AU2005312336A1 - Novelty food item and method - Google Patents

Description

WO 2006/058373 PCT/AU2005/001808 Novelty Food Item and Method Field of the Invention The present invention relates to food and, in particular, to a novelty food item and a method of fabricating same. 5 Background Art The breakfast cereal market is an enormous one and breakfast cereals are fabricated from a wide variety of grains including wheat, corn and rice and are fabricated in a wide variety of methods so as to produce bran, flakes, expanded grains 10 (such as those sold as puffed wheat or rice bubbles (trade names)) and the like. Consumers inevitably become jaded and therefore it is desirable from time to time to introduce novelty food items to provide consumers with an increased choice. 15 Summary of the Invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a novelty food item comprising a first plurality of edible cereal particles each coloured with a first food grade colouring agent of a first colour, and a second plurality of edible cereal particles each coloured with a second food grade colouring agent of a 20 second colour, said first and second colours being different and said particles of said first plurality and said particles of said second plurality being intermingled. In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a method of fabricating a novelty food item, said method comprising the steps of: 25 (i) colouring a first plurality of edible cereal particles with a first food grade colouring agent of a first colour, (ii) colouring a second plurality of edible cereal particles with a second food grade colouring agent of a second colour, and (iii) intermingling said first and second pluralities of particles. 30 In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a method of selling a multi-coloured food item, said method comprising the steps of: (i) selecting a sporting team having colours corresponding to those of said 1 WO 2006/058373 PCT/AU2005/001808 food item, (ii) supplying a plurality of said food items to an organisation supporting said sporting team, and (iii) permitting said organisation to on-sell said food items to individual 5 supporters or groups of supporters of said sporting team as a fund-raising activity in support of said sporting team. Brief Description of the Drawings A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with 10 reference to the drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a soft breakfast cereal package having at least a window which is transparent or translucent, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a bowl showing the breakfast cereal contained within the package of Fig. 1 positioned within the bowl, and 15 Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a solid, generally bar shaped food product. Detailed Description Most children are familiar with the story of Father Christmas and how he comes to bring presents for children at Christmas time. Father Christmas, or Santa 20 Claus, is conveyed by means of a sled drawn by reindeer. Many families on Christmas Eve leave out items such as cake and/or milk to enable Santa Claus to be refreshed in the course of his travels. The present invention has its genesis in the idea that the reindeer also should 25 receive nourishment, particularly as they may have left hurriedly and not have had sufficient time to enable Santa Claus to feed the reindeer before commencing their travel. It is therefore thought desirable for young children to provide reindeer food to enable the reindeers to also receive some nourishment in the course of their travels. The object of the preferred embodiment is to provide reindeer food in the form of 30 breakfast cereal coloured so as to represent Christmas. In accordance with a first embodiment, the breakfast cereal is processed wheat bran, however, it could equally be flakes of corn, puffed wheat, bubbles formed from 2 WO 2006/058373 PCT/AU2005/001808 rice grains, and the like. In accordance with the first embodiment such breakfast cereal particles are divided into two groups, one group being coloured, preferably red, by a conventional edible food colouring agent and the other group being coloured, preferably green, by a similar edible food colouring agent. Once the coloured 5 particles are dry, they are intermingled so that a cereal formed from red particles and green particles is produced and there is no mixing of the colouring agents or dyes. The cereal is then packaged in the form of soft package 1 as illustrated in Fig. 1 which has a transparent window 2 through which the individual particles 3 can be seen in order to attract the attention of prospective consumers. In the drawings the particles 10 are indicated to be different colours by means of shading lines to represent particles of one colour and the absence of shading lines to represent particles of another colour. In Fig. 2 the individual particles 3 are illustrated in a cereal bowl 4. In a second embodiment as illustrated in Fig. 3, the differently coloured food 15 particles can be coalesced to form a brick or bar shaped product 5 such as breakfast cereal blocks such as those sold under the trade marks WEETBIX or VITA-BRITS and snack food products including those known as MUESLI BARS, MUESLI BIX, MUESLI WRAPPS and the like. These latter products include ingredients in addition to cereals which tend to coalesce or hold together the brick or bar like form. 20 Suitable colouring agents include Tartrazine (102), Ponceau 4R (124) and Brilliant blue FCF (133) whilst the addition of Sodium benzoate (211) as a preservative and citric acid (330) as an antioxidant has been found advantageous. The number in brackets above refers to the Numerical list of Food Additives prepared by 25 Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. In addition to feeding the reindeer on Christmas Eve, the children may wish to eat reindeer food themselves for breakfast in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. 30 Furthermore, the multi-coloured cereal can be fabricated in the colours of local football, or other sporting teams, so that the abovementioned red and green cereal 3 WO 2006/058373 - PCT/AU2005/001808 combination can be sold to supporters of the South Sydney Rugby League football team, for example. However, selling to supporters of particular sporting teams represents a 5 distribution and logistics problem in that, for example, not all supporters of South Sydney Rugby league football team live in the South Sydney district. As a consequence, supplying supermarkets in the South Sydney district with only red and green cereal would have two consequences. The first is that South Sydney supporters not living in the district would either not buy the cereal or would be obliged to travel 10 to supermarkets within the district in order to purchase same. Secondly, customers of supermarkets within the South Sydney district which supported other teams would not buy the red and green cereal either since they will wish to purchase cereal coloured with their own team colours. 15 In order to overcome this difficulty, the cereal having colours of a specific team is sold to an organisation which supports that team. In respect of the South Sydney Rugby league football team, such organisations include the football club itself, the South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club, subdistrict football teams within the South Sydney area, and the like. By selling the multicoloured cereal in colours 20 corresponding to the team colours of supporting organisations, this permits the supporting organisations to on-sell the cereal to the individual team supporters (or groups of same) as a fund-raising activity. Since most team supporting organisations are looking for fund-raising activities, they can be expected to embrace the opportunity to sell multi-coloured cereal enthusiastically. Furthermore, the cereal 25 manufacturer has the advantage of a sales outlet which is independent of major grocery chains or major wholesalers, thereby making such manufacturers less dependent upon such traditional sales channels. The foregoing describes only two embodiments of the present invention and 30 modifications, obvious to those skilled in the food preparation arts, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, plastic promotional toys such as reindeer and sleds can be included in the package 1. 4 WO 2006/058373 PCT/AU2005/001808 In addition, other food products such as spiral macaroni formed from durum wheat and particularly semolina derived therefrom, can be coloured and then intermingled. In a further development, a reindeer drink or a drink for Santa Claus can be 5 provided. This is preferably done with a cup having a central vertical membrane which keeps divided a, say, red drink in one part and a green drink in the other part. A dual straw is provided with a stem having two tubes lying along side each other but Y-shaped arms so that one straw end enters one cup portion and the other straw end the other cup portion. Thus sucking on the dual straw stem delivers substantially 10 equal amounts of red and green liquid to the drinker's mouth simultaneously. The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of "including" or "having" and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'. 5

Claims (17)

1. A novelty food item comprising a first plurality of edible cereal particles each coloured with a first food grade colouring agent of a first colour, and a second plurality of edible cereal particles each coloured with a second food grade colouring agent of a second colour, said first and second colours being different and said particles of said first plurality and said particles of said second plurality being intermingled.

2. The food item as claimed in claim 1 and packaged in a container at least a portion of which is transparent or translucent whereby said intermingled particles of different colours are visible from the outside of said container.

3. The food item as claimed in claim 2 and comprising a breakfast cereal.

4. The food item as claimed in claim 1 wherein said particles are coalesced into a brick or bar shaped product.

5. The food item as claimed in claim 4 wherein said brick or bar shaped product is a breakfast cereal.

6. The food item as claimed in claim 5 wherein said brick or bar shaped product is a snack food bar.

7. The food item as claimed in any one of claims 1-6 wherein said first and second colours are red and green respectively.

8. The food item as claimed in any one of claims 1-7 wherein said cereal particles are selected from the group consisting of particles of bran, corn, wheat, rice and macaroni.

9. A method of fabricating a novelty food item, said method comprising the steps of: (i) colouring a first plurality of edible cereal particles with a first food grade colouring agent of a first colour, (ii) colouring a second plurality of edible cereal particles with a second food grade colouring agent of a second colour, and (iii) intermingling said first and second pluralities of particles.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 including the step of: (iv) packaging said intermingled particles in a container having at least a 6 WO 2006/058373 PCT/AU2005/001808 portion which is transparent or translucent whereby said intermingled particles are visible from the exterior of said container.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein said intermingled cereal particles are breakfast cereal particles.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9 including the further step of: (v) coalescing said particles into a brick or bar shaped product.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 including the further step of: (vi) forming said brick or bar shaped product from breakfast cereal particles.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12 including the further step of: (vii) forming said brick or bar shaped product as a snack food bar.

15. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-14 wherein said first and second colours are red and green respectively.

16. The method as claimed in any one of claims 9-15 wherein said cereal particles are selected from the group consisting of particles of bran, wheat, corn, rice and macaroni.

17. A method of selling a multi-coloured food item as claimed in claim 1, said method comprising the steps of: (i) selecting a sporting team having colours corresponding to those of said food item, (ii) supplying a plurality of said food items to an organisation supporting said sporting team, and (iii) permitting said organisation to on-sell said food items to individual supporters or groups of supporters of said sporting team as a fund-raising activity in support of said sporting team. 7