Patent Application
20090053370
This invention relates to molded food products, and, more particularly, to a package for a molded food product which is used to mold the food product and subsequently to package the food product.
Many food products are molded with a decorative design on the outer surface thereof. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,183,101, 3,317,326, 3,398,000, 3,798,335, 3,865,953, 3,896,239, 3,901,000, and 3,976,796 describe butter or margarine products with an embossed or raised design on the upper surface. The butter or margarine can be quarter pound or larger bulk servings or can be smaller pats which are sized for individual servings. Many other food products may be molded with a decorative design, for example, chocolate and cheese.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,335 describes a process for filling molds with liquid butter or margarine. In accordance with current practice, after the molds are filled, the butter or margarine is frozen. The frozen product is removed from the mold by “punching” or pressing the outside of the mold cavity so that the mold is turned inside out and the frozen product is ejected or dispensed onto a tray or plastic sheet.
The ejected embossed butter or margarine pats can be packaged for shipping to the customer in several ways. Individual pats can be loaded into a tray of the type which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,239. Alternatively, after the embossed pats are ejected onto a tray, a package with pockets for the pats can be placed over the pats. The tray is then inverted to drop the pats into the pockets, and a lid or cover can be positioned over the pats.
Individual embossed pats can also be loaded into individual packages. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,865,953, 3,901,000, and 3,976,796. Butterball Farms, Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich. markets individual pats in clear plastic packages called “Tip-Out” packs. Each pat is individually sealed in a pocket in a plastic package, and the pocket is covered by a plastic film. At the point of consumption, the consumer peels off the film and tips out the pat, embossed side up.
The foregoing packaging processes suffer from a number of disadvantages. For Example:
In one current practice the plastic tray which is used to mold multiple pats of butter or margarine is also used to ship the pats after they are frozen. The mold cavities may be vacuum formed in thin plastic film, e.g., PETG, which is about 0.0025 inch thick. Trays which are used to mold and ship the pats are intended to be used by the institutional customer which purchases the pats, for example, a restaurant. Such a customer punches out the pats onto a plate in a kitchen or preparation area and then places individual pats onto serving plates for the consumer, for example, a restaurant patron.
This process also suffers from a number of disadvantages:
In accordance with the invention, a mold cavity both molds the food product and forms the package for the product. The mold cavity is formed from a plastic sheet and includes a side wall and a bottom wall. The bottom wall includes ridges or peaks and valleys which form the decorative design on the product. The bottom wall is constructed so that it can be pushed into the mold cavity after the product is molded to eject the product from the mold cavity. Preferably, the bottom wall includes a generally frusto-conical inverting portion and a central portion which includes the peaks and valleys. The pushing step inverts the inverting portion as the central portion moves into the mold cavity. The bottom wall advantageously remains in the pushed-in condition when the mold cavity serves as the package.
Product such as liquid butter or margarine is dispensed into the mold cavity and then solidified by refrigerating or freezing. After the product is solidified, the bottom wall of the mold cavity is pushed in or punched so that the bottom wall moves into the mold cavity and the product is released from the surface of the mold cavity. The bottom wall remains in its punched condition, and the pat can sit freely on the bottom wall. A thin plastic film or lid is attached to the sheet to enclose the product for shipping. Each mold cavity includes a single product.
The inventive package and process provides several advantages over the prior art:
The mold/package can be formed individually so that each package holds a single product. Alternatively, multiple molds can be formed in a single sheet of material. After the products are molded and frozen, each individual mold/package can be cut from the sheet and shipped as an individual package with a single product, or the entire sheet can be shipped with multiple products.
The invention will be explained in conjunction with illustrative embodiments shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:
The pat 10 is generally round and includes a bottom surface on which the pat rests, a frusto-conical side surface 11, and a top surface 12. A design 13 is embossed or raised from the top surface. The particular design illustrated is the letter “m,” but the designs are unlimited.
Although the invention is particularly suitable for products with an embossed or raised design, the invention can also be used with products having a lowered or grooved or engraved design on the top surface or a combination embossed and engraved design.
The mold 15 includes a generally flat flange 16 and a generally cup-shaped pocket or cavity 17 which is formed by a frusto-conical side wall 18 and a bottom wall 19. The side wall can also be a portion of a sphere or some other suitable shape, and the bottom wall can be a continuation of the side wall. The bottom wall is shown in
The bottom wall 19 includes a generally frusto-conical inverting portion 20 and a generally dome-shaped central portion 21. The inverting portion 20 extends inwardly and upwardly from the bottom edge 22 of the side wall to a circular edge 23 which joins the inverting portion 20 and the central portion 21. The central portion 21 is convexly shaped toward the bottom edge 22 and concavely shaped toward the flange 16. Recesses or ridges 24 extend downwardly from the central portion for molding the embossed design 13 on the product. As described in the foregoing United States patents, the central portion could be formed with a variety of upwardly or downwardly extending recesses, ridges, peaks, and/or valleys for molding any desired embossed and/or engraved design on the product. The term “ridges” as used herein broadly refers to any variation in the surface which produces a design on the product.
The inverting portion 20 can be inverted back and forth between its pushed-in or inverted position illustrated in
In the preferred embodiment, the inverting portion 20 snaps, or moves “over-center,” when it moves between the non-inverted or pushed-out position of
The material of the mold has sufficient flexibility to permit the over-center movement of the inverting portion and also has sufficient resilience and rigidity so that the inverting portion and the central portion of the bottom wall will retain either the pushed-in or pushed-out position. In both the pushed-in and pushed-out condition, the inverting portion 20 is generally frusto-conical in shape. The resilient side wall 18 returns to its original position after the inverting portion moves over center.
When the mold is in the non-inverted or pushed-out configuration of
After filling, the product is allowed to solidify in the mold. If the product is butter or margarine, the product is refrigerated or frozen, preferably frozen. Other food products can be solidified at higher temperatures, for example, room temperature.
As the central portion 21 moves upwardly and the inverting portion 20 inverts, the product 10 is moved away from the central portion 21 and is ejected from the ridges or recesses 24 of the mold. If the temperature of the food product is within an appropriate range, depending upon the nature of the product, the product will be ejected with the design 13 intact. The ejection of the product 10 from the mold is exaggerated in
Referring to
The sealed package 34 comprising the mold 15 and the food product 10 can then be stored for later shipment to a customer. If the food product is butter or margarine, the package is preferably stored in a refrigerator or freezer and shipped in an insulated container which will maintain the product at the desired temperature.
The package can be shipped by orienting the package with either the bottom wall 19 down or the lid 33 down. Referring to
The package 34 contains a single food product and is particularly suitable for individual sized servings, for example, a 0.2 ounce butter pat. However, the package can also be used for larger sizes of food products. Multiple packages 34 can be packaged within a shipping carton for shipment to a customer, for example, a fast food restaurant. The restaurant can distribute individual unopened packages 34 to the restaurant patrons. The package 34 is preferably served to the patron with the bottom wall 19 of the package facing up so that the ridges or recesses 24 present an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The patron opens the package by peeling the lid away from the flange 16, and tips the product onto a plate or the like so that the embossed design 13 faces upwardly.
Although the particular bottom wall 19 of the mold which is illustrated in the drawings includes an inverting portion 20, other ways of inverting the bottom wall and ejecting the molded food product can be used. For example, the entire bottom wall can be dome-shaped or concavely curved downwardly away from the flange 16. The concave bottom wall can be inverted or reversed by pushing the bottom wall into an inverted convex shape which curves upwardly toward the flange 16.
In the preferred embodiment, molds 15 are used individually to package the molded food product. However, multiple molds could be formed in a single sheet for molding multiple food products. The sheet could then be cut into individual molds for packaging the food products, or the sheet could remain intact for packaging multiple food products.
A sheet containing multiple mold cavities may advantageously be punched in-line in a continuous process as the sheet is moved out of a freezer. The sheet may be advanced from the freezer to a punching station where mechanical punches eject multiple food products from multiple mold cavities. A plate may be positioned above the mold cavities to prevent the food products from being ejected completely out of the mold cavities. The sheet of mold cavities may thereafter be advanced to a sealing station which applies a lid or cover to the mold cavities to seal the food products.
Referring to
Referring to
The punch fixture 54 includes a base plate 61 for supporting the locator block 56 and a top plate 62 which is supported by four vertical rods 63. The rods may be attached to the plates 61 and 62 by screws. A punch plate 64 is slidably mounted on the rods 63 and can be reciprocated by a piston 65 which extends vertically through the top plate 62. The upper end of the piston 65 is slidably mounted in a bushing 66. A handle 67 is pivotally mounted on a support bracket 68 which is mounted on the top plate 62. A link 69 is pivotally connected to the handle 67 and the piston 65 so that pivoting movement of the handle reciprocates the piston 65 and the punch plate 64.
Although the punch plate 64 is manually reciprocated by the handle 67, other conventional and well known devices for mechanically reciprocating the punch plate can be used. For example, the punch plate can be reciprocated by a hydraulic cylinder and piston, a ball screw actuator, or the like.
Eight punches 71 are mounted on the punch plate 64 in alignment with the openings 57 in the locator block 56. Referring to
In one specific embodiment, the diameter of the counterbore 74 was 1.0 inch, and the angle of the frusto-conical side wall 73 relative to the vertical was 41 degrees. As will be explained more fully hereinafter, the diameter of the bottom edge 76 of each punch is sized to engage the inverting portion 45 of one of the molds 41
The molds 41 are filled with food product as previously described with respect to the mold 15, and the product is allowed to solidify, e.g., by freezing. The eight cavity mold 40 is then placed in the locator block 56 so that the embossed bottom walls 44 of the molds 41 extend upwardly through the openings 57 in the locator block and the side walls 43 of the molds 41 are supported on the outside by the surfaces 58 of the openings 57 in the locator block.
The molds 41 are then punched by lowering the punch plate 64 and the punches 71 so that the circular bottom edges 76 of the punches engage the inverting portions 45 of the molds 41. As the punches continue downward, the inverting portions 45 are moved over-center from their pushed-out condition illustrated in
If desired, the lid can be attached to the sheet 42 before the products are punched from the molds to eliminate the labor of replacing the products in the molds. There is sufficient space in the molds between the sheet and the pushed-in position of the top of the molds to allow for ejection of the products after attaching the lid.
The mold 40 and the products which are packaged within the molds 41 can then be stored and shipped as previously described. Alternatively, individual molds 41 and the products therein, or a strip of molds 41 and products therein, can be cut from the mold 40.
The molds 41 are oriented in
While in the foregoing specification a detailed description of specific embodiments was set forth for the purpose of illustration, it will be understood that many of the details described herein may be varied considerably by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
