GB2290073A - Food packaging - Google Patents

Abstract

A clam shell food packaging (1) eg for sandwiches (16) comprises first (2) and second (4) relatively hinged shell portions each having an open face (14) having a rim (20a) formed and arranged so as to be releasably securable to the rim (20b) of the other for sealing of the packaging in a closed position. The shell portions (2, 4) are formed of food grade material so as to be lightweight and generally self-supporting. At least one of the shell portions (2) is substantially transparent. Each of the shell portions (2, 4) are generally wedge-shaped, the wedge-shape having a generally right-angled corner adjacent the hingeing connection (6) between the two shell portions (2, 4). <IMAGE>

Description

FOOD PACKAGING The present invention relates to food packaging and in particular to packaging suitable for the presentation of sandwiches suitable for commercial purposes.

In view of the importance of protecting ready-to-eat food such as sandwiches from contamination during the distribution and vending thereof, it has become customary to package such food in protective packaging. A popular form of packaging comprises a generally right-angled wedge-shaped container in which the largest face (opposite the rightangled corner) is open for receiving therethrough the sandwich and is then closable by means of sealing a plastics film to a flat rim provided around said open face, or a flap hingedly connected to one edge of a rim, the flap rim and container rim being provided with releasably interengagable, usually opposed male and female, formations.Opening of the flap or peeling away of the film however leaves the sandwich(es) entirely sunken into the container and thus makes it (them) quite difficult to extract -especially where two or more sandwiches are contained side-by-side within the container.

It is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimise one or more of the above disadvantages.

The present invention provides a clam shell type food packaging suitable for the presentation of sandwiches for second shell portions each having wall means defining an open face having a rim formed and arranged so as to be releasably securable to the rim of the other for sealing of the packaging in a closed position thereof, and hingedly secured to the other in the vicinity of a proximal rim portion at one side of the open face for captively retaining the two shell portions together whilst allowing hingeing of one shell portion relative to the other for opening and closing of the packaging, said shell portions generally being formed of food grade material so as to be lightweight and generally self-supporting and, with at least one of said shell portions being substantially transparent, each of said shell portions being generally wedge-shaped, said wedgeshape having a generally right-angled corner adjacent the hingeing connection between the two shell portions.

Thus with a food packaging of the present invention, it is possible to provide good protection to traditional triangular "half-slice" sandwiches whilst at the same time substantially improving ease of removal of the sandwiches from the packaging.

Preferably said first shell portion and said second shell portion are in the form of generally wedge-shaped shell portions formed and arranged relative to said hingeing connection so as to define together with each other, in their closed position a larger wedge-shaped enclosure.

Preferably said first shell portion and said second shell portion are of generally the same size and are formed and arranged relative to each other such that said hingeing connection is on the longest side wall of said larger wedgeshaped enclosure when in said closed position, said hingeing connection being adjacent a longitudinal axis of said longest side wall at a substantially medial point therealong.

Preferably each of said generally wedge-shaped shell portions has the shape of a right-angled triangle of substantially the same dimensions, hinged about the right angles thereof (when viewed from the side) and are formed and arranged when in said closed position to have the shape of an enlarged right-angled triangle having twice the dimensions of a said single shell portion. Alternatively said first and second shell portions may be of differently sized right-angled triangles hinged about the right angles thereof, again when viewed from the side, such that when said shell portions are in said closed position the packaging has the shape of an obtuse angled triangle.

In general it may be noted that a right angled isosceles shaped packaging is particularly suitable for triangular sandwich halves made from square bread slices, whereas for triangular sandwich halves made from rectangular shaped bread slices, the packaging should have a right-angled triangle shape with unequal length sides corresponding generally to those of the rectangular bread slice shape. In the former case the hinge will generally be disposed midway along the hypotenuse of the triangular shape, whilst in the latter case it will more conveniently be offset from the hypotenuse midpoint towards the shorter side.

Preferably the rim on each shell portion is formed and arranged such that said open face defines a minimum area required to insert and withdraw sandwiches. It will be understood that a small open face has a correspondingly smaller closure seal length along said rim than the larger open face of known forms of packaging and thereby sandwiches contained therein are maintained in a fresher condition and are less prone to contamination through the seal around the rim.

Preferably the rim on said first shell portion is male shaped for interengaging with a female shaped rim on said second shell portion. Desirably said female rim has an undercut formation formed and arranged for receiving an enlarged head portion of said male rim thereby further facilitating a more positive, yet still releasable, securing of the rims to each other.

Said first shell portion is preferably hingedly secured to said second shell portion such that said first shell portion may hinge through up to 1800 so as to facilitate maximum access to sandwiches contained in said packaging.

Preferably the packaging is produced using plastics thermoforming processes of generally known type. A variety of plastics materials, commonly employed for producing more or less rigid plastics film, e.g. polyvinylchloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) or preferably orientated polystyrene (OPS) may be used. The wall means of the shell portions preferably have a uniform wall thickness in the range of 250 um to 350 um, most preferably 300 um.

The uniform wall thickness is achieved by using a "preplugging" process to maximise the even spread of the chosen plastics material in a mould.

Preferably the wall means are fluted or corrugated to improve the structural rigidity of the packaging.

Preferably the generally wedge-shaped shell portions are tapered inwardly from said open face so that a plurality of packaging according to the invention may be nested together in an open position to reduce the space occupied in storage and in transit of empty packaging. The tapering also facilitates the de-nesting of nested packaging.

The wall means adjacent the rim of the two generally parallel walls of a shell portion are preferably provided with concave recesses so that a user's fingers may access and grip sandwich quarters which do not project above the rim of a said shell portion. Said recesses can also serve to guide a sandwich into the packaging during the filling thereof.

The packaging may be made in a variety of sizes and shapes for packaging a variety of different sandwich sizes and shapes. In practice though it has been found that a limited number of sizes and shapes may be used as commercially produced sandwiches are generally of a more or less standard shape and size and the only dimension of the packaging that needs to be varied is the depth so as to allow for variations in sandwich thickness and/or in the number of sandwiches (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or more) that may be packaged in one packaging.

Preferably at least one of the wall means of the packaging is substantially planar to facilitate the printing onto or sticking to of information about the packaging's contents.

Although the two halves of the food packaging of the invention are advantageously hingedly connected together, it is also possible for them to be formed separately and simply held together in the closed position by releasable interengagement of their opposed rim portions. Desirably in this case the rim portions are provided with generally complementary inter-engagable formations formed and arranged for initial inter-engagement at one side of the open face and allowing a closing hingeing movement of the two shell portions together for subsequent inter-engagement of rim portions at an opposite side of the open face.

Further preferred features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed description given by way of example of a preferred embodiment illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a food packaging according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a side view of the packaging in Fig. 1 in an open position; Fig. 3 is a side view of the packaging in Figs. 1 and 2 in a closed position; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the packaging as shown in Fig. 2; and Fig. 5 shows end views of the two portions of the food packaging according to the invention.

As shown in Fig. 1, a food packaging, generally indicated by reference number 1, comprises two shell portions 2, 4 hingedly secured to each other about a hinge 6.

Each shell 2, 4 has two spaced apart opposed triangular walls 8, 10, connected together by a 'V'-shaped channel 12 so as to define a generally wedge-shaped shell having an open face 14 for receiving therethrough a sandwich 16 (shown in dotted line in Fig. 2). The two spaced apart triangular walls 8, 10 and one side 9a of the 'V'-shaped channel 12 are provided with flutes 18 to increase the strength and rigidity of the shell portions 2, 4,the other side 9 being plain. (In the interests of clarity only one shell in Figs.

1 & 2 is shown with the flutes 18 though these flutes may be provided on more or less all of each shell's walls 8, 10, and the channels 12 as required).

The open face 14 of each shell 2, has a rim 20a formed and arranged so as to be releasably securable to the rim 20b of the other shell 4 for sealing of the packaging 1 in a closed position (see Fig. 3 and the enclosed sandwich 16 (shown in dotted line)). With reference to Fig. 2 and Fig. 5, one shell 2 (the left one in Fig. 2 and the lower one in Fig. 5) has a female formation rim 20a for a snap-fit engagement with a male formation rim 20 on the other shell 4. The female rim 20a has an undercut 22, shown in an exagerated form in the interest of clarity, for securing interengagement with a corresponding lip 24 on the male rim 20b of the shell 4.The two rims 20a,b when releasably secured together also bring together adjacent flanges 26a b for improved sealing of the packaging 1 and to prevent contamination to a sandwich contained therein.

As shown in Fig. 2, once the sandwich has been placed in one of the shells 2, 4 the other shell 4, 2 may be simply hinged over, through 1800, in the direction of arrow 'A' so as to bring the two rims 20a, b into a snap-fit sealing interengagement as shown in Fig. 3. The packaging 1 may be opened by simply reversing the above procedure so that the sandwich 16 contained in the packaging 1 sticks out of the top of one shell 2 so that a consumer can readily pick the sandwich out of the packaging 1 for consumption.

As shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the two spaced apart triangular walls 8, 10 of each shell 2, 4 have, at their upper portion 26, concave recesses 28a, k. These recesses 28a, b serve to allow the fingers of a consumer to pick out a sandwich contained in the packaging. These recesses are particularly useful where the sandwich is quartered and does not stick out above the rim 20 of the shell 2 of the packaging 1.

The packaging 1 is made from a transparent lightweight, food grade plastics material so that the contents of the packaging and the sandwich contained therein may be viewed.

It will be appreciated that various modifications may be made to the above described embodiment with departing from the scope of the present invention. Thus for example the shape and size of each wedge shaped shell portion may be varied to give for example an obtuse triangular shaped packaging which would be suitable for sandwich halves made from rectangular bread slices rather than square bread slices. Alternatively there may be provided one generally large wedge-shaped shell which shell can receive more or less all of a food product to be packaged thereby and a second smaller, possibly arcuate shaped shell for sealing closed the packaging. Such an arrangement may be suitable for sector shaped food products such as slices of quiche or the like.

Claims (15)

1. A clam shell type food packaging suitable for the presentation of sandwiches for commercial purposes, which packaging comprises first and second shell portions each having wall means defining an open face having a rim formed and arranged so as to be releasably securable to the rim of the other for sealing of the packaging in a closed position thereof, and hingedly secured to the other in the vicinity of a proximal rim portion at one side of the open face for captively retaining the two shell portions together whilst allowing hingeing of one shell portion relative to the other for opening and closing of the packaging, said shell portions generally being formed of food grade material so as to be lightweight and generally self-supporting and, with at least one of said shell portions being substantially transparent, each of said shell portions being generally wedge-shaped, said wedge-shape having a generally rightangled corner adjacent the hingeing connection between the two shell portions.

2. A food packaging according to claim 1 wherein said first shell portion and said second shell portion are in the form of generally wedge-shaped shell portions formed and arranged relative to said hingeing connection so as to define together with each other, in their closed position a larger wedge-shaped enclosure.

3. A food packaging according to claim 2 wherein said first shell portion and said second shell portion are of generally the same size and are formed and arranged relative to each other such that said hingeing connection is on the longest side wall of said larger wedge-shaped enclosure when in said closed position, said hingeing connection being adjacent a longitudinal axis of said longest side wall at a substantially medial point therealong.

4. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein each of said generally wedge-shaped shell portions has the shape of a right-angled triangle of substantially the same dimensions, hinged about the right angles thereof (when viewed from the side) and are formed and arranged when in said closed position to have the shape of an enlarged right-angled triangle having twice the dimensions of a said single shell portion.

5. A food packaging according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said first and second shell portions are of differently sized right-angled triangles hinged about the right angles thereof (when viewed from the side) such that when said shell portions are in said closed position the packaging has the shape of an obtuse angle triangle.

6. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein said rim on said first shell portion is male shaped for interengaging with a female shaped rim on said second shell portion.

7. A food packaging according to claim 6 wherein said female rim has an undercut formation formed and arranged for receiving an enlarged head portion of said male rim thereby facilitating a positive, releasable, securing of the rims to each other.

8. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein said first shell portion is hingedly secured to said second shell portion such that said first shell portion may hinge through up to 180 so as to facilitate maximum access to sandwiches contained in said packaging.

9. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein said wall means are fluted or corrugated to improve the structural rigidity of the packaging.

10. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 9 wherein said generally wedge-shaped shell portions are tapered inwardly from said open face so that a plurality of packaging may be nested together in an open position.

11. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 10 wherein said wall means adjacent the rim of the two generally parallel walls of a shell portion are provided with concave recesses.

12. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 11 wherein at least one of said wall means of the packaging is substantially planar.

13. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 12 wherein said first and second shell portions are hingedly connected together.

14. A food packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 12 wherein said rim portions are provided with generally complementary releasable inter-engagable formation formed and arranged for initial inter-engagement at one side of the open face and allowing a closing hingeing movement of said first and second shell portions together for subsequent inter-engagement of rim portions at an opposite side of the open face.

15. A food packaging substantially as described hereinbefore and with reference to Figs. 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.