EP1714910A1

EP1714910A1 - Container for holding food under rarefied atmosphere

Info

Publication number: EP1714910A1
Application number: EP06006336A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Paolo Fornasari; Claudio Visentin
Original assignee: ERREBI Srl
Current assignee: ERREBI Srl
Priority date: 2005-04-20
Filing date: 2006-03-28
Publication date: 2006-10-25
Anticipated expiration: 2026-03-28
Also published as: DE602006001072D1; ES2306315T3; ATE394319T1; EP1714910B1; ITPN20050024A1

Abstract

Sealed food container adapted to hold food under rarefied-atmosphere conditions and to be placed in the cold-storage compartments of refrigerating and/or freezing appliances, so as to preserve such food for pre-established periods of time, comprising at least a top sealing cover (6) that incorporates pumping means (17, 16, 18), which are displaceable from a non-operative to an operative position thereof, in which the pumping effect is prevented and allowed, respectively. The container further comprises unidirectional valve means (27, 35) adapted to enable air to flow from the interior of the container (5) to the outside thereof, but not in the opposite direction, when vacuum is created inside the same container, and actuating means (push-button 38) adapted to adjust and indicate the pressure existing inside the container (5), while at the same time acting as safety provision against possible implosions of the same container as vacuum is being created thereinside.

Description

The present invention refers to a sealed food container adapted to hold food under rarefied-atmosphere conditions and to be placed in the cold-storage compartments of refrigerating and/or freezing appliances, so as to preserve such food for extended periods of time.
Known in the art are food containers that are capable of being sealed in an air-tight manner by means of at least a cover or lid, and adapted to hold food to keep it preserved for extended periods of time, by having them placed in the cold-storage compartment of refrigerating and/or freezing equipment. From the interior of said sealed food containers air is exhausted, to such an extent as to create a preservation-assisting rarefied atmosphere thereinside, by means of at least an electrically operating vacuum pump that is provided separately on the outside of the same containers and is connected with the interior thereof via their sealing cover, all these component parts being usually available as separate accessories. The presence of vacuum pumps of this kind, which are certainly complicated from both a mechanical and electrical point of view, is however such as to make these containers not only rather expensive, but also inconvenient and unpractical in use, mainly due to the operations required to connect the vacuum pump to the sealing cover and the interior of the containers.
Largely known in the art are further food containers that are intended for connection with at least a separate, manually operated vacuum pump of the piston type in order to create a rarefied atmosphere inside the same containers. In these cases, vacuum pumps of this kind - although less complex and expensive, actually - still require operations to be performed in view to connect them with the sealing cover and the interior of the containers, so that they are scarcely practical, too.
It is the general object of the present invention to provide a food container that does away with the typical drawbacks and limitations of prior-art containers as described above, while proving relatively inexpensive, practical and convenient in use and easy to handle.
According to the present invention, these aims are reached in a food container incorporating the characteristics as substantially described and illustrated below with particular reference to the appended claims.
The invention will anyway be more readily understood from the description that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective front view of the food container according to the present invention, as viewed in a state in which it is set in the non-operative position thereof;
Figure 2 is a front cross-sectional view of the container shown in Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a side view of the container shown in Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a side cross-sectional view of the container shown in Figure 1;
Figure 5 is a plan view of the container shown in Figure 1;
Figure 6 is a perspective front view of the food container according to the present invention, as set in the operative position thereof;
Figure 7 is a side cross-sectional view of the container shown in Figure 6;
Figure 8 is a plan view of the container shown in Figure 6;
Figure 9 is a front view of a construction detail of the food container according to the present invention, as set in a first operative position thereof;
Figure 10 is a plan cross-sectional view of the construction detail shown in Figure 9, as viewed along the A-A line;
Figure 11 is a same front cross-sectional view of the construction detail shown in Figure 9, however set in a second operative position thereof;
Figure 12 is a same front cross-sectional view of the construction detail shown in Figure 9, however set in third operative position thereof.

Illustrated schematically in the above-listed Figures is a food container 5 according to the present invention, which is generally made of glass or food-grade plastic material, adapted to contain food and to be placed in the cold-storage compartment of refrigerating and/or freezing appliances, so as to keep the food contained therein duly preserved under rarefied-atmosphere conditions for determined periods of time. This container 5 is provided in a quadrangular or cylindrical box-like shape, thereby defining an appropriate containment volume, and is open on top so as to be then able to be closed in an air-tight manner by a corresponding top sealing cover 6 that is provided with a peripheral sealing gasket 7 fitted in a proper accommodation 8 in the same cover and adapted to come to rest and tighten against the upper peripheral border 9 of the same container. The sealing cover 6 is so shaped as to feature a central protruding portion 10 having an upwards curved shape and flattening out on top, whose outer surface is convex in the longitudinal direction and joins laterally with two peripheral borders 11 and 12 extending parallel to and slightly spaced from each other, which delimit the accommodation 8 for the sealing gasket 7 to be fitted in.
Inside the central protruding portion 10 there is formed a closed cylindrical box 13 delimited by continuous walls, of which the upper wall 14 is provided with an enlarged through-aperture 15 for a corresponding vertical piston rod 16 to pass therethrough in a reciprocating sliding movement, wherein such piston rod is joined on top to a poppet-type piston head 17 and, at the bottom, to a circular and specially contoured plate 18 that is slidably adaptable to the inside of the box 13, along the peripheral vertical wall 19 thereof, whereas said peripheral wall is provided with at least a through-hole 20 adapted to allow the interior of the closed box 13 to communicate - as this shall be described in greater detail further on - with both the outside and the inside of the container 5, in which the food to be preserved is placed. In correspondence to said through-aperture 15, the upper wall 14 is provided with a sealing gasket 21 acting against the peripheral surface of the piston rod 16 so as to seal in an air-tight manner against the same rod as it reciprocates in a vertically sliding movement. The piston rod 16 is in turn provided with an open inner cavity 22 communicating with the interior of the box 13 and with the outside thereof via through-holes 23 provided in the poppet-like head 17. Again, the circular and specially contoured plate 18 is in turn provided with a peripheral sealing gasket 24, whose lip 25 is able to seal in an air-tight manner against the peripheral wall 19 of the closed box 13 during the vertical sliding movement of the same plate, as well as with through-holes 26 that are intercepted by a corresponding one-way, i.e. check valve 27 allowing air to solely flow from the interior of the closed box 13 towards the outside, while preventing it from flowing in the opposite direction. A thrust spring 28 is attached between the bottom wall 29 of the closed box 13 and the lower surface of the contoured plate 18, and tends to bias the plate 18 into the raised position thereof (as illustrated in Figure 7), in which such plate 18 moves into contact against the upper wall 14 of the closed box 13, while also the piston rod 16 and the poppet-like head 17 are in a fully raised position thereof, in which they are pulled out from said closed box. In this position, the poppet-like head 17 turns out as being oriented in a given direction, i.e. transversally relative to the container 5 in the illustrated example. The piston rod 16 can furthermore be displaced against the action of the spring 28 into the lowered position shown in Figures 1 to 5, along with the assembly formed of the poppet-like head 17 and the contoured plate 18. Then, by rotating the poppet-like head 17 by 90°, so as to orientate it in the longitudinal direction of the container as illustrated throughout these Figures, even the above-cited assembly is rotated in the same direction, so that the poppet-like head 17 is now able to engage, with its lugs 30 protruding from the lower surface of the same head, the corresponding lugs 31 protruding from the upper wall 14 of the closed box 13 (see Figure 7), thereby being positively retained in this non-operative position, in which said contoured plate 18 presses the spring 28 against the bottom wall 29 of the closed box.
Furthermore, the closed box 13 is formed integrally with an intermediate planar wall 32, which delimits the upper portion of the inner chamber 33 of the container 5, and in which there is provided at least a through-hole 34 intercepted by a check valve 35 allowing air to solely flow from the inner chamber 33 towards the outside, while preventing it from flowing in the opposite direction, wherein said through-hole communicates with a chamber 36 that is delimited between the intermediate wall 32 and the curved side wall 37 of the sealing cover 6, and such chamber 36 communicates in turn with the outside via the through-hole 20 in the peripheral wall 19 of the closed box 13, the through-holes 26 in the contoured plate 18, the inner cavity 22 of the piston rod 16, and the through-holes 23 in the poppet-like head 17. The sealing cover 6 is further provided with a displaceable actuation push-button 38 performing the functions that shall be described in greater detail further on, and capable of sliding vertically in a corresponding vertical accommodation 39 provided on a side of the central protruding portion 10 as defined by a circular peripheral wall 40, joining to the intermediate wall 32 and directed downwards therefrom, and enclosed on the outside by a corresponding circular peripheral wall 41 of a cup 42, and is further provided with a continuous bottom wall 43 joining to the peripheral wall 41, in which said peripheral wall 41 is appropriately attached to and against the lower surface of the curved side wall 37 of the cover 6, whereas the bottom wall 43 joins to an elongated central stem 44 extending vertically upwards over the whole height of the accommodation 39, a thrust or bias spring 45 being wound round this stem.
As this can also be noticed in the illustrations appearing in Figures 9 to 12, which are enlarged views of the push-button 38, such push-button 38 is provided with a blind bore 46 that is adaptable about the stem 44 and joins to a further enlarged-section bore 47, against the bottom of which there is abutting the corresponding end portion of the spring 45, which is adapted to bias the same push-button upwards so as to normally keep it raised in the position illustrated in Figure 9, in which the cover 6 is capable of being applied to or removed from the container 5. In addition, the push-button 38 is provided with a sealing gasket 48, whose lip 49 is adapted to seal against the inner surface of the accommodation 39 for the reasons that shall be described in greater detail further on. In this way, the push-button 38 is able to displace vertically within the accommodation 39, as described below, owing to the stem 44 being able to slide in the blind bore 46 of the same push-button, from the raised position shown in Figure 9 to various lowered positions, of which Figure 11 illustrates an intermediate one and Figure 12 illustrates the fully lowered one, while increasingly compressing the spring 45.
The peripheral wall 40 is in turn so shaped and formed as to feature a set of grooves 50 that are angularly spaced from each other along the circumference of the same peripheral wall, and are provided to a certain height in the sole lower portion of this wall (see also Figure 10). These grooves 50 are fluidly communicating with the inner chamber 33 of the container 5 via the narrow hollow space being defined between the peripheral wall 41 of the cup 42 and the opposite peripheral wall 40 of the accommodation 39, thereby preventing fluid from circulating between said inner chamber 33 and the outside, or allowing fluid to circulate therebetween, as the case may be, in the position in which the sealing gasket 48 lies above said grooves 50 - as shown in Figures 9 and 11 - or lies at the same level as, i.e. flush with said grooves 50, as shown in Figure 12, respectively, in which case the sealing gasket 48 is in contact against the inner surface of the accommodation 39, but not against the bottom of the grooves 50.
Finally, the cover 6 is provided on the outside with a plurality of inscriptions 51 and 52, referring to the months of the year and the days of the month, respectively, as well as various movable sliders 53 that are each time set on the corresponding inscriptions, i.e. numerals, to indicate the date at which the food is placed in the container 5 for storage and preservation.
In use, each container provided and made in the above-described manner is first of all filled with the food to be preserved given, pre-established maximum allowable periods of time. When the food has been so placed in the container, the cover 6, which - as described above - incorporates the piston rod 16, the check valves 27 and 35 and the push-button 38, the functions of which will now be described, is applied thereto. In this condition, then, the poppet-like head 17 is oriented in the longitudinal direction of the cover 6, in which it is locked in the cover and displaced in the lowered non-operative position shown in Figures 1 to 5, while the push-button 38 is in turn displaced into the raised position thereof shown in Figure 9.
For a vacuum to be created in the inner chamber 33 of the container 5, it is at this point necessary for the poppet-like head 17 to be set into the operative position thereof by rotating it by 90° from the previous position shown in Figures 6 to 8, thereby releasing said poppet-like head of the piston rod 6 and causing the assembly formed of the poppet-like head 17, the piston rod 16 and the contoured plate 18 to raise from the same cover owing to the action of the spring 28 pushing against said contoured plate. In this condition, then, by acting on the poppet-like head 17, the piston stem 16 and the contoured plate 18 can therefore be caused to repeatedly raise and lower in a reciprocating movement, so that they practically behave as a pump, while - thanks to such reciprocating motion - the air contained in the inner chamber 33 of the container 5 is gradually pumped solely towards the outside via the check valve 35, the through-hole 20, the check valve 27, the inner cavity 22 of the piston rod 16 and the through-bores 23 of the poppet-like head 17, thereby bring about a gradual rarefaction of the air within said inner chamber. As the level of vacuum and, as a result, the negative pressure increases inside the inner chamber 33 of the container 5, the push-button 38 is progressively pushed downwards, against the action of the spring 45, by the weight of the air column thereabove, and - being it visible from the outside - the position that is each time reached in this way by the same push-button provides the user with a corresponding indication of the level of vacuum reached and existing from time to time inside the inner chamber 33.
In the position at which the maximum amount of vacuum is reached in the inner chamber 33, the push-button 38 will have been depressed into the position illustrated in Figure 11, in which the sealing gasket 48 is displaced to a point above the grooves 50, thereby positively preventing the inner chamber 33 from communicating with the outside and allowing the food placed in the container to be safely preserved for the pre-established period of time, starting from the storage starting date indicated by the proper inscriptions 51 and 52 on the outside of the container cover.
For the container 5 to be opened, and the food stored therein to be taken out at the end of the desired preservation period, the user has just to manually push the push-button 38, which is in the depressed position corresponding to a maximum amount of vacuum existing in the inner chamber 33, as shown in Figure 11, into the still more depressed position shown in Figure 12, in which the sealing gasket 48 is displaced downwards to the same level as the grooves 50, thereby establishing a communication - in the afore-described manner - between the inner chamber 33 of the container 5 and the outside and, as a result, restoring the balance of the pressures existing inside and outside the container 5. Then, the assembly formed of the poppet-like head 17, the piston stem 16 and the contoured plate 18 is brought again into the lowered non-operative position thereof in the afore-described manner. This position of the push-button 38 may be reached also automatically, in the case that the pumping action of the piston stem 16, and the contoured plate 18 associated thereto, occurs to an excessive extent or in a violent manner, i.e. in a way that might possibly cause the container 5 to implode, especially if it is made of glass, so that - under the circumstances - the push-button 38 doubles as a safety provision against the occurrence of such possible events.
In addition, the convex shape of the curved side wall 37 of the cover 6 is effective in ensure a greater strength against the external air pressure when a vacuum is created inside the inner chamber 33 of the container 5.
Fully apparent is therefore the fact that the food container made and provided in the afore-described, owing in particular to all required functional devices (i.e. vacuum pump, safety valves and push-button) being directly incorporated in the cover 6 thereof, does no longer require being connected to separate vacuum pumps - as this is currently the case with prior-art containers of this kind - and, at the same time, is far simpler and less expensive in its construction than similar food containers currently existing on the marketplace, while ensuring a reliable operation at a high level of safety.

Claims

Sealed food container adapted to hold food under rarefied-atmosphere conditions and to be placed in the cold-storage compartments of refrigerating and/or freezing appliances, so as to preserve such food for pre-established periods of time, comprising at least a top sealing cover capable of being adapted on to said container so as to tightly seal it for vacuum to be created inside the same container with the aid of pumping means, characterized in that said sealing cover (6) incorporates said pumping means (17, 16, 18), which are displaceable from a non-operative to an operative position thereof, in which the pumping effect is prevented and allowed, respectively, unidirectional valve means (27, 35) adapted to enable air to flow from the interior of the container (5) to the outside thereof, but not in the opposite direction, when vacuum is created inside the same container, and actuating and control means (38) adapted to adjust and indicate the pressure existing inside the container (5), while at the same time acting as safety provision against possible implosions of the same container as vacuum is being created thereinside.
Sealed food container according to claim 1, characterized in that said sealing cover (6) is formed with a central protruding portion (10) featuring an upwards curved shape flattening out on top, whose outer surface is convex in the longitudinal direction, thereby ensuring a greater strength against the external air pressure when vacuum is created inside the same container, and ends up laterally into two peripheral borders (11, 12) extending parallel to and slightly spaced from each other, which delimit the accommodation (8) for the sealing gasket (7) arranged between said cover (6) and the container (5), said protruding portion (10) delimiting a closed box (13) provided with a through-aperture (15) on top and at least a through-hole (20) adapted to enable the interior of the container (5) to communicate with the outside thereof.
Sealed food container according to claim 2, characterized in that said pumping means comprise a vertical piston rod (16) adapted to slidably reciprocate within said through-aperture (15), and joining to a poppet-like head (17) on top and a contoured plate (18) at the bottom, the latter being slidably adaptable inside said closed box (13) and biased by elastic means (thrust spring 28) into the raised position of the assembly formed of said piston stem (16), said poppet-like head (17) and said contoured plate (18), said assembly being displaceable from a non-operative, resting position, in which it is lowered against the action of said elastic means (28), and in which said poppet-like head (17) is oriented in the longitudinal direction of said sealing cover (6) and is kept in this position by proper retaining means (lugs 30, 31) provided to engage each other in the same poppet-like head and said cover (6), to a raised operative working position, in which said poppet-like head (17) is oriented at a 90°-angle in the transverse direction of said sealing cover (6) and is released from the same cover, so that said assembly can be repeatedly lowered and raised to produce a pumping action creating a vacuum inside the sealed container.
Sealed food container according to claim 3, characterized in that, in correspondence to said through-aperture (15), said closed box (13) is provided with a sealing gasket (21) acting against the peripheral surface of said piston rod (16) so as to seal in an air-tight manner against the same rod as it reciprocates in a vertically sliding movement, and in that said piston rod (16) is provided with an open inner cavity (22) communicating with the interior of said closed box (13) and with the outside thereof via through-bores (23) provided in said poppet-like head (17).
Sealed food container according to claim 3, characterized in that said contoured plate (18) is provided with a peripheral sealing gasket (24), whose lip (25) is adapted to seal in an air-tight manner against the peripheral wall (19) delimited inside said closed box (13), during the vertical sliding movement of the same plate, as well as with through-holes (26) that are intercepted by a corresponding one-way check-valve means (27).
Sealed food container according to claim 5, characterized in that said one-way check-valve means comprise at least a first valve (35) provided in an intermediate planar wall (32) that is formed integral with said closed box (13), is situated in the upper portion of the interior of the container (5) and delimits a chamber (36) communicating at the bottom with said interior via said first valve (35) and, on top, with the interior of said closed box (13) via said through-hole (20), and further comprise at least a second valve (27) provided in said contoured plate (18).
Sealed food container according to claim 6, characterized in that said actuating and control means comprise a displaceable actuation push-button (38) capable of sliding vertically in a corresponding vertical accommodation (39) provided on a side of said central protruding portion (10) as defined by a circular peripheral wall (40), joining to said intermediate wall (32) and directed downwards therefrom, and enclosed on the outside by a corresponding circular peripheral wall (41) of a cup (42), which is provided with a continuous bottom wall (43) joining to said peripheral wall (41), in which said peripheral wall (41) is appropriately attached to and against said cover (6) and said bottom wall (43) joins to an elongated central stem (44) associated to elastic means (bias spring 45) biasing said push-button (38) into the raised position thereof, and capable of sliding within a blind bore (46) of said push-button (38) during the displacement of the same push-button, said peripheral wall (41) being so shaped and formed as to feature a set of peripheral grooves (50) that are provided to a certain height in the sole lower portion of this wall, and fluidly communicating with the interior of the container 5, and characterized in that said push-button (38) is provided with a sealing gasket (48), whose lip (49) is adapted to seal against the inner surface of said accommodation (39), and is displaceable within said accommodation (39) from a raised position, in which said sealing gasket (48) lies above said grooves (50), thereby preventing fluid from circulating between the interior of the container (5) and the exterior thereof, and in which said cover (6)can be applied to or removed from the container (5), to various lowered positions as a vacuum is created inside the same container, until a maximum possible extent of vacuum is reached thereinside, said push-button (38) being additionally displaceable to a further extent into a lowest possible position, in which said sealing gasket (48) is moved down to the same level as said grooves (50), thereby establishing a communication between the interior of the container (5) and the exterior thereof and , as a result, restoring the balance of the pressures existing inside and outside said container (5) and enabling said cover (6) to be removed, while at the same time implementing a safety provision against a possible implosion of the container (5) in the case that the pumping action occurs to an excessive extent or in a violent manner.
Sealed food container according to claim 7, characterized in that said cover (6) is provided with a plurality of inscriptions (51, 52) on the outer surface thereof, representative of the months of the year and the days of the month, respectively, and with various displaceable sliders (53) adapted to be selectively set on such inscriptions (51, 52) to indicate the date at which the food is placed in the container (5) for preservation.