Patent Application
20140335235
The packaging industry is in continual need of improved packaging materials having new or advantageous uses, properties, or product performance features. Product packaging is no longer a mere means for containing a product during transport or sale, but can be an important feature of the product itself. The packaging can be useful for marketing and advertising, but also now for adding product use or performance features. Heatable product packaging can be used in the food industry to allow a packaged food product to be heated in the package and optionally consumed from the package. If the package contains a single serving of a food product, is easy to open, and allows for convenient use, the package is more than just a holder for the food but is a means for improving the use and enjoyment of the food product it contains. New and newly useful packaging materials are desirable for food and non-food products, especially if the packaging material provides new or advantageous functionality for a contained product.
Food packages illustrate how a packaging material or package configuration can improve the value of a packaged product. Precooked frozen food products are very desirable to consumers because precooked frozen products can be stored for long periods of time and then heated quickly in a conventional oven, convection oven, or microwave oven for consumption. The use of a package that allows in-package heating or consumption of the contained food product offers added value.
As more specific examples, packages that allow in-package heating of a contained food product, followed by a holding period useful with large-scale food processing, can be particularly desirable for certain types of precooked breakfast foods. Precooked frozen dough or batter-based food products (e.g., pancakes, French toast, fruit filled Danish, breadsticks, scones, donuts waffles, muffins, pizza rolls, and cinnamon rolls) are particularly challenging to heat from a frozen state to the optimal temperature state for consumption. The precooked frozen food products may become dry and tough if the heating conditions are too high or too long, or may become moist and soggy if the amount of moisture in the food product is too great. As an added complication, in some instances, after a frozen food product has been heated, the food product must be held in a heated state at a desirable serving temperature until the food is served. For example, when serving large groups, a large amount of food must be prepared for serving to the group at the same time. This may involve heating the frozen food product as individual servings or in batches, and then holding the heated food at a desired serving temperature until served. The holding process may cause food properties to deteriorate such that the food products are undesirable (e.g., too soggy or dry) when served.
Food products designed to be precooked and then served after heating (with optional holding time) are generally designed to be served as individual servings for consumption by one person, meaning that a package can contain an amount of precooked food product to be eaten by one consumer (e.g., a single or individual serving). The package (as opposed to the food contained in the package) can exhibit features useful for this type of preparation and serving of the food. For example, the package might contain a single serving of precooked food product, and, therefore, should be capable of being individually sold, stored, shipped, heated, held, and eaten by a consumer. The package must, therefore, be cold temperature stable, and heat stable, To be even more useful to a consumer, e.g., “user-friendly,” the package may include information on the contents (e.g., printed product labeling) and can be easily opened.
In view of the foregoing, what is desired is new packaging materials that add value to a packaged food product. As a specific example, consumers desire precooked frozen dough or batter-based food products that can be heated from a frozen state to a desired temperature (e.g., 150° F. (65.6° C.)), and may be held at the desired temperature for a holding period (e.g., 240 minutes) while maintaining a desired temperature and moisture content, optionally along with other food properties. Even more preferably, the package can be easy to open, to gain access to the precooked and heated food contents.
The invention relates to packaging materials, packages, methods of making packaging material and packages, packaged food products such as packaged frozen precooked dough or batter-based food products, and methods of heating and holding the food products.
The packaging material includes a cutline at a surface. The cutline includes partial-cut portions that extend only partially through a thickness of the heatable film, and vent hole portions that extend completely through the thickness of the heatable film. The film may be made of a useful packaging material, such as a polymer, and may be a single layer or multiple layers. Multi-layer films are preferably prepared by lamination. The cutlines may be formed by any method, including mechanical methods, laser scoring or cutting, or combinations of these. The packaging material may be useful for packaging any type of non-food product or food product, including refrigerated, frozen, or shelf-stable cooked or raw foods.
As indicated, a packaging material as described can include a “cutline” that has “scoring,” meaning a partial cut (partial in that the cut does not extend through the entire thickness of the package material) along a surface of the film. The packaging material also includes venting in the form of holes also located at the cutline that extend through the thickness of the packaging material. The scoring extends between vent holes, e.g., connects vent holes, along a length of the cutline. Alternately stated, the package includes one or more cutline along a surface, the cutline including sections of partial culling the scoring) and sections of full cutting (the vent holes). The sections of partial cutting are sections of scoring or sections of a cut of only a portion of the full thickness of the film. The sections of full cutting penetrate the entire thickness of the film, creating a vent hole or aperture in the film.
According to certain embodiments, the cutline functions as a location along which the package can be opened by pulling on one or more pieces of the package to create a separation (rip, tear, cut, etc.) along the cutline, e.g., controlled tear propagation along the cutline. The package may be openable, or may be an “easy open” package, these terms referring herein to a package that can be manually opened relatively easily along a cutline as described. The physical mode of opening may include pulling one portion (e.g., surface) of the package away from another portion (e.g., surface) of the package, at or along the cutline; i.e., before opening, surfaces of the two portions of the package border each other along a length of the cutline, and upon opening the portions separate along the cutline to produce separate portions, each having an edge that corresponds to the original cutline. Pulling the one portion will cause the portions to separate along the cutline such as by cohesive failure, tearing, or fracturing of the film at the cutline. The cutline provides a location along which a tear can easily propagate, preferably opening the package by creating a tear along the cutline, with the tear not extending beyond the cutline to a different location on a surface of the package that does not include the cutline.
While the packaging material may be useful for any food product, the described packaging materials may be particularly useful with frozen precooked dough or batter based food products. A packaged precooked frozen dough or batter-based food product as described includes one or more frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product encased in a package (e.g., pouch) for heating. The pouch is sealed with the exception of two or more vent holes that function to release air or steam that may otherwise cause the food product to become soggy when the food product is heated in an oven (e.g., microwave, convection, or conventional oven). The amount of venting in the pouch also controls the headspace atmosphere in the pouch so that the food products do not dry out excessively with extended warm hold time.
A large market for pre-prepared or pre-baked foods, e.g., breakfast foods, is for school children between Kindergarten and high school. These food products must contain food that is nutritious, tasty, efficiently prepared, and preferably easily accessed and consumed by young children. Accordingly, a packaged food product can optimally include food in a package that is easy to open.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a packaged frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product. The product includes: one or more frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product; and a heatable pouch that includes a heatable film having a thickness, the heatable pouch encasing the one or more frozen precooked dough or batter-based food products. The heatable film includes a cutline having a length and multiple partial-cut portions, each partial-cut portion having a cut that extends partially through the thickness of the heatable film. The cutline also includes multiple vent hole portions, each vent hole portion having a vent hole that extends completely through the thickness of the heatable film.
In another aspect the invention relates to a packaging material. The packaging material includes a heatable film having a width, a length, a thickness, a surface, and a surface area. The heatable film includes a cutline at the surface. The cutline includes multiple partial cut portions, each partial-cut portion including a cut that extends partially through the thickness of the heatable film. The cutline also includes multiple vent hole portions, each vent hole portion including a vent hole that extends completely through the thickness of the heatable film.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a method of preparing a heated dough or batter-based food product from a frozen packaged dough or batter-based food product. The method includes: providing a packaged frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product as described herein, including a heatable pouch encasing one or more frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product; and heating the one or more frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product in the heatable pouch.
In yet another aspect, the invention relates to a method of preparing a heatable film having vent holes and partial cuts. The method includes providing a heatable film having a width, a length, a thickness, a surface, and a surface area; and producing a cutline in the heatable film. The cutline includes a length, multiple partial-cut portions, each partial-cut portion comprising a cut that extends partially through the thickness of the heatable film. The cutline also includes multiple vent hole portions, each vent hole portion comprising a vent hole that extends completely through the thickness of the heatable film.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several aspects of the invention and together with the description of the preferred embodiments, serve to explain the principles of the invention. A brief description of the drawings is as follows:
Embodiments of the invention described herein are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the particular embodiments disclosed in the following detailed description. Rather, the embodiments are described so that others skilled in the relevant arts can understand the principles and practices of the present invention.
The invention involves a film packaging material that is formed to include a cutline, the cutline including and extending along a length, at a surface of the film. The invention also relates to packages made from the packaging material, methods of preparing the packaging material, packaged food products (e.g., precooked frozen food products) that include the packaging material, and methods of preparing or using the packaged food products.
The cutline includes two types of cuts. One cut that is part of the cutline is a full cut, or an aperture, that penetrates entirely through the thickness of the film to form an opening between the interior of the package and an exterior. The full cut functions to vent the package, as is described herein. The second type of cut is a partial cut, or a “score,” that extends between and connects full cuts, and that functions as a physical location for opening a package made of the film.
Referring now to
Pouch 12 includes a length (L) and a width (W). In some embodiments, the length can be considered to correspond to a “web” direction or a “machine” direction, which in the terminology of film processing is a direction in which the packaging film used to prepare package 10 travels along a machine used in the preparation or processing of the packaging film. The width can be considered to correspond to a “cross-web” direction, which in the terminology of film processing is a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the packaging film used to prepare pouch 12 travels along a machine used in the preparation or processing of the packaging film. Cutline 30 includes partial-cut portions 32 and full-cut portions (vent holes) 28 (see, e.g.,
In the embodiment shown at
Referring to
Referring to
Package 12 of
As shown in
As shown in
Any heat stable film capable of being formed into at least a portion of a package may be used in the present method and many such films, also known as “heatable” or “cook-in” films, are known. Typically, such films are comprised of one or multiple layers of polymeric materials, including, for example, polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate, nylon, and the like. A useful film may include a single layer of polymeric material, or multiple layers of the same or different polymeric materials, optionally different polymeric materials that provide multiple functions. Examples of layers and functions that be part of a film or a film layer (e.g., co-extruded or laminated layers) include, e.g.: a barrier material layer such as an oxygen barrier layer, a carbon dioxide barrier layer, a moisture barrier layer, or one or more layers that perform a combination of these barrier properties; a layer that contains coated or embedded graphics; a layer that contains a chemical scavenger such as a carbon dioxide or an oxygen scavenger; an adhesive layer such as a thermoplastic adhesive layer; or combinations of these and other layers of materials that may be useful. Commercially available examples of such films include those sold under the trade designation Mylar (E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington Del.), Nylon 6 and Nylon 66 (E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington Del.), and Milprint Ovenable Film (Milprint, Oshkosh Wis.),
According to certain embodiments of films and methods, a cutline can he produced by laser-cutting methods, in these laser-cutting methods, a laser will produce partial-cut portions of a cutline. Certain heatable films can be particularly useful for forming a partial-cut portions of a cutline, including laminated multi-layer heatable films. In specific, a laminated multi-layer heatable film will have a boundary between the layers that is relatively clearly defined, as compared to a boundary between layers of a multi-layer film formed by another method, such as coextruding. A more clearly defined boundary between layers of a multi-layer beatable film will allow for improved formation of partial-cut portions using a laser. A typical laminated multi-layer heatable film will have a film layer, an adjacent layer of print (if this is a printed retail package), a tie layer adjacent to the layer of print (that holds the two layers together), and a second film layer (placing the layer of print and the tie layer between the two film layers. The two film layers may be made from any polymer material, such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), which can withstand sustained temperatures above 425 Fahrenheit without degradation, A PET/PET structure can be a preferred multi-layer laminated heatable film for methods and products described herein. Other useful multi-layer laminated heatable film structures include PET/Metalized multi-layer films, PET/Foil multi-layer films, and PET/Foil laminated multi-layer films. Layer thickness can depend upon on the application of the film and the power of a laser used to produce portions of the cutline.
A heatable film (and heatable pouch) includes two or more vent holes in the film, located along the cutline. During heating of the food product, the vent holes allow heat or steam to escape from the cavity of the pouch. The number, size, shape, and arrangement of the vent holes in the pouch are selected to provide desired food product properties including, for example, moisture content, food temperature, relative humidity, and amount of condensation in the pouch. In some embodiments, the pouch contains about 20 or fewer vent holes, for example, about 15 or fewer vent holes, or about 6 to 12 vent holes. Other vent hole amounts may also be useful. In some embodiments, the number, size, and arrangement of vent holes can be chosen to provide a product moisture content that ranges from about 10% to about 60% moisture, for example, when the food product is heated at about 325° F. (163° C.) to about 375° F. (191° C.) for a time period of about 7 to about 15 minutes.
In many embodiments, vent holes in a pouch (or as part of a film, heatable film, or other package or package material) provide a vent area ratio that ranges from about 0.00005 to about 0.1 (vent area/pouch (or film) area), or from about 0.00005 to about 0.01 (vent area/pouch (or film) area), or from about 0.00005 to about 0.001 (vent area/pouch (or film or package) area). Vent area ratio refers to a ratio of vent area to pouch (or film) area. Vent area refers to the combined open area of all vent holes in pouch (or package or film), e.g., measured in square meters. Pouch area refers to the surface area of a pouch (or package), e.g., measured in square meters. Film area refers to the surface area of a film (or other package material), e.g., measured in square meters.
Any desired shape may be used for a vent hole. For example, a vent hole may be circular or linear, rectangular, oval, square, diamond-shaped, etc. Multiple vent holes may be distributed on a pouch or film in any desired arrangement or pattern along a cutline. In some embodiments, vent holes can be positioned along an edge of a pouch or film in a linear arrangement. In other embodiments vent holes may be located at a more central surface of a pouch, package, or film, optionally in a linear or a curved arrangement.
A cutline, including partial-cut portions (scoring) and full-cut portions (vent holes) may be formed by any useful process for creating cuts, scoring, vent holes, etc., with controlled sizes in a heatable film, package, or package material. Examples include mechanical cutting devices such as a blade or rotary dies, laser cutting and perforation devices, and combinations of mechanical and laser devices. A cutline can be formed manually or by automated, high speed processing. All feature of a cutline can be formed by a single device, or, alternately, different features of a the same cutline can be formed using different devices. For example, a partial-cut portion of a cutline may be formed using one laser, and a full-cut portion of the same cutline may be formed using a second laser. Alternately a partial-cut portion may be formed using a laser, and a full-cut portion may be formed in the same cutline using a mechanical blade or die. A cutline may be formed on a package material either before or after the package material is formed into a pouch or other package.
One exemplary methods of forming a cutline in a packaging material can be, by use of high speed processing equipment, forming cutlines on a large web of packaging material film that can then be converted (e.g., cut, folded, etc.) to individual packages. These methods can involve high speed movement of a web along a device that can produce a cutline as described herein, using high speed cutting and registration techniques. These techniques can allow for cutting full-cut portions and partial-cut portions, at high speed, in the direction of movement of the web (the web direction), in the direction perpendicular to the movement of the web (the cross-web direction), or diagonally along a length that has directional components in both the web direction and the cross-web direction. A web of packaging material can moved at high speed along this processing equipment, and one or more cutting device can produce partial-cut portions and full-cut portions in the moving film to produce a cutline as described and illustrated herein. Exemplary equipment and methods for this type of processing, including high speed movement of a film, cutting, and registration, are shown, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,640,836 (Ser. No. 09/615,812); United States Patent Application Publication 2011/0073576 (Ser. No. 12/892,335); and International Application Number PCT/US02/15938 (International Publication Number WO 02/092274), the entireties of each of these being incorporated herein by reference.
According to embodiments of the invention, the ratio of the total area of vents in a package, to the total area of the package, can be selected to produce desired venting of a package upon heating, and holding. A vent area ratio can relate to an area of vents compared to an area of a package, such as package 12; alternately to an area of vents compared to an area of a package material, such as package material 13 shown at
Preferred vent area ratios may be selected to provide a desired crust moisture content in the heated food product. For example, a vent area ratio may be selected to provide a crust moisture content in a range from about 15% to about 45% in a heated food product. A desired moisture content depends on the type of frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product that is being heated. For example, a vent area ratio may be selected to provide a crust moisture of about 10% to about 20% for donuts, or about 35% to about 45% for pancakes.
Precooked dough or batter-based food products suitable for use in the present invention include, for example, pancakes, fruit filled Danish, scones, donuts, pizza rolls, breadsticks, muffins, waffles, French toast, and cinnamon rolls. In many embodiments the precooked dough or batter-based food products are miniature in size. and the pouch contains 1 or more, typically about 4 to about 10 of the dough or batter-based food products in each pouch. For example, in some embodiments, the pancakes or waffles range in diameter from about 1 inch to about 3.5 inches (2.54 cm to 8.89 cm). The French toast may be in the form of slices (i.e., approximately square) or sticks (i.e., rectangular). In some embodiments, the French toast is in the form of sticks have a size of about 0.5 inch by about 3 inches (1.27 cm to 7.62 cm). In some embodiments the food product is a fruit filled Danish, for example having a volume ranging from about 8 in3 to about 15 in3 (131 cm3 to 245 cm3). In some embodiments, the food product is a miniature muffin, for example, having a volume ranging from about 2 in3 to about 4 in3 (32.8 cm3 to 65.5 cm3). The recipe used to prepare the dough or batter-based food product includes any recipe that can be used to prepare a food product suitable for being cooked and frozen in a cooked state for later reheating.
After being initially cooked (i.e., precooked), one or more of the dough or batter-based food products can be inserted into a pouch and sealed for storage. The pouch is typically hot-sealed, for example, by using metal sealing jaws at a temperature of about 245° F. (118° C.) for a dwell time of about 2.5 seconds. The sealed pouch containing the dough or batter-based food products is then frozen, for example, at a temperature ranging from about −10° F. (−23.3° C.) to about 0° F. (−17.7° C.). The frozen dough or batter-based food product can then be stored for an extended period (e.g., about 12 to about 36 weeks) prior to being heated for consumption.
Heating of the frozen precooked dough or batter-based food product is typically conducted in a convection oven although a microwave or conventional oven may also be used. Heating temperatures typically range from about 325° F. (163° C.) to about 375° F. (191° C.) for times ranging from about 7 to about 15 minutes. The reheating temperature and time may vary for example, depending upon the type of oven, number of food products being reheated, whether the product is frozen or thawed, and the like. Heating is conducted in order to achieve a temperature suitable for serving the food product to a consumer. For example, the heated product may be at a temperature ranging from about 120° F. (48.9° C.) to about 180° F. (82.2° C.), although other temperatures may be suitable. After heating, the food product may be held at desired temperature in the pouch for a desired period of time, for example, to accommodate cafeteria-style serving or food service holding of the food product. For example, the heated dough or batter-based food product may be held for a time period ranging from about 10 minutes to about 240 minutes at a temperature ranging from about 130° F. (544° C.) to about 155° F. (65.6° C.). For a user to consume the heated, packaged food product, a package as described herein, comprising a cutline, can be opened by pulling on the package to create an opening along the cutline.
The invention will now be described with reference to the following non-limiting examples.
The following Examples show packages that include vent holes as described herein, but that are not described to not include partial cutting or scoring to connect the vent holes, to produce a cutline as described herein.
This example was conducted in order to determine if a relationship existed between the pancake crust moisture content and the vent area in the pouch. Samples having a range of vent area ratios were tested. Vent area ratios ranging from 0 to 0.125 m2 were tested and crust moisture was measured for each vent structure. For the testing, crust moisture content was measured using a CEM brand microwave moisture analyzer. The CEM analyzer uses a balance and microwave energy to heat the sample, without burning, until all the moisture has evaporated. The frozen dough based food product was heated to the desired temperature in vented packaging in a convection oven. The food product was then removed from the pouch and a 1 to 3 gram sample of the crust was taken from the heated food product. The sample was deposited onto the sample balance of the CEM moisture analyzer and the crust moisture was measured. The CEM settings used were as follows.
The settings cause the CEM machine to use 50% of the microwave power, and to measure the sample weight until it has stabilized to within 0.0004 grams over a time period of 10 seconds. The maximum time of the test was limited to 15 minutes, and the maximum allowed temperature of the food product was 80° ((176″ F.). In some instances, the maximum temperature Setting On the CEM moisture analyzer was adjusted for a particular food product. For example, pancakes required a maximum temperature setting of 90° C. (194° F.), and breadsticks required a maximum temperature setting of 70° C. (158° C.) to prevent burning.
Initially, when crust moisture was plotted as a function of vent area the graph indicated an exponential relationship. The natural log (i.e., Ln) of the vent ratio was calculated and is plotted in
It was also shown that the crust moisture content was maintained over time when product was stored in a warmer.
It was also shown that at a constant vent area ratio, the change in crust moisture percent as a function of the number of vent holes is negligible. Packages were tested at a constant vent area ratio while varying the number of vents used to attain the vent area ratio. The results show that crust moisture is affected by the vent area ratio, not the number of vents in the pouch. The results are presented in TABLE 8 and in
TABLES 9-11 and
In some embodiments, the precooked frozen dough or batter-based food products have a very high water activity filling (e.g. pizza rolls) which causes a change in crust moisture content over hold time. Frozen Pizza rolls are an example where the water activity is greater than 0.95. The data in
Other embodiments of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of this specification or from practice of the invention disclosed herein. Various omissions, modifications, and changes to the principles and embodiments described herein may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention which is indicated by the following claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2012/068101 | 12/6/2012 | WO | 00 | 6/3/2014 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61567217 | Dec 2011 | US |
