Patent Application
20220371809
This application is the U.S. national phase of International Application No. PCT/JP2020/025245 filed Jun. 26, 2020 which designated the U.S. and claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-122278 filed Jun. 28, 2019, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a frozen food-containing bag product, and more specifically, to a frozen food-containing bag product that allows thawed or heated food to be eaten while being kept in a bag, without being transferred to another container.
As microwave ovens have become commonplace, frozen foods and heated/pressurized foods, such as retort foods, have become even more widely purchased by many consumers. Frozen food products are typically distributed in a state where a frozen food is contained in a bag, such as a pouch, preferably having hermetic sealability and lightproof properties. Such bags, e.g. pouches, having hermetic sealability and lightproof properties may include metal foil, such as aluminum, as a packaging material. In such cases, the bag cannot be used as-is in a microwave oven. Thus, when heating or thawing the frozen food contained in the bag in a microwave oven, the frozen food needs to be transferred to another container, such as plateware, before being thawed or heated.
Further, in recent years, frozen foods packed in microwavable bags have also become commonplace. Such microwavable bags, which have been made possible by the development of a special type of film material having excellent heat resistance and preservability, are provided with a steam-release mechanism through which steam arising from the frozen food contained in the bag can be discharged (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). However, such frozen foods contained in microwavable bags are, after being thawed or heated, typically transferred to another container, such as plateware, before consumption.
Patent Literature 1: US 2003/031763 A1
Meanwhile, recent years have seen a growing preference toward economization, as well as diversification in the manner/style of eating and a preference toward convenience and time-saving. It is thus anticipated that consumers, particularly young consumers, may want to thaw or heat, in a microwave oven, a frozen food preferably contained in a bag and then easily eat the thawed/heated food right from the bag, without the need to transfer the food to another container such as plateware. There is thus an expectation for the development of a novel bag product that enables such easy consumption of food.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a frozen food-containing bag product, as well as a method for using the frozen food-containing bag product, with which a bag-contained frozen food can be thawed or heated in a microwave oven and then be easily eaten while being kept in the bag, without the need to be transferred to another container such as plateware.
The present invention achieves the aforementioned objective by providing a frozen food-containing bag product constructed such that a frozen food contained in a bag can be thawed or heated using a microwave oven and the thawed or heated food can be eaten while being kept in the bag without being transferred to another container, wherein:
the bag is formed using a film material so as to include
sections respectively extending along short-side portions, which exist on both sides of each of the front and back principal-surface film portions, are each joined together as joint portions, to thereby seal the frozen food inside the bag;
a steam discharging portion is formed in one of the front and back principal-surface film portions;
in each of the joint portions respectively formed along the short-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions,
the frozen food-containing bag product is constructed such that, in a state where the bag, containing the thawed or heated food and having been taken out from a microwave oven, is arranged in a manner that the side-surface film portion on the side of one of the long-side portions of the principal-surface film portions comes to a lower side, the inwardly-folded V-shape state of the side-surface film portion arranged on the lower side is opened-up by employing the weight of the thawed or heated food, and the side-surface film portion, which is arranged on the lower side and whose inwardly-folded state has been opened-up, serves as a placement portion and is placed on a receiving surface, on which the bag is to be placed, by employing the weight of the thawed or heated food, a section on the side of the other long-side portion of the principal-surface film portions is cut away along a long-side direction to thereby form a take-out opening in a manner that the food can be taken out through the formed take-out opening and be eaten.
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention:
sections respectively extending along the short-side portions, which exist on both sides of each of the front and back principal-surface film portions, are each joined together as joint portions, to thereby seal the frozen food inside the bag;
a steam discharging portion is formed in one of the front and back principal-surface film portions; and
in each of the joint portions respectively formed along the short-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions, each of the left and right side-surface film portions folded inward in a V-shape is not joined together, and
an end of each of the side-surface film portions is joined only to the front and back principal-surface film portions' ends extending along the respective short-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions, to thereby form a joint region formed so as to expand in a V-shape, the joint region being formed by joining the side-surface film portion's end and the principal-surface film portions' ends extending along the short-side portion.
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention, the film material forming the bag is a laminate film material made from:a synthetic resin-made stretched film; anda synthetic resin-made unstretched film having heat-sealability and bonded to an inner side of the synthetic resin-made stretched film.
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention, the steam discharging portion includes:
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention, the steam discharging portion extends in a direction along the long-side direction of said one of the principal-surface film portions, and is provided closer to the side of the other long-side portion opposite from the side-surface film portion that becomes the placement portion on the side of said one of the long-side portions.
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention, the cut line of the steam discharging portion functions as a cut-away guide line when forming the take-out opening by cutting away the principal-surface film portions along the long-side direction after thawing or heating the food contained in the bag.
It is preferable that, in the frozen food-containing bag product of the present invention, the frozen food contained in the bag is frozen cooked rice.
Also, the present invention achieves the aforementioned objective by providing a method for using the aforementioned frozen food-containing bag product, the method involving:
placing the bag product, which has the frozen food contained in the bag, in a microwave oven such that one of the principal-surface film portions having the bag's steam discharging portion faces upward;
thawing or heating the frozen food while causing steam to be discharged from the steam discharging portion by operating the microwave oven for a predetermined time with which the contained frozen food can be thawed or heated;
then taking out the bag product from the microwave oven, and moving the thawed or heated food to the side of the side-surface film portion which is located on the side of said one of the long-side portions of the bag, to open up the inwardly-folded V-shape state of the side-surface film portion on the side of said one of the long-side portions by the weight of the thawed or heated food, and thereby form a placement portion by the side-surface film portion on the side of said one of the long-side portions; and
by employing the weight of the thawed or heated food, placing the formed placement portion on a receiving surface on which the bag is to be placed, and in this state, cutting away a section on the side of the other long-side portion of the principal-surface film portions along the long-side direction and thereby forming a take-out opening in a manner that the food can be taken out through the formed take-out opening and be eaten.
A frozen food-containing bag product 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in
The frozen food-containing bag product 10 of the present embodiment is a bag product constructed such that the frozen food 20 contained in the bag 11 can be thawed or heated using a microwave oven 30 and the thawed or heated food 20 can be eaten while being kept in the bag 11 without being transferred to another container, wherein: as illustrated in
In each of the end joint portions 15 respectively formed along the short-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b: the pair of segments constituting the V-shape of each of the side-surface film portions 13a, 13b, which are preferably provided as a pair on both left and right sides and which are each folded inward in a V-shape, are not joined together; whereas an end of each of the side-surface film portions 13a, 13b is joined only to the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the respective short-side portions on both sides thereof, to thereby form a side joint region 15a formed so as to expand in a V-shape, wherein the respective side joint regions 15a are formed by joining the respective ends on both sides of each side-surface film portion 13a, 13b with corresponding ends extending along the respective short-side portions on both sides of the principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b.
As illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
In the present embodiment, the bag 11 containing the frozen food 20 can be formed by using, as the film material 14, a laminate film material obtained by preferably bonding together a synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a and a synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b having heat-sealability. The bag 11 can be formed, for example, by using a single sheet of a rectangular, laterally-long, belt-shaped film material 14 having a width being substantially the same length as the length of the principal-surface film portion 12a, 12b in the long-side direction, and having a length being about three times the length of the principal-surface film portion 12a, 12b in the short-side direction.
More specifically, the bag 11 can be formed using a single sheet of rectangular, laterally-long film material 14 as follows, for example. First, the film material 14 is curved into a ring shape by arranging the heat-sealable synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b on the inner side, and then, with the inner sides consisting of the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b facing each other, the edge regions at both ends in the laterally-long direction are heat-sealed into a longitudinal joint portion 16 extending along the long-side direction, to thereby form the film material 14 into a tubular shape. Then, as illustrated in
For the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a constituting the film material 14 for forming the bag 11, it is possible to use a general-purpose stretched film made, for example, from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), etc. Examples of the stretched film may include a uniaxially stretched film or a biaxially stretched film. A uniaxially stretched film has a property of being hard to stretch in one direction, i.e., the longitudinal direction or the lateral direction. A biaxially stretched film is a film that is hard to stretch in both the longitudinal and lateral directions, and has excellent machine suitability for such processes as printing, laminated compositing, etc., and can thus be preferably used as a base material.
For the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b constituting the film material 14, it is possible to preferably use an unstretched film made from e.g. polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), which is widely employed as sealants preferably for packaging-laminate materials and which is easily stretchable in both the longitudinal and lateral directions and has stable heat-sealability and heat-seal strength in addition to being resistant to shock.
Further, in the present embodiment, the bag 11, which is preferably formed in a gusset bag shape, is made such that the inner layer of the film material 14 is constituted by the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b having heat-sealability and the outer layer is constituted by the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a that does not have heat-sealability. Therefore, at the end of each inwardly-folded V-shaped side-surface film portion 13a, 13b in the end joint portion 15 on the side having been heat-sealed, the respective outer surfaces of the segments constituting the V-shape are not joined together, whereas only the inner surfaces are joined as V-shaped side joint regions 15a to the respective inner surfaces of the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof. Further, in the end joint portion 15 formed along the short-side portion of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b, a region between the side joint regions 15a, which exist on both sides, is formed into a midsection joint region 15b by joining together the respective inner surfaces of the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof. In this way, each side joint region 15a, which is formed by joining the end of the side-surface film portion 13a, 13b and the ends of the principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof, is formed so as to expand in a V-shape (wedge shape), with each end of the midsection joint region 15b constituting the apex of the V-shape, as illustrated in
After heat-sealing the respective ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b, which extend along one of the short-side portions in the folded film material 14, to form the end joint portion 15 and thereby form the gusset bag-shaped bag 11 before containing the food 20, a predetermined amount of frozen food 20 is introduced into the bag 11 by employing, as a supply opening, the end along the other short-side portion which has not yet been heat-sealed. Then, the bag 11's end along the other short-side portion is heat-sealed to form an end joint portion 15, like the end along the aforementioned one short-side portion. In this way, the frozen food-containing bag product 10 of the present embodiment can be formed, as illustrated in
Similar to the aforementioned one end joint portion 15, also in the other end joint portion 15 which has been heat-sealed, at the end of each inwardly-folded V-shaped side-surface film portion 13a, 13b, the respective outer surfaces of the segments constituting the V-shape are not joined together, whereas only the inner surfaces are joined as V-shaped side joint regions 15a to the respective inner surfaces of the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof. Further, in the end joint portion 15 formed along the short-side portion of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b, a region between the side joint regions 15a, which exist on both sides, is formed into a midsection joint region 15b by joining together the respective inner surfaces of the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof. In this way, each side joint region 15a, which is formed by joining the end of the side-surface film portion 13a, 13b and the ends of the principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the short-side portion thereof, is formed so as to expand in a V-shape (wedge shape), with each end of the midsection joint region 15b constituting the apex of the V-shape, as illustrated in
Further, in the present embodiment, a belt-like zone 17c is provided in advance in a predetermined position of the single sheet of rectangular, laterally-long film material 14 by applying the low-melting-point heat-seal agent 17a or release agent 17b to the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a so as to be interposed between the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a and the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b. Further, a cut line 17d is cut linearly so as to longitudinally traverse the belt-like zone 17c. In this way, when the bag 11 is formed into a gusset bag shape, as illustrated in
Herein, the steam discharging portion 17 has a structure similar to the mechanism of a discharging portion for discharging steam as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4817583. As illustrated in
As will be described further below, the steam discharging portion 17 functions such that, when the bag product 10 having the frozen food 20 sealed in the bag 11 is placed in a microwave oven 30 and the frozen food 20 is to be thawed or heated, water vapor arising from the contained frozen food 20 can be discharged while moderately steaming the contained frozen food 20. More specifically, when the bag product 10 is placed in a microwave oven 30 and is subjected to a thawing or heating process, the moisture in the contained frozen food 20 vaporizes as steam (water vapor), and the steam and air are mixed together to increase the pressure inside the bag 11. Thus, the inner-layer synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b in the steam discharging portion 17 starts to stretch in a direction perpendicular to the cut line 17d, as illustrated in
A further increase in pressure inside the bag 11 causes the cut region created by the cut line 17d in the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a to spread open, and in association therewith, the stretching region of the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b further expands. Then, peeling between the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a and the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b starts at the zone where the heat-seal agent or release agent has been applied, this peeling being caused either by melting in cases of application of a low-melting-point heat-seal agent 17a to the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a, or by low friction in cases of application of a release agent 17b to the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a. Then, as illustrated in
Even after the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a has started to open up at the area of the cut line 17d, the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b tries to keep stretching as illustrated in
When the respective small holes 18 open up in the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b, the water vapor within the bag 11 passes through the opened small holes 18 and the region where the cut line 17d in the synthetic resin-made stretched film 14a has opened up, and is discharged smoothly to outside the bag 11. Further, as a result of the water vapor being discharged outside, the pressure inside the bag 11 decreases and the stretch ratio of the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b also decreases, which causes the opened small holes 18 to shrink and become substantially blocked off.
When the small holes 18 become closed, the pressure inside the bag 11 rises again and the stretch ratio of the synthetic resin-made unstretched film 14b increases, which causes the small holes 18 to open up again. In this way, the water vapor inside the bag 11 can again be discharged to the outside, which reduces the pressure inside the bag 11. The opening area of the small holes 18 expands and contracts in this way, and thereby, the pressure inside the bag 11 decreases and increases repeatedly. This allows the pressure inside the bag 11 to be kept stably within a given range that is higher than atmospheric pressure, thus making it possible to achieve an effect of moderately steaming the thawed or heated food 20 and also shorten the time for thawing or heating.
The frozen food-containing bag product 10 of the present embodiment having the aforementioned configuration can be used as follows, thereby allowing a consumer to easily eat the thawed or heated food. That is, as illustrated in
At the time of thawing or heating the frozen food 20, moisture contained in the frozen food 20 within the bag vaporizes as water vapor (steam), and the steam and air are mixed together to thereby increase the pressure inside the bag 11 and expand the bag 11, which makes it possible to open up the inwardly-folded V-shape state of the pair of left and right side-surface film portions 13a, 13b respectively tucked-in at the respective sections extending along the long-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b, as illustrated in
After thawing or heating the frozen food 20 while causing steam to be discharged from the steam discharging portion 17 by operating the microwave oven 30 for a predetermined time with which the contained frozen food 20 can be thawed or heated, the bag product 10 containing the thawed or heated food is taken out from the microwave oven 30, and the thawed or heated food 20 is moved to the side of the side-surface film portion 13a which is located on the side of the aforementioned one long-side portion of the bag 11, as illustrated in
Then, as illustrated in
Thus, according to the frozen food-containing bag product 10 of the present embodiment, the frozen food 20 contained in the bag 11 can be thawed or heated in a microwave oven 30 and then be easily eaten while being kept in the bag 11, without being transferred to another container such as plateware.
Particularly, according to the frozen food-containing bag product 10 of the present embodiment, in each of the end joint portions 15 respectively formed along the short-side portions on both sides of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b, the pair of segments constituting the V-shape of each of the inwardly-folded V-shaped side-surface film portions 13a, 13b are not joined together; whereas an end of each of the side-surface film portions 13a, 13b is joined only to the ends of the pair of front and back principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b extending along the respective short-side portions on both sides of the front and back principal-surface film portions, to thereby form a side joint region 15a formed so as to expand in a V-shape, wherein the respective side joint regions 15a are formed by joining the respective ends on both sides of each side-surface film portion 13a, 13b with corresponding ends extending along the respective short-side portions on both sides of the principal-surface film portions 12a, 12b. With this configuration, at the time of opening up the inwardly-folded V-shaped state of the side-surface film portion 13a on the side of one long-side portion by the weight of the thawed or heated food 20 and placing the placement portion 21, which is formed by the side-surface film portion 13a on the side of one long-side portion, on a receiving surface 22, each end joint portion 15's side joint region 15a expands in a V-shape and directly contacts the receiving surface 22, thereby preventing the bag 11 from becoming unstable. Thus, the placement portion 21 can be placed on the receiving surface 22 in a stabler state, thereby allowing the thawed or heated food 20 contained in the bag 11 to be eaten even more easily.
Also according to the frozen food-containing bag product 10′ of this other embodiment illustrated in
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the foregoing embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, the frozen food contained in the bag is not limited to frozen cooked rice, and may be any of various other frozen foods, such as frozen noodles, frozen fried foods, etc. Further, the film material forming the bag does not necessarily have to be a laminate film material made from a synthetic resin-made stretched film and a synthetic resin-made unstretched film bonded to the inner side thereof and having heat-sealability. The steam discharging portion does not necessarily have to include: a low-melting-point heat-seal agent or release agent applied between the synthetic resin-made stretched film and the synthetic resin-made unstretched film; and a cut line being cut so as to longitudinally traverse the zone in which the heat-seal agent or release agent has been applied.
With the frozen food-containing bag product, or the method for using the frozen food-containing bag product, according to the present invention, a bag-contained frozen food can be thawed or heated in a microwave oven and then be easily eaten while being kept in the bag, without the need to be transferred to another container such as plateware.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-122278 | Jun 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2020/025245 | 6/26/2020 | WO |
