US 12,239,148 B2
Method of making value egg products
Oscar Esquivel, Lakeland, TN (US); Samuel Edward Kessler, Hopkins, MN (US); and Bria Abeles-Allison, Wayzata, MN (US)
Assigned to CARGILL, INCORPORATED, Wayzata, MN (US)
Appl. No. 16/641,700
Filed by Cargill, Incorporated, Wayzata, MN (US)
PCT Filed Aug. 24, 2018, PCT No. PCT/US2018/047883
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 25, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/040831, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 28, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/550,371, filed on Aug. 25, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0205450 A1, Jul. 2, 2020
Int. Cl. A23L 15/00 (2016.01); A23P 30/20 (2016.01)
CPC A23L 15/20 (2016.08) [A23L 15/30 (2016.08); A23P 30/20 (2016.08); A23V 2002/00 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of preparing shaped, ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat egg products comprising,
a) providing solid food inclusions, wherein at least 50% of the solid food inclusions have a longest dimension size in a range of from 0.6 to 12 cm and at least about 50% of the solid food inclusions are at a temperature of less than 34° F.;
b) providing a liquid egg composition comprising from about 60 wt % to 100 wt % of liquid egg based on the total weight of the liquid egg composition, wherein the liquid egg composition is flowable at 35° F., wherein the liquid egg composition is at a temperature above the temperature of the solid food inclusions, thereby providing a temperature differential between the solid food inclusions and the liquid egg composition;
c) mixing the solid food inclusions with the liquid egg composition to provide an extrudable egg-based matrix having a total egg content of from about 15 wt % to 96 wt % based on the total extrudable egg-based matrix, and comprising from 50 wt % to 90 wt % of the solid food inclusions,
wherein the mixing of the liquid egg composition with the solid food inclusions with the temperature differential provides a temporary binding effect of the liquid egg composition with the solid food inclusions, providing viscosity and texture properties to provide the extrudable egg-based matrix that is formable to a predetermined shape;
d) forming the extrudable egg-based matrix into a self-supporting, shaped egg product having a predetermined shape that is self-supporting for at least two minutes at an ambient temperature of 40° F. by either
i) delivering the extrudable egg-based matrix into a forming plate to form the extrudable egg-based matrix into the predetermined shape to provide a shaped egg product, removing the shaped egg product from the forming plate, and depositing the shaped egg product onto a surface that does not provide support that would prevent the shaped egg product from changing shape in a width dimension to provide the self-supporting, shaped egg product, or
ii) passing the extrudable egg-based matrix through a forming orifice onto a surface that does not provide support that would prevent the shaped egg product from changing shape in a width dimension to form the extrudable egg-based matrix into the predetermined shape of the shaped egg product to provide the self-supporting, shaped egg product; and
e) either
i) cooking the self-supporting, shaped egg product to provide a cooked, shaped ready-to-eat egg product, or
ii) quick freezing the self-supporting, shaped egg product to provide a frozen, shaped, ready-to-cook egg product.