Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Package containing separate noncoated or laminated interior...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-07
2004-03-30
Weinstein, Steven (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Package containing separate noncoated or laminated interior...
C426S129000, C426S132000, C426S396000, C426S420000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06713104
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a process to maintain the original physical condition of seafood fillets throughout processing, handling, and distribution. The process prevents physical deformation of seafood fillets and preserves physical appearance, including flat cut surfaces, sharp corners, curved corners, and natural contours. Furthermore, the biological characteristics of the fillets are preserved including meat color, texture, moisture retention, and microbial shelf life, These characteristics are the vital signs, or “vitality”, of the fresh seafood fillets, and their preservation make the fillets appear as if they were recently cut from a fresh whole fish.
This invention is uniquely valuable in processing large-size seafood species that require extensive cutting, which results in a high percentage of exposed cut surfaces, varying shapes, and corners. These delicate areas of the seafood meat are vulnerable to damage. The present invention utilizes a plurality of rigid supports to prevent damage to the exposed surfaces and corners. In addition, shipping such rigidly supported seafood meat with the inedible portions removed substantially reduces transportation and processing costs, and allows the product to be distributed more expeditiously upon receipt.
The primary seafood species to be processed are tuna, swordfish and other seafood that tend to lose their vitality after filleting during distribution without the process described herein. Although this process is primarily intended for use with fresh seafood fillets, it can also be used to preserve the vitality of fresh loins that are subsequently frozen as well as for other foods.
Fresh tuna are typically traded in a whole condition to preserve the quality of the fish. However, the high cost of airfreight increases the cost to the end consumer for the net yield of edible fillet. Previous attempts to economize air transportation cost by filleting tuna at distant supply sources and shipping it to the U.S. market have resulted in damaged, defective, and inferior quality product that is unacceptable to U.S. tuna buyers. It is the object of my invention to overcome these defects such that high quality tuna loins processed at the supply source can compete with fresh domestic cut loins, at a substantial cost savings and convenience to the wholesaler, retailer and consumer.
Therefore, it is the intention of my process to preserve the vitality of the seafood, so that the loins after transportation and distribution appear similar to loins immediately after being cut from whole fish. This invention further relates to an apparatus and process that provides a supporting means to maintain the natural bodily structure of the fillets and a subsequent process to preserve the seafood color, texture, and biological condition, thus preventing premature deterioration and decomposition.
My process controls all aspects, including physical, aesthetic, and biological attributes, so that the packaged fresh loins maintain their fresh condition after processing, transporting, storage and distribution. Further, it was discovered unexpectedly that the process of this invention extends beyond preservation into restoration of physically damaged product. Through experimentation it was found that miss-cut, or otherwise physically defective fillets can be repaired by using my supporting means to reform the damaged fillets into their original fresh-like structure, thus reviving freshly cut appearance.
With the increasing consumption of seafood throughout the world, there is a need for new technologies to preserve the vitality of seafood fillets, particularly the fresh physical condition of the fillets so that they appear freshly cut throughout transportation, storage, and distribution.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a process where the physical shape of a filleted seafood segment resembles the physical shape of the same seafood segment when freshly cut from the whole fish.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a supporting means made of at least two rigid supports to maintain the fresh-like bodily structure of seafood fillets.
It is a further object of this invention to employ a plurality of rigid supports to maintain the flatness of flat cut surfaces, the sharpness of the cut corners, the curve of curved corners, and the contours of contoured surfaces of the fillet.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a supporting means with two rigid supports that intersect to form a fitted joint to maintain and reform the fillet corners.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a supporting means with one rigid support and a flexible plastic membrane that intersect to form a semi-fitted joint to maintain the corners of the fillet.
It is a still further object of this invention to fix or adjust the angles of the rigid intersecting supports to be parallel with flat cut seafood surfaces that intersect to form corners.
It is a still further object of this invention to protect the flat cut seafood surfaces with the rigid supports and to protect the seafood corners with the corners formed by the intersecting rigid supports.
It is a still further object of this invention to position two rigid supports of the supporting means at perpendicular angles to one another forming a V shaped trough that accommodates varying sizes of loins and provides cross member support to increase strength of the supporting means.
It is a still further object of this invention to mate a loin into a V shaped trough and to eliminate space between the loin and the surfaces of trough, without substantially distorting the loin.
It is a still further object of this invention to repair physically damaged seafood by forming flat cut surfaces or sharp corners with the supporting means.
It is still a further object of this invention to incorporate a plurality of rigid supports into a vacuum pouch to form a supporting means unit.
It is a still further object of this invention to use a jig to prop the supporting means during assembly.
It is a still further object of this invention to incorporate fasteners within the supporting means that hold the rigid supports in a fixed position.
It is a still further object of this invention to vacuum seal a plastic membrane to a plurality of rigid supports containing seafood fillets.
It is a still further object of this invention to expose fillets to a gas containing carbon monoxide, such as tasteless smoke, to maintain fresh-like color, prevent oxidation, and extend microbial shelf life.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a supporting means with at least two tapered sides forming a V to hold a fillet with two tapered sides forming a V, and to nest the outer V of the fillet into the inner V of the supporting means, such that the tapers of the V of the supporting means and the V of the fillet are substantially the same, and the support will accommodate varying sizes of fillets.
It is a still further object of this invention to treat the fillets with a liquid solution to stabilize color, inhibit bacteriological growth, and extend the microbial shelf life.
It is still a further objective of this invention to provide an absorbent means to prevent discoloration, staining and decomposition at the surface of the seafood fillet.
It is still a further objective of this invention to incorporate a temperature-monitoring device to constantly monitor the temperature of the seafood fillet.
It is still a further objective of this invention to fillet seafood at foreign fisheries resources to reduce airfreight cost, but without reducing the quality of the seafood fillets.
BACKGROUND ART
For centuries, seafood has been consumed cooked in the U.S. and around the world. Seafood is both cooked and consumed raw as a staple food in the Japanese diet. The Japanese sashimi market draws the highest price among all seafood markets. Red color tuna meat with a fresh-like physical condition draws the highest price in both the U.S. and Japan Tuna is the primary species consumed raw
Hsia Martin E.
Weinstein Steven
LandOfFree
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