So I am sipping some hot chocolate made from a recently purchased cream substitute by the name of Mimiccreme. Honestly, the stuff tastes good and better, it froths, unlike most non-dairy substitutes. Yet there is a hitch (there always is). As I was whisking away at my cream (mixed with water), I was staring blankly at the box and noticed that they have applied for a patent, which is indeed the case. Since their formula is made out of nuts, their motto is “Not Crazy Just Nuts” and if they are granted the patent (though I am confused as to what they are trying to patent) it will be Nuts and Crazy as well.
update: Ettienne pointed us in the comments to the the patent application
Making dairy substitutes using nuts is a well-known and fairly simple process. For example, you can simply mix a cup of almond and one liter of water in a good mixer (such as a Vita-Mix), mix at highest speed until you get desired texture then strain. There really isn’t any more to it.
Now, I do not know if this company is trying to patent a more complex process (the link to the patent application in the Wikipedia is wrong), maybe one that produce a result with some specific, desirable dairy-like properties. If not, their application is sitting on a lot of prior art …
Comment by EtienneG — May 7, 2009 @ 9:20 am
Did a quick Google check … the WIPO website have the complete text of the patent application[1]. We learn from the abstract that the patent sought is for:
“A food product or composition has from about 23 % to about 42 % by weight of at least one of the group consisting of almonds and cashews, wherein the almonds and/or cashews have been finely ground, from about 27 % to about 65 % by weight of a liquefying agent capable of forming a cream when combined with the almonds and/or cashews, from about 10 % to about 19 % by weight of a sweetening agent, and from about 0.0003 % to about 0.0005 % by weight of salt.”
Where “liquefying agent” can be water, and “sweetening agent” can be sugar. So basically, they are seeking a patent for mixing nuts, water, sugar and salt. Yeah.
What’s next? Someone patenting the apple pie?
1: http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2006096377
Comment by EtienneG — May 7, 2009 @ 9:36 am
Thanks Etienne,
I was wondering the same: is it the proportion or some weird subterfuge machine they invented so that mixing the nuts in there makes it nothing short of awesome. If it is the latter, I am a-ok with it, if it is not, I really am offended. Food, recipes, etc should be kept as far as possible from the IP regime as possible imho.
Comment by Biella — May 7, 2009 @ 10:04 am
Then you should be offended. I only skimmed the text of the patent so I may be wrong, but it really seems like they are patenting a recipe (list of ingredient and proportion), and not some kind of innovative process.
I guess you can take some recomfort in knowing that there is ample prior art for that kind of stuff. “Nut milk” is something vegan have been doing for a long time, and it is also fairly popular in the raw food crowd, as a quick search on Google indicate I am sure there is a recipe somewhere that calls for proportion covered by this patent.
Comment by EtienneG — May 7, 2009 @ 11:25 am
Make sure that the milk product/powder (if any) used to make this is not contaminated by the Chinese “melamine” stuff! If so your kidneys will defintely die out while you enjoy the hot chocolate.
Comment by Ragu — May 7, 2009 @ 10:22 pm