1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lipid dispersible color compositions for food products and to lipid-based edible compositions, including artificial chocolate, incorporating said color compositions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cocoa, coffee, maple, cinnamon, walnut, pecan and other natural products are frequently used to impart their characteristic flavor and aroma to lipid-based food coating or filling compositions. Their normal brown or tan coloration is associated with the character flavor and aroma of the products wherein they are incorporated. By "lipid-based" is meant any lipid-containing food compositions which contain a significant or substantial amount of a fat or oil base and in which no water has been added during the normal or conventional food processing or manufacture sequence.
"Compound coatings", as that term is used in the art, are lipid-based food compositions which serve as coatings for candies, cookies or frozen confection bars. These compound coatings may be derived from a variety of natural foods, such as cocoa. They also include coatings associated with well known flavors, such as maple, coffee, etc. However, in compound coatings certain processed fats are employed as the principal lipid fraction. The lipid of a chocolate coating is cocoa butter, while in other coatings other cocoa butter-like fats or shortenings are employed. The characteristics of the broad varieties of available processed fats are varied, making it possible to exercise control of the physical, organoleptic and rheological characteristics of the coatings, such as sheen, mouth feel, viscosity, melting and setting temperatures, and resistance to rancidity.
"Creme" fillings are confectionary-type food compositions containing the characteristic imparting flavorant such as cocoa, coffee or maple flavor, powdered sugars, and lipids such as shortening, and optionally containing other food adjuncts which impart desired texture, additional flavor, bulk or color. Creme fillings are typically used as the fillers for sandwich cookies and wafers.
Shortages in natural products, such as cocoa and coffee, have resulted in wide fluctuations in the price of these commodities. It is therefore desirable and economically attractive to employ edible substitutes for these natural products in foods which contain and are associated with these natural products and closely simulate their color and flavor. Likewise, some people are allergic to certain non-essential components found in natural food products and non-allergenic substitutes for these natural products would be and are desirable.
The use of United States Certified Food Colors, i.e., FD&C Colors (Food Drug & Cosmetic Colors) as such, or in the form of insoluble precipitated "lakes", as colorants for food compositions, including compositions that are lipid-based, is known.
It has also been determined that brown hues may be obtained by blending certain blue, yellow and red FD&C colors or color lakes thereof. The red color is required in such compositions to introduce the reddish tint characteristic of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, maple, cinnamon, ginger and other colors.
However, due to governmental regulation, the permissible use of certain red colors or lakes made therefrom in food compositions are limited. Some red food colors and lakes are permitted in the United States, but not in Canada, while others are permitted in Canada, but not in the United States. Thus, restrictions are placed on the FD&C colors that can be blended to attempt to produce brown hues which are, at the same time, compatible with the food additive regulations of both countries. In particular, FD&C Red No. 40 (Allura Red) is permitted in the United States but not in Canada; FD&C Red No. 2 (Amaranth) is permitted in Canada, but not in the United States.
The only red color acceptable in both Canada and the United States, therefore, in FD&C Red No. 3 (Erythrosine). This colorant, however, is not suitable for use in many food compositions because it demonstrates poor stability on exposure to light and/or acid environments. For example, when FD&C Red No. 3 is mixed with the other colors (blue and yellow) to produce a brownish color blend, it has been observed to fade on exposure to light, leaving the residual color blend (green) as the dominant hue.
The use of caramel to impart brown hues to aqueous based foodstuffs is known. Caramel, which is carefully controlled burnt carbohydrate, usually dextrose or sucrose, is a water soluble, but lipid insoluble color additive, regulated and permitted in both the United States and Canada. As an article of commerce, it is available as a viscous, dense liquid, or as a drum-dried or spray-dried solid in powder or particulate form.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,576 teaches the use of powdered caramel coloring dissolved in water base systems, such as cola-type and other brown-hued beverages, artificial maple syrups, artificial vanilla flavors, sugar-based confections, bread and butter. Another use for caramel color in the dried form is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,499, where dry caramel is added to a powdered mix, which powder is subsequently dissolved in water to make the final product. However, there is no teaching of the use of caramel for the coloring of lipid-based food compositions.
Finally, while the industry uses insoluble pigments, particularly color lakes, in lipid systems, there is no teaching of the use of the lipid insoluble caramel color as a pigment in a lipid system.
The prior art also discloses the use of water soluble-oil insoluble dyes in non-aqueous food compositions, but only when special provision is made to disperse those dyes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,691 requires a three-step process to convert a water soluble colorant into an oil soluble colorant. Included in this process is the dissolution of the colorant in a polyhydric alcohol, followed by admixture and heating at 150.degree. C. with a solution of glycerol fatty acid ester converting agent to make a dye "complex".
U.S. Pat. No. 1,919,025 discloses the use of lanolin to effect an even distribution of water soluble food colors in fatty foodstuffs. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,573 indicates that, in order to use water soluble coloring materials in fatty compositions, the dye may be emulsified in a fatty acid ester of polyglycerol. U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,291 also describes dispersion of an aqueous solution of the dye in an emulsifier such as lecithin.
Yet another method of utilizing oil insoluble dyes in fatty compositions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,686,722. There, the dyes, being partially alcohol soluble, are first dissolved in alcohol, and then combined with the food composition. The temperature is raised to volatilize the alcohol, but the dyes remain in the composition.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 1,371,450 discloses a method of incorporating fat-incompatible (but otherwise unidentified) colors in confectionary coatings and fillings which use fat as the liquefying ingredient. The procedure taught involves adding the color to sugar (or similar component miscible with the color) and then milling the colored sweetener with the fat liquefying component to obtain a uniformly colored product.
Each of the above-cited prior art patents have in common the feature of requiring a special step, typically emulsification or "complexing" by which the oil insoluble colorant can be introduced into the fatty food composition. None of these references teach the use of caramel as a pigment to provide a brown color for lipid-based foods.
The food color industry, therefore, remains without a satisfactory method for imparting stable brown or chocolate or similar color hues to lipid-based food compositions, other than by the use of the natural products, and particularly lacks a method of coloration of lipid-based food compositions which is relatively simple, inexpensive, produces a stable food colorant, is not detrimental to health and can be marketed without contravening governmental restrictions.