Patent Application
20100276441
The field of the invention is dispensers of granular or powered materials, and more particularly to shakers of salt, sugar, spice, and related condiments.
For a number of decades there has been a slow and steady movement to reduce the amount of sodium consumed by the average person. The effects of a high sodium diet have attracted much attention in recent years, with escalating data on the connection between salt and high blood pressure, heart disease, and kidney disease. The average daily intake of salt is 10-12 grams (4,000-4,800 mg sodium) in the United States and most industrialized countries. Local and national policies and programs, as well as international policies and programs, have begun to restrict the sodium levels in prepared foods. While the majority of salt in the American and Western diets comes from processed and prepared foods, 10-30% of the daily salt intake comes from salt added at the table (and approximately 10-12% comes from salt naturally occurring in foods).
In addition to the efforts noted above, there is a need for a dispensing device that helps consumers reduce their individual sodium intake when salting foods. This has been confirmed by recent data presented at the 2009 American Heart Association annual meeting showing that even a one gram reduction in daily salt intake is associated with substantial health benefits.
While some products have attempted to address this issue, the vast majority of salt shakers on the market today comprise standard shakers with perforated tops that, with a few shakes, dispense as much as 1,000 mg of salt (390 mg of sodium) per use. Furthermore, a large dose of salt often masks the flavor of the food, much of which is already high in sodium, and leads people to become accustomed to a very salty taste. Therein lies the problem as the total recommended daily allowance of sodium is 2,400 mg, and 1,500 mg of sodium for the more than 75 million Americans suffering from hypertension.
Clearly administering fewer or softer shakes with a standard salt shaker could serve to reduce the amount of salt applied. However, most people shake several times—typically 5-9—partly out of habit and conditioning, and partly as a means to adequately disperse the salt over the plate of food. Maintaining this expected shaking behavior and user control is important. The problem is that, in an effort to adequately disperse the salt, a standard shaker provides too much salt per shake. There are some obvious possible remedies. Reducing the size of the perforations limits the amount of salt dispensed, but invites erratic flow and clogging, because the holes become close to the size of the salt crystals. Using fewer perforations is another possibility, but is also problematic because the expected sprinkling action is lost—only a trickle of salt is dispensed. Other solutions attempting to reduce or control the flow of salt in a dispensing device have failed in the market because they are often non-intuitive, require additional steps, or are overly complex. A reduced-flow salt dispenser should preferably be similar in function, appearance, and operation and as easy to use to what people use today.
The prior patented art related to this invention comprises primarily metering and dosing devices. Some solutions are devices that require an additional action to deliver a preset dose, such as twisting or pushing a lever. These are not readily adopted by the market because of the additional user action required and their relative cost and complexity compared with a standard salt shaker. Some other failings of these devices are that they vary from dose to dose and can invite jamming due to their mechanisms. Other devices use an internal tube, cavity, or chamber that allows a nominal amount of granulated material to reach the dispensing area when the shaker is inverted. These devices are common in sugar dispensers, where roughly a teaspoon is dispensed each time the container is inverted. While this solution has been adapted in the past for salt shakers, the preferred action for salt is multiple vertical shakes, taps, or waves, rather than a single dumping action as with sugar. Other inventions comprise a mix of unrelated unique solutions.
What is needed is a device that improves people's health while not depriving them of the spontaneous use of a simple shaker to enhance the flavor of food. This invention overcomes the limitations of the current art described above, providing a salt dispenser that employs a natural shaking action, a normal sprinkling pattern, and a reduced amount of salt when shaken an average number of times.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a means for dispensing a reduced amount of salt while maintaining the action, ease of use, and identity of a standard salt shaker.
It is another object of this invention to permit the use of a standard salt shaker while allowing the benefits of a reduced sodium intake.
It is another object of this invention to provide a reduced-flow salt shaker that allows the user to easily and ultimately control how much salt they want.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device that works for different types of shaking, such as vertical, side-to-side, tapping and the like.
It is a further object of this invention to employ a standard perforated cap, for effective sprinkling over food area.
Another object of this invention is to provide a simple solution and assembly, so that the device can be adapted to a number of shaker sizes, designs, or embodiments, for example a small personal shaker or one containing a daily or weekly amount of salt.
It is another object of this invention to provide a device that can be adapted to a variety of flows for a specified number of shakes (for example, in one embodiment 10 shakes will deliver no more than 35 mg of sodium, designated a very low serving of sodium by the FDA).
It is still another objective to provide a device that can be used with a variety of granulated materials, such as sugars or spices, and with different types and sizes of salt.
It is another object of this invention to provide a salt shaker which avoids clumping.
It is also an object of the invention to allow for easy filling, cleaning, and storage.
Flow-reducing element 22 is located proximate to, but spaced apart from, the inner surface of top wall 18 of cap 16. Preferably there is a space provided between the flow-reducing element 22 and the top wall 18. Element 22 may be made from plastic, metal, or other suitable material. Element 22 allows a smaller amount of granulated material 14 to pass through it into the area of cap 16 when container 12 is inverted and shaken, than is allowed without the flow-reducing element 22. Accordingly the rate of flow is controlled by flow-reducing element 22, rather than by cap 16 whose primary function in this invention is to sprinkle evenly, rather than to control the rate of flow. Having two perforated areas with a space between them provides a mechanism for reducing the amount of granulated material dispensed, while maintaining an expected sprinkling pattern. The flow-reducing element 22 acts as a barrier that prevents the free flow of granular material from the container to the openings 20 in the cap 16. The combination of the sprinkling cap 16 and the internal flow-reducing element 22 provide the function of evenly releasing and distributing the granules 14 in an expected and continuous manner: shake, sprinkle, tap or wave yet at a significantly lower rate than standard dispensers.
In one embodiment, flow-reducing element 22 has five holes 24 of diameter 0.9-1.4 millimeters, whose combination provides an average of less than 35 mg of sodium when the container is inverted and shaken 10 times. This is approximately one-seventh the dose of sodium dispensed by the standard salt shaker on the market today for a comparable amount of shakes. In a preferred embodiment, one hole 26 is located in the center of flow-reducing element 22, such that it aligns with an opening 28 in the center of cap 16. This center hole 26 in the flow-reducing element 22 has a diameter of approximately 1.34 millimeters, slightly larger than the four surrounding holes 24 of 1.1 millimeters. The larger center hole 26 is in alignment with the center opening 28 in the cap 16 to help prevent a slight delay that may occur during the first shake, where the granules 14 bounce around inside the area between flow-reducing element 22 and cap 16 before they find their way out through the openings 20 and 28.
It will be clear to those skilled in the art that the rate of flow may vary quite easily by changing the size and amount of holes in the flow-reducing element 22. For example, three holes of the appropriate diameter may adequately perform the flow-reducing function. In theory even one hole of the appropriate diameter can provide the same flow rate as three holes whose area adds up to that of the one hole. While this theory applies well to fluids or powders, granules do not flow as easily as fluid. The openings must take into account crystal size, friction, micro-clogging and irregularity. A single hole of the minimum size needed to allow crystals to pass yields a flow rate that is much too low, while a large hole can lead to a pouring condition, where crystals rush through continuously. It is more reliable to use a plurality of holes in the flow-reducing element 22 to accomplish the desired flow rate.
It is desirable that flow-reducing element 22 be removable for cleaning, replacement, or substitution with another part that provides a different flow rate. In the preferred embodiment, element 22 is interference fit into the top opening 30 of container 12 using flanges 32. Those skilled in the art will understand that the same effect may be accomplished using other means, such as screw threads, a snap fit or press fit. Alternatively, flow-reducing element 22 may be designed such that it attaches to the inside of cap 16 as opposed to attaching to the container 12.
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Presently preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described with a degree of particularity. The previous description is of preferred examples for implementing the invention, and the scope of the invention should not necessarily be limited by this description. The scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the following claims.
