Patent Application
20240099336
The present invention pertains to the art of food production and, more particularly, to packaging for food products.
Food products are often packaged prior to sale. Such packaging can take the form of cans, jars, boxes or bags, for example. In the case of pet food, such as wet cat or dog food, cans are a common packaging type. When the wet food is served, consumers frequently remove the food from the can and place it into or onto a bowl, dish or plate, for example, where the food may then be broken up or otherwise prepared for serving. This requires a spoon or fork, both for the serving and the chopping. However, many consumers would prefer not to use a utensil for this task that they themselves also eat with, necessitating the ownership of one or more dedicated pet food utensils. At the very least, this process results in additional dirty utensils that must be cleaned. Accordingly, it would desirable to provide a way for consumers to serve wet pet food without using a utensil.
In addition, one reason why a consumer might use a utensil to serve wet pet food from a can is that the can contains multiple servings and the consumer only wishes to serve part of the can's contents. Accordingly, it would also be desirable to provide wet pet food in single-serve packaging.
The present invention achieves the above goals through the use of packaging that is readily deformable by hand, with the deformation causing the contents of the packaging to exit the packaging. Preferably, the packaging is sized to provide a single serving. Additionally, the packaging includes structure to help break up and/or tenderize the contents after they have been dispensed.
In particular, a packaged food product comprises a container and a food product. The container includes a body having at least one sidewall extending away from a supporting rim and leading to a bottom wall. The at least one sidewall and the bottom wall define a storage area for retaining the food product. The at least one sidewall is configured to be readily deformable by a hand of a user to reduce a volume of the storage area. To assist in deforming the sidewall, the bottom wall of the body includes pre-formed finger recesses. The packaged food product is configured such that reducing the volume of the storage area causes the food product to exit the storage area. The food product can take various forms, such as a wet cat food or a wet dog food. Also, the bottom wall of the body is provided, between the finger recesses, with a series of projections collectively defining a tool portion of the container. Upon removing the food from the storage area of the container, the tool portion can be advantageously employed to further prepare the food prior to serving. For instance, when the food includes meat, the projections can be used to press the meat in order to break-up and/or tenderize the meat or other solid portions, while avoiding the need to dirty a separate utensil.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to common parts in the several views.
Detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. However, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to construct and employ the present invention.
As discussed above, pet food, such as wet cat or dog food, is commonly packaged in cans. To serve such pet food, a consumer would use a separate utensil to remove the pet food from the can and break it up. In some cases, only a portion of the pet food is removed from the can. This process necessitates the cleaning of the utensil and, for some consumers, a dedicated pet food utensil. The present invention was developed to address this problem. Specifically, the present invention provides a container with a body defined by at least one sidewall and a bottom wall which establish a storage area for retaining a food product, with the at least one sidewall being readily deformable by hand to reduce a volume of the storage area. Reducing the volume of the storage area causes the food product to exit the storage area. In other words, the user can squeeze the container to dispense the food, avoiding the need for a separate utensil. The bottom wall of the container preferably includes a pair of preformed finger recesses to assist in deforming the container and expelling the food. The container is preferably sized to hold a single serving of the food product. Therefore, the user does not need to try to serve only a portion of the food product. In addition, a portion of the bottom wall of the container, between the finger recesses, is formed with a plurality of spaced projections which establish an integrally formed tool portion of the container. This structure can be used to further process the food prior to serving, specifically by breaking up and/or tenderizing the food product after it has been dispensed, while again avoiding the need for a separate utensil.
With reference to
Packaged food products 100 and 101 are functionally identical but their shapes are mirror images of one another, with the plane of symmetry being located at their point (connection line 102) of attachment. More particularly, packaged food product 100 has a rim 105 and a lid 110 in sealing contact with rim 105, while packaged food product 101 has a rim 106 and a lid 111 in sealing contact with rim 106. Rim 105 is attached to rim 106 to attach packaged food products 100 and 101 to one another. This connection is obscured by lids 110 and 111 but generally extends between points 115 and 116. Packaged food products 100 and 101 can be attached by molding a single substrate and then blow molding two containers from the substrate, for example. When desired, packaged food products 100 and 101 can be readily detached from each other through a back and forth bending operation about connection line 102 extending between points 115 and 116. Since packaged food product 101 is nearly identical to packaged food product 100, packaged food product 101 will not be discussed further.
Turning to
In
Preferably, molding, such as blow molding, is used to create sidewall 210, bottom wall 300 and storage area 305. In a preferred form, a flat plastic substrate in the shape of rim 105 is subjected to blow molding to cause the center of the substrate to expand. The expansion is controlled in such a way that the center portion becomes sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300, thereby also forming storage area 305. Based on the construction of the overall mold used to make container 205, the bottom wall is preferably formed with a pair of spaced finger recesses 320 and 325, as well as a central tool portion 330, as will be discussed in detail below. In any case, as a result of this formation process, sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300 are magnitudes thinner than rim 105. In particular, by this construction, the thickness of sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300 is established so that at least one of sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300 is readily deformable. For purposes of the present invention, by “readily deformable” it is meant that a user can deform sidewall 210 or bottom wall 300 by hand (i.e., using one or both hands and without any tools) without requiring an above average amount of strength. This allows the user to push one or both of sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300 inward (i.e., readily collapsing the same into storage area 305) to reduce the volume of storage area 305. In particular, a user can engage rim 105 with a finger or two from each hand while pushing upon bottom wall 300 with his/her thumbs arranged at finger recesses 320 and 325 to readily deform sidewall 210 and reduce the volume of storage area 305. Reducing the volume of storage area 305 causes food product 200 to exit storage area 305. As a result, the user can dispense food product 200 without using a utensil.
While the discussion above focuses on the structure of sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300, it should be recognized that the shapes of sidewall 210 and bottom wall 300 also have an effect on their deformability. Accordingly, this parameter is also adjusted to provide the desired degree of deformability. In general, at least one of the walls defining storage area 305 is configured to be readily deformable and has at least a slight taper from rim 105 to bottom wall 300 as perhaps best shown in
Turning further to
Based on the above, it should be readily apparent that the present invention provides a way for consumers to dispense wet pet food from a container without using a separate utensil. In addition, the invention provides for further processing the food prior to serving by using a specifically structured portion of the container to further process the food. While certain preferred embodiments of the present invention have been set forth, it should be understood that various changes or modifications could be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. In general, the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of the following claims.
This application represents a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/136,152 entitled “Packaged Food Product and Method of Producing the Packaged Food Product” filed Dec. 29, 2020, pending. The entire content of this application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17136152 | Dec 2020 | US |
| Child | 18528015 | US |
