Pressure relieving panel for a caning jar

Abstract

The Pressure Relieving Panel for a Caning Jar is a device that allows for the convenient use of a standard sized caning jar to be used for anaerobic, lactic acid fermentation, i.e. making homemade sauerkraut, pickles, or other ferments. The device is configured as a replacement, sealing panel or lid for a standard sized caning jar that allows the CO2 gas from the fermentation process to escape from the jar. This device makes use of a one-way, pressure-relieving check valve incorporated into the sealing panel that prevents outside air (oxygen) from getting back into the jar where the anaerobic fermentation process is taking place. The pressure relieving, sealing panel(s) of the instant invention do not require regular monitoring or refilling as required for water type, air lock devices.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a pressure-relieving and sealing device for use in home fermentation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The practice of home pickling or fermentation of foods is growing rapidly in popularity. The most commonly fermented foods are sauerkraut or pickles, but there are countless other fermented foods including virtually any of the vegetables including carrots, garlic, onions, peppers, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, etc. The list also includes meats, beans, grains and milk. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware that fermentation is a safe and easy process to preserve food (primarily vegetables) that enhances their flavor, texture and nutritional quality. Home fermentation and particularly lactic acid fermentation is a simple way to preserve food while enhancing the flavors and nutritional qualities.

Fermentation is an anaerobic process whereby the food is broken down and converted by naturally occurring bacteria that feed on the food sugars. The fermenting process acts to pre-digest foods, making their nutrients more available and diverse. Fermented foods having active lactic acid bacteria have been found to be especially supportive of digestive health, immune function and general good health. The more recent marketing of “pro-biotic” foods is simply an example of making new what has been an old and widespread practice. The home fermentation of foods was a more widespread practice in the past and it is very widely practiced in other cultures around the world.

The typical consumer maybe somewhat “wary” of home fermenting due to heightened and generally unwarranted bias against all forms of bacteria, beneficial or otherwise. Of course, most people are not aware of the vast number of beneficial bacteria (by some estimates over 10,000 types) that they are hosting in their bodies. There are other impediments to home fermentation, but they are mostly attributable to a lack of understanding of the basic fermentation process and the relative difficulty of finding consumer products with convenient utility to support the home fermentation process. The typical home fermentation is performed using a relatively large volume pottery vessel or crock. This “crock” type of fermentation generally requires that a substantially large quantity of food be prepared and fermented for each batch. Additionally, since there are no convenient means to ensure that this “crock” fermentation is done in an anaerobic environment, the result is often inconsistent or of poor quality.

In order to make home fermentation more accessible to the average consumer, there is a real need for a simple, standardized product to allow them to conveniently prepare smaller, batches of safe, anaerobic fermented foods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the primary objective of the instant invention to provide a simple, reliable, low maintenance, low cost device for converting a standard sized canning jar to be used for anaerobic, lactic acid fermentation, i.e. making homemade sauerkraut, pickles, kefir, or other ferments. The key feature of this improved device is the use of a resilient, food contact approved material to be used in place of the rigid (metal) sealing panel of a standard canning jar. The instant invention is a flexible “rubber-like” sealing panel that includes an incorporated pressure-relieving, check valve to release the carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation process and prevent air (oxygen) ingress.

The specific problem that the instant invention seeks to solve is that of consumers having to prepare larger fermentation batches than they typically need or want and further to eliminate the required maintenance and air ingress that often occurs with water airlock or slit valve configured home fermentation devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The patent figures are intended to demonstrate some, but not necessarily all of the design configurations for the PRESSURE RELIEVING PANEL FOR A CANNING JAR may have. These figures are not intended to show all of the potential device embodiments, but rather to demonstrate the design versatility of the instant invention.

FIG. 1 depicts an oblique, exploded view of a canning jar, the pressure-relieving panel and the threaded clamping ring;

FIG. 2 depicts an oblique view of the pressure-relieving panel installed on a canning jar;

FIG. 3 depicts an enlarged oblique view of the pressure-relieving panel;

FIG. 4 depicts an enlarged oblique view of the pressure-relieving panel with the valve shown in the venting or open position;

FIG. 5 depicts a top view of the check ball type of pressure-relieving panel for a canning jar;

FIG. 6 depicts a cut away view of the check ball type of pressure-relieving panel for a canning jar;

FIG. 7 depicts a cross sectional view of a resilient, pressure-relieving lid adapted to be stretch fitted over the neck of a canning jar.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the FIGS. 1 and 2 there is shown a caning jar 11 with threads 13 and top surface 15. These jars are very widely available for use in preserving or caning food. The jars typically come with a threaded clamping ring 17 and a rigid sealing panel adapted for the perimeter sealing of the jar (not shown). In place of the rigid sealing panel, there is shown a resilient panel 19 adapted to form a perimeter seal with the jar 11 using the threaded clamping ring 17 in compressive contact with the resilient land 23 along the top perimeter of the jar at 15. The resilient panel 19 has an integrally formed “duckbill” type pressure-relieving check valve 21. The duckbill, one-way, valve is configured to allow the CO2 gas generated in the fermentation process to escape from the jar and further to prevent outside (oxygenated) air from entering the jar. The resilient panel 19 an incorporated normally depressed (concave) shaped form 25 that “pops-up” to a convex form when there is positive CO2 pressure in the sealed jar shown in FIG. 2. The embossed print shown at 27 reads “POPS-UP WHEN ACTIVE” to indicate to the end user that the fermentation process has started when the panel goes to a convex form. The duckbill valve can be easily configured to maintain an optimal internal CO2 pressure for the fermentation process while also preventing air ingress (oxygen) from entering the jar 11. The resilient panel 19 may include a raised annular wall 29 to contain any brine that may escape the jar 11. This may happen if there is inadequate head-space as it is common for the brine to rise in the jar once the fermentation process has begun. Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4 there is shown an enlarged view of the resilient, pressure-relieving panel 19. As seen in FIG. 4 the duckbill valve 21 opens up at 31 to relieve the internal CO2 pressure.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6 there is shown a resilient sealing panel 37 with sealing land 39 and pop up form 41. The panel 37 uses a check ball type, one-way, pressure-relieving valve as shown at 43. The internal CO2 pressure is relieved when the internal pressure lifts the check ball 45 off the integrally formed valve seat 47. The ball is held on the valve seat 47 by the resilient pressure of the containment structure seen at 49. This check ball type, pressure-relieving valve prevents air ingress back into the caning jar. The pressure at which this check valve opens is controlled by the dimensional interference between this containment structure 49, the ball 45 and the valve seat 47. The containment structure 49 is configured to allow the consumer to remove the ball 45 for thorough cleaning. This pressure relieving panel configuration allows for customizing the internal jar pressure by using check balls 45 of slightly different diameters. The slightly different sized check balls 45 may be provided in different colors to aid the consumer.

Referring to FIG. 7 there is shown a resilient sealing lid 51 or boot adapted to be held in place by the resilient flange 53 stretch-fitted over the jar neck at 14. This resilient sealing lid has an incorporated duckbill type pressure-relieving valve 57 and valve opening at 59, but could have any pressure-relieving check valve. The resilient sealing lid 51 has a downward extending feature 61 specifically adapted to keep the solid fermentation contents submerged under the salt-water brine. Any of the previously described pressure relieving panels may incorporate submersing type features of this kind to keep the solid (fermenting) contents under the salt-water brine. It is very common in home fermentation setups to use some type of weighted structure to keep the solids submerged. These weights, typically made of glass or ceramic, are very well known in the home fermentation prior art and so are not described in detail here.

The resilient, pressure-relieving panels and lid that I have disclosed allow for a simple, safe and anaerobic fermentation process to be maintained in any standard sized caning jar. They are superior to the current water based air-lock fermentation devices that because of evaporation, require regular monitoring of the water trap or cap-covered, water moat to prevent air ingress. They are further superior in that they serve the secondary function of sealing the entire caning jar against air ingress. This air ingress is a very common problem where these water based air-lock devices are interference fitted with a grommet seal incorporated into the rigid panel of the caning jar. It should be noted that during the fermentation process, the pressure inside the jar is not always greater than that outside the jar. The one way check valves incorporated into the resilient panels and lid do not allow outside oxygenated air back into the jar as may occur with simple slit type valves or when comparatively lower jar pressure causes siphoning or air ingress to occur with a water trap or cap covered moat. A further advantage of these incorporated check valves is that depending on their configuration, they can allow for achieving an optimal CO2 pressure in the canning jar. There are some instances where it is desirable to maintain a relatively high CO2 pressure in the jar as when fermenting alcoholic beverages. The ball type check valve design lends itself to having different sized check balls to control the pressure at which the CO2 will vent. Or alternatively, it is possible to have color-coded resilient panels or check balls that relieve the CO2 at different internal pressures. This venting pressure control is not possible with water lock or slit type fermentation device configurations.

The design embodiments detailed in the instant patent application are simple integral configurations that take advantage of the resilient sealing panel construction. The pressure relieving panels and lid configuration are extremely simple (single piece panel) and economical to manufacture. Finally, the preferred resilient material to use for the pressure relieving panels or lid of the instant invention is a food grade silicone or food grade pvc rubber. This material has become very popular for cooking and food contact products because it does not impart any objectionable odors or flavors, is extremely stable and non-reactive when placed in direct contact with food, even very acidic or basic foods.

I have now described my invention in considerable detail, however others skilled in the art can devise and develop alternate and equivalent constructions. Hence, I desire my protection to be limited not by the design embodiments described, but only by the proper scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. In combination with a caning jar and clamping ring, a sealing panel adapted for use in home fermentation, said sealing panel including: an incorporated means for the perimeter sealing of the caning jar, and having an integrated one-way check valve for relieving the carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process with said valve further preventing outside air ingress back into the caning jar.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein said one-way valve is an integrally formed duckbill type check valve.

3. The combination of claim 1, wherein said one-way valve is an integrally formed ball type check valve.

4. The combination of claim 1, wherein the sealing panel is configured with a normally concave form that moves up to a convex form from the force exerted by the internal carbon dioxide pressure.

5. The combination of claim 1, wherein the sealing panel has an integrally formed, and downward projecting submersing feature configured to hold the solid fermenting contents under the salt-water brine.

6. In combination with a caning jar, a lid with an incorporated annular sealing flange adapted for use in home fermentation, said lid including: an incorporated means for the perimeter sealing of the caning jar, and having an integrated one-way check valve for relieving the carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process with said valve further preventing outside air ingress back into the caning jar.

7. The combination of claim 6, wherein said one-way check valve is an integrally formed duckbill type valve.

8. The combination of claim 6, wherein said one-way check valve is an integrally formed ball type valve.

9. The combination of claim 6, wherein the sealing lid is configured with a normally concave form that moves up to a convex form from the force exerted by the internal carbon dioxide pressure.

10. The combination of claim 6, wherein the sealing panel has an integrally formed, and downward projecting submersing feature configured to hold the solid fermenting contents under the salt-water brine.