FR2666966A1 - Food product containing a toy for children - Google Patents

Abstract

The toy-containing food product of the invention comprises a packaging (10) which can be opened and is provided with a bottom (12), an edible paste (pastry) (34) arranged on the bottom (12) of the packaging (10), various foods (361, 362, etc.) of selected appearance and nutritional value, arranged on top of the paste (34) in a given pattern to represent a picture which is attractive to the child, and a surprise toy (32) placed between the paste (34) and the bottom (12) of the packaging (10); the paste and the foods being frozen and ready to be thawed in the packaging before being served to the child so that he can open the packaging, eat the food and at least part of the paste and then find the surprise toy.

Description

Playful food product for children
The invention relates to a playful food product intended for children, especially those whose age is between approximately two and six years.

We know that children of this age frequently reluctant to absorb the food presented to them by their parents during the main meals, that is, at lunch and dinner.

The taking of food at a fixed time is, in fact, experienced by the small child as a constraint to which he finds it all the more difficult to comply as it hinders his specific infantile attitude, that is to say his recreational activity.

This is why parents often try, during meals, to respond to the child's play activity by using certain devices, for example by using fancy cutlery or by trying to distract the child. , and this in order to make him take food by surprise.

However, these methods often prove to be ineffective and do not achieve the desired result.

Certainly, there are known playful food products which include a candy and a toy. These only facilitate the child's natural propensity to consume sweets, which goes completely against the hygienic measures demanded by dieticians, paediatricians and dentists. In addition, they only delay the child's learning to eat salty foods and chew.

The invention particularly aims to provide a fun food product which overcomes the above drawbacks.

It is, in particular, an object of the invention to provide a playful food product capable of constituting both a real meal and a game so that the meal is assimilated to a game by the child.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a playful food product which promotes the child's learning to consume salty foods and chew.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a playful food product capable of bringing the nutritional balance necessary for the child, with regard to the supply of proteins, vitamins, trace elements, etc.

It is another object of the invention to provide a playful food product which can be easily stored and preserved and then easily and quickly prepared for consumption.

To this end, the invention provides a playful food product which, according to an essential characteristic, comprises - an openable packaging provided with a bottom, - a consumable dough placed on the bottom of the packaging, - various appearance and selected nutritional value, placed on top of the dough in a specific configuration to represent an attractive scene for the child, and - a surprise toy interposed between the dough and the bottom of the packaging, the dough and the food being frozen and ready to be thawed directly in the packaging before being served to the child so that the child can open the packaging, consume the food and at least partially the dough and then find the surprise toy.

Therefore, taking the meal is assimilated to a game since the child must first open the packaging which will be produced in attractive form, consume the food deposited on the dough, and this in the order desired by the child, and at least partially the dough before accessing the surprise toy which will constitute a kind of reward for the child.

Thus, thanks to the playful food product of the invention, the meal becomes a real game which encourages the child to take the meal completely until the final discovery of the surprise toy interposed between the dough and the bottom of the packaging. The child is thus forced, without knowing it, to finish his meal so that it is ultimately the child's play activity which replaces the simple taking of a meal.

 As a result, the playful food product of the invention socializes the child with regard to the regular rhythm of taking meals and avoids the anorexic or on the contrary bulimic tendencies of the child.

As indicated above, the packaging of the playful silent food product of the invention is advantageously produced in an attractive form for the child to encourage him to open the packaging and to continue discovering its content.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the package comprises a polygonal bottom on which depend a multiplicity of foldable tabs capable of being brought together to ensure the closure of the package, or on the contrary spaced apart others to ensure its opening.

In this preferred embodiment of the invention, such packaging can roughly resemble a pumpkin capable of arousing real attraction for the child.

In such a case, the ends of the tabs are retained by an appropriate fastening means, for example a cap, to keep them in the closed position.

 I1 will then suffice for the child to remove this cap so that the tabs can open and unfold, thereby revealing the contents of the packaging, causing a real surprise effect and triggering or reinforcing the desire to eat meals. .

Of course, it is possible to produce the packaging in other attractive forms, for example in the form of a pirate's chest, etc.

The consumable dough placed on the bottom of the packaging is used to support the various foods to be consumed by the child, to hide the surprise toy interposed between this dough and the bottom of the packaging and it also serves as food, although the total consumption of the dough is not really necessary in all cases.

Preferably, the consumable dough is spread thinly on the bottom of the packaging, that is to say over a thickness generally less than 1 cm and preferably of the order of 5 mm.

By way of example, this consumable paste can be present in an amount of between approximately 50 and 100 g.

Preferably, this consumable dough is a precooked dough of the broken or shortbread type, although precooked doughs of another type can be envisaged in the context of the invention.

The dough can be placed directly on the bottom of the packaging or else placed on a container of suitable shape which is itself placed on the bottom of the packaging. Such a container may for example be a kind of plastic plate or other suitable material.

The presence of such a container, although optional, nevertheless promotes the preparation and processing of the food product before it is placed in the packaging intended for it.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the food is placed contiguously on the consumable dough, in the manner of pieces of a puzzle, so as to constitute a scene, such as a landscape, one or more characters, etc. . The foods placed on the dough are chosen according to their appearance and nutritional value in order to be able to create an attractive scene for the child and also provide a balanced diet for the latter.

These foods can include vegetables, for example broccoli or cauliflowers to represent shrubs, carrots or turnips to form flowers or figurines, peas or mals to form greenery or stones, etc. .

These foods can also include meat or fish, the meat being minced or treated in a mince pie and the fish preferably treated in brandade, and this to form different types of figurines.

If necessary, and to reinforce the attractive effect of the scene thus represented, these foods can, if necessary, be colored using food-grade dyes. If necessary, they can also be flavored.

 It is thus possible to produce a whole range of food products which differ from one another by the composition and the configuration of the foods placed on the dough.

Preferably, the food product of the invention contains, on the one hand, meat or fish and, on the other hand, vegetables and / or cereals. For example, such a product can comprise 50 g of meat or fish and 80 g of vegetables and / or cereals.

The surprise toy interposed between the dough and the bottom of the packaging is preferably a small object capable of being placed flat between the dough and the bottom of the packaging. I1 can be for example a ceramic figurine or other material capable of withstanding the reheating of the food product during thawing.

Advantageously, the surprise toy is placed flat in a recess in the thickness of the dough. I1 can either be embedded directly under the dough, or even placed in an appropriate sachet interposed between the consumable dough and the bottom of the packaging.

 I1 should be understood that the surprise object is interposed between, on the one hand, the consumable dough and, on the other hand, either directly the bottom of the packaging, or the container possibly attached to the bottom of the packaging.

Preferably, the food product of the invention further comprises a packaging box intended to enclose the packaging and a support suitable for receiving the packaging for serving it to the child.

Thus, in the particular example of a pumpkin-shaped packaging, the support may be in the form of a carriage or other similar object and serve as a sort of plate for receiving the pumpkin.

The packaging box is intended to facilitate the transport and storage of the product in a freezer.

 It must, of course, be as small as possible in order to be able to be easily stored in a domestic freezer.

This packaging box is advantageously a parallelepiped box made of cardboard or plastic.

To serve the food product of the invention to the child, it is sufficient to remove the packaging box from the freezer, open this box to extract the packaging and the support, place the support on the table and thaw the dough and the food in the packaging. For this, it suffices to have the packaging in the closed state inside a microwave oven or a conventional thermal oven for the time necessary for defrosting. Then, the packaging containing the dough and the frozen food is placed on the support facing the child.

The child then only has to open the packaging, consume the food and at least partly the dough in order to then discover the surprise toy.

In the description which follows, given solely by way of example, reference is made to the appended drawing, in which - FIG. 1 is a perspective view, partially broken away, of a playful food product according to the invention - FIG. 2 is a vertical section view of the food product of FIG. 1 - FIG. 3 is a plan view, in the deployed state, of the packaging forming part of the food product of FIGS. 1 and 2 - FIG. 4 is a vertical section view of the container, the dough and the food contained in the packaging of Figures 1 and 2 - Figure 5 is a top view showing a first configuration of food suitable for representing an attractive scene for the child; and - Figure 6 is a top view of another configuration of food.

We first refer to Figure 1 which shows an opening package 10 which, in the example shown, has substantially the shape of a pumpkin. This packaging comprises (FIG. 3) a bottom 12 of octagonal shape on which depend eight foldable tabs 14, each in the shape of a petal, capable of being brought together to ensure the closure of the packaging. The eight tongues 14 are joined by their respective ends 16 using an appropriate attachment means which, in the example, consists of a cap 18 resembling the tail of a pumpkin.

The packaging 10 is placed inside a packaging box 20 of generally parallelepipedal shape made for example of cardboard or plastic. In the example, the packaging 10 rests on the bottom 22 of the box 20 by means of a support 24 having the shape of a carriage.

As shown in Figure 2, the bottom 12 of the package 10 receives a container 26 of suitable shape, that is to say of generally octagonal shape. The container 26 is made of a material resistant to conventional ovens and to microwave ovens, for example in treated aluminum. The container 26 (FIG. 4) comprises a bottom 28 of octagonal shape bordered by an inclined rim 30. On the bottom 28 of the container 26 is placed flat a surprise toy 32 constituted for example by a ceramic figurine. The surprise toy is either placed directly on the bottom 28, or wrapped in an appropriate bag, also made of a material capable of withstanding conventional ovens and microwave ovens.

The container 26 then receives a consumable paste 34 for example of the broken type which is spread out in a thin layer, that is to say with a thickness generally less than 1 cm, so that the surprise toy 32 is then placed in a recess in the thickness of the dough 34. The consumable dough 34 is precooked either before or after its placement in the container 26. On the top of the dough 34 are then arranged various foods 361, 362, etc. in a configuration determined for represent an attractive scene for the child. These foods are arranged contiguously in the manner of the pieces of a puzzle and are chosen according to their appearance and their nutritional value, as already mentioned previously.

The foods placed on the dough 34 are cooked beforehand in the case of fish, meat or certain vegetables or are placed in the raw state if they are vegetables or cereals which cannot withstand cooking. .

When all the elements are arranged according to the configuration chosen on the consumable dough, the dough and the elements can be frozen by any suitable means in a conventional cold chain.

We now refer to Figures 5 and 6 which show two examples of scenes that can be made from different foods.

We first refer to Figure 5 which shows a configuration of food 40 representing an attractive scene for the child. This configuration includes a food 421 representing a sky and consisting of white rice tinged with blue (natural dye extracted from the artichoke), a food 422 representing mountains and consisting of whole rice, a food 423 representing grass and consisting of peas, green beans or spinach, a food 424 representing a figurine, such as a cow, this figurine being pre-molded for example in a brandade of fish or minced Parmentier or even pre-molded in a vegetable of the carrot type, a food 425 representing a hedge and consisting for example of minced meat or bouquets of cauliflowers, a food 426 representing a figurine, in the example a goat, and foods 427 representing flowers, made from corn grains.

Referring now to Figure 6 which shows another configuration of food 44 representing a scene.

This configuration includes a food 461 representing a sky, a food 462 representing grass, a food 463 representing water and consisting for example of a rice colored with a natural dye, a food 464 representing a figurine, such as an animal, this figurine being pre-molded from a fish brandade or a Parmentier mince, foods 465 and 466 representing shrubs and made for example with bunches of green beans, and a food 467 representing a fish and made, for example, with a cookie cutter from carrots, turnips or other vegetables of the same kind.

The manufacture of the food product shown in Figures 1 to 4 can be done on an industrial scale using an assembly line. On this assembly line there is the container 26 which is formed of a material capable of withstanding heating by a conventional oven or a microwave oven.

The surprise toy 32 is then placed on the bottom 28 of the container 26.

The dough 34 is then spread out inside the container 26 as if to darken a pie pan, which makes it possible to cover the surprise toy 32 and provide subsequent support for the various foods. The dough is then precooked, unless it has already been previously cooked.

The various foods 361, 362, etc. are then manually placed so as to constitute a scene, that is to say a landscaped dish, according to a defined model. The operator in charge of this operation then arranges the various foods by hand, following the plan of the model placed in front of him / her.

Each container containing the consumable dough and the various foods is then directed to a cold corridor to be frozen.

Then, the container 26 is placed on the bottom 12 of the packaging 10. Advantageously, this packaging is formed from a plastic film, for example polypropylene, which can be welded to the base of the container 26. This film is precut so as to have the characteristic shape shown in Figure 3.

 I1 then suffices to fold the tabs 14 of the package 10 and then to hold them by the cap 18.

The package 10 thus closed by the cap 18 is then introduced at the same time as the support 24 in the packaging box 20.

The assembly can then be stored in a freezer until the moment of use.

Claims (10)

Claims I. A playful food product for children, characterized in that it comprises - an openable packaging (10) provided with a bottom (12), - a consumable paste (34) placed on the bottom (12) of the packaging ( 10), - different foods (361, 362, ...) of selected appearance and nutritional value, arranged on top of the dough (34) in a configuration determined to represent an attractive scene for the child, and - a surprise toy (32) interposed between the dough (34) and the bottom (12) of the packaging (10), the dough (34) and the food (361, 362, ...) being frozen and ready to be thawed in the packaging (10) before being served to the child so that the latter can open the packaging (10), consume the food (361, 362, ...) and at least partly the dough (34) and then find the surprise toy (32). 2. Product according to claim 1, characterized in that the packaging (10) comprises a polygonal bottom (12) on which depend a multiplicity of foldable tabs (14) capable of being brought together to ensure the closure of the packaging or separated from each other to ensure its opening. 3. Product according to one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the consumable paste (34) is spread thinly on the bottom (12) of the package (10). 4. Product according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the consumable dough (34) is a precooked dough of the broken or shortbread type. 5. Product according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the consumable paste (34) is arranged directly on the bottom (12) of the package (10). 6. Product according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the consumable dough (34) is disposed on a container (26) of suitable shape, which is itself disposed on the bottom (12) of the container ( 10). 7. Product according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the food (361, 362, ...) are arranged contiguously on the consumable dough (34) in the manner of pieces of a puzzle. 8. Product according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the foods (361, 362, ...) are chosen from meat, fish, vegetables and cereals and are, where appropriate, colored by food coloring. 9. Product according to claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the surprise toy (32) is placed flat in a recess in the thickness of the dough. 10. Product according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it further comprises a packaging box (20) intended to contain the packaging (10) and a support (24) suitable for receiving the packaging. to serve it to lt- phant.