Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Packaging or treatment of packaged product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-07
2001-01-09
Brouillette, Gabrielle (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Packaging or treatment of packaged product
C426S412000, C426S413000, C053S427000, C053S432000, C053S477000, C053S510000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06171627
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the packaging of bone-in cuts of meat and more particularly to a method and means for packaging such meat cuts in a heat shrink bag arrangement which decreases the likelihood of a bone puncturing through the bag.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The use of bags formed of a heat-shrinkable thermoplastic film for packaging primal and sub-primal cuts of meat is well known in the art. In use, to the cut of meat is loaded into the bag. The bag is evacuated to remove air so the bag collapses against the cut of meat and then it is heat sealed to maintain the evacuation. Next the bag is exposed to warm water at about 90° C. or other heating means causing the bag to shrink and form fit the cut of meat. Packaging in this fashion excludes air from the package to prolong shelf life and reduces weight loss due to drying of the meat.
The bag film is relatively thin and usually not more than about 3 to 4 mils (0.076 to 0.10 mm) thick. Accordingly, these bags generally are not suitable for packaging cuts of meat which contain bones. For example, the ribs or other sharp bone protrusions as contained by rib beef cuts or pork loins and other meat cuts may puncture the bag during the evacuation of air or during heat shrinking as the bag draws tightly about the bone-in meat cut. Any puncture in the bag is undesirable as it allows the meat cut in the bag and especially in the area of the puncture to be exposed to the air. The puncture also is a possible source of contamination. The problem of bone punctures is compounded by abrasion during movement of the package along a conveyer and as it is loaded into corrugated boxes and by abrasion between adjacent packages caused by vibration and movement of the meat packages one against another during transport and handling.
One technique for preventing bone puncture is to overlay the protruding bones of the cut of meat with paper, cloth or a wax impregnated cloth prior to insertion into the bag. This is shown for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,891,870 and 4,136,205. Another common solution is to improve the puncture and abrasion resistance of the bag film by adhering a patch to the outer surface of the heat-shrinkable bag. U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,403 discloses use of an oriented heat-shrinkable patch affixed by an adhesive to the surface of a heat-shrinkable bag and U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,402 discloses a non oriented patch adhered to the bag surface by corona treatment. In order to provide the bag with greater protection, U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,419 discloses adhering two heat shrinkable patches to the bag, one to each outer surface of the flattened bag. The patches even may extend over the side edges to insure that coverage extends the full width of the bag.
Neither the cloth nor paper overlay nor a patch adhered to the outer surface of the bag are entirely acceptable solutions to the problem of preventing bone punctures and providing abrasion resistance. One reason for this is that the overlay may be dislocated from its laid-on position as the bone-in cut of meat is inserted into a bag. Patch-bags with one patch require some manipulation of the heavy cut of meat to insure that the patch is properly oriented over the protruding bones. Another drawback of patch bags is the cost of manufacturing the patch material and the added cost of having to laminate one or more patches to the bag. Also, the patch material generally is thicker than the bag. As a result the patch bag tends to be relatively stiff due to its thickness and this stiffness further adds to the difficulty of handling the bag during a packaging operation.
Attempts to avoid applying a patch to the bag have included manufacturing the bag with multiple plies along one side to provide bone puncture resistance. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,704,101 and 5,020,922 disclose heat sealing a wide area of a laid flat tubing to itself to form a double thickness, corona treating one flattened side and then folding the tubing so that the double thickness overlays one of the flatted sides. This forms a triple ply along one side of the bag and a single ply along an opposite side wherein all the adjacent surfaces of the three ply side are interfacially bonded. U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,669 discloses inserting a narrow longitudinally folded web into a wider longitudinally folded web and then heat sealing across the webs to form side sealed bags which have a single thickness adjacent the bag mouth while the rest of the bag has a double thickness. Further, the webs are corona treated so that the plies of the bag adhere one to the other. It is believed that due to the complex nature of the manufacturing process, neither of these bags has a commercial embodiment.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved heat shrinkable bag structure and method for packaging bone-in cuts of meat.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bag for packaging bone-in cuts of meat that has a wall structure which is two plies thick for bone puncture resistance
A further object is to provide a bag structure for packaging bone-in cuts of meat which locates a double thickness of bag film around the entire cut of meat for puncture resistance and yet has only a single thickness in the region of the bag closure.
Still further object is to provide a bag-in-a-bag structure for packaging bone-in meat cuts wherein the inner bag includes at least one opening remote from the bag mouth to facilitate evacuation of air from between the bags.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for packaging bone-in cuts of meat wherein double-bagging is used to provide bone puncture resistance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention involves the use of two individual bottom sealed bags to package a bone-in cut of meat. Bottom sealed bags are made by laying a tubular film flat and then making transverse heat seals across the bag width at spaced intervals to weld the flattened sides of the tube together. The tube is severed at the same time it is heat sealed. This forms a so called “bottom sealed” bag which, when it is laid flat, has a bottom edge formed by the heat seal, an open mouth formed by the severed edge and two seamless side edges formed by the fold produced when the tube is laid flat.
The two bottom sealed bags according to the present invention are to be disposed one within the other. These two bags are slightly different in construction. A first bag, to be used as the inner bag, is shorter than the other. The open end of the inner bag should be more blunt as compared to the open end of the other bag for reasons set out hereinbelow. Also, its bottom seal is interrupted or not complete all the way across the bag width to provide a passage for venting air from one bag to the other. A second bag, to be used as the outer bag, is longer than the first bag and its bottom seal is continuous across the bag width. Other differences are further set out hereinbelow.
The bags can be made of different films to provide different properties. For example, the outer bag can be a film structure having oxygen and moisture barrier layers while the inner bag is a non barrier film. At least the outer bag and preferably both bags are formed of a heat shrinkable film. For purposes of the present invention, the term “heat shrinkable” means that the film used in making the bags is biaxially oriented such that it has an unrestrained shrink of at least 10% and preferably at least 30 to 40% shrink or more in each of the transverse and machine directions measured at 90° C. Free shrink is measured by cutting a square piece of film measuring 10 cm in each of the machine and transverse directions. The film is immersed in water at 90° C. for five seconds. After removal from the water the piece is measured and the difference from the original dimension is multiplied by ten to obtain the percentage of shrink. It also is preferred that both bags be made from the same film to avoid the need for different film extrusion lines.
A suitable film is a multilayer film having a barrier la
Bert Roger Douglas
Siwinski John Stephen
Brouillette Gabrielle
Curwood Inc.
Lee Mann Smith McWilliams Sweeney & Ohlson
Mai Hao
LandOfFree
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