Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Imitated – simulated – ornamental – three-dimensional product...
Patent
1996-05-31
1998-08-04
Drodge, Joseph W.
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Imitated, simulated, ornamental, three-dimensional product...
426110, 426134, 426414, 426514, A23G 700
Patent
active
057890056
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a method of packaging an edible product and a related confection unit.
The method is usable to impart desired shapes to food products such as ice-cream, iced-drink, sweets, cheeses, by means of pouring, or injecting, a syrup, or a fluid mixture in general, into a mould, with its subsequent solidification.
The prior art includes methods of moulding edible products that comprise pouring a mixture, be it a syrup, liquid or paste, into a mould with its subsequent solidification by refrigeration; as the finished products have to contain an insert, in the form of a stick, to enable the product to be held while being consumed, as is the case, for example, with ice-creams or ice-lollies, the insert is positioned in the mould, generally during or after pouring of the mixture and always before its final solidification; it is to be noted that positioning the insert is not easy, in particular as it requires complex mechanisms to suspend the insert in the cavity of each mould.
Furthermore, the portion of the insert that protrudes from the product often becomes covered by some of the liquid or syrup mixture during pouring: this causes an unpleasant and unhygienic contact of the product with the hand while being consumed.
Finally, with such prior art moulding methods, the products have to be removed from the mould once they have solidified so that they may be packaged; this involves the risk of worsened hygiene conditions, increased costs and complexity of the production plant.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,759,831 discloses a confection unit, in the form of a sealed package in which the confection material is contained as a liquid to be frozen at a time substantially beyond that at which the unit is produced and which further contains a stick-form supporting handle which, when frozen into the confection, supports the same. The confection unit encloses a confection liquid such as a dilute aqueous fruit syrup solution in a plastics tube with downward strip-form extensions heat-sealed together about three edges, the tube being sealed at both ends. The handle was present between the strip-form extensions at the time when they were heat-sealed together and is closely encased by them.
Manufacture of this kind of confection unit is difficult because the lower edge of the plastic tube must be sealed around the stick, which implies high accuracy in positioning the stick in order to avoid interference between the stick and the sealing means, e. g. hot bar sealers.
Also, with a tubular packaging film, the space available for the mechanism for positioning the stick is limited by the diameter of the tube.
Moreover, such a confection unit is difficult to open when the consumer wishes to consume the product, because the packaging must be torn open and subsequently slipped down around the frozen product for access thereto and progressively drawn down as the frozen product is gradually consumed, or removed completely as it is torn open.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of packaging edible products that is simpler and more efficient, in particular in relation to the positioning and centering of the insert.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a confection unit which is easier to open.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of packaging an edible product, comprising: portion whereof the interior communicates with the interior of the pouch-like portion, with a handle extending along the tubular portion and thence into the pouch-like portion, said confection package; said tubular portion and before said filling.
Opening means is preferably formed in the confection package when forming said pouch-like portion and said tubular portion.
The confection package can act as a disposable mould for the product, i. e. be made of the same material used for the wrapping, and can be manufactured using a moulding technology that involves blow-moulding of a pair of sheets of thermoformable material, such as a plastics, or composite sheets of plastics and aluminium,
REFERENCES:
patent: 2578361 (1951-12-01), Kappel
patent: 2728677 (1955-12-01), Colman
patent: 2759831 (1956-08-01), Young et al.
patent: 2766123 (1956-10-01), Moubayed
patent: 4001440 (1977-01-01), Hoyt
patent: 4229482 (1980-10-01), Kreske
patent: 5374436 (1994-12-01), White et al.
Abstract of Publication No. JP4059229, Published in Feb. 1992 in vol. 16, No. 250 of Japanese Patent Office.
Bartoli Andrea
Tabaroni Roberto
Drodge Joseph W.
Unifill S.p.A.
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