Patent Application
20100183775
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to food tray assemblies and, more particularly, removable food trays, consumer food products and methods of packaging food products.
Food products of all varieties may be packaged in tray assemblies for later consumption. Tray assemblies may have one or more integral trays that hold the food products. In some cases, two trays may be included in the tray assembly wherein each tray holds a food product that must be heated in a microwave, such as a side of corn in a smaller tray and a main entrée such as meat loaf in larger tray. However, some food courses may require a tray that holds a product that is to be heated and another tray that holds an product that is not to be heated, such as dry product.
During packaging of tray assemblies that hold both a hot and a dry food product (e.g., a “cool” food product), the hot food product may be deposited into a first tray of the tray assembly at an elevated temperature. The dry food product may be deposited into a second tray of the tray assembly at room temperature. Because the hot food product is at an elevated temperature, the tray assembly must be cooled prior to further packaging and assembly. Therefore, the tray assembly may be subjected to a cooling process where the entire assembly is cooled. The dry food product may absorb moisture during the cooling process causing mold to grow, rendering the food inedible.
Accordingly, alternative food tray assemblies and consumer food products are desired.
In one embodiment, a food tray assembly includes a retaining structure, a first tray, and a second tray. The retaining structure has a first engaging region and the first tray is removeably engaged with the retaining structure at the first engaging region. The first tray may be removed from the retaining structure by the application of a force to the first tray in a first direction and may be engaged with the retaining structure by the application of a force to the first tray in a second direction.
In another embodiment, a consumer food product includes a retaining structure, a first food product, a second food product, a first tray, and a second tray. The first and second food products are sealed within the first and second trays by a first and second sealing wrapper. The first tray is removeably engaged with the retaining structure by an interference fit such that the first tray may be removed from the retaining structure by the application of a force to the first tray in a first direction and may be engaged with the retaining structure by the application of a force to the first tray in a second direction.
In yet another embodiment, a method of packaging food products into a packaging assembly includes populating a first tray with a first food product, populating a second tray with a second food product and engaging the first tray with a retaining structure. The first tray is engaged with the retaining structure by an interference fit in a first engaging region.
The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative and exemplary in nature and not intended to limit the inventions defined by the claims. Moreover, the individual features of the drawings will be more fully apparent and understood in view of the detailed description. The following detailed description of specific embodiments can be best understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numeral and in which:
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to food tray assemblies for storing food products. The food tray assemblies of particular embodiments may comprise one or more trays that are removably maintained within a retaining structure. The trays may be repeatedly removed from and put back into the food tray assembly such that a consumer may remove one or more trays from the assembly and heat the remaining trays of the assembly in the microwave. Conversely, one or more trays may be removed from the food tray assembly and heated in the microwave while the trays that are remaining in the assembly are not heated. The tray or trays holding the non-heated food may be removed from the assembly and the contents emptied into the tray or trays that have been heated or vice-versa. Additionally, as described in detail below, embodiments may enable trays containing hot food products and trays containing room temperature food products (e.g., dry food products) to be populated separately during the packaging process. After the tray containing the hot product is cooled by a cooling process, both the hot and cold/dry product trays may be assembled into the final food tray assembly.
Referring to
Referring now to
The retaining structure 120 also comprises a perimeter outer wall 122 that extends from the first surface 128. In the embodiments illustrated in
The first and second trays 140 and 160 are configured to snap into and out of the retaining structure 120 at engaging regions 124 and 126, respectively. The beveled neck portions 142 and 162 of the first and second trays 140 and 160 are configured to mate with the engaging seats 121 of the retaining structure 120 and lock the first and second trays 140 and 160 into the retaining structure 120 by an interference fit. For example, to install the first tray into the first engaging region 124 of the retaining structure 120, the first tray 140 is placed above the first engaging region 124 and a force is applied to the first tray 140 in a first direction as indicted by arrow A in
The retaining structure may also comprise one or more weakened portions that separate the engagement regions.
As illustrated in
Exemplary operations of the food tray assemblies will now be described. A user (e.g., a consumer) may desire to consume the contents of the food tray assembly, which may be configured as a consumer meal product, such as a microwave dinner or dessert, for example. The consumer meal product may comprises food products maintained within a tray assembly as described above. For example, the consumer meal product may comprise a tray assembly having a first tray, a second tray and a retaining structure. A first food product may be sealed within the first tray and a second food product may be sealed within the second tray. Additional food products may also be provided in additional food trays. One of the food products may require heating (e.g., microwave heating) prior to consumption while the other may not. The consumer may selectively remove one or more trays from of the retaining structure to heat or not heat the food products maintained therein.
As an example and not a limitation, the second food product may be an apple pie filling while the first food product may be crumbled pie crust. Rather than concurrently heating both the apple pie filling and the crumbled pie crust, the consumer may pop the first tray that holds the crumbled pie crust out of the retaining structure by applying a force to the first tray as described above. The consumer may then place the retaining structure and engaged second tray holding the pie filling into the microwave. After the microwave heating, the consumer by add the crumbled pie crust of the first tray to the pie filling of the second tray. Or, the user may pop the first tray back into the retaining structure as describe above and mix the crumpled pie crust and pie filling as desired. In another example, the consumer may selectively remove the first and/or second tray to apply microwaves to the first food product for one duration and separately apply microwaves to the second food product for a different duration to optimally cook the first and second food products.
Embodiments described herein may streamline the packaging of food products (e.g., consumer meal products) by adding flexibility to the production process such that different products may be packaged in individual trays and then later brought together into a single tray assembly. It should be understood that any type of product (food or non-food products) may be packaged in one or more individual trays. For example and not limitation, products that may be packaged in the trays may include, but are not limited to, shelf stable food products, aseptic food products, dry food products, hot fill food products, frozen food products, eating utensils, napkins, seasonings, toys/novelties, and many others. Empty trays may also be populated into the tray assembly for the consumer's use.
For example, rather than concurrently adding hot and cool food products to a single packaging assembly, the removability of the trays from the retaining structure of the food tray assemblies enable different food products to be packaged in the respective trays in separate production lines. Embodiments of packaging food products may comprise providing a tray assembly as described above. During the step of providing a tray assembly, the tray assembly may be fully assembled (i.e., all trays populated into the retaining structure), partially assembled (i.e., some but not all tray populated into the retaining structure) or fully unassembled (i.e., no trays populated into the retaining structure). A first food product may be populated into first trays in a first production process while a second food product may be populated into second trays of a second production process that may be different from that of the first production process. Depending on the specifications of the production process, the first trays may be populated at one location and the second trays may be populated at a second location.
As an example, the second food product may be a dry food product that is added to the second tray at a cool temperature (i.e., room temperature or below). The first food product may be cooked during the production process and have an elevated temperature when it is populated into the first tray. After the addition of the hot first food product to the first tray, the first production process may further include a cooling process to cool the first food product to a desired temperature. At the conclusion of the first and second production processes, the first and second trays may be sealed by a sealing wrapper and then populated into a retaining structure as described above. In this manner, exposure of the cool second food product to the elevated temperatures of the hot first food product and cooling process may be avoided, which may also avoid such problems such as condensation and mold growth. The retaining structure, first tray, and second tray may then be packaged into an outer package.
Although the example described above refers to trays containing hot and cool food products, embodiments are not limited thereto. According to some embodiments, only cool food products may be contained within the trays of the food tray assembly. According to other embodiments, the trays may contain only hot food products.
Additionally, different food products may be added to the trays to achieve various food product pairings using the same tray assembly. Several production lines may populate different food products into trays which may then be added to retaining structures depending on the production schedule. This may greatly enhance flexibility to the production process and may enable the manufacture to quickly switch from the assembly of one prepackaged consumer product to another.
The foregoing description of the various embodiments and principles thereof has been presented for the purpose of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the subject matter to the precise forms disclosed. Many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Moreover, although many inventive aspects have been presented, such aspects need not be utilized in combination, and various combinations of inventive aspects are possible in light of the various embodiments provided above. Accordingly, the above description is intended to embrace all possible alternatives, modifications, combinations and variations that have been discussed or suggested herein, as well as others that fall within the principles, spirit, and broad scope of the various inventions as defined by the claims.
Having described the subject matter of the present disclosure in detail and by reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims. More specifically, although some aspects of the present disclosure are identified herein as preferred or particularly advantageous, it is contemplated that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to these aspects.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/146,510 filed on Jan. 22, 2009, for Tray Assemblies, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61146510 | Jan 2009 | US |
