Patent Application
20180327161
The present disclosure generally relates to meal delivery kits, and, more particularly, to systems and approaches to providing meal-kit bags for use with meal-kit delivery packages.
While many individuals appreciate a home-cooked meal, they often lack the time, energy, and/or skill required to consistently plan meals, shop for the necessary ingredients, and prepare the meals. As a result, busy families often turn to restaurants and prepackaged food when making plans for dinner. In recent years, however, an increasingly popular alternative has arisen, enabling these busy families to more consistently enjoy home-cooked meals: meal-kits.
Generally speaking, a meal-kit includes a number of ingredients required to prepare a meal as well as a set of instructions for preparing the meal. Meal-kit companies frequently provide numerous meals in a meal-kit delivery package (e.g., a number of meals suitable for a full or partial week or other period of time). Based on the customer order, the meal-kit company then packs the ingredients for the selected meal-kits into a box and ships the box to the customer. After receiving the box, the customer places the meal-kit ingredients in their refrigerator until the customer wishes to prepare the meal. These meal-kits not only save the customer time and energy that may otherwise be spent planning meals and shopping for groceries; they also can familiarize the customer with various new foods and meal preparation techniques, expanding the culinary skills of someone who might otherwise avoid cooking entirely.
In existing meal-kit delivery packages, the meal-kit ingredients are typically housed in an individual packaging such as, a bag. Existing bags are often unsealed and constructed from flimsy plastics or similar materials lacking structure. Due to their construction, existing bags are often prone to ripping and leaking. Further, existing bags often lack the structure necessary to retain shape, making them difficult to handle during both the meal-kit's packaging process (e.g., they are cumbersome to load and transfer to different packaging stations) and the customer's unpacking process (e.g., existing bags often lack the structure necessary to remain free-standing when moved, for example, to a refrigerator). Some meal-kit companies have addressed these deficiencies with existing bags by using boxes for each meal-kit instead of bags. Unfortunately, boxes are significantly more expensive than plastic bags, and consequently do not provide a cost-effective alternative to existing bags.
In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, a meal-kit delivery package includes a meal-kit shipping container dimensioned to accommodate any number of meal-kit bags to be shipped to a customer. The meal-kit shipping container also accommodates at least one additional meal ingredient, and any number of shipping materials. For example, the shipping materials can include a liner, a cooling component (such as, ice, cold packs, and/or additional liners), and any number of additional layers (such as, bubble wrap, chipboard, and the like). The shipping container may also include a lid or other sealing device to enclose the contents within the shipping container. Each of the meal-kit bags is constructed from a semi-rigid material to accommodate placement of the meal ingredients therein while maintaining a loading configuration where a first side surface and a second side surface of the meal-kit bag maintains a generally vertical orientation
Generally speaking, the disclosed meal-kit preparation and shipping system is prepared in an efficient manner and includes a number of structurally sound components that improve on ease of use, and to thus: (i) improve customer experiences and thereby increase sales of meal-kits and (ii) increase operational efficiencies associated with preparation and packaging of the meal-kits.
With regards to improving customer experiences, systems disclosed herein provide for an upstanding meal-kit bag having a relatively small footprint that can be placed in a refrigerator in an upright orientation. Further, the configuration of the meal-kit bag may reduce and/or eliminate product leakage into the refrigerator. The disclosed systems also allow a customer to easily identify and remove the desired meal-kit bag from the refrigerator in order to prepare the meal.
Regarding increasing operational efficiencies associated with preparation of the meal-kits and related packaging, the disclosed systems and approaches enable meal-kit companies to effectively reduce preparation time of both individual meal-kits and meal-kit packages having a number of meals by reducing the number of loading stations required to fill individual meal-kit bags. Further, the systems and approaches described herein reduce and/or eliminate difficulties in transporting meal-kit bags between loading stations, and reduce the time required to load the meal-kit bags with ingredients.
The above needs are at least partially met through the provision of the meal-kit preparation and shipping system described in the following detailed description, particularly when studied in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.
The meal-kit shipping container 101 is dimensioned to accommodate the plurality of meal-kit bags 120 to be shipped to a customer. The meal-kit shipping container 101 may also accommodate at least one additional meal ingredient 108, and any number of shipping materials 102. For example, the shipping materials 102 can include a liner 104, a cooling component 106 (e.g., an ice or a cold pack), and any number of intermediate layers 110, 112 (e.g., bubble wrap and/or chipboard). The shipping container 101 may also include a lid or other sealing device 114 to enclose the contents within the shipping container 101.
In these examples, the liner 104 may be in the form of a single layer disposed on the bottom of the shipping container 101. However, in other examples, the liner 104 may include a number of surfaces that line some or all of the surfaces of the shipping container 101. For example, the liner 104 may form a cubic or prismatic shape having a total of six sides. Accordingly, the liner 104 may be composed of two separate pieces that cooperate to form the liner. Other examples are possible. The liner 104 may be constructed from a cost-effective, readily available, and/or insulative material such as cotton, denim, wool, plaster, and the like. Other examples are possible.
With reference to
With reference to
To form the volume 121, the surfaces 122, 124, and 126 shown in
In these examples, the lower surface 122, the first side surface 124, and the second side surface 126 are constructed from a semi-rigid material. This construction accommodates placement of any number of meal ingredients within the volume 121 formed by the surfaces 122, 124, 126, while maintaining a loading configuration where the first side surface 124 and the second side surface 126 maintains a generally vertical orientation. By “generally vertical orientation,” it is meant an angle formed with each of the first side surface 124 and the second side surface 126 relative to a horizontal plane (as well as the lower surface 122) denoted by “a” in
The surfaces 122, 124, 126 forming the meal-kit bag can be constructed from any number of materials such as oriented polypropylene (OPP) or cast polypropylene (CPP). Other examples are possible. In some examples, the thickness of the surfaces 122, 124, 126 is between approximately 0.5 mil and approximately 6 mil, and preferably, between approximately 1 mil and 3 mil to provide a sufficiently rigid, yet not overly structured bag. Other examples are possible.
As shown in
The lower surface 122, first side surface 124, and/or the second side surface 126 may also define any number of vents 130 having any number of different shapes, sizes, and/or configurations. The vents 130 are sized to maintain a desired level of carbon dioxide within the volume 121 that is below a threshold associated with properly storing produce. For example, the vent or vents 130 may have a generally circular shape and may have a diameter between approximately 0.01 in and approximately 1.5 in. Other examples are possible. It is appreciated that the vent or vents 130 have a dimension that is small enough to restrict food products stored within the meal-kit bag 120 from exiting the volume 121 and located high enough from the bottom of the meal-kit bag 120 to contain any minor ingredient leaks that may occur therein. As an example, the vent or vents 130 may be disposed at a height that is approximately 25% to approximately 33% of the total height of the meal-kit bag. Other examples are possible.
As can be seen in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Upon folding the meal-kit bag 120, the upper portion 124b of the first side surface 124 and the upper portion 126b of the second side surface 126 will be aligned. Further, the first lateral portion 124c of the first side surface 124 and the first lateral portion 126c of the second side surface 126 will be aligned, and the second lateral portion 124d of the first side surface 124 and the second lateral portion 126d of the second side surface 126 will be aligned. The lower surface 122, the first side surface 124, and the second side surface 126 may then be coupled at these locations to define the volume 121. As previously stated, the surfaces may be coupled at these locations using any number of mechanisms such as, adhesives, sealants, bonding, and the like. Other examples are possible. Additionally, the lower surface 122, the first side surface 124, and the second side surface 126 may be coupled at coupling regions 138 in order to form the gusseted configuration.
As illustrated in
At the first station 152, each of the meal-kit bags 120 is loaded with at least one ingredient 103a used to prepare a meal via the opening 128. It is understood that the first station 152, any number of ingredients 103a may be loaded into each of the meal-kit bags.
Each of the meal-kit bags 120 are then transported to a second station 154, whereby additional ingredients 103b are loaded into the volume 121 via the opening 128. While maintaining the loading configuration, each of the meal-kit bags are transported to a third station 156 and placed into the meal-kit shipping container 101 in the vertical loading orientation. It is understood that there may be a delay between loading each of the meal-kit bags 120 with ingredients 103a, 103b and loading the meal-kit bags 120 into the meal-kit shipping container 101. The meal-kit bags 120 may be temporarily transported to a storage container (not shown) prior to being loaded into the meal-kit shipping container 101. Transportation to these intermediate locations may occur in an efficient manner because each of the meal-kit bags 120 is capable of standing in a generally vertical orientation, and can easily be grabbed via the handle 134. Further, it is understood that any number of stations may be used to load the meal-kit bag 120 and the meal-kit shipping container 101. Further, it is understood that any number of additional meal ingredients 108 (such as, for example meat products and other proteins) and shipping materials 102 (such as, for example coolants, cushioning devices, and other structural elements) may also be loaded at the third station 156 or any other station not illustrated.
In some examples, after all of the desired ingredients 103a, 103b have been loaded into the meal-kit bags but prior to loading the meal-kit bags 120 into the meal-kit delivery station, the meal-kit bags may be sealed via the sealing mechanism 128a. This seal acts to restrict the meal ingredients 103a, 103b from being removed from the volume 121 via the opening. Additionally, an instructional card 118 may be disposed in the meal-kit shipping container 101 while maintaining the vertical loading orientation.
In some examples, the meal-kit bag 120 may also include a storage pocket 140. In some examples, the storage pocket 140 may be formed by at least one of the first and second side surfaces 124, 126 by adding additional folds to the first and/or second side surfaces 124, 126. In other examples, the storage pocket 140 may be formed from an additional material that is coupled to one of the first and second side surfaces. The storage pocket 140 may be disposed on an outer side and/or an inner side (e.g., within the volume 121 of the meal-kit bag 120) of the first and second side surfaces 124, 126. The storage pocket 140 may be dimensioned to accommodate a placard containing cooking instructions, nutritional information, and/or any other additional information. In meal-kit packages 100 having a number of individual meals, by providing a location for this placard within or coupled to the particular meal-kit bag 120, a user will not need to spend time attempting to identify which instructions found within the shipping container 101 refer to a particular meal-kit bag 120.
Additionally, in some examples, any number of the meal-kit bags 120 may include partitions or dividers (not shown) which create physical barriers within the volume 121. These dividers may be constructed from any material and can be formed from discrete components or alternatively be formed as integral features of the meal-kit bag 120. These partitions may be used to provide particular locations for each of the meal-kit ingredients to avoid damaging other ingredients. Further the use of partitions may reduce overall loading times during the meal-kit bag 120 preparation, as it is not necessary to spend time rearranging ingredients in order to fit in the volume 121.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that a wide variety of modifications, alterations, and combinations can be made with respect to the above described embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention, and that such modifications, alterations, and combinations are to be viewed as being within the ambit of the inventive concept.
The patent claims at the end of this patent application are not intended to be construed under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless traditional means-plus-function language is expressly recited, such as “means for” or “step for” language being explicitly recited in the claim(s). The systems and methods described herein are directed to an improvement to computer functionality, and improve the functioning of conventional computers.
