Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Foraminous material infusion type – or foraminous container... – Multiple compartment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-29
2002-01-29
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Foraminous material infusion type, or foraminous container...
Multiple compartment
C426S082000, C426S113000, C426S123000, C053S329000, C206S005000, C383S097000, C383S207000, C383S209000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06342258
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an easy to open and easy to handle boil-in-bag sachet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Boil-in-bag packages for food products are by now well known in the food packaging art. The packages are generally formed from thermoplastic materials and may be water-permeable or water-impermeable depending on the food product concerned. Water-permeable boil-in-bag packages are used where rehydration of a food product inside the package is required, e.g. boil-in-bag rice or pasta. Water-permeable boil-in-bag packages are generally pouches or sachets formed from perforated or reticulated thermoplastic film on conventional forming, filling and sealing equipment.
GB-A-2117350 describes a water permeable boil-in-bag pouch suitable for cooking rice. The pouch is manufactured from a single, overlapped web of a perforated thermoplastic film and has two parallel, spaced-apart transverse seals at the top of the pouch, and another two parallel, spaced-apart transverse seals at the bottom of the pouch. There are also two spaced-apart longitudinal seals, and a longitudinally extending region of overlapped film between the two longitudinal seals. The extent of this film overlap between the longitudinal seals is at least 2.54 cm. The top and/or the bottom of the pouch is provided with a horizontal aperture of at least 1.9 cm in length within the region of the film overlap and between the two transverse seals. The horizontal aperture provides a fork slot that allows the boil-in-bag pouch to be lifted from the boiling water in which it has been cooked without tearing the thermoplastic film.
A difficulty with boil-in-bag packaging for use in the home is that the packaging must normally be opened while the contents are still hot. This entails awkward manipulation of the hot package with consequent risk of spillage and/or scalding of the person manipulating the package. Moreover, an additional utensil, such as a knife or scissors, is needed to open the package.
EP-A-0478812 describes an easy-to-open package for food products useful for boil-in-bag or microwave packaging. The package comprises a sealed, flexible pouch with a thermoformed bottom web and a top web of mono-oriented material. A V-shaped precut is formed in the top web, whereby pulling on the precut results in tearing of the top web along the direction of orientation of the mono-oriented material, thereby opening the container. The precut is covered with an adhesive membrane patch which prevents leakage through the precut prior to opening the container, and which also operates as a starting pull tab for the opening. EP-A-0499647 describes a similar package to that described in EP-A0478812, except that the pull tab is formed as a precut in the upper one of two layers making up one part of the top web. This arrangement allows the adhesive membrane patch of EP-A-0478812 to be dispensed with. However, such packages are somewhat complex to manufacture and require the use of at least one web of mono-oriented plastic material.
GB-A-2283007 discloses a boil-in-bag sachet provided with two top and one bottom transverse seals. Between the two top transverse seals there is a fork slot that allows the boil-in-bag sachet to be lifted from the boiling water. Two lines of weakness, e.g. perforations, on opposite sides of the sachet define a tear strip in the sachet to assist opining of the sachet. The sachet also comprises a transverse line of weakness from the edge of the sachet to the lines of weakness to initiate tearing of the tear strip. A similar boil-in-bag sachet is described in DEA-19716141.
A drawback of all existing boil-in-bag sachets is that manipulation of the hot package is awkward due to the lack of a suitable handle on the sachet. Another problem associated with water-permeable boil-in-bag sachets is the sometimes irregular drainage of water from the boil-in-bag sachet after the cooking. A further problem is that food can get trapped in the comer of the boil-in-bag sachet when emptying out the contents of the boil-in-bag sachet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a water-permeable boil-in-bag sachet that is shaped in such a way as to allow for efficient drainage of the water after cooking.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a boil-in-bag sachet that is easy to manipulate by providing a suitable handle on the boil-in-bag sachet. It is a further object of this invention to provide a boil-in-bag sachet that is shaped in such a way as to reduce the trapping of food in the comers of the boil-in-bag sachet when emptying its contents.
The present invention provides a boil-in-bag sachet comprising top and bottom transverse seals, wherein the bottom transverse seal extends obliquely downwardly from at least one edge of the sachet. The term “obliquely downwardly” signifies that the bottom seal is not a straight-line seal that extends horizontally across the sachet and intersects the edges of the sachet at right angles, as in all previous boil-in-bag sachets. The sachets according to the present invention have a bottom seal intersecting an edge of the sachet at an angle of less than 90°, and preferably defining a bag-like or funnel-like bottom to the sachet, thereby improving drainage of water from within the sachet.
The sachet is formed from one or more sheets of material that are bonded together by the top and bottom transverse seals. Preferably, the top and bottom transverse seals are substantially coplanar, whereby the sachet is preferably formed with a front and back faces and substantially coplanar side edges. More preferably, the side edges are substantially parallel. Preferably, the bottom transverse seal extends obliquely downwardly from both edges of the sachet, and more preferably the bottom transverse seal is substantially symmetrical about the longitudinal axis of the sachet.
The terms top and bottom and cognate expressions herein are relative terms, referring to first and second ends of the sachet respectively. In use, the bottom end of the sachet is normally the lower end of the sachet when the sachet is lifted from the pan of hot water for draining prior to opening.
The transverse seals may be heat seals or impulse seals, or even seals formed by adhesive bonding or stitching. The seals may be intermittent, broken, interrupted or discontinuous, provided that any gaps present in the seals are not so large as to allow the contents of the sachet to escape.
The top transverse seal may also extend obliquely upwardly from one or more edges of the sachet, in substantially similar fashion as described herein for the bottom transverse seal.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the bottom transverse seal extends in a curve downwardly and inwardly from at least one edge of the sachet.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention the bottom transverse seal extends in a diagonal line downwardly and inwardly from said edge of the sachet. Preferably, the diagonal line is a substantially straight line. Most preferably, the bottom transverse seal comprises a diagonal portion extending downwardly and inwardly from an edge of the sachet, and a horizontal portion extending across a central portion of said sachet.
Preferably, the bottom transverse seal extends across a comer of the sachet, thereby defining a corner-tab for handling the sachet.
Preferably, the bottom transverse seal is substantially symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis of the sachet. Preferably, the bottom transverse seal intersects an edge of the sachet at an angle of from 20° to 70°, more preferably 30° to 60°, and most preferably about 45° to the longitudinal axis of the sachet. The bottom transverse seal may comprise diagonal elements that also intersect the bottom edge of the sachet.
The boil-in-bag sachet may be opened by cutting or tearing, and may be provided with one or more tear starts such as nips in the top edge of the sachet. Preferably, the boil-in-bag sachet has a pair of longitudinal lines of weakness extending from the top transverse sea
Berings Kristian
Sporen Frieda Jacqueline Helene
Bhat Nina
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
N. V. MasterFoods, S.A.
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