Patent Application
20190202610
This invention relates generally to a removable, annular food safe barrier film with anterior oriented pull-tab of sufficient length to be readily grasped by human hands and a posterior oriented tab, adapted to sealingly engage, conform and adhere to top and side wall surfaces of a disposable molded plastic cup lid of the drink through type. The design of cup lids of the drink through type generally include an annular mounting portion for engaging the lip of a disposable cup, an annular sidewall extending upwardly from the mounting portion and a top wall having a drinking opening formed in it. In the preferred embodiment, the top wall of the lid has a recess formed in it adjacent to the drinking opening to accommodate the upper lip of the user (hereinafter referred to as “cup lid”). More specifically, to an annular food safe barrier film with anterior oriented pull-tab of sufficient length to be readily grasped by human hands and a posterior oriented tab, adapted to sealingly engage, conform and adhere to top and side wall surfaces of a disposable molded plastic cup lid of the drink through type. The primary purpose of the barrier film is to prevent bacterial or pathogen cross contamination of the top wall surface of cup lids caused by direct contact by bare, unprotected, contaminated or unsanitary human hands during the process of affixing a cup lid to a disposable cup to minimize spillage during transport or consumption of dispensed beverages.
Disposable hot dispensed beverage (e.g. brewed coffee, cappuccino, espresso, hot tea etc.) cups made of plastic, paper or other composite materials are used throughout foodservice industry segments including but not limited to Quick Service Restaurants, Fast Casual Restaurants, Convenience Stores, Donut Shops, Food Trucks and Coffee Shops. To prevent spillage during transport or consumption of hot dispensed beverages by customers, a plurality of cups lids including those of the drink-through type are affixed either by employees or customers to said disposable hot dispensed beverage cups.
Drink-through or pucker type cup lids employ a drinking orifice adapted to enable drinking from the cup without removal of the cup lid. The lips and mouth of the user are permitted to encompass the drinking orifice. The drinker's mouth and lips do not necessarily make contact with the rim of the cup. Such lids conventionally include an annular mounting portion for engaging the lip of the cup, an annular sidewall extending upwardly from the mounting portion, and a top wall having a drinking opening formed in it. In the preferred embodiment, the top wall of the lid has a recess formed in it adjacent the drinking opening to accommodate the upper lip of the user.
In use, the aforementioned cups lids are affixed by hand to disposable hot dispensed beverage cups either by employees at the conclusion of the customer facing purchase process or by customers who find they require a cup lid after making the purchase of a hot dispensed beverage but prior to departing the premises. In the latter case, such cup lids are available either upon request by the customer from an employee or can be found at on premise self-service kiosks/stations that are stocked with cup lids and other post purchase disposables (e.g. napkins, stirrers) and condiments (e.g. sweetener, creamer).
Based on foodservice employee practices, the aforementioned lids are affixed by hand either by employees or customers. In a vast majority of instances employees are not wearing single use disposable food gloves (despite the fact that Health Departments in a number of U.S. state and local jurisdictions as well as the US Food Code 2013 recommend or require the use of single food gloves during the preparation and handling of food and beverage) when affixing cup lids to disposable cups. This results in unprotected, bare hand contact with the top wall surface of the cup lids including that area where the customers' mouth and lips are expected to come into contact with the drink-through portion of the cup lid. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that employees are more likely to use single use food gloves when handling cup lids in the course of restocking on premise inventory levels of cup lids to par levels resulting in additional instances of bare hand contact with cup lids. In the case of customers making use of on premise self-service kiosks/stations to take and use a cup lid, incidental contact with lids other than that which a customer intended to use is common place resulting in cup lids to be used by other customers have come into bare hand contact with other customers who are ill, or whose hands may be dirty, or otherwise contaminated.
A food borne illness is a disease caused by consuming food or drink contaminated with harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, or chemicals. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year roughly 48 million people gets sick from a foodborne illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Research has shown adequate hand washing and glove use are necessary to reduce bacterial or pathogen cross-contamination from human hands with high bacterial loads making hand-washing and single use glove use the most important means of preventing the spread of infection. Unfortunately, not everyone can be counted on to wash their hands properly when they should be including but not limited to after using the bathroom, tending to a sick person, blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing, touching money, smoking, touching their head or face or emptying the trash or wear single use disposable food gloves 100% of the time when circumstances, regulation or best practices dictate. Given the above, incidental bacterial or pathogen cross-contamination between bare human hands and cups lids is a virtual certainty.
The present invention comprises a removable, annular food safe barrier film with anterior oriented pull-tab of sufficient length to be readily grasped by human hands and a posterior oriented tab, adapted to sealingly engage, conform and adhere to top and side wall surfaces of a disposable molded plastic cup lid of the drink through type. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate or reduce bacterial or pathogen cross contamination resulting from direct contact with top wall surfaces of disposable cup lids of the drink through type with unprotected, r unwashed or unclean human hands.
The barrier film can be made from a variety of materials that are food safe, including plastic and can exhibit a variety of properties including being transparent, translucent, holographic, printable, or thermochromic.
The barrier film can sealingly engage, conform and adhere to the top wall surface of a disposable molded plastic cup lid of the drink through type by means of a low cohesive or repositionable food safe adhesive.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts.
While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail several specific embodiments, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered merely an exemplification of the principles of the invention and the application is limited only to the appended claims.
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This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application filed Nov. 9, 2017, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
