Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Product with defined indicating means – e.g. – indicia – etc.
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-14
2001-03-13
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Product with defined indicating means, e.g., indicia, etc.
C426S132000, C426S231000, C426S250000, C426S302000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06200610
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a batch identifier for use in seeds and animal feeds.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The food that farmers provide to livestock often includes prepared feeds. These prepared feeds may be as simple as milled grains, but they often comprise several ingredients including minute quantities of supplements such as vitamins and minerals. With some prepared feeds, the various ingredients are merely mixed together, but in other prepared feeds the ingredients are mixed and then formed into pellets, which typically involves the application of steam to the ingredients.
It is common in tracers for use in animal feeds to utilize inert chemical compounds which can be easily mixed with other ingredients and analysed for in samples, and also compounds of which the ingredients would have low levels, such that there would be low background levels. Another type of tracer utilizes colouring, either an ingredient which colours the entire feed product or small particles which are colour-coated and detectable by release of the colour with a solvent. These disclosed tracers are useful for determining the concentration of ingredients in a sample of feed, but they are of no use when it is necessary to distinguish between different batches of a particular prepared feed. Tracers of these types are limited in the scope of application because detection may be difficult when the tracer is diluted, and without a means of uniquely coding the tracer, consecutive batches of feed can not be differentiated.
In the feed industry, as standards of quality rise, and as public expectations of quality also rise, strict quality control management becomes more and more important, for example, the ability of the manufacturer to recall a specific batch if there is an error in mixing. The invention of a tracer which is readily detectable and coded, such that individual batches of feed products can be differentiated, will facilitate quality control procedures in the processing and distribution of such feed products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect, the invention consists of a batch identifying system comprising a plurality of marker sets, wherein each marker set comprises a plurality of markers and each marker in a marker set bears an identifying indicium which is the same within a marker set but different from other sets, and further wherein a marker set is mixed with a batch of seed or feed to distinguish the batch from other batches.
The markers may be of the approximate size of the constituents of the seed or feed. The markers may be plastic. The markers may be paper. The markers may have a coating. The coating may be wax. The coating may be a resin.
The identifying indicium may be one or more symbols on the markers. The symbols may be letters. The symbols may be numerals. The symbols may be letters and numerals. The identifying indicium may also be colour on the markers.
According to another aspect, the invention consists of a method for identifying batches of seed or feed, which comprises:
(a) mixing a set of markers having an identifying indicium for differentiating that set of markers from other sets of markers, into a batch of seed or feed;
(b) making a record of the identifying indicium and the batch of seed or feed;
(c) viewing a marker in the seed or feed; and
(d) comparing the identifying indicium of the viewed marker with the record.
Viewing the marker may consist of viewing a sample of the seed or feed under magnification to locate the marker and to identify the identifying indicium.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2685517 (1954-08-01), Dunmire
patent: 2868644 (1959-01-01), Eisenberg
patent: 3438781 (1969-04-01), MacMillan et al.
patent: 3469990 (1969-09-01), Eisenberg
patent: 4029820 (1977-06-01), Eisenberg
patent: 4188408 (1980-02-01), Eisenberg
patent: 4421858 (1983-12-01), Jackson
patent: 4654165 (1987-03-01), Eisenberg
patent: 4861586 (1989-08-01), Schneider et al.
patent: 383116 (1990-08-01), None
McIlhiney et al. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 139-146, 1983.
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