* * * *

Field of the invention

.The present invention relates to a confectionery product of the type comprising a shell made of foodstuff product containing inside a filling, which may for example be in the form of praline or bar.

Prior art

In a first very widespread type of the product in question, the shell is entirely made of chocolate, and in particular is formed either by two half-shells of chocolate coupled together at their respective mouth edges, or else by a single half-shell, the mouth opening of which is closed by a planar element or bottom that comes to constitute the underside of the product. Products of this type are, for example, described in the patent documents Nos. EP1919296B1 and EP1378174B1, filed in the name of the present applicant.

In a second type of the product in question, which is equally widespread, the shell is instead made entirely of wafer (or waffle) , also in this case being formed by two half-shells coupled together or else by a single half-shell closed by a bottom. Preferably, the wafer shell is itself entirely coated with a layer of chocolate to complete the product. A product of this type is, for example, described in the European patent No. EP1072195B1, filed in the name of the present applicant.

Drawbacks of the prior art

In general, it is by now universally recognized that the presence of chocolate on the outer surface of confectionery products constitutes an undeniable factor of attraction for the consumer, and this certainly also applies to the filled product in question.

As is well known to the person skilled in of the sector, products coated with or made of chocolate suffer, however, from drawbacks that are not negligible from the standpoint of their conservation, as a result of the plastic nature of chocolate, which renders it very sensitive to heat so that the structural integrity of the chocolate parts can be seriously jeopardized at temperatures above 28-30°C.

On the other hand, chocolate is in any case able to exert a beneficial function from the standpoint of conservation of the products, with specific reference to filled products of the type in question, where the chocolate comes to define the outer structure or outer surface thereof, in so far as, thanks to its very compact consistency, chocolate is able to constitute a protective barrier that prevents infiltration into the product of contaminants present, for example, in air (such as humidity, solid particles, microbiological organisms, such as bacteria, etc.), and moreover prevents leaking of the filling outwards.

In this regard, the present applicant has in fact found that in general, even though filled wafer products not coated with chocolate do not effectively suffer from particular problems linked to the temperature of conservation - at least not like a chocolate product -, they are in any case more easily perishable precisely owing to the absence of the barrier layer guaranteed by the chocolate.

As regards the latter category of product, it may once again be noted that the absence of chocolate on the outer surfaces also means that products of this category may as a whole be less attractive to the eye of the consumer, and this aspect, together with the easily perishable nature mentioned above, certainly explains why this category of product has not so far effectively asserted itself on the market.

Object of the invention

In this context, the object of the present invention is to provide a new confectionery product that will be able to overcome the aforesaid drawbacks of the known art.

The above object is achieved via a process having the characteristics of Claim 1. The present invention moreover regards to a confectionery product according to Claims 14 and 15.

The claims form an integral part of the technical teaching provided herein in relation to the invention.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described purely by way of non-limiting example with reference to the annexed representations, in which:

- Figure 1 illustrates an example of the confectionery product described herein;

- Figure 1A is a cross-sectional view according to the plane II-II of Figure 1;

- Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the process described herein;

- Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of an example of mould means for implementing the process described herein.

Detailed description of some embodiments of the invention

In the ensuing description, various specific details are illustrated aimed at providing an in-depth understanding of the embodiments. The embodiments may be obtained without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, or materials, etc. In other cases, known structures, materials, or operations are not illustrated or described in detail so that the various aspects of the embodiment will not be obscured.

The references used herein are provided merely for convenience and hence do not define the sphere of protection or the scope of the embodiments.

The product described herein is a product constituted by a wafer shell containing a filling inside it. Figures 1 and 1A illustrate an example of how the product described herein may present (in the figures the product is designated by the reference number 2 ) .

The term "wafer" is used in the present description to indicate a shaped sheet resulting from forming and baking a mixture or batter for oven products, but is not to be understood as in any way limiting in relation to the nature of the ingredients used for the batter; it may in fact be, for example, a wafer, obtained from a conventional batter for wafers, but also waffles obtained by forming and baking batters of a different type.

The product described herein is characterized in that the wafer of which its shell is made is prepared starting from a batter containing cocoa powder and in that the outer surface of this wafer has a lustre higher than or equal to 20 gloss - measured at an angle of reading of 8° with respect to a direction orthogonal to the outer surface in question using an instrument with diffuse d/8° sphere geometry. It should be noted that by "outer surface" as used herein is understood the surface of the wafer that comes to define at least part of the outer surface of the product, i.e., its shell .

There now follows an explanation of how these characteristics constitute an innovation as compared to the conventional art. First of all, the present applicant has noted that a wafer obtained with a batter containing cocoa powder that presents a shiny outer surface is provided with a surface structure more compact and less porous than that of a conventional wafer, which renders it able to isolate the inside of the wafer from the outside more effectively. The present applicant has hence understood that for a wafer prepared with a batter containing cocoa powder there exists a correlation between the degree of lustre of its outer surface and the capacity of this surface to constitute a protective barrier for the product .

The present applicant has also noted that the nature of the lustre in a wafer of this type unexpectedly provides it with an appearance very similar to that of a chocolate surface.

In this context, it should be noted that the presence of cocoa powder in the batter has the dual effect of rendering the final structure of the wafer denser and of bestowing on the wafer the desired colour of chocolate.

On the basis of these observations, the present applicant has then understood that it is possible to identify a filled product, with its shell made of wafer, that is:

i) able to protect its filling and the shell itself effectively from contamination;

ii) not very sensitive to the temperature of conservation;

iii) able to evoke visually in the consumer suggestions similar to those evoked by chocolate.

After an intense experimental activity, the present applicant has hence deemed it possible to identify this type of product by the set of characteristics referred to above, and in particular the characteristic represented by the fact that the outer surface of the wafer has a lustre value higher than or equal to 20 gloss.

The present applicant has also noted that constituting preferred embodiments of the product in question are those in which the wafer is prepared with a batter containing a weight percentage of cocoa powder higher than or equal to 3 wt%, preferably comprised between 3 wt% and 6 wt%, extremes included, or else higher than or equal to 6 wt%, preferably 6 wt or 7 wt% and 12 wt%, extremes included, even more preferably equal to 8 wt%, in particular for a batter containing an amount of water comprised between 40 wt% and 60 wt% . With this type of batter wafers have been obtained, the outer surfaces of which have lustre values higher than 30 gloss. Laboratory analyses conducted on these surfaces have shown that they present the structural characteristics suitable for performing the function of protection mentioned above, and at the same time are characterized by having an appearance that is altogether comparable to that of a chocolate surface. Typically, the wafer in itself presents a content of cocoa higher than or equal to 6.9 wt%, preferably between 6.9 wt% and 12 wt%, extremes included, or else higher than or equal to 12 wt%, preferably between 12 wt% and 25 wt%, extremes included.

Further preferred embodiments . of the product in question will be described hereinafter.

Described in what follows is, instead, the process for producing a shiny wafer of the type referred to above. The steps that make up this process are represented schematically in Figure 2.

The first step of the process is that of preparation of the batter (step 10 of Figure 2). In general, this is a batter with a base of water and flour or flours, and possibly sugar, and flavouring products .

In the process described herein, the batter comprises a given percentage of cocoa powder, preferably cocoa obtained by squeezing and subsequent refining, which replaces a corresponding amount of dry part - i.e., flour, sugars, or flavouring products - in the formulations typical of traditional batters. In various preferred embodiments, the aforesaid percentage of cocoa powder is higher than 3 wt%, preferably comprised between 3 wt% and 9 wt%, or else between 4 wt% and 12 wt%. By way of example, a possible formulation of the batter in question may envisage 25 wt% to 45 wt% of flour, 40 wt% to 60 wt% of water, 3 wt% to 10 wt% of sugar, 3 wt% to 12 wt% of cocoa powder, and 0.1 wt% to 0.8 wt% of bicarbonate of soda.

The techniques of preparation of batters for oven products are in any case well known to the person skilled in of the sector and consequently will not be described in detail herein.

The process then comprises the step of providing mould means within which to bake the batter prepared (step 20 of Figure 2) .

In particular, the above means comprise two half- moulds or plates, which define two mould surfaces set opposite one another, dispensed between which is the batter to be baked. The means in question may be of the same type as those described in the Italian patent application No. TO2014A000445, filed in the name of the present applicant. In this connection, an example of embodiment of these means is schematically illustrated in Figure 3, where the mould surfaces mentioned above are designated by the reference numbers 101 and 201 and the wafer produced therein by the reference 4. The process described herein envisages that the mould surface on which the aforesaid outer surface of the wafer comes to be formed - i.e., the surface that will come to constitute at least part of the outer surface of the shell of the end product - is the result of a surface treatment on the mould means such that the surface of the wafer formed thereon will present the desired lustre value higher than or equal to 20 gloss.

In various embodiments, the surface treatment in question is represented by formation of the mould surface with a value of roughness Ra (arithmetic mean deviation of the profile) equal to or less than 1.2 μπι.

In various preferred embodiments, the plate or half-mould is made of a metallic alloy, preferably steel, and the mould surface constitutes the result of a surface treatment adapted to characterize this surface with a value of roughness comprised in the interval indicated above.

In various embodiments, such treatment is represented by a process of removal of material, for example a smoothing or lapping process performed on steel plate. In this instance, the mould surface can show roughness less than or equal to 0.1 μιη.

In further embodiments, such treatment is represented by an operation of electropolishing . In this instance, the mould surface can show roughness less than or equal to 0.5 μιτι.

Moreover, in further embodiments, the treatment in question is represented by application of a surface coating on the plate or half-mould. In various embodiments, the treatment in question is represented by a process of vacuum plasma deposition (for example PECVD - Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition) , which obtains on the plate, preferably made of steel, synthesis of a nano-structured thin-film coating, for example of silicon oxide (Si0 ₂ ) , with a thickness of 7/8 nm. In this instance, the mould surface can show roughness less than or equal to 0.1 μπι.

In various embodiments, such coating is made of a material that has anti-adherent properties, which may be either of a plastic type or of a ceramic type. In various preferred embodiments, this coating is Teflon- based coating.

It should be noted that the treatment in question may also be represented by a combination of the treatments referred to above.

The process described herein then envisages baking the batter in the mould means until the wafer is obtained (step 30 of Figure 2) .

The wafers obtained adopting the process just illustrated are used for forming the outer shell of the confectionery product described herein, of which Figures 1 and 1A illustrate an example of embodiment thereof .

As already envisaged in the known art, the shell in question may be formed either by two half-shells or else by a half-shell and a plane element or bottom (as in the example illustrated) , and in this connection the mould means used are clearly prearranged for obtaining the wafers of the desired shapes. In the case of the plane element, the outer surface of the wafer described above is clearly the one that is to define part of the outer surface of the shell.

The end product is obtained by depositing the filling on one or both of the wafers formed and then coupling these together so as to constitute the aforesaid shell with the filling inside.

It is to be noted that, aside from the aspects highlighted above, the processes and means for obtaining the wafers in question and then forming the end product are in any case in themselves already known in the art, and consequently will not be described in further detail herein. In this regard, the patent documents Nos. TO2014A000445 EP2506718A1, EP1647190B1, filed in the name of the present applicant, describe some particularly advantageous examples of embodiment thereof .

Of course, without prejudice to the principle of the invention, the details of construction and the embodiments may vary, even significantly, with respect to what has been illustrated herein purely by way of non-limiting example, without thereby departing from the scope of the invention, as defined by the annexed claims. It is to be noted, in this connection, that the filling may present in the form of any filling contained within the shell of the product and does not necessarily have to be liquid or creamy but may present also in the solid state (for example, in the form of a shell contained within the product) . Furthermore, the filling does not necessarily have to fill the shell completely; in fact, this may even be partially empty. Again, as has been seen, in the product described herein part of the outer surface thereof is defined by the wafer; this does not exclude, however, the possibility of the product having even so one or more outer layers, for example, a decorating coat, which, however, do not actually cover the wafer in question or in any case cover it only partially. Finally, even though the wafer described herein is preferably designed to form confectionery products comprising filled shells, the same wafer may also be used for forming products of another type, for example wafer products characterized by multilayer plane structures. Also in this case, the outer surface of the wafer described herein is to constitute at least part of the outer surface of the products.

Examples of embodiment

As mentioned above, to identify the type of wafer that is able to meet the purposes referred to above, the present applicant has had to conduct various experimental tests.

Provided in what follows are the results regarding a test that envisaged the production of fourteen different sets of specimens of wafer, each set including fifteen specimens.

To obtain the various sets the following were used :

- six batters with different contents of cocoa powder, namely, 3 wt%, 4 wt%, 6 wt%, 8 wt%, 10 wt% and 12 wt%, with amounts of flour comprised between 29 wt% and 34 wt%, and amounts of water comprised between 49 wt% and 55 wt%, in particular such that, as the amounts of cocoa increased, the amounts of flour and water in the batter were instead reduced so as to obtain batters with one and the same degree of viscosity, whereas for all the batters the amount of sugar was approximately 5 wt%;

- three different moulds, in the case in point a conventional cast-iron mould, a mould with a Teflon- coated mould surface, and a mould made of steel with a mould surface obtained by a lapping process.

The cocoa powder used presented a percentage of cocoa butter comprised between 10 wt% and 12 wt% and a pH of between 6.0 and 8.0.

The surface of the conventional mould had a mean value of surface roughness (Ra) of 1.6 μπι, the Teflon- coated surface had a mean value of surface roughness (Ra) of 1.035 μπι, whilst the lapped surface made of steel had a mean value of roughness of 0.061 μιη.

Using the cast-iron mould, specimens were produced from the batters with a content of cocoa of 3, 4, 6, and 8 wt%, respectively.

Using the mould with a Teflon-coated surface, specimens were produced from the batters with a content of cocoa respectively of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 wt%, respectively .

Using the mould made of steel, specimens were produced from the batters with a content of cocoa of 3, 4, 6, and 8 wt%, respectively. In all cases, the baking temperature was between 168°C and 172°C.

The specimens obtained presented the following weight per cent values of cocoa:

- from batters with 3 wt% of cocoa: 6.9 wt% final;

- from batters with 4 wt% of cocoa: 9.2 wt% final; - from batters with 6 wt% of cocoa: 13.7 wt% final ;

- from batters with 8 wt% of cocoa: 18.2 final;

- from batters with 10 wt% of cocoa: 21.1 wt% final; and

- from batters with 12 wt% of cocoa: 25 wt% final.

The specimens of the various sets all presented a planar shape and identical thickness, and moreover all presented an outer surface with characteristics substantially homogeneous throughout its extension.

The present applicant measured the gloss value of the outer surfaces of the specimens using a portable spectrophotometer, Model CM-700, marketed by the company Konica Minolta.

The specific techniques of the above instrument appear in Table 1 below.

This instrument has a d/8° geometry and is designed for calculating the gloss value with specular reflection in the 8-degree direction - with respect to the normal of the surface measured - and via the measurement obtained both with SCE (Specular Component Excluded) and with SCI (Specular Component Included) .

Five measurements were made on all the specimens on as many areas of identical dimensions, to verify the repeatability of the measurements. Appearing in Tables 2, 3, and 4 below are the mean lustre values (expressed in gloss), as well as the corresponding standard deviation .

Table 1- Technical specifications of the instrument

Model KONICA MINOLTA - CM-700d

Illumination/viewing system di:8°, de:8° (diffused illumination, 8-degree viewing angle)

d:8° (diffused illumination, 8- degree viewing angle), selectable SCI (di:8° Specular Component Included) and/or SCE (de:8° Specular Component Excluded) measurement .

Conforms to CIE No. 15, ISO 7724/1, ASTM E-1164, DIN 5033 Teil 7, and JIS Z8722 Condition C standards.

Size of integrating sphere 0 40 mm

Detector Silicon-photodiode array (dual

36-element array)

Spectral-separation device Diffraction grating

Wavelength range 400 nm to 700 nm

Wavelength pitch 10 nm

Half bandwidth Approx . 10 nm

Light source Pulsed xenon lamp (with UV-cut filter)

Measurement time Approx. 1 second

Measurement/illumination area MAV: 0 8 mm / 0 11 mm

SAV: 0 3 mm / 0 6 mm

* Changeable by replacing target mask and selecting lens reposition

Repeatability Spectral reflectance: standard deviation within 0.1%

Chromaticity value: standard deviation within AE*ab 0.04 * When a white-calibration plate is measured 30 times at

10-second intervals after white calibration

Inter-instrument agreement Within AE*ab 0.2 (MAV/SCI)

* Based on 12 BCRA Series II colour tiles compared to values measured with a master body at

23°C

Number of averaged measurements 1 to 10 (auto average) , 1 to 30

(manual average)

Observer condition CIE: 2° and 10° standard observer

Illuminant condition CIE: A, C, D50, D65, F2, F6,

F7, F8, F10, - Fll, F12 (simultaneous evaluation is possible using two light sources )

Displayed data Spectral values/graph, colorimetric values, colour- difference values /graph, PASS/FAIL result, colour patch, colour assessment

Colour spaces L*a*b*, L*C*h, Hunter Lab, Yxy,

XYZ, Munsell and colour differences in these spaces (except for Munsell)

Colorimetric data MI, WI (ASTM E313), YI (ASTM

E313-73/ASTM D1925), ISO brightness, 8° gloss value

Colour-difference formulas AE*ab (CIE1976), ΔΕ*94

(CIE1994), ΔΕ00 (CIE 2000), CMC (l:c)

Operating temperature/humidity 5 to 35°C; relative humidity range 80% or less with no condensation For the measurements, the MAV 0 8 mm / 0 11 mm was used, with automatic SCI and SCE measurements.

The lustre data gathered are given in the ensuing tables.

The laboratory analyses conducted confirmed that the properties sought, as mentioned above, were substantially found in a repeatable way in wafers presenting a lustre value higher than or equal to 20 gloss.

Table 2 - Lustre values for specimens obtained with non-Teflon-coated cast-iron plate

Table 3 - Lustre values for specimens obtained with Teflon-coated plate

Table 4 - Lustre values for specimens obtained with lapped steel-plate

Percentage of cocoa Lustre values (gloss)

Average Standard

deviation

3 wt% 24.6 5.46

4 wt% 26.88 3.97

6 wt% 27.72 4.11

8 wt% 23.72 3.92