Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product
Patent
1993-03-16
1996-09-03
Czaja, Donald E.
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
426112, 426115, 426123, 426131, 220906, B65B 2500, B65B 3100
Patent
active
055521681
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a beverage package and to a method of packaging a beverage. The invention relates in particular to a beverage package comprising means for initiating the production of bubbles in a beverage.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A beverage package has been proposed in specification EP 0 227 213A2 which comprises a beverage container, such as a conventional aluminium can, in the lower part of which is located a plastics pod charged with nitrogen. The pod is provided with a small orifice, and when the can is opened thereby relieving the pressure in the main chamber of the can, nitrogen ejected through the orifice bubbles into the beverage to initiate the production of further bubbles from gas dissolved in the beverage.
The pod is desirably located in the bottom of the main chamber such that when the can is opened, the bubbles rise through the full depth of the beverage. The pod in EP 0 227 213A2 is provided with flexible tabs to engage frictionally the can side-wall. However, since beer cans have to be heated to pasteurise the contents, the pod may rise during the heating cycle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, a beverage package comprises a sealed, openable container defining a beverage chamber containing a beverage in which a gas is dissolved, the beverage being confined by the container at a super-atmospheric pressure, and a gas reservoir assembly housed in the beverage chamber, the gas reservoir assembly comprising a reservoir housing which is attached to the container, the gas reservoir being positioned in or extending into the lower region of the beverage chamber, that region opposite to the openable end of the container, and an orifice means leading from the gas chamber of the gas reservoir into said lower region.
The orifice means may be permanently open, or it may be arranged to be opened or uncovered prior to pouring the beverage.
Preferably the attachment is between the reservoir housing and the basal wall of the container, that wall which is opposite to the openable end of the container.
Preferably the attachment is by means of a push fit between complementary formations provided respectively on the reservoir housing and basal wall.
The complementary formations are preferably so arranged that they inter-engage and hold when-the reservoir housing is pushed downwardly against the basal wall.
Preferably the formations comprise a spigot on the basal wall or reservoir housing which is received within a cylindrical socket in the reservoir housing or basal wall respectively.
The spigot and socket are preferably centrally disposed of the basal wall and reservoir housing such that the relative angular orientation of the reservoir housing and basal wall during the push-fitting operation does not matter.
One wall of the spigot and socket connection may be grooved to provide an orifice, or the housing may be formed with a hole to provide an orifice.
The reservoir housing can be of any desired shape, but an advantageous construction employs a tubular housing, one end of the tube constituting one of said complementary formations.
The reservoir housing can be a stepped tube, the orifice means being provided by at least one axially-extending hole in the step of the tube.
The provision of the orifice means in a step in a tube enables the orifice means to be formed by relatively conventional molding tools.
When the reservoir housing is tubular the housing may comprise a plurality of cup-shaped members which are adapted to be sealably secured to one another, the base of at least one of the cud members being formed with a hole to provide the orifice means.
The opposite end of the tube to said one end may be attached to an upper wall of the container, or to a partition wall of the container.
Alternatively, the attachment comprises a push fit between complementary formations provided respectively on or in the reservoir housing and on or in a first wall of the container, and the arrangement is such that the reservoir housing abuts w
REFERENCES:
patent: 3578210 (1971-05-01), Pitroiffy-Szabo
patent: 3741383 (1973-06-01), Wittwer
patent: 4272019 (1981-06-01), Halaby, Jr.
patent: 4399158 (1983-08-01), Bardsley et al.
Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary, P. Gove, Ed. in Chief, G & C Merriaim Company, Mass. 1961 p. 324.
Czaja Donald E.
Sherrer Curtis E.
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