chocolate testing

This week’s featured patents are for heat resistant chocolate, eco-friendly gel air fresheners, and edible animal chews.

Method of making a heat stable chocolate confectionery product patent

This patent describes a method for creating a heat resistant confectionery product that includes the incorporation of one or more finely milled ingredients to a mixture containing a chocolate compatible fat. Past attempts to create heat-resistant chocolate products have been made using additional ingredients that generally have a dry, crumbly texture that is undesirable and also suffer from flavor deterioration with a shorter shelf life. This patent describes a process of using exemplary embodiments that can be made with traditional chocolate making ingredients, but which still exhibit heat stable characteristics. Methods in accordance with exemplary embodiments result in a chocolate confectionery product having a rheology such that the product retains its shape above the melting point of fats in the product, while retaining a flavor and mouthfeel comparable with chocolate made by traditional methods.

Heat resistance testing was conducted using a TA.XT2 Texture Analyzer.

Low ester pectin air freshener gels patent

Common techniques for making cold prepared (room temperature) air freshener gels rely on complex chemistry using components that are toxic or hazardous. This patent describes a method for creating more environmentally friendly and non-toxic cold prepared air freshener gels with a low ester pectin.

The TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer equipped with a one inch plunger is used to measure gel strength in this patent.

Edible animal chew patent

This patent describes an edible animal chew that when consumed by an animal cleans the animal’s teeth and gums. The patent claims that the texture of this animal chew is unique because it is particularly effective at cleaning the teeth of the animal even when fed to the animal only twice a week. This eliminates the need for a daily treatment regime and also lowers the calorie intake associated with maintaining the oral health of the animal.

The Stable Microsystems XHDi texture analyzer was used to take rebound measurements using a flat ended conical probe.

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