The disclosed inventive subject matter relates in general to a containers and packages used for food, perishable items, consumable liquids and other items, and more specifically to a tamper-resistant container for use with carry-out, pick-up, and delivery systems and services used for food and other items.
Carry-out, pick-up, and delivery systems and services used for food and other items are commonplace in modern society. However, such systems and services necessarily involve multiple individuals handling, packaging, and in some circumstances delivering, the food or other items. Customers and consumers of such systems and services are often understandably concerned about the integrity of the packaging that the food or other items is stored in prior to pick-up or delivery and about the accuracy and contents of an order. A purchase receipt is often attached to or included with food packaging that is picked-up or delivered. However, this receipt may become lost, detached, or otherwise separated from the food packaging. Additionally, the food packaging may be opened, damaged, or otherwise tampered with prior to delivery, resulting in customer concern and/or dissatisfaction. Accordingly, a food packaging system that utilizes or includes tamper-resistant features is highly desirable.
The following provides a summary of certain example implementations of the disclosed inventive subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview and is not intended to identify key or critical aspects or elements of the disclosed inventive subject matter or to delineate its scope. However, it is to be understood that the use of indefinite articles in the language used to describe and claim the disclosed inventive subject matter is not intended in any way to limit the described inventive subject matter. Rather the use of “a” or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”.
One implementation provides a first system for storing and transporting food, comprising a container, wherein the container has a bottom portion having at least one slot formed therein, and a top portion having at least one slot formed therein that corresponds to the slot formed in the bottom portion, and wherein when the container is in a closed position, the corresponding slots form at least one channel passing completely through the container; a self-sealing receipt or label configured to receive printed information regarding the contents of the container, wherein the self-sealing receipt or label passes through the at least one channel and is sealed to itself to securely close the container, and wherein the self-sealing receipt or label is configured to provide visual evidence of tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The container may be a pizza box. The slots may be formed by perforating corresponding sections of the top portion of the container and the bottom portion of the container to create collapsible regions. The self-sealing receipt or label may include a plurality of cuts formed completely through the material of the receipt or label, wherein the plurality of cuts form regions of weakness in the receipt or label for providing visual evidence of receipt or label tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The self-sealing receipt or label may include an upper surface for receiving printing thereon and a lower surface upon which an adhesive has been deposited. The adhesive may be permanent pressure-sensitive adhesive, cohesive, remoistenable adhesive, repositionable adhesive, or combinations thereof. The adhesive may be deposited in adjacent strips, wherein the strips contain different types of adhesives. The visual evidence of tampering may include visible fiber tears in the receipt or label or visible adhesive transfer from one portion of the receipt or label to another portion of the receipt or label.
Another implementation provides a second system for storing and transporting food, comprising a container, wherein the container has a bottom portion having at least one slot formed therein, and a top portion having at least one slot formed therein that corresponds to the slot formed in the bottom portion, and wherein when the container is in a closed position, the corresponding slots form at least one channel passing completely through the container, and wherein the container is configured for use as a pizza box; a linerless self-sealing receipt or label configured to receive printed information regarding the contents of the container, wherein the self-sealing receipt or label passes through the at least one channel and is sealed to itself to securely close the container, and wherein the self-sealing receipt or label is configured to provide visual evidence of tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The slots may be formed by perforating corresponding sections of the top portion of the container and the bottom portion of the container to create collapsible regions. The self-sealing receipt or label may include a plurality of cuts formed completely through the material of the receipt or label, wherein the plurality of cuts form regions of weakness in the receipt or label for providing visual evidence of receipt or label tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The self-sealing receipt or label may include an upper surface for receiving printing thereon and a lower surface upon which an adhesive has been deposited. The adhesive may be permanent pressure-sensitive adhesive, cohesive, remoistenable adhesive, repositionable adhesive, or combinations thereof. The adhesive may be deposited in adjacent strips, wherein the strips contain different types of adhesives. The visual evidence of tampering may include visible fiber tears in the receipt or label or visible adhesive transfer from one portion of the receipt or label to another portion of the receipt or label.
Still another implementation provides a third system for storing and transporting food, comprising a container, wherein the container has a bottom portion having at least one slot formed therein, and a top portion having at least one slot formed therein that corresponds to the slot formed in the bottom portion, and wherein when the container is in a closed position, the corresponding slots form at least one channel passing completely through the container, and wherein the slots are formed by perforating corresponding sections of the top portion of the container and the bottom portion of the container to create collapsible regions; a linerless self-sealing receipt or label configured to receive printed information regarding the contents of the container, wherein the self-sealing receipt or label includes an upper surface for receiving printing thereon and a lower surface upon which an adhesive has been deposited, wherein the self-sealing receipt or label passes through the at least one channel and is sealed to itself to securely close the container, and wherein the self-sealing receipt or label is configured to provide visual evidence of tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The self-sealing receipt or label may include a plurality of cuts formed completely through the material of the receipt or label, wherein the plurality of cuts form regions of weakness in the receipt or label for providing visual evidence of receipt or label tampering when the self-sealing receipt or label is separated from itself. The self-sealing receipt or label may include an upper surface for receiving printing thereon and a lower surface upon which an adhesive has been deposited, and wherein the adhesive is permanent pressure-sensitive adhesive, cohesive, remoistenable adhesive, repositionable adhesive, or combinations thereof.
It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing concepts and additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided such concepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein and may be implemented to achieve the benefits as described herein. Additional features and aspects of the disclosed system, devices, and methods will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of the example implementations. As will be appreciated by the skilled artisan, further implementations are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of what is disclosed herein. Accordingly, the drawings and associated descriptions are to be regarded as illustrative and not restrictive in nature.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form a part of the specification, schematically illustrate one or more example implementations of the disclosed inventive subject matter and, together with the general description given above and detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the disclosed subject matter, and wherein:
Example implementations are now described with reference to the Figures. Reference numerals are used throughout the detailed description to refer to the various elements and structures. Although the following detailed description contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following details are within the scope of the disclosed inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the following implementations are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed subject matter. With regard to certain terminology use herein, it is to be understood that the terms “receipt” and “label” may be used interchangeably to refer to the same structure or item.
The container 310 shown in the Figures is of the type typically used to store and transport pizzas or similar food items. Such containers 310 are usually square cardboard boxes that include a bottom portion 324, a raised wall 326 surrounding the bottom portion 324, and a hinged lid 328 attached to a section of the raised wall 326. The first and second channels 312 shown in the Figures may be formed by die cutting the container 310 to include slots 302 in the lid 328 and corresponding slots 332 in the bottom portion 324 or by perforating the lid 328 and bottom portion 324 to include corresponding regions that collapse inward toward the interior of the container 310 when pressure is applied to the perforated areas. As shown in
Now referring to
As previously stated and as used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the,” refer to both the singular as well as plural, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term “comprising” as used herein is synonymous with “including,” “containing,” or “characterized by,” and is inclusive or open-ended and does not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps. Although many methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used, particular suitable methods and materials are described herein. Unless context indicates otherwise, the recitations of numerical ranges by endpoints include all numbers subsumed within that range. Furthermore, references to “one implementation” are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional implementations that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, implementations “comprising” or “having” an element or a plurality of elements having a particular property may include additional elements whether or not they have that property.
Underlined and/or italicized headings and subheadings are used for convenience only, do not limit the disclosed subject matter, and are not referred to in connection with the interpretation of the description of the disclosed subject matter. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various implementations described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and intended to be encompassed by the disclosed subject matter. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the above description.
There may be many alternate ways to implement the disclosed inventive subject matter. Various functions and elements described herein may be partitioned differently from those shown without departing from the scope of the disclosed inventive subject matter. Generic principles defined herein may be applied to other implementations. Different numbers of a given module or unit may be employed, a different type or types of a given module or unit may be employed, a given module or unit may be added, or a given module or unit may be omitted.
It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing concepts and additional concepts discussed in greater detail herein (provided such concepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being part of the disclosed inventive subject matter. All combinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of this disclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. While the disclosed inventive subject matter has been illustrated by the description of example implementations, and while the example implementations have been described in certain detail, there is no intention to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the disclosed inventive subject matter in its broader aspects is not limited to any of the specific details, representative devices and methods, and/or illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept.
This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/073,969 filed on Oct. 19, 2020 and entitled “Tamper Resistant Containers for Food and Other Items”, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and made part of the present U.S. utility patent application for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17073969 | Oct 2020 | US |
Child | 17947089 | US |