A problem often arises, particularly in a crowded environment9 in convenient disposal of the sticks. They are frequently deposited on the original serving plates from where they came. This is not only unsightly but also, arguably, unhygienic.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a stick which overcomes the problem aforesaid.

According to the present invention there is provided a cocktail stick or the like for use in carrying or handling foodstuff, the stick itself being edible.

The stick may be formed from a foodstuff such as a biscuit-like material, e. g. a flour-based foodstuff using for instance a wheat-based flour. Preferably the stick is produced from a glutenous foodstuff, for instance a glutenous flour such as durum flour.

Typically the sticks are produced by cooking, with microwave cooking being preferred because it produces a superior product. In some instances, the production of the sticks may involve taking them through more than one cycle of microwave cooking.

The addition of gluten or a glutenous agent as an ingredient, typically an amount of at least 10% by weight (and usually no more than about 50% by weight), has been found to provide good results in terms of product strength and texture.

Gluten is a particularly desirable ingredient because of its contribution to the textural properties of the product, its binding properties, its water-absorbing capability, its strength-conferring and visco-elastic properties and improved eating characteristics.

Typical ingredients used in the manufacture of the sticks are flour, salt, gluten, cornflour and water, preferably cooked using microwave heating.

A sweetener (such as a natural sugar, an organic sugar or an artificial sweetener) may be present as an ingredient.

In some instances, the composition of the sticks may be based on sugar as the sole or primary ingredient, for instance a sugar selected from the group comprising sucrose, lactose, fructose, trehalose and mixtures thereof. The sugar or other sweetener may be one which has a relatively low sweetness compared with sucrose.

Where a sugar is used, it is preferably one which from solution forms a glass rather than crystals, e. g. trehalose. Desirably the sugar is one which is non- hygroscopic and/or does not caramelise under normal heating and/or does not undergo the Maillard reaction with proteins or peptides. Trehalose is particularly suitable in these regards.

The stick may contain a flavouring, which may be present in a microencapsulated form to increase shelf-life.

The stick may be coated to render it water or moisture resistant to prevent it becoming softened when engaged with moist food material. To this end, the stick may contain, as an ingredient thereof, an agent such as a humectant (e. g. coconut oil) which will confer some degree of moisture resistance and/or it may be coated with an edible moisture-resistant coating, such as an edible lacquer, varnish or glaze.

The sticks may include a food preservative and/or a colouring agent.

The stick will usually be of elongate configuration and may comprise a round-section body and/or be pointed at one or both ends thereof especially when intended to be used as or in the manner of a skewer. However, we do not exclude the possibility that the stick may be in other forms such as a flat stick of the type commonly used with"ice lolly"type confections or a more elaborate configuration suitable for use as a scoop where for instance the foodstuff comprises ice cream-type confection or dessert.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided in combination, a foodstuff and a stick as defined above.

The stick may be arranged to penetrate partially into the body of the foodstuff so that part of the stick projects from the body to facilitate handling of the foodstuff. The foodstuff may comprise for instance a frozen or partly frozen confection, optionally a frozen flavoured liquid (e. g. fruit juice or fruit juice diluted with water) or ice cream. Alternatively the foodstuff may be a solid body, such as a body of confection as found in a"lollypop"for instance.

Typically the foodstuff is contained in packaging with which the stick is associated. For instance, the foodstuff may be contained within a lidded container such as a tub and the stick may be located within the container so as to be readily accessible on removal of the lid or it may be attached to the lid or some other part of the container.

Where the foodstuff is packaged in this way9 the stick may be in the form of an eating utensil, e. g. it may be shaped as a spoon or the like with a contour forming a handling portion for gripping between the thumb and forefinger at one end and scooping portion at the other end for scooping the foodstuff from the tub.

The stick may be enclosed within its own removable packaging.

In some applications of the invention, the stick may be sheathed at least in part in a protective covering which can be wholly removed or removed at least in part prior to or after use. The protective covering may for instance be of a paper or plastics material. The removable covering may extend over only part of the length of the stick at least in use so that the exposed part of the stick can be eaten first and then the remaining sheathed part can be eaten after removal of the cover. Thus, especially where the stick is to be held in the hand for any length of time as in the case of chopsticks or the projecting portion of a lolly stick or a scoop-type stick, the portion of the stick which is normally manipulated during consumption of the main item of foodstuff may be provided with the removable cover so that, when the main item has been consumed, the removable cover can be removed and disposed of and the remainder of the stick eaten.

Where the removable cover wholly encloses the stick, it may be formed with one or more lines of weakness (e. g. perforations or the like) to define a point at which one section of the cover may be removed to expose the stick while leaving the other section in place to cover that portion which, for the time being, is to be held by the fingers until such time as the user is ready to consume the covered portion of the stick.

In the case where sheathing is employed for a stick mounting an item or items of foodstuff, e. g. confectionery or a frozen confection, the embedded part of the stick need not be sheathed but at least part of the projecting portion will be. The cover provided on the projecting portion may be arranged so that it can be slipped off the stick relatively easily by gripping the uncovered portion with the teeth and pulling on the cover.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of handling a foodstuff comprising partially inserting the stick into the body of the foodstuff and using the projecting portion of the stick to manipulate the foodstuff during consumption thereof.

The invention will now be further described by way of example.

In one embodiment, the stick comprises a cocktail stick produced as a rod of edible material, the rod having similar size and shape to a conventional wooden or plastic cocktail stick. The edible material may be biscuit-like. Typically it will be produced by the microwave cooking of a blended mixture of flour, salt, gluten, cornflour and water. The rod is coated with an edible lacquer, varnish or glaze to render it water resistant and thereby prevent it softening when in contact with moist food material.

The material of the rod may be flavoured by the addition of flavouring which might conveniently be microencapsulated in yeast cells to increase shelf-life. This could be important since a user will often have sticks surplus to requirement from one function for retention to another.

One method of producing the sticks comprises blending together flour (e. g.

Durum or high protein flour), salt, gluten, cornflour and water to produce a dough, the proportions being commercial gluten 10%, commercial cornflour 5%, salt 2%, water 25%, each by weight of the Durum or high protein flour content. The dough is rolled out to form sticks (typically having dimensions of 50 to 100 mm long and 3 to 5 mm diameter) which are then laid on a tray having ribs to locate the sticks and maintain them straight during subsequent cooking. The sticks are cooked in a microwave at 560 Watts for 1 minute and then left to cool. The cooking procedure is repeated a further 3 times to secure good cross-linking of the starch granules in the flour and thereby strengthen the end product. This cooking regime has been identified as being suitable after experimentation with a number of regimes. For instance, if the sticks are microwaved for 2 minutes and 800 Watts, the product was found to be crisp but brittle. On the other hand, if the sticks are microwaved for 5 minutes using a microwave power of 420 Watts and an intermittent cooking procedure, excessive gas was produced and the end product was found to be"bread-like"and weak.

The above preparation procedure is a a laboratory scale procedure. Where commercial scale production of the sticks is required, the procedure will be adapted suitably and may involve for example extrusion of the blend of ingredients and severence of the extruded mixture into suitable lengths. Also, the cooking regime, preferably microwave heating, will be determined with regard to securing a product of adequate strength, e. g. sufficient to allow the sticks to be pushed without snapping through a representative item of foodstuff, e. g. a one inch cube of relatively hard cheese such as Cheddar cheese. Those skilled in the art will be able to determine suitable cooking conditions without undue trial or experimenation.

In another embodiment of the invention, the sticks are manufactured as a "large"cocktail stick so as to be suitable for use as a skewer, e. g. in the eating of foods such as shish kebab, or for use (as a pair) as chopsticks. In the latter case, the sticks may be packaged as a pair in a sealed wrapping. In the case of a skewer, the ingredients may be selected for their suitability in the production of a skewer that may, itself, be used in the cooking processes employing skewers. Again the stick may be manufactured by microwave cooking using the ingredients mentioned above for the production of a cocktail stick.

The sticks for use as skewers/cocktail sticks, will typically be produced so as to have the following : sufficient hardness that it can be pushed through a foodstuff such as cheese without snapping while being easy to chew and ingest; bland in flavour, pleasant on the palate with a neutral colour so as not to detract from the food itself ; low water absorption capacity so as not to go soggy and deteriorate during storage or when inserted into foodstuff ; and long shelf life and capable of being stored under ambient conditions.

The invention may be implemented in the form of a stick suitable for use as an"ice lolly"holder. In this case, the stick may be elongate with a flat configuration as found in conventional"ice lolly'sticks made of plastic or wood and may be introduced into the mould prior to freezing of the liquid so that the stick is partially embedded in the frozen body of confection, leaving part of the stick projecting as a grip for holding the product without touching the confection. Again the sticks for use in this application may be manufactured using the same ingredients and procedure as described above.

In each embodiment, the sticks are used in a similar manner to conventional sticks, the intention being, though, that the user may consume the stick along with the food which it has carried to his mouth.

As indicated above, the strength of the stick may be achieved by the use of appropriate ingredients, with glutenous ingredients being particularly favoured, and by adopting suitable cooking conditions.

As mentioned, to prevent the sticks becoming soggy, they may be made moisture-resistant. This can be achieved by incorporation of a suitable ingredient within the structure of the stick (e. g. a humectant such as coconut oil) or by coating the stick with a glaze or the like. A wide variety of edible, moisture-resistant film-forming coating materials are known in the art and may be employed in the production of foodstuff handling sticks of the present invention. For instance, shellac based glazes selected from the range of food glazing products commercially available from Capol (UK) Limited (which products are manufactured by Kaul GmbH of Elmshorn, Germany) may be used.

Another commercially available coating material for the purposes of conferring moisture resistance is a cellulose-based product such as Ethocel, available from Dow Europe SA.

Besides the cellulose and shellac-based coating materials, other possibilities include oleaginous materials such as sugar fatty acid polyesters and sugar alcohol polyol fatty acid polyesters and/or waxes and/or gluten films.