Refrigeration – With means forming non-cooled work surface – e.g. – counter,...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-10
2003-09-02
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
With means forming non-cooled work surface, e.g., counter,...
C220S661000, C220S676000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612124
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to food-service equipment and, more particularly, to food-preparation tables of the type having a plurality of food pans on a table base with thermally-useful means for purposes of temperature maintenance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the food-service industry many different kinds of establishments use food-preparation tables to present cold food for serving by food-service personnel or patrons. Food-preparation tables are large devices each of which has two major portions: (1) a table base, which is a structure with various parts (hereafter described) that is adapted to receive a plurality of food-service pans, and (2) the pans themselves, supported in their serving positions in/on the table base. When in use for serving, the pans have open tops to allow access to the food presented therein.
A typical table base of a food-preparation table has a top member with a top surface, openings (or a large unitary opening) in the top member to a pan-receiving space or spaces beneath the top member and pan-supporting surfaces adjacent to the pan-receiving space(s) for supporting the pans in such space(s) in serving positions, and a thermal device to provide thermally-useful air in the space(s) around the pans. Each pan typically has a sidewall with an upper portion terminating in an upper edge which forms the open top from which food in the pan is served.
In the food-service business, it is often necessary to leave cold food on display in pans of refrigerated food-preparation tables for extended periods of time. Current standards, such as the applicable American National Standard/NSF International Standard, require that these devices be able to hold all of the cold food product in the pans at temperatures not exceeding 41° F. Food-preparation tables of the prior art, however, have significant shortcomings and problems with respect to efforts to meet the food-service industry's requirements for proper maintenance of food temperatures.
At least three types of problems and shortcomings are experienced:
In some cases, temperature maintenance requirements are simply not met, particularly with long service periods (i.e., long periods during which food in the pans remains in place) and when air temperatures are fairly high, either because of hot weather conditions or because of the high temperatures in a kitchen. This, of course, can pose health problems and/or lead to food waste by requiring disposal sooner than might otherwise be the case. This important problem has been recognized and in some cases steps have been taken to address at least the food safety and waste issues. Such attempts, however, have led to certain other problems or shortcomings.
In certain cases, manufacturers of food-preparation tables have taken steps to recess the pans below the top surfaces of the table base (i.e., below a plane defining the majority of the top surface of the table base surrounding the pan locations) in order to provide a location on the table base, immediately above and surrounding the upper edge of the pans, for cooling coils or other thermal transfer devices. This is useful for food-protection purposes, but is widely recognized as posing difficulties on the serving process. More specifically, it is often quite difficult to reach the food that is presented in pans if their open tops are in recessed positions in the table base. This is particularly true when some depletion of the food in the pans has occurred.
This problem is experienced with respect to various kinds of food-preparation tables, including (1) those in which the top member is such that the top surface along the entire table base is generally in a single plane and (2) those in which the top member is such that the top surface has a substantially raised rear area surrounding the pan locations. Such raised rear area (or “rail”) is sometimes configured with its top surface tilted toward the user; however, for either type of table base, when the pans are recessed, i.e., so that their upper edges are below the surrounding top surface (rather than having their upper edges substantially flush with the top surface), food accessibility is significantly hindered.
Indeed, because of this food-accessibility problem people often nest the food pan with and on top of other identical pans in order to raise the upper edge of the pan to facilitate serving. This, however, completely defeats the purpose for which the pan was recessed in the first place; i.e., such nesting causes the top edge to be too high to take advantage of the thermal-transfer device that had been positioned with respect to a recessed pan. Significantly, such nesting also adds harmful bottom insulation to the food pan by adding multiple metal layers and intervening dead air spaces. This combination of two disadvantages imposes food-safety risks which are greater than normal, and completely unacceptable in food-service establishments.
Another prior approach to the problem is for the table base to include an upper structure supported above the pan-surrounding top surface of the table-base top member, such structure supporting and/or including cooling apparatus above the open tops of the pans in order to cause cool air to fall or flow down onto the exposed upper surfaces of the food in the pans. (So-called “sneeze guards” are typically also supported by such upper structures.) This type of food-preparation table avoids the need for any recessing of the pans. The cooling apparatus on such structures may be cooling coils allowing the cooling of air above the pans or may be cool air outlets which are in communication with the interior of the table-base unit and allow flow of cool air to enter the pans from above the pans. While having cooling or cool-air flow apparatus above the pans can be effective for food temperature maintenance, such upper structures add considerable product complexity and considerable cost to the food-preparation table.
Still other approaches used in the prior art in an effort to allow compliance with food temperature maintenance standards are to place cooling lines (e.g., refrigerant lines) in table-base walls immediately adjacent to the pans and/or to place between the pans divider bars which have cooling lines in or around them. These approaches, however, and other measures add complexity and cost to food-preparation tables. In some prior food-preparation tables of this type there are two refrigeration units—one for cooling the space within the table base and one for the cooling lines adjacent to the pans, thus exacerbating complexity and cost of such food-preparation tables.
Cooling lines immediately adjacent to the pan walls significantly lower the temperature of the pan walls, and this can lead to unintended localized freezing of the food in the pans. This is problematic for the food, of course, but it can also cause food to stick to the pan, which is undesirable. Furthermore, when a food piece or particle sticks to the pan on or near the upper edge thereof there is a tendency to flick the food back into the pan, and this leads to contamination of the entire contents of the pan.
Food-preparation tables having table bases with refrigerant lines in close proximity to pan walls typically have the additional shortcoming of requiring frequent defrosting of the table base, an operation which demands significant personnel time. In such situations, if the table base of a food-preparation table has a drain unit, then the food-preparation table is only really suitable for an establishment that includes a floor drain, thus effectively limiting the market for such equipment. On the other hand, if the table base has no drain unit, then substantial mopping up is required during each defrosting operation.
Food temperature maintenance problems have in some cases been addressed simply by using smaller (e.g., much shallower) pans; if the pans are small enough, then the pan surfaces may succeed in maintaining the desired food temperature. However, using small pans is problematic for food-service operations because it r
Hatch Barlow
Hatch Brett
Hatch Burton
Hatch True
Jansson & Shupe & Munger Ltd.
T3B, Inc., a California Corporation
Tapolcai William E.
LandOfFree
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