All natural fruit snack and method of manufacturing an all natural fruit snack

Abstract

A fruit snack manufactured, in summary, by removing moisture from commercially available juice concentrates (e.g., containing about 30% moisture) by heating for a short time the juice concentrate and vacuuming away excess moisture to produce a fruit juice concentrate with about a 15 to 20% moisture content, mixing the reduced moisture content fruit juice concentrate with fruit purees and gelling agents, preferably both pectin and gelatin, to produce a cooked mass, and depositing the cooked mass in a Mogul machine to produce the molded fruit snack.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A process of manufacturing a fruit snack product, consisting of the steps of:
 heating fruit juice concentrate having substantially a 30% moisture content;   vacuuming the heated fruit juice concentrate;   mixing the heated and vacuumed fruit juice concentrate with fruit puree;   mixing the heated and vacuumed fruit juice concentrate and the fruit puree with a gelling agent to produce a first mixture comprising the heated and vacuumed fruit juice concentrate, the fruit puree and the gelling agent;   heating the first mixture;   vacuuming excess moisture from the heated first mixture to produce a 15% to 20% moisture content;   mixing the heated and vacuumed first mixture with a second mixture, the second mixture comprising a natural flavoring agent, and a natural coloring agent; and   depositing the mixed first mixture and second mixture in a Mogul machine to produce the fruit snack product.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the gelling agent is a combination of gelatin and pectin. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 2 , wherein the gelatin and the pectin are provided in a ratio of about 10 to 1. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 3 , wherein the gelatin comprises one part gelatin and two parts water prior to mixing the gelling agent with the fruit juice concentrate. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the produced fruit snack product has a translucent appearance. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , comprising curing the produced fruit snack product for substantially 24 hours. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit juice concentrate is pineapple juice concentrate. 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit puree is apple puree. 
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit snack product does not include added sugars or corn syrups. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit juice and fruit puree are derived from only fruit-derived ingredients. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit snack product contains only natural ingredients. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the first mixture is heated to about 190 degrees Fahrenheit. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fruit juice concentrate is pineapple juice concentrate and the fruit puree is apple puree. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 13 , wherein the pineapple juice concentrate is about 76.25% of the fruit snack product and the apple puree is about 7.45% of the fruit snack product. 
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 14 , wherein the natural flavoring agent is tri-sodium citrate and natural flavor, and wherein the tri-sodium citrate is about 0.50 of the fruit snack product and the natural flavor is about 1.50% of the fruit snack product. 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the gelling agent is a combination of gelatin and pectin, wherein the gelatin is about 10.5% of the fruit snack product and the pectin is about 1.0% of the fruit snack product. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 16 , wherein the fruit snack product comprises citric acid, and wherein the citric acid is about 0.40 of the fruit snack product 
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 17 , wherein the natural color is about 2.0% of the fruit snack product. 
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 18 , wherein the fruit snack product comprises vitamin C, and wherein the vitamin C is about 0.40% of the fruit snack product. 
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the step of heating the fruit juice concentrate comprises heating the fruit juice concentrate to a temperature of substantially between 250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit for a predetermined period of time.