This application is directed to a process for the preparation of low fat and lower fat baked goods and the low fat and lower fat products obtained from the process. It is particularly suitable to the preparation of low fat and lower fat doughnuts.

Technical Field Traditionally, doughnuts are a high fat food product. With today's increasing desire for low fat, lower fat and fat free products there has been a need for a healthier alternative to these highly desired treats. As the general public knows, the supposed healthy alternatives, such as muffins, are often as high in fat as a regular doughnut. Providing the public with a low fat, lower fat or fat free doughnut would serve a large portion of the population and may help to reduce adult and child obesity rates which are increasing yearly.

In a conventional doughnut making process the batter is prepared, the doughnut shaped appropriately and then dropped into hot oil to fry. In some instances, the doughnut is first subjected to a step of cooking/proofing or drying in an oven. The doughnut is then glazed as desired and is ready for consumption. The frying in oil results in a very high fat content doughnut. Studies have shown that the fat content of conventionally prepared doughnuts is often much higher than that advertised by the doughnut makers and sellers.

Others have attempted to come up with processes for reducing fat content in baked goods and other food products.

Background Art In United States Patent No. 3,244,538 issued April 5, 1966 there is disclosed a process for reducing the fat content in fried foods. The process disclosed broadly comprises conditioning the surface of the product to be heated or fried in hot cooking oil. This, in effect, changes the surface so that a protective barrier is formed (i.e. a crust, skin or film) that resists absorption and permeation of the oil in the frying step. The oil resistant capacity is achieved by tempering the surface by drying alone or drying and cooking only the surface of the product followed by cooling of the surface. The surface of the product remains elastic enough to allow expansion of the product during subsequent frying in the hot cooking oil with reduced cracking or breaking of the surface.

The conditioned surface not only resists absorption of the oil into the product but also helps to retain moisture. The resulting product is asserted to have a lower fat content and higher moisture content.

WO2005/051097 published June 9, 2005 discloses a process whereby a starchy farinaceous composition is at least partially cooked and then flash fried in a frying media to form an expandable food product. This process is disclosed as being useful for the preparation of a variety of food products including crackers, doughnuts, etc.

WO2007/105947 published September 20, 2007 discloses a process for finish- frying doughnuts using superheated steam. This process is for use in particular with food products partially prepared or prefried by the food product manufacturer and then finish-fried before consumption by the consumer. A high quality product is obtained that has a lower fat content than conventionally finish-fried doughnuts. Doughnuts that have been chilled or frozen and stored are contacted with superheated steam.

Suggestions have been made that overcoming the issue of the fat content of doughnuts could be accomplished by preparing an oven baked doughnut. However, oven baked doughnuts are not practical on a commercial scale. It would be virtually impossible to prepare oven baked doughnuts in any high speed capacity. Such a process would be prohibitively expensive and time- consuming. Cake-style doughnuts are prepared from a batter that is generally much denser than other oven baked products like muffins, cakes, etc. This denser batter requires intense heat to quickly activate the batter. If such a doughnut were simply baked in an oven the texture and appearance would not be much like what one expects of a doughnut and would be unacceptable to consumers.

Typically, a doughnut prepared in a conventional manner will contain upwards of 18 to 20% of its weight in fat. In some instances, it is as much as 30-32% of its weight. For example, some nutritional labels of doughnuts available in supermarkets and through retail doughnut outlets indicate as much as 18-19 grams of fat in a 42-58 gram doughnut. Much of that fat content is as a result of the doughnuts being fried in hot cooking oil. In the typical frying process the doughnut can pick up about 16% of its total weight in the cooking oil. This occurs because as the doughnut fries air pockets are formed from the baking powder in the batter inside the uncooked doughnut and the cooking oil enters the doughnut over the course of the frying. The frying process generally takes about 2 minutes.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to a process for preparing a lower fat food product comprising the steps of:

(i) frying the food product to begin cooking, and (ii) subjecting the food product to a baking step to complete the cooking.

The intense heat of the frying step increases the core temperature of the food product, effectively "preheating" the food product so that it will cook quicker in the baking step. Essentially, the food product will enter begin the baking step at the same temperature as the oven in which it is baked thus reducing the time required to bake the food product. The process of the present invention is particularly suited to the preparation of doughnuts. Various embodiments of the present invention involve frying the doughnuts in the cooking oil for much less time such that the baking powder does not start to activate, no air pockets are formed and the cooking oil cannot penetrate into the doughnut. As the baking powder activates air holes or pockets are formed in the doughnut expanding the doughnut so that the batter now begins to resemble a sponge. By limiting the time spent in the cooking oil the expansion and formation of holes or pockets is minimized and the batter picks up much less of the cooking oil than in conventional processes. The cooking oil does not saturate the doughnut.

The doughnut is then placed in an oven to complete the cooking/baking process. Most of the oil picked up in the frying step is removed during the subsequent baking step. That is, the cooking oil drains off or bakes off the doughnut as it completes baking in the oven. A simple test of weighing the doughnut before and after the frying step shows little or no increase in weight of the doughnut.

The inventor conducted a simple test, discussed below, to confirm that doughnuts prepared by the process of the present invention pick up little or no oil in the preparation process as compared to the typical doughnut frying process.

A typical cake-style doughnut batter was prepared and six doughnuts were formed from this batter. Each doughnut weighed about 45 grams uncooked so the total weight of the six doughnuts before cooking was 270 grams. The six doughnuts were cooked in a conventional fat fryer and were weighed using a digital scale. The six doughnuts weighed 322 grams, an increase of 52 grams. This would suggest a 52 gram fat absorption or an absorption of 8.6 grams of fat per doughnut. This is an increase in the weight of the doughnut of 16%.

Six raw doughnuts were again formed from the same batter but then fried and baked using the method of the present invention. Again the total weight of the six uncooked doughnuts was 270 grams. After the frying and baking using the embodiments of the present invention the cooked doughnuts were weighed using the same digital scale. The total weight was only 280 grams, suggesting an increase of only 10 grams or 1.6 grams per doughnut. This is an increase in weight of only 3.4%. This shows a significant reduction in the absorption of fat from the cooking process.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described in more detail.

A typical doughnut batter is prepared and the doughnut shaped. The doughnut is dropped into the cooking oil having a temperature of from 15O ⁰ C to 22O ⁰ C and cooked for a time of from about 35 seconds to a maximum of about 120 seconds. The doughnut is then quickly removed from the oil while still hot and essentially still cooking and baked in an oven at a temperature of from 15O ⁰ C to 205 ⁰ C for a period of time of from about 45 seconds to about 180 seconds. During the frying in the cooking oil the doughnut can be flipped once.

If the temperature is lower than 15O ⁰ C the baking powder cannot activate and the doughnut does not cook properly. The resulting doughnut is fragile and unstable. It has a poor texture, an uneven shape, is flat and of poor quality.

If the temperature is higher than 22O ⁰ C there are safety issues as the cooking oil begins to smoke. It would be impractical and unsafe to fry the doughnuts at this temperature.

The inventor tested different temperatures and cooking times and the results are shown below in Table 1. Table 1 - Time and Temperature Test Results for Lower Fat Doughnut

^* grams of fat determined using the weighing method detailed above

The times and temperatures outlined above are based on a 50 gram finished weight doughnut. Detailed steps in the method and variations of the process of the present invention are set out below. These methods have been completed utilizing a conventional domestic oven for the baking step. Details of the method when using a commercial tunnel oven will be set out below.

Variant 1

The cooking oil is heated to a temperature of 19O ⁰ C. The formed doughnut is dropped into the oil and cooks for 20 seconds. The doughnut is flipped in the oil and cooks for a further 25 seconds. The doughnut is then flipped back to its original position and is immediately removed from the oil and placed directly in the cooking oven where it is baked at a temperature of 23O ⁰ C for 3 minutes. The doughnut is removed from the oven and allowed to cool.

Variant 2 The cooking oil is heated to a temperature of 19O ⁰ C. The formed doughnut is dropped into the oil and cooks for 25 seconds. The doughnut is flipped in the oil and cooks for a further 25 seconds. The doughnut is immediately removed and placed directly in the cooking oven where it is baked at a temperature of 23O ⁰ C for 3 minutes. The doughnut is removed from the oven and allowed to cool.

Variant 3

The cooking oil is heated to a temperature of 19O ⁰ C. The formed doughnut is dropped into the oil, submerged and kept under the surface of the oil using a perforated screen or spatula and cooks for 50 seconds. The doughnut is then immediately removed and placed directly in the cooking oven where it is baked at a temperature of 23O ⁰ C for 3 minutes. The doughnut is removed from the oven and allowed to cool.

The method can also be conducted utilizing commercial equipment for frying and baking, for example, in a tunnel oven. The doughnut batter is passed through the fryer on a conveyor belt, moves out of the fryer and directly into the tunnel oven for the final baking step. This allows one to reduce significantly the amount of time in the oven. The temperature of the conventional oven is not as consistent nor as dense as a tunnel oven resulting in the need for a longer baking/cooking time.

A tunnel oven has a more concentrated heat and consistent temperature. The doughnut moves through the tunnel oven on a conveyor as it bakes. Generally, tunnel ovens incorporate one or more blowers to assist in transferring heat to the food product carried by the conveyor. This improves the baking process as compared to conventional ovens and allows for the reduction in baking times and temperatures.

In this most preferred embodiment the doughnut moves through the fryer on the conveyor where the cooking oil is heated to a temperature of 19O ⁰ C and cooked for 50 seconds. The temperature for the subsequent baking step is lowered to 185 ⁰ C and the time reduced to 70 seconds.

This process is most suitable for use with cake style or old-fashioned style doughnut batter.

This process would also be suitable for any type of product prepared with a frying step, including other baked goods, French fries, fried chicken, etc.

As noted above, the various embodiments disclosed are particularly suited to the preparation of old fashioned style cake doughnuts. Set out below are typical ingredient lists and component percentages of such typical doughnut batters.

Buttermilk Old Fashioned Glazed Doughnuts

Ingredients

Batter - enriched wheat flour, hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, water, sugar soy flour, yolk powder, whey powder, salt, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, soy lecithin, artificial flavour, sulphites For component percentages see Table 2 below.

Glaze - icing sugar, water, sugar palm kernel oil shortening, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, calcium carbonate, agar, salt, mono and diglycerides, sorbitan monostearate

For component percentages see Table 3 below.

Table 2 - Batter

Table 3 - Glaze

Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts

Ingredients

Batter - enriched wheat flour, hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, water, sugar, cocoa, soybean oil, skim milk, dextrose, soy flour, dried yolk, baking powder, salt, soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, cornstarch, artificial flavour, colour, citric acid

For component percentages see Table 4 below.

Glaze - icing sugar, water, sugar, palm kernel oil shortening, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, calcium carbonate, agar, salt, mono and diglycerides, sorbitan monostearate

For component percentages see Table 5 below. Table 4 - Batter

Table 5 - Glaze The ingredients can be combined together using standard industrial mixers and mixed for one minute at a consistent speed. The bowl is scraped and mixed for a further 2 minutes on a slightly higher speed. The batter is left to stand for about 5 minutes and then loaded into a typical doughnut hopper. The doughnuts are formed and cooked according to the various embodiments set out above.

The doughnuts resulting from the process of the present invention are lower in fat than conventionally prepared doughnuts.

Testing was conducted by an accredited laboratory to provide nutritional analysis. The methodology used in the testing is common and standard to the trade. The laboratory conducting the testing, Maxxam Analytics Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada is an ISO 17025 laboratory accredited for nutritional tests. They meet the recommendations of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) compliance and nutritional information.

Tests were conducted on old fashioned cake style doughnuts. The recipe for the preparation of the doughnut batter was the same in each case. One batch was fried using a conventional doughnut frying process. Another batch was fried then baked using the process of the present invention. The tests show a reduction in the fat content of 54.5% based on a standard 42 gram doughnut. The results of the nutritional analysis are set out below in Tables 6 and 7. These tables are set up as standardized nutrition facts tables as is now required on all packaged foods. Table 6 - Conventional Process

Nutrition Facts

Per2donuts (10Og)

Amount % Daily Value

Calories 490

Fat 32 g 49%

Saturated 8 g + Trans 0.3 g 42%

Polyunsaturated 9 g

Omega-68 g

Omega-31 g

Monounsaturated 13 g

Cholesterol 30 mg 10%

Sodium 460 mg 19%

Potassium 160 mg 5%

Carbohydrate 43 g 14%

Fibre 1 g 4%

Sugars 16 g

Protein 6 g

Vitamin A 0%

Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 4%

Iron 25%

Table 7 - Process of the Present Invention

Nutrition Facts

Per 1 donut (47 g)

Amount % Daily Value

Calories 180

Fat7g 11 %

Saturated 2 g + Trans 0.1 g 11 %

Polyunsaturated 2.5 g

Omega-62g

Omega-30.3 g

Monounsaturated 2.5 g

Cholesterol 20 mg 7%

Sodium 290 mg 12%

Potassium 85 mg 2%

Carbohydrate 25 g 8%

Fibre 1 g 4%

Sugars 10 g

Protein 3 g

Vitamin A 0%

Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 2%

Iron 10%

Additional details on the product analysis is shown below in Tables 8 and 9. Table 8 - Conventional Process

Compares two types of doughnuts prepared by the conventional process

CANADIAN LABEL (FOOD)

Table 9 - Process of the Present Invention

RESULTS OF ANALYSES OF FOOD

ND = Not detected

RDL = Reportable Detection Limit

QC Batch = Quality Control Batch