Patent Application
20190241327
This application is in the field of food storage; specifically forming an air tight seal.
Typical storage container lids are created using a vacuum seal. A vacuum seal may be mechanically complex and expensive. Additionally a vacuum seal may be lost or misplaced more easily. Another approach to storage may be using plastic bags, for example in cereal boxes. Plastic bags may get left open or not sealed tightly. Additionally, the plastic bags are unlikely to be reused more than once.
An air contact reducer for food storage is described herein. The air contact reducer may be a single piece of plastic. The air contact reducer may be round or rectangular to match the shape of a food container. The air contact reducer may include a knob or handle to help move the air contact reducer up or down (or back and forth in some cases) to reduce the air contact with food while the food is being stored.
This invention is described in the following description with reference to the Figures, in which like reference numbers represent the same or similar elements. While this invention is described in terms of modes for achieving this invention's objectives, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be accomplished in view of these teachings without deviating from the spirit or scope of the present invention. The embodiments and variations of the invention described herein, and/or shown in the drawings, are presented by way of example only and are not limiting as to the scope of the invention.
Unless otherwise specifically stated, individual aspects and components of the invention may be omitted or modified, or may have substituted therefore known equivalents, or as yet unknown substitutes such as may be developed in the future or such as may be found to be acceptable substitutes in the future. The invention may also be modified for a variety of applications while remaining within the spirit and scope of the claimed invention, since the range of potential applications is great, and since it is intended that the present invention be adaptable to many such variations.
An air contact reducer for food storage may be a single piece of plastic. The air contact reducer may be round or rectangular to match the shape of a food container. The air contact reducer may include a knob or handle to help move the air contact reducer up or down (or back and forth in some cases) to reduce the air contact with food while the food is being stored.
When food (or beverages) in a large storage container goes down, for example, eaten or consumed, the air contact reducer may be pushed down to match the level of food (or beverage) in the storage container. For example, when using a tall tapered container, the outer diameter may be thin around 0.020 inches for about 0.5-1.5 inches that has cuts about every 0.5 inches. The remainder of the air contact reducer may be thicker, for example, 0.125 inches or more. The air contact reducer may adjust in size by changing the diameter.
For example, the thin outer diameter may be 0.020 inches for anywhere from 0.5 inches to 1.5 inches with cuts about every 0.5 inches. The remainder of the air contact reducer 205 may be thicker, for example, 0.125 inches or more. The main diameter of the air contact reducer 200 may adjust in size to form an air tight seal in the storage container 203. In a tall tapered storage container, like storage container 203, as the air contact reducer 200 moves down the storage container the thin sections begin pointing more and more upward. A small amount of slipping may occur at the thin sections.
In another example of the air contact reducer in a non-tapered container, the air contact reducer may not have taper cuts. The air contact reducer may have a thickness of 0.125 inches or more.
The air contact reducer may stop at any level of a storage container or solid object, acting as a movable barrier. In contrast to other solutions, the air contact reducer may not damage or lose sealing like a vacuum seal might and it may not accidentally be left open or poorly closed like reusable bags (which are rarely reused). The air contact reducer is a single piece that may adapt to any size container and may easily reused.
It should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, and features of one embodiment may be employed with other embodiments as the skilled artisan would recognize, even if not explicitly stated herein. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques may be omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments.
While multiple embodiments are disclosed, still other embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. The invention is capable of myriad modifications in various obvious aspects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.
