General Mills, Inc.

A soft, shelf stable food product including a high protein matrix and particulates that retains a soft, moist eating experience over an extended shelf life is described. The high protein matrix includes hydrolyzed collagen and a soluble fiber syrup that enable high levels of vegetable protein and an overall high amount of protein, while avoiding poor eating qualities typically associated with vegetable protein. Methods of making a food product are also disclosed.

Packaged food products are described that include an aggregate composition that is stable in tropical conditions for an extended shelf life. The aggregate includes a pliable binder that comprises pectin and/or gelatin. A pliable binder in a packaged food product remains chewy and continues to bind water permeable particulates over shelf life in tropical conditions. Also described are methods of making a packaged food product.

A ready-to-eat breakfast cereal includes a plurality of base cereal pieces fortified with high quality protein. The base cereal pieces consist of a starch-based ingredient, a protein ingredient component, oil and optionally a bran ingredient or other ingredients, but no added gums. The protein ingredient component includes wheat protein isolate or vital wheat gluten, as well as legume protein concentrate or legume protein isolate. A method of making ready-to-eat breakfast cereal incorporating the plurality of the base cereal pieces includes processing dough to form pellets, drying the pellets to form dried pellets and forming the dried pellets into cereal base pieces. Forming the dried pellets can include forming the dried pellets into flakes or shredded cereal biscuits. Another method of making ready-to-eat breakfast cereal incorporating the plurality of the base cereal pieces includes processing dough to form an expanded rope and forming the rope into pillow-shaped pieces.

An anti-boil-over composition comprising about 30% to about 60% powdered cauliflower or powdered pea fiber is added to dried rice or dried pasta within a container suitable for cooking in a microwave upon further adding water into the container. The amount of composition employed constitutes about 5% to about 13%, by weight, of the dried rice or dried pasta and can additionally include about 10% to about 45% purified starch, about 5% to about 10% fat, and up to 6% sodium chloride, potassium chloride and/or calcium chloride. A shelf stable food product including the anti-boil-over composition and a method of preparing the shelf stable food product are also encompassed.

Frozen un-proofed dough pieces are produced by cutting a dough sheet into strips and producing a score through an upper skin of each strip with at least one blunt deformation tool prior to freezing. The un-proofed dough pieces are formed by mass production, with an un-proofed dough sheet being cut to form dough strips which are then cut into the un-proofed dough pieces, with the score for each un-proofed dough piece being formed by pressing the upper skin of the dough down into the body of the dough, thereby deforming and pre-stressing the dough to create weak zones, either before, during or after the individual un-proofed dough pieces are actually created, but before freezing. Upon heating, openings are established in the upper skin along score lines.

A taco shell is produced using a rotary cutter including a shaft, an outer blade extending radially outward from the shaft and a first inner blade extending radially outward from the shaft. The outer blade defines an interior area, enclosed by the outer blade, and an exterior area. The first inner blade is located in the interior area and includes a plurality of teeth. A dough piece is cut from a dough sheet with the outer blade, and a first arcuate line of depressions is created in the dough piece with the plurality of teeth. The dough piece is folded to form a shaped dough piece, and the shaped dough piece is baked to produce a hard taco shell.

A grain-based expanded food product comprises a base formulation and a vegetable powder component present in an amount from about 7% to about 11% by dry weight. The vegetable powder component includes at least one starch-containing tuber vegetable powder, at least one low-starch root vegetable powder, and at least one leafy green powder, wherein the vegetable powder component comprises at least about 10% starch. In preferred embodiments, the vegetable powder component comprises a combination of sweet potato powder, carrot powder and spinach powder. The food product can be a puffed breakfast cereal or a puffed snack. A method of producing a grain-based expanded food product comprises combining a base formulation with a vegetable powder component to form a dough and processing the dough in an extruder to form an extruded mass. The method can further comprise forming the extruded mass into pieces, which can be further processed.

A coating having no non-intact sugar sources and having a good texture, flavor, structure, and bowl life is described. A coating includes erythritol in an amount of about 40% to about 70% by dry weight and a sprouted whole grain ingredient in an amount of about 10% to about 30% by dry weight. Also described are coated food pieces and methods of making coated food pieces using a novel coating.

The present disclosure relates to low density, high protein, oat-based ready-to-eat food pieces, compositions including such food pieces, and methods of making such food pieces. The pieces include oat flour as a first ingredient, about 30% to about 40% by dry weight protein, where at least a portion of the protein ingredients include a protein with a PDCAAS greater of at least 60%, such as pea protein or soybean protein, and 0% to less than 6% maltodextrin.