TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates to the field of food containers. More particularly, this disclosure relates to food packaging having multiple chambers for containing and storing separate consumable substances to eventually be selectively mixed together by the consumer.
BACKGROUND
Single-serve food items that are packaged in disposable containers are well known. Many such items are sold with a main food item contained in a sealed container and a complementary food item contained in a separately sealed compartment, often in the cover or lid of the container. When a user is ready to eat the food, she may separate the lid from the container, break or peal open the seals on both, pour the contents of the lid into the container and mix them together. A well-known example of such a product and packaging system is the single-serve yogurt packaging found in the dairy section of grocery stores, typically directed to kids, wherein the complementary food item, such as granola or a cookie crumb mix, is stored in the sealed lid, for conveniently adding to the yogurt in the container immediately before eating it.
Other containers are directed to the challenges of adding to them measured amounts of one or more food or liquid items, often for mixing them together. Application publication no. US2020/0299035 titled “Measurable Disposable Container and Lid” to Frizzell offers a potential solution. This disclosure shows a food and liquid storage container having a cylindrical container body portion and a lid. The interior surface of the body of the storage container contains an embossed portion line and a portion indicator. This system is directed to the health-conscious consumer who is tracking the total calories and macronutrients of each food product, product ingredient and/or meal that an individual consumes in a given day. Thus, these lines help an individual measure the predetermined amount of food to add, making the monitoring of total calories consumed much easier for an individual.
There is a certain category of food items that requires a good deal of relatively exacting and cumbersome preparation steps before consumption, and thus does not readily lend itself to simple mass-produced, single-serve, ready-to-eat applications, as in the case of the yogurt-plus-complementary-food packages. This food group is typically sold to consumers in an unprepared or “pure” state and often requires the addition of a relatively precise amount of liquid, such as water, and/or flavoring, along with a good deal of mixing before making a fresh, comestible end product. Thus, these food items are often sold in larger, multiserving quantities, and the user must go through a number of precise preparatory steps—i.e., a recipe—before enjoying one or more servings. These steps include measuring out a precise amount of base, or “pure” food and placing or pouring it into a mixing bowl, measuring out a precise amount of liquid admixture, such as water and optionally other liquid flavoring, and pouring that into the same bowl, adding spices, and then mixing all the ingredients together to make the finished, fresh, ready-to-eat end product. Besides being time intensive, this effort also results in dirtied measuring utensils and the mixing bowl or bowls that require washing. Because of these drawbacks, many people choose to not even bother preparing these fresh food items, especially when they are on-the-go and/or when the desired amount is a small, single serve serving.
One increasingly popular food item worldwide that falls in this category and suffers from the preparation preciseness and effort problems is tahini. Tahini (also called tahina) is crushed and pureed sesame seed that in its pure state—which may also hereinafter be referred to as “raw tahini” (although not necessarily in the sense that the fresh seed is uncooked)—has some interesting properties. Pure tahini has a relatively long shelf life and is typically sold in larger sized, multi-serving containers. It has many uses as an ingredient in a recipe. However, although pure tahini has a delicious flavor, it is not typically consumed as is, right from the bottle or container it is sold in. Rather, pure tahini is typically mixed with a good amount of liquid, usually water, before being consumed. The main reason is that raw tahini absorbs a good amount of the first liquid that is added to and mixed with it, becoming more viscous (thicker) than the pure raw product itself. Only after crossing a tipping point of additional water added to the mixture will it start to become less viscous and suitable for direct eating. This property makes this process what some people call “the art of making tahini.” Also, once prepared with the “right” amount of water and often a citrus (lemon) juice flavoring, the fresh, ready-to-eat mixture (without adding preservatives) lasts in a refrigerator for only a few days. Thus, it is not practical or economical to prepare and sell fresh, ready-to-eat tahini in volume, at least without undesirable added preservatives.
Moreover, there are many “recipes” for turning pure tahini into a fresh, delicious, ready-to-eat tahini product, as tahini can serve myriad uses that are largely a function of its desired final thickness state (and spicing preferences). For example, tahini can be made into a spread, a dip, a sauce or a salad dressing. However, all conventional ready-to-eat tahini recipes follow this basic outline: (a) the pre-mix stage—ensure that the natural sesame oil (or other added oil) that tends to separate and rise to top of the raw tahini sitting in its purchased container is well-mixed with the rest of the sesame product in the container; (b) remove from the container a desired, measured amount of the “raw” product and place it into a mixing bowl; (c) add to it a desired amount of flavoring, such as a citrus (lemon) juice, garlic, and spices, (d) add to that mixture a prescribed amount of water relative to the amount of raw product in the bowl, where the amount would differ depending on the desired thickness (use) of the end product; and finally (e) thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in the bowl to create a smooth, creamy end product. Traditionally, the mixing step is often done using mortar and pestle grind and mix process, but more commonly this is done using any rounded bowl and mixing utensil, such as a spoon, fork or blender other similar tool.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a solution for this group of food products, including pure tahini, that requires preparation with precise amounts of added liquids, that overcomes the challenges in the prior art, and that makes it easy and even foolproof to repeatedly prepare a “perfect,” fresh, ready-to-eat end product at the time of eating and at a desired consistency. It would be further desirable for such a solution to be made available for long-shelf life, single serve uses, and preferably using disposable container materials, and that could be stored and sold in quantity at any grocery store or supermarket or shipped anywhere.
SUMMARY
Certain deficiencies of the prior art are overcome by the provision of multi-chamber food package systems and methods as disclosed herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Further advantages of the present invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art with the benefit of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and upon reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a top front perspective view of one non-limiting example of a multi-chamber food package system in accordance with the present disclosure;
FIG. 2 a bottom front perspective view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 a rear view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 a side view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 a top view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 a bottom view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 an exploded view of the example multi-chamber food package system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 8-8 in FIG. 3;
FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 9-9 in FIG. 4;
FIG. 10 is a magnified view of detail 10 of FIG. 8;
FIG. 11 is a magnified view of detail 11 of FIG. 8;
FIG. 12 is a magnified view of detail 12 of FIG. 8;
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the example system of FIG. 1 shown partially disassembled, wherein the auxiliary subassembly is shown ready to be mounted to the lid enclosure and the lid enclosure is shown ready to be mounted to the base subassembly;
FIG. 14 is a perspective view illustrating an example auxiliary subassembly in the process of being mounted to the corresponding example lid enclosure during an assembly step;
FIG. 15 is a magnified view of detail 15 of FIG. 14;
FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic partially exploded view illustrating the example auxiliary subassembly of FIG. 14 having been mounted to the corresponding example lid enclosure, and showing the lid subassembly in the process of being attached to the corresponding example base subassembly;
FIG. 17 is a magnified view of detail 17 of FIG. 16;
FIG. 18 is a further cross-sectional view taken along line 9-9 of FIG. 4, but wherein the system is shown with a first volume of first consumable substance sealed within the base chamber, and a second volume of a second consumable substance sealed within the auxiliary chamber;
FIG. 19 is a further top front perspective view of the example system of FIG. 1, but showing directions of movement of respective components during the process of a user removing the lip enclosure from the base enclosure;
FIG. 20 is a top view of the example base enclosure shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 21 is a bottom view of the example lid enclosure shown in FIG. 7; and
FIG. 22 is a bottom perspective view of the example lid enclosure of FIG. 20.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding features throughout the several views.
With reference to the figures, one or more preferred embodiments of a multi-chamber food package system are illustrated generally at 100.
Referring to FIGS. 1, 7 and 8, a multi-chamber food package system 100 may comprise a base enclosure 102, a lid enclosure 104 and an auxiliary enclosure 106. Referring to FIG. 8, the system 100 may have a main axis 112 defined as extending from the base stabilizer portion 114 of the base enclosure 102 through the lid top 180 of the lid enclosure 104.
The base enclosure 102 may have a base chamber 114 defined therein, a base mouth 166 in fluid communication with the base chamber 114, and a base peripheral lip 120 disposed about the base mouth 166. The base peripheral lip 120 may preferably have a base seal surface 172 which is flat (e.g., planar).
Referring to FIGS. 8 and 21, the lid enclosure 104 may have a lid inboard surface 130 and a lid periphery 122.
Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the auxiliary enclosure 106 may have an auxiliary chamber 118 defined therein, an auxiliary mouth 170 in fluid communication with the auxiliary chamber 118, and an auxiliary peripheral lip 124 disposed about the auxiliary mouth 170. The auxiliary peripheral lip 124 may preferably have an auxiliary seal surface 174 which is flat (e.g., planar).
Referring to FIGS. 7, 8 and 12, a base seal element 108 may be affixed to the base peripheral lip 120 and may preferably extend across the base mouth 166, thereby sealing the base chamber 114 from an ambient environment 126. Similarly, referring to FIGS. 7-11, an auxiliary seal element 110 may be affixed to the auxiliary peripheral lip 124 and may preferably extend across the auxiliary mouth 170, thereby sealing the auxiliary chamber 118 from the ambient environment 126. In preferred implementations of the system 100, such as those represented in FIGS. 8 and 18, the separate sealing of the base chamber 114 and auxiliary chamber 118 prevents spillage, cross-contamination or undesired pre-mixing between the respective contents of the base chamber 114 and auxiliary chamber 118 throughout storage, shipment and retail display of the system 100, and prior to the system 100 being opened for use by the user/consumer. In particular preferred implementations of the system 100, the seal elements (108 and 110) may comprise, for example, polymer (e.g., PET/CPP) cup sealer film. The sealer film may be partially or entirely transparent, and may optionally include printing thereon. Moreover, the seal elements (108 and 110) may preferably be configured to be user-peelable from the respective peripheral lips to which they are affixed.
Referring to FIG. 18, a volume of first consumable substance 150 may be contained within the base chamber 114. A quantity of second consumable substance 152 may be contained within the auxiliary chamber 116. The first consumable substance 150 may comprise, for example, tahini or the like. The second consumable substance 152 may be, for example, a liquid for the user to selectively dilute or flavor the first consumable substance to appeal to the user's unique taste. For example, the second consumable substance may be water, a citrus such as lemon juice, or some other flavoring to be selectively mixed with the first consumable substance by the user within, for example, the base enclosure 102.
Referring to FIGS. 13 and 18, the base enclosure 102, the base seal element 108, and the volume of first consumable substance 150 may collectively define a base subassembly 156. The auxiliary enclosure 106, the auxiliary seal element 110, and the volume of second consumable substance collectively define an auxiliary subassembly. Referring to FIGS. 14-18, the auxiliary subassembly 158 may be releasably mounted to the lid enclosure 104. For example, as illustrated for example in FIG. 18, the auxiliary subassembly 158 may be releasably mounted to the lid inboard surface 130 of the lid enclosure 104. This releasable mounting may result in the auxiliary subassembly 158 being firmly held in direct contact with the lid inboard surface 130 (e.g., adjacent the upper inboard surface 142 portion of the lid inboard surface 130 as shown in FIG. 18), or held at a selected standoff distance from the lid inboard surface 130 (e.g., at some fixed distance from the upper inboard surface 142).
Referring to FIG. 18, the base subassembly 156 may be releasably securable to the lid enclosure 104. For example, referring to FIGS. 8 and 12, the lid periphery 122 may be releasably secured to the base peripheral lip 120.
Referring to FIG. 22, the lid enclosure 104 may have a lid chamber 116 defined therein, and a lid mouth 168 in fluid communication with the lid chamber 116. The lid periphery 122 may be disposed about the lid mouth 168. Referring to FIGS. 16 and 18, certain preferred embodiments of the system 100 may be configured such that the auxiliary subassembly 158 is housed at least partially, or entirely, within the lid chamber 116 when it is mounted to the lid enclosure 104.
Referring to FIGS. 8, 10 and 14-17, the lid inboard surface 130 may include one or more auxiliary lip detents 140 disposed thereat. In such embodiments of the system 100, the releasable mounting of the auxiliary subassembly may be by way of mutual engagement between the auxiliary peripheral lip 124 and the one or more auxiliary lip detents 140. Moreover, as illustrated in FIG. 10, the auxiliary peripheral lip 124 may be retained in an elastically bent state with respect to the remainder of the auxiliary enclosure 106 (see, e.g., elastically bent direction 154 in FIG. 10) when the auxiliary enclosure 106 is in its releasably mounted relationship with the lid enclosure 104. This adaptation forces a degree of resilient deformation of the auxiliary enclosure 106 when the auxiliary subassembly 158 is removed (e.g., pulled by the user) from its releasable mounted relationship with the lid enclosure 104.
Referring to FIGS. 8 and 12, the lid periphery 122 may include a base lip shroud 134. In such embodiments of the system 100, the releasable securement of the lid periphery 122 to the base peripheral lip 120 may at least be in part by way of the base lip shroud 134 being in receipt of the base peripheral lip 120. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the base lip shroud 134 may be configured to circumferentially envelop the base peripheral lip 120 when the base enclosure is attached to the lid enclosure. Referring to FIGS. 12 and 22, the base lip shroud 134 may include at least one inwardly-projecting base lip detent 132 configured to inhibit release of the base peripheral lip 120 from the base lip shroud once the lid periphery 122 has been placed into its releasable securement to the base peripheral lip 120.
Referring again to FIGS. 12 and 22, in embodiments of the system 100 in which the lid periphery 122 includes a base lip shroud 134, the base lip shroud 134 may further include a lip release tab 136 configured to be actuated by a user with respect to the remainder of the base lip shroud 134 to facilitate release of the base peripheral lip 120 from the releasable securement of the lid periphery 122.
Referring to FIGS. 12 and 22, in particular embodiments of the system 100 having a lip release tab 136, the lip release tab 136 may be frangibly (i.e., breakably) connected to the remainder of the base lip shroud. Alternatively or in addition, the lip release tab 136 may be connected to the remainder of the base lip shroud 134 at least in part by way of a hinge portion 160. In such cases, the hinge portion 160 may be configured so that the aforementioned actuation results in hinged rotation (e.g., in actuation direction 164) of the lip release tab 136 about the hinge portion 160 with respect to the remainder of the base lip shroud 134. Furthermore, the lip release tab 136 may be laterally defined at least by way of a pair of opposingly-disposed tab relief cuts 162 in the base lip shroud 134.
FIGS. 12 and 19 illustrate a potential tab actuation direction 164 along which the user may manually actuate the lip release tab 136 as a precursor step toward removing the lid enclosure 104 from the base subassembly 156. Referring again to FIGS. 12 and 19 for example, actuation of the lip release tab 136 in the tab actuation direction 164 (e.g., toward the lid top 180) may cause fractures in the base lip shroud 134 to propagate from the tab relief cuts 162 toward the tab hinge portion 160. Such fracturing may allows the lid periphery 122 to loosen in opposing circumferential directions 176, thereby enabling the base lip detents 132 to disengage the base peripheral lip 120. This, in turn, releases the lid enclosure 104 to be removed easily from the base subassembly 156 by the user (e.g., in lid removal direction 178). Referring to FIGS. 12 and 22, the lip release tab 136 may include an inwardly-projecting lid lock detent 138. As shown in FIG. 12, the lid lock detent 138 may preferably have a chamfered lower face, and a flat upper face. The chamfered lower face allows the lip release tab 136 to be forcibly flexed outward by the base peripheral lip 120 when the lid enclosure 104 is being pressed onto to the base enclosure 102 during manufacturing. Once manufacturing is complete, the flat upper face of the lid lock detent 138 helps lock the lid enclosure 104 from being removed from the base enclosure 102 until the lip release table is actuated 136.
Referring to FIGS. 8, 9 and 18, the base enclosure 102 may have a base inboard surface 128, which may in turn support or include one or more level indicators 146 to help a user visually measure the amount of the second consumable substance 152 they are selectively mixing with the volume of first consumable substance 150 within the base enclosure 102. The level indicators 146 may be in the form of, for example, a graduated series of indicia such as lines, alphanumerics, a combination thereof or the like.
Referring to FIGS. 7 and 13-18, a method of manufacturing a multi-chamber food package system 100 may be implemented. The method may comprise forming a base subassembly 156 and an auxiliary subassembly 158. The base subassembly 156 may be formed by way of: (a) providing a base enclosure 102 having a base chamber 114 defined therein, a base mouth 166 in fluid communication with the base chamber 114, and a base peripheral lip 120 disposed about the base mouth; (b) inserting a volume of a first consumable substance 150 into the base chamber 114; and (c) affixing a base seal element 108 to the base peripheral lip 120 and extending across the base mouth 166, thereby sealing the volume of first consumable substance 150 from an ambient environment 126. The auxiliary subassembly 158 may be formed by way of: (a) providing an auxiliary enclosure 106 having an auxiliary chamber 118 defined therein, an auxiliary mouth 170 in fluid communication with the auxiliary chamber 118, and an auxiliary peripheral lip 124 disposed about the auxiliary mouth 170; (b) inserting a quantity of a second consumable substance 152 into the auxiliary chamber 118; and (c) affixing an auxiliary seal element 110 to the auxiliary peripheral lip 124 and extending across the auxiliary mouth 170, thereby sealing the quantity of second consumable substance 152 from the ambient environment 126. The manufacturing method may also comprise providing a lid enclosure 104 having a lid inboard surface 130 and a lid periphery 122; releasably mounting the auxiliary subassembly 158 to the lid inboard surface 130; and releasably securing the lid periphery 122 to the base peripheral lip 120.
In certain implementations of the method of manufacturing a system 100, (a) the lid enclosure 104 may have a lid chamber 116 defined therein, and a lid mouth 168 in fluid communication with the lid chamber 116 (see, e.g., FIG. 22); (b) the lid periphery 122 may be disposed about the lid mouth 168; (c) the step of releasably mounting may include passing the auxiliary subassembly 158 through the lid mouth 168 (see, e.g., FIGS. 14 and 16); and (d) the auxiliary subassembly 158 may be housed at least partially within the lid chamber 116 when releasably mounted to the lid inboard surface 130. Referring to FIG. 18, in certain embodiments of the manufacturing method, the auxiliary subassembly 158 is housed entirely within the lid chamber 116 when releasably mounted to the lid inboard surface 130.
Further implementations of the method of manufacturing a system 100 may include one or more of the additional modifications and features disclosed herein with respect to the description of various embodiments of the system 100.
The following listing matches certain terminology used within this disclosure with corresponding reference numbers used in the non-limiting examples illustrated in the several figures.
- 100 system
- 102 base enclosure (e.g., cup or bowl shaped)
- 104 lid enclosure
- 106 auxiliary enclosure
- 108 base seal element (e.g., sealing film; e.g., peelable)
- 110 auxiliary seal element (e.g., sealing film; e.g., peelable)
- 112 main axis
- 114 base chamber
- 116 lid chamber
- 118 auxiliary chamber
- 120 base peripheral lip (e.g., flat planar)
- 122 lid periphery
- 124 auxiliary peripheral lip (e.g. flat planar)
- 126 ambient environment
- 128 base inboard surface
- 130 lid inboard surface
- 132 base lip detent
- 134 base lip shroud
- 136 lip release tab (e.g., frangible)
- 138 lid lock detent
- 140 auxiliary lip detent
- 142 upper inboard surface (of lid enclosure)
- 144 base stabilizer portion
- 146 level indicator (e.g., graduated series of indicia, such as lines or alphanumerics)
- 148 stacking detent
- 150 first consumable substance (e.g., comprising tahini or the like)
- 152 second consumable substance (e.g., liquid diluent or flavoring)
- 154 elastically bent direction
- 156 base subassembly
- 158 auxiliary subassembly
- 160 tab hinge portion
- 162 tab relief cut
- 164 tab actuation direction
- 166 base mouth
- 168 lid mouth
- 170 auxiliary mouth
- 172 base seal surface (e.g., flat)
- 174 auxiliary seal surface (e.g., flat)
- 176 lid periphery release directions (e.g., circumferential about the main axis)
- 178 lid removal direction (e.g., from base enclosure)
- 180 lid top
- 182 stacking shoulder
While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Patent Application
20240051718
