Patent Application
20210024272
The present invention relates generally to humidity control for semi-dried food and consumables. More particularly, the invention relates to a basket that may be retained within a jar in which a packet such as a humidity control packet may be placed but separate from contents of the jar.
Consumers eat and consume many products that are semi-dried, such as herbs and cigars. Those products typically require some sort of humidity control to prevent them from drying out too much. Such products must be stored in containers that are specially made to include humidity control, such as herb preserver containers or cigar humidors. These containers that serve one principal purpose are not the best uses of space or resources. A good solution would involve minimally adapting existing containers to have humidity control capabilities.
One example where a container is adapted to serve as a humidity controller may consist of simply putting water in the bottom of a jar before sealing it or placing a plastic bag over it. This can lead to oversaturation of the herbs or make a mess if the jar is spilled. Another existing jar can be modified as a grow kit. Baskets used with such a jar are retained within the mouth of the jar, but are configured for growth, not humidity control. As such, they include wicks that allow water to reach herbs being grown in the baskets. Further, because the herbs are larger than a humidity control packet (or other packet), the baskets are deeper than desired.
Disclosed herein is a basket that may be secured within the mouth of a jar. The basket is preferably of a size and shape such that it may sit between the lip of the jar and the lid enclosure. A packet (e.g., humidity control, oxygen removal, humidity removal) may be placed in the basket, thus keeping it separate from the jar contents.
For a better understanding of the various embodiments of the present invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings in which:
While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, a specific embodiment thereof is shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description presented herein are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular embodiment disclosed, but to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
The invention will now be described with reference to the drawing figures, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. For purposes of clarity in illustrating the characteristics of the present invention, proportional relationships of the elements have not necessarily been maintained in the drawing figures.
Referring to the drawings,
Turning to
As provided in
The basket member 10 may include a plurality of apertures, holes, slots, or some combination thereof to allow for fluid communication between the basket member 10 and the jar member 5. Any packet that is used to control the humidity or oxygen of contents within the jar member 5 is thereby in fluid communication with the contents of the jar member 5.
More particularly, in the illustrated embodiment, vertical slots 70 are positioned and located around an inner circumference 75 of the basket member 10. Some of the vertical slot members 70 extend only to a bottom surface 80 of the basket member 10, such as slot member 70A. Other slot members 70 such as slot member 70B extend down to the bottom surface 80 of the basket member 10 and onto the same bottom surface 80 (or surface) of the basket member 10. Further, as illustrated in
From the foregoing, it will be seen that the various embodiments of the present invention are well adapted to attain all the objectives and advantages hereinabove set forth together with still other advantages which are obvious and which are inherent to the present structures. It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations of the present embodiments are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations. Since many possible embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, it is also to be understood that all disclosures herein set forth or illustrated in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted as illustrative only and not limiting. The various constructions described above and illustrated in the drawings are presented by way of example only and are not intended to limit the concepts, principles and scope of the present invention.
As is evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects of the present invention are not limited by the particular details of the examples illustrated herein, and it is therefore contemplated that other modifications and applications, or equivalents thereof, will occur to those skilled in the art. The terms “having” and “including” and similar terms as used in the foregoing specification are used in the sense of “optional” or “may include” and not as “required.”
Many changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications of the present constructions will, however, become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the specification and the accompanying drawings. All such changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention which is limited only by the claims which follow.
