasoning step (S6), the inflated pellets are subjected to spraying of seasonings including salt, glutamic acid, or other extracts (for example, beef extract) with a non oil spray. At the seasoning step (S6), the snack food can be manufactured without extra oil by using non-oil spray, except 5 for the oil that is originally contained in the material. If mild taste is preferred, it is possible to spray a limited quantity of oil. As a re-drying step (S7), the seasoned pellets are dried by means of the far infrared rays or the microwave again 10 to remove extra moisture contained therein. The re-drying step may include a baking process to make the seasoned pellets crispier, crunchier and tastier with good smell. As a result, the snack food having a delicious taste while giving a crunching feel is produced. 15 (Concrete example) Concrete examples in the embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 2. After the skin paring of potatoes, the skin pared potatoes are pelletized to the predetermined size and thickness 20 (for example, an area of 2 cm 2 , and the thickness of 4 mm). Then, the pelletized potatoes, which called pellets 1, are subjected to steam or to boil for heating the same. Next, the pellets 1 are dried by means of a far infrared dryer, which is consisted of an far infrared ray 25 irradiation section 11 and an conveyor section 12, to reduce the percentage of moisturecontained therein down to 5% to 20%. Then, the pellets 1 are set in a heating/pressurizing device, which is consisted of heat-press section 13, to heat at a temperature of 180 0 C to 25 0 "Cand pressurize under a pressure of 30 2,000kg/cm 2 to 3,000kg/cm 2 . After heated and pressurized, the 6 pellets 1 are taken out from the heating/pressurizing device, so that the pellets 1 inflate instantly. Then, the seasoning section 14 seasons the surface of the inflated pellets la with thickened polysaccharides and so 5 forth by means of spraying. In the seasoning section 14, a rolling tumbler that is shown on FIG. 2 rotates regularly for averaging the seasonings of each inflated pellet la. Hereinafter, the seasoned inflated pellet la is called "snack food". 10 After seasoned, the snack food lb is cooled at a room temperature to season well until next step proceeding. Then, the snack foods lb are re-dried to reduce the percentage of the moisture contained therein down to 2% to 10% again by means of the far infrared dryer, which is consisted of 15 an far infrared ray irradiation section 11 and an conveyor section 12. As a result, a finished snack food 1c having a delicious taste and giving a crunching feel is produced. The finished snack foods lc are selected by a selecting process to uniform the sizes or shapes. After selected, the 20 selected finished snack foods lc are measured for packaging. Then, the measured finished snack foods 1c are packaged in a bag and put in a box, in order to put on circulation. In this connection, it was found to be most preferable that the pellets containing moisture of 13% are heated at a 25 temperature of 200 0 C and pressurized under the pressure of 2,500 kg/cm 2 to reduce the moisture down to 4%, because the above-treated snack food has a delicious taste and the crunching feel when bitten. The present invention provides a low calorie and low 30 fat snack food having an effect of preventing corpulence and resultant adult's diseases by slicing a skin pared potatoes, pelletizing and steaming or boiling the same, inflating into a form of thin bars and drying substantially without oil such that the resultant product having an effect of giving a 5 crunching feel when bitten is produced. Further, the present invention provides a crunching feel all over the snack food when bitten, because of using the far infrared rays or the microwave for drying the pellets. Therefore, the pellets are dried all the way to the cores 10 thereof in a short time. Moreover, the present invention provides an easy production process and the low cost production of the snack food that is suited to mass production is possible. 15 The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of "having" or "including" and not in the exclusive sense of ''consisting only of". 20 25 30

Claims

1. A method of producing a snack food comprising the steps of preparing step for preparing raw materials or forming steps for forming raw materials into a shape of pellet; adjusting step for adjusting suitable amount of moisture of said raw materials or said pellets by steaming or boiling; drying step for drying said raw materials or said pellets to remove extra moisture contained therein by means of a far infrared ray; inflating step for inflating said dried raw materials or said dried pellets; seasoning step for seasoning said dried raw materials or said dried pellets with desirable taste by spraying the seasonings to said inflated raw materials or said inflated pellets; and baking step for said seasoned raw materials or said seasoned pellets by means of far infrared ray; wherein said inflating step causes said dried raw materials or said dried pellets to inflate while leaving said dried raw materials or said dried pellets at an atmospheric temperature and pressure after being heating at a temperature of 180 0 C ~ 250 0 C and pressurized under a pressure of 2,000kg/cm 2 to 3,000kg/cm 2 by means of a heating/pressurizing device.

2. A snack food as substantially hereinbefore described and with reference to the drawings.

3. A method of producing a snack food as substantially hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings.