The subject matter relates generally to food containers and more particularly to a carton with tamper-evident feature and method of using same.
Various products are known to be purchased by consumers which require a container for ease of transport. For example, in the food and grocery industry it is common to place food items in individual carry-out food containers. There may be certain drawbacks to commonly used carry-out food containers. For example, cardboard-, paper-, and/or paperboard-based containers may be designed in a fashion that cannot ensure that the contents have been held secure in an untampered with state.
In one embodiment, a tamper evident carton is provided. The tamper evident carton may include a floor panel; side panels extending about a periphery of the floor panel; corner gussets extending between adjacent side panels, wherein the floor panel, side panels, and corner gussets may be configurable to form a compartment region; a lid flap extending from an uppermost edge of one of the side panels forming a moveable hinge joint therebetween, the lid flap may include a front edge flap extending from a front edge of the lid flap opposite that of the moveable hinge joint; and a tear strip disposed in the front edge flap. The side panels may include a front side panel, an opposing rear side panel, a first end panel, and an opposing second end panel, and wherein the lid flap extends from an uppermost edge of the rear side panel. The front side panel may include a front side top edge flap and the opposing first and second end panels may include a first end top edge flap and a second end top edge flap, respectively, wherein the front side top edge flap, the first end top edge flap, and the second end top edge flap may be hingedly connected to a top edge of their respective panel, and wherein one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap may include a receiving tab formed therein. The lid flap may include one or more locking tabs, wherein the one or more locking tabs may be configured to engage with the receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap. The moveable hinge joint formed between the lid flap and the uppermost edge of its respective side panel may be perforated. The front edge flap may further include a coupling portion, wherein the coupling portion may be configured to affix to at least a portion of an outer facing surface of the front side panel, and wherein the tear strip may extend a length of the front edge flap and may be disposed between the coupling portion and the front edge of the lid flap. The tamper evident carton may further include a first score line and a second score line, wherein the first score line and the second score line define side boundaries of the tear strip, and wherein each of the first score line and the second score line may be flanked by a third score line and a fourth score line, respectively. The first score line and the second score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an inside surface of the front edge flap, and wherein the third score line and the fourth score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an outside surface of the front edge flap. Wherein upon removal of the tear strip the coupling portion may be separated from the front edge of the lid flap. The one or more locking tabs may be configured to be interlockable with a corresponding receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap when the lid flap is in a closed configuration. Wherein once interlocked the interlocked locking tab and receiving tab may be configured such that the locking tab cannot be removed from the receiving tab without causing visible damage to at least one of the locking tab and the receiving tab. Wherein the coupling portion may be affixable to the front side panel via an adhesive.
In another embodiment, a method of securing contents in a tamper evident carton is provided. The method may include providing a tamper evident carton. The tamper evident carton may include a floor panel; side panels extending about a periphery of the floor panel; corner gussets extending between adjacent side panels, wherein the floor panel, side panels, and corner gussets are configurable to form a compartment region; a lid flap extending from an uppermost edge of one of the side panels forming a moveable hinge joint therebetween, the lid flap comprising a front edge flap extending from a front edge of the lid flap opposite that of the moveable hinge joint; and a tear strip disposed in the front edge flap. The method may further include inserting contents into the compartment region; folding the lid flap to a closed position; and securing the front edge flap to a side panel opposite that of the side panel from which the front edge flap extends from. The side panels of the tamper evident carton may include a front side panel, an opposing rear side panel, a first end panel, and an opposing second end panel, and wherein the lid flap extends from an uppermost edge of the rear side panel. The front side panel may include a front side top edge flap and the opposing first and second end panels may include a first end top edge flap and a second end top edge flap, respectively, wherein the front side top edge flap, the first end top edge flap, and the second end top edge flap may be hingedly connected to a top edge of their respective panel, and wherein one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap may include a receiving tab formed therein. The lid flap may include one or more locking tabs, and wherein the one or more locking tabs may be configured to engage with the receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap. The method may further include interlocking one or more of the one or more locking tabs with a corresponding receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap. The front edge flap may further include a coupling portion, wherein the coupling portion may be configured to affix to at least a portion of an outer facing surface of the front side panel, and wherein the tear strip extends a length of the front edge flap and may be disposed between the coupling portion and the front edge of the lid flap. The tear strip may include a first score line and a second score line defining side boundaries thereof, and wherein each of the first score line and the second score line may be flanked by a third score line and a fourth score line, respectively. The first score line and the second score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an inside surface of the front edge flap, and wherein the third score line and the fourth score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an outside surface of the front edge flap.
In yet another embodiment, a method of securing contents in a tamper evident carton is provided. The method may include providing a tamper evident carton. The tamper evident carton may include a floor panel; side panels extending about a periphery of the floor panel; corner gussets extending between adjacent side panels, wherein the floor panel, side panels, and corner gussets are configurable to form a compartment region; a lid flap extending from an uppermost edge of one of the side panels forming a moveable hinge joint therebetween, the lid flap comprising a front edge flap extending from a front edge of the lid flap opposite that of the moveable hinge joint; and a tear strip disposed in the front edge flap. The method may further include removing the tear strip; and folding open the lid flap. The side panels of the tamper evident carton may include a front side panel, an opposing rear side panel, a first end panel, and an opposing second end panel, and wherein the lid flap extends from an uppermost edge of the rear side panel. The front side panel may include a front side top edge flap and the opposing first and second end panels may include a first end top edge flap and a second end top edge flap, respectively, wherein the front side top edge flap, the first end top edge flap, and the second end top edge flap may be hingedly connected to a top edge of their respective panel, and wherein one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap may include a receiving tab formed therein. The lid flap may include one or more locking tabs, and wherein the one or more locking tabs may be configured to engage with the receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap. The method may further include, prior to folding open the lid flap, unlocking the one or more of the one or more locking tabs that are interlocked with a corresponding receiving tab of one or more of the front side top edge flap, first end top edge flap, and second end top edge flap. The front edge flap may further include a coupling portion, wherein the coupling portion may be configured to affix to at least a portion of an outer facing surface of the front side panel, and wherein the tear strip extends a length of the front edge flap and may be disposed between the coupling portion and the front edge of the lid flap. The tear strip may include a first score line and a second score line defining side boundaries thereof, and wherein each of the first score line and the second score line may be flanked by a third score line and a fourth score line, respectively. The first score line and the second score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an inside surface of the front edge flap, and wherein the third score line and the fourth score line may be cut about fifty percent (50%) through from an outside surface of the front edge flap. Wherein upon removal of the tear strip the coupling portion may be separated from the front edge of the lid flap.
Having thus described the subject matter in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The subject matter now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the subject matter are shown. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. The subject matter may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Indeed, many modifications and other embodiments of the subject matter set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which the subject matter pertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the subject matter is not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.
In some embodiments, the subject matter of the present invention provides a carton with tamper-evident feature and method of using same. In one example, the tamper-evident food carton (or container) may be a disposable tamper-evident food carton that is, for example, a cardboard-, paper-, and/or paperboard-based container.
In some embodiments, the tamper-evident carton (or container) may include a container body and a foldable lid flap, and wherein the container body includes a floor panel, a front panel, a back panel, and two side panels that may be coupled via webbed corners. Accordingly, the tamper-evident carton may be used as, for example, a disposable food carry-out (or take-out) container that is suitable for holding wet foods reliably for some useful period of time.
In some embodiments, the webbed corners of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may be held by glue or other adhesive.
In some embodiments, the webbed corners of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may be configured on the outside of the tamper-evident carton.
In some embodiments, the webbed corners of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may be configured on the inside of the tamper-evident carton.
In some embodiments, the container body and/or hinged container lid of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may include various tabs and slots that may be engaged for holding shut the four container lid flaps to the container body.
In some embodiments, the container body and/or the lid flap of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may include one of more tamper-evident features that may be used to indicate a “secure” condition of the container and wherein the tamper-evident feature may be, for example, the condition of certain closure mechanisms (e.g., flaps, tabs, and/or slots), a perforated tear line, a tear-away strip, and/or the like.
In some embodiments, the container body and/or the lid flap of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may include tear-away strip, which is one example of a tamper-evident feature, and wherein the tear-away strip provides a substantially smooth tear line.
In some embodiments, the container body and/or the lid flap of the tamper-evident carton (or container) may include tear-away strip, which is one example of a tamper-evident feature, and wherein the tear-away strip may be formed using perforation lines on either side of the tear-away strip, or by forming an about 50% cut score line on the inside of the carton and an about 50% cut score line on the outside of the carton on either side of the tear-away strip and wherein the inside and outside cut score lines may be offset by about ⅛ inches.
Additionally, a method of using the carton (or container) with a tamper-evident feature is provided.
Referring now to
Referring still to
Further, the ends of front panel 114 and back panel 118 may be coupled to side panels 120 via webbed corners 126. The webbed corners 126 may be, for example, a webbed corner outside (or inside) glue design. An example of webbed corner outside glue design is shown in
Further, lid flap 130 may have a front edge flap 134. Front edge flap 134 may have both a tear-away strip portion 136 and a coupling portion 138. Further, coupling portion 138 may be affixable to front panel 114 of container body 110 via, for example, an adhesive strip 140 (see
With respect to tamper-evident carton 100 being, for example, a disposable tamper-evident food container, tamper-evident carton 100 may be formed of any lightweight, rigid or semi-rigid material that is suitable for holding and/or transporting, for example, a quantity of food and that is also suitable for disposing of after use. For example, tamper-evident carton 100 can be formed of corrugated cardboard, paper, paperboard, post-consumer paperboard (i.e., recycled materials), biodegradable materials (e.g., sugarcane and paper), polystyrene foam (e.g., Styrofoam), plastic, molded fiber, and the like.
Tamper-evident carton 100 may include certain tamper-evident features that may be used to indicate a “secure” and/or “tamper-evident” unsecure condition. The tear-away strip portion 136 of front edge flap 134 is an example of the tamper-evident features of the tamper-evident carton 100. In one example, when the tear-away strip portion 136 of front edge flap 134 is fully intact, the tamper-evident carton 100 is in the “secure” condition, as shown, for example, in
In another example, when locking tabs 132 of lid flap 130 and/or receiving tabs 124 of container body 110 are fully intact and fully engaged, the tamper-evident carton 100 is in the “secure” condition. By contrast, when any one or more of the locking tabs 132 of lid flap 130 and/or receiving tabs 124 of container body 110 is shown to be compromised (e.g., torn, partially or fully missing, and/or not fully engaged), the tamper-evident carton 100 is in a “tamper-evident” condition.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Further, and referring now to a cross-section A-A of
Alternatively, tear-away strip portion 136 of lid flap 130 may be formed using a pair of perforation lines on either side of tear-away strip portion 136.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Referring now to
At a step 210, a tamper-evident carton is provided that includes a container body and a foldable lid flap that has certain temper-evident features. For example, tamper-evident carton 100 may be provided that includes container body 110 and foldable lid flap 130 and that has certain temper-evident features, as shown, for example, in
At a step 215, any contents may be placed into the tamper-evident carton. For example, food may be placed into container body 110 of tamper-evident carton 100.
At a step 220, a protective strip of the adhesive strip at the coupling portion of the front edge flap of the lid flap may be peeled off to expose the adhesive. For example, a protective strip (not shown) of adhesive strip 140 at coupling portion 138 of front edge flap 134 of lid flap 130 may be peeled away to expose the adhesive thereon.
At a step 225, the tamper-evident carton is closed with all the temper-evident features in the “secure” condition. For example, lid flap 130 may be folded down onto container body 110. Then, side locking tabs 132 of lid flap 130 may be engaged with the side receiving tabs 124 of container body 110. Optionally, the front locking tab 132 of lid flap 130 may be engaged with the front receiving tab 124 of container body 110. Then, front edge flap 134 of lid flap 130 may be folded against front panel 114 of container body 110 of tamper-evident carton 100. Then, coupling portion 138 of front edge flap 134 of lid flap 130 may be adhered by pressing adhesive strip 140 against front panel 114 of container body 110. The tamper-evident carton 100 is now fully closed and in the “secure” condition.
At a step 230, the tamper-evident carton is opened by tearing away the tear-away strip. Then, the contents of the tamper-evident carton may be accessed. For example, tamper-evident carton 100 may be opened by tearing away the tear-away strip portion 136 of front edge flap 134 of lid flap 130, as shown, for example, in
At an optional step 235, the tamper-evident carton may be reclosed by engaging the locking tabs of the lid flap with the receiving tabs of the container body to secure any remaining contents. For example, tamper-evident carton 100 may be reclosed by engaging locking tabs 132 of lid flap 130 with receiving tabs 124 of container body 110 to secure any remaining contents. The tamper-evident carton 100 is still in the “tamper-evident” condition because tear-away strip portion 136 of front edge flap 134 of lid flap 130 has been and remains compromised. Further, at any point in the lifetime of tamper-evident carton 100, the tamper-evident carton 100 may be discarded.
In summary and referring now again to
Additionally, the tamper-evident carton 100 and method 200 features a tear-away strip portion 136 of lid flap 130 that provides a substantially smooth tear line. For example, tear-away strip portion 136 of lid flap 130 may be formed using a pair of about 50% cut score lines 150 on the inside of the carton and a pair of about 50% cut score lines 152 on the outside of the carton and wherein the inside and outside cut score lines may be offset by about ⅛ inches. Alternatively, tear-away strip portion 136 of lid flap 130 may be formed using a pair of perforation lines on either side of tear-away strip portion 136.
Following long-standing patent law convention, the terms “a,” “an,” and “the” refer to “one or more” when used in this application, including the claims. Thus, for example, reference to “a subject” includes a plurality of subjects, unless the context clearly is to the contrary (e.g., a plurality of subjects), and so forth.
Throughout this specification and the claims, the terms “comprise,” “comprises,” and “comprising” are used in a non-exclusive sense, except where the context requires otherwise. Likewise, the term “include” and its grammatical variants are intended to be non-limiting, such that recitation of items in a list is not to the exclusion of other like items that can be substituted or added to the listed items.
For the purposes of this specification and appended claims, unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing amounts, sizes, dimensions, proportions, shapes, formulations, parameters, percentages, quantities, characteristics, and other numerical values used in the specification and claims, are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about” even though the term “about” may not expressly appear with the value, amount or range. Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the following specification and attached claims are not and need not be exact, but may be approximate and/or larger or smaller as desired, reflecting tolerances, conversion factors, rounding off, measurement error and the like, and other factors known to those of skill in the art depending on the desired properties sought to be obtained by the subject matter. For example, the term “about,” when referring to a value can be meant to encompass variations of, in some embodiments ±100%, in some embodiments ±50%, in some embodiments ±20%, in some embodiments ±10%, in some embodiments ±5%, in some embodiments ±1%, in some embodiments ±0.5%, and in some embodiments ±0.1% from the specified amount, as such variations are appropriate to perform the disclosed methods or employ the disclosed compositions.
Further, the term “about” when used in connection with one or more numbers or numerical ranges, should be understood to refer to all such numbers, including all numbers in a range and modifies that range by extending the boundaries above and below the numerical values set forth. The recitation of numerical ranges by endpoints includes all numbers, e.g., whole integers, including fractions thereof, subsumed within that range (for example, the recitation of 1 to 5 includes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, as well as fractions thereof, e.g., 1.5, 2.25, 3.75, 4.1, and the like) and any range within that range.
Although the foregoing subject matter has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that certain changes and modifications can be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.
This application is related and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.: 63/314,075, filed Feb. 25, 2022, the application of which is incorporate herein by reference in its entirety.
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