Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Having consumer oriented diverse utility
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-19
2002-12-03
Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Having consumer oriented diverse utility
C426S126000, C426S129000, C426S393000, C426S394000, C426S412000, C426S415000, C426S510000, C426S523000, C426S524000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06488973
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of frozen food products including a raw protein portion. The protein may be by itself, or alternatively, the protein portion may include at least one of a raw or blanched vegetable portion or a sauce sealed in a cooking pouch formed of a sheet material having a paper outermost layer and a plastic coated metal innermost layer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In today's hurried world, little time is left for the involved processes of cooking a gourmet meal. Accordingly, resort has been made to taking advantage of processed or frozen, prepared meals. These meals come in various forms of precooked food and provide a wide range of entrees and flavors. However, the offerings of the processed food industry have not yet achieved the quality of a restaurant prepared meal. The reheating of frozen, precooked food cannot provide the flavor and texture of fresh food.
For example, a popular dish in restaurants which must be prepared from all fresh ingredients is “pompano in a bag” or “fillets de poisson en papillotes”. This specialty item traditionally includes fish which is cooked in a parchment paper bag or using greaseproof (waxed) paper. The bag is crumbled at its open end to form a loose closing of the bag so as, to a limited extent, produce a build-up of steam pressure in the bag during a cooking process. However, this type of quality food product has previously been unavailable to the frozen food mass market.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a frozen food product which includes only a raw protein, or alternatively, in addition to the raw protein portion, at least one of a raw or an only partially cooked or blanched vegetable portion and a sauce, contained in a sealed cooking pouch made primarily of paper and a susceptor (microwave active) or strengthening layer, preferably aluminum, which may be placed in either an oven or microwave so as to aid in cooking the contents of the frozen cooking pouch by radiant and conductive heat.
The contents of the cooking pouch is a raw protein product, preferably one of fish, beef, poultry, pork or veal. Alternatively, the fresh or frozen raw protein includes two protein layers with a middle layer of moist stuffing. The moist stuffing includes cooked chopped onions, garlic, celery, parsley mixed with butter or butter substitute and bread crumbs.
In addition, vegetables may be added to the protein which are raw or blanched vegetables such as julienne peppers, chopped celery, carrots, onions, zucchini or broccoli. The blanched vegetables are only partially cooked so that the time remaining to complete cooking of the vegetables is approximately the same as the time required to cook the raw protein product.
After the protein and vegetable ingredients are stacked together in a preparation tray, a sauce may be added to the protein and vegetable ingredients. The protein, vegetables and sauce on the preparation tray are frozen. The protein, vegetables and sauce are removed as a frozen solid block from the tray, and in a preferred embodiment, a sheet of material is wrapped around the frozen solid block. Alternatively, the sauce may be added to the protein without the vegetable portion.
The sauce added to the protein and to the optional vegetables can include at least one of the following ingredients: garlic butter, pecan butter, lemon dill, meuniere, etoufee, etoufee with shrimp and/or dijon garlic. In addition, prepared dried seasonings may be used in combination with the prepared sauce or separate from the prepared sauce.
The pouch is formed on a horizontal wrapper machine. Doboy Packaging Machine Inc. of New Richmond, Wis. manufactures one such machine. The approximate size of the pouch sheet material will have a web width of 11 inches with a cut off length of 9 inches. Roll stock of the pouch sheet material is fed into the wrapper (sealing) machine and a pouch is formed on the production line.
The pouch is formed by a feed of sheet material in which a seal, called a fin seal, is formed on the underside of the food product. The material is cut at the desired length and moves into another sealing position where both ends of the pouch are sealed. The now complete cooking pouch is placed into a retail selling box. The fin seal area is of sufficient width to facilitate printing of “THIS SIDE UP FOR COOKING” on the sheet material of the fin seal. The location of the fin seal on top of the cooking pouch is necessary to contain all of the cooking juices in the pouch while food is cooking.
Alternatively, a pouch is formed around the food ingredients by folding a sheet of material and sealing three opposed edges to form a rectangular shaped pouch. By a different approach, two separate sheets of the package material are placed on top of each other and four side edges are sealed together to form a pouch.
The sheet material forming the pouch includes four layers. The thickest layer forming the outer surface of the formed pouch is formed by opaque, stiff paper, similar to parchment paper, having a thickness of approximately 2.5 mils. An adhesive layer of approximately 0.1 mils is used to attach a susceptor layer, preferably aluminum, of approximately 0.48 mils to the paper layer. A plastic layer, preferably polyester, forming the inner layer of the pouch is approximately 0.02 mils thick. A total sheet material thickness of 3.1 mils is preferred.
The adhesive is a water based material designed to maintain its adhesive properties when exposed to high temperatures. The polyester layer is a co-extruded, heat sealable polyester that is U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for direct food contact. The polyester layer, forming the innermost layer of the pouch, facilitates the heat sealing of opposed side edges or overlapping sheets of pouch material. The pouch sheet material is available from Printpack, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia as product code MW260A.
The assembly of the cooking pouch and the filling of the cooking other than the use of a packaging machine, as previously described, pouch is performed according to the following method.
Other than by the use of a packaging machine, as previously described, a cooking pouch can be formed by folding over a single sheet of pouch material and heat sealing two opposed side edges. The fold forms a third sealed edge, leaving a single side edge opening.
Alternatively, two sheets of the pouch material are laid on top of each other and three side edges are heat sealed to leave a single side edge opening. The side edge heat sealing may be performed by a device available from Doboy Packaging Machinery Inc. of New Richmond, Wis.
Fresh or frozen raw, uncooked protein product may, in one embodiment, be placed on a tray of approximately four inch by six inch dimensions. Alternatively, raw or blanched vegetables are deposited on top of the protein portion. For example, a blanched medley of julienne vegetables may be used. A liquid sauce may alternatively be deposited on the protein portion or over the protein portion and vegetables when the two are together.
The food product and the tray are frozen, after which the frozen food product may be removed from the tray and wrapped in sheet material, as previously described. The tray serves to contain the food product, primarily when a sauce is involved, when freezing the food. The frozen food can then be removed from the tray and wrapped. Alternatively, a sauce patty, in cold or frozen form, made up of sauce and julienne and diced vegetables, may be combined with the protein portion, before wrapping.
The cooking pouch will have a total package weight of approximately 2.3 to eight ounces. If a vegetable portion is included, the vegetable portion will weigh approximately 1.5 to three ounces. The protein portion of the pouch will weigh approximately 2.3 to seven ounces.
By the formation of the pouch, the protein will touch the inner surface, formed by the aluminum layer and the very thin layer of polyester. The closeness to the aluminum layer aids in allowing the prote
Becker Drew
Food Talk, Inc.
Hendricks Keith
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
LandOfFree
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