IES20010793A2 - A package for edible foodstuffs - Google Patents

Abstract

A package (10) for a food item comprises a tube of wrapping material formed from an advancing web of material and sealed about the food item, at least one end of the tube being sealed at a distance of at least 10 mm from the mouth of the tube to form an unsecured opening extension throat (15) between the seal (11b) and the mouth, the extension throat providing a user with an easy purchase so that the throat can be readily opened out to provide access to the seal (11b) to facilitate opening the package. Optionally, the extension throat may be flattened and perforated at the lateral edges to give a two-ply opening, the plies of which can be separated and pealed apart breaking the perforated edges to give access to the food item. The seal may be of a resealable kind. <Figure 3>

Description

The present invention relates to a package for edible foodstuffs.

Traditionally, the marketing of food items for sale was focussed on the production of distinctive and aesthetically pleasing packaging. More recently, however, consumer choice has been more heavily influenced by the appearance of the item itself, rather than the packaging. Customers wish to inspect the product before purchase to ensure that it is ffesh and to make a judgement on quality. To facilitate consumer inspection, many producers now package food items such as cheese, meat and fish in transparent plastics materials. In addition to allowing visual inspection, the materials used must be robust enough to protect the product during packaging, transportation and handling, A number of packaging solutions are known. For example, food items can be deposited at a preset distances along a continuous, moving plastics web, which is folded over the items at a wrapping station. To minimise packaging usage, the distance between individual food items is kept to a minimum. As the web is advanced through the production process, individual packages are separated from the web at stations which seal and cut the web at appropriate intervals. Typically, the seals between adjacent packages are only about 3mm apart, thus leaving a tail of only about 1,5mm on each package when the two are separated.

Food packaged in this way, while being easy to inspect, ship and handle, presents the customer with a problem in that it is often difficult to open. The seal created by heated platens, while sealing in the food to ensure freshness and preventing contamination, is not easily broken.

While this is a positive benefit during distribution and stocking, it is inconvenient for end users of the packaged product.

There is therefore a need for a packaging method and apparatus, which will overcome these problems. ist a £>t+ OPEN TO PUBLIC INSPECTION UNDBt SECTION 28 AND· RULE 23 JNLNo. A^kQ. OF ΙΕ ο 1 0 7 9 3 Accordingly, the present invention provides a package for a food Item comprising a tube of wrapping material formed from a web of material and sealed about the food Item, at least one end of the tube having a seal spaced apart from foe mouth of foe tube to provide an unsecured opening extension throat between foe seal and foe mouth of a length sufficient to facilitate a user to find ready purchase to open out foe throat to access and break the seal.

In a preferred arrangement foe opening extension throat has a length of at least 10 mm and conveniently has a length in foe range of 10 mm to 35 mm. Preferably the length of the throat is between 18 mm and 30 mm.

In another preferred arrangement the seal is resealable and preferably the seal is a weak seal which can readily be broken to provide access to foe food item within the package.

The throat may be flattened and at least one side of the mouth may be notched to facilitate access to foe interior of the throat. At least one of foe edges of the throat may be perforated so that it can be tom off to provide access to foe seal. In a convenient arrangement foe throat comprises a two-ply flap comprising an upper ply and a lower ply and foe seal can be accessed by pulling the plies apart.

A food item wrapped in accordance with the invention has foe principal advantage of being easier to open than previously known solutions. A consumer can either insert a finger into the throat to force foe walls apart to break the seal or simply pull foe sidewalls apart. This has the advantage of providing a seal which can easily be opened and optionally resealed.

In one arrangement, the sealing means for sealing adjacent packages of foe web as they are being formed and before the individual packages are separated is provided by spaced apart platen pairs disposed above and below foe web. By spacing foe platen pairs at a distance from one another, the sealing operations can be performed automatically to define the throat and separate the food item from foe web simultaneously. ΙΕΟ 1 07 9 3 In one arrangement, the opening extension throat is a two-ply flap having an upper ply and a lower ply. Thus, by the relatively simple expedient of separating the plies and pulling the plies apart a consumer is provided with sufficient leverage to break the seal providing access to the food item.

One of the platen pairs used to seal between adjacent packages may incorporate cutting means. Alternatively, cutting means may be provided intermediate the platen pairs. The cutting means may be a knife with a single cutting blade. It may alternatively be formed of two knives juxtaposed side by side so closely that their blades together form one cutting edge. This latter arrangement has the advantage that each lateral edge of the or each blade can be bent at an angle to the plane of the blade, enabling a notch to be created at either side of the cut web. The provision of a notch in the opening edge of the throat facilitates opening still further as there may be a tendency for the straight edges between the notches to curl away from one another, facilitating a person in opening the package.

The opening extension throat may be perforated along a longitudinal axis of the throat so that the throat is flattened and formed as a two-ply sheet.

If so desired, the food item to be packaged, which may itself comprise a plurality of individual items, may be placed on a tray or other receptacle so that the food and tray are wrapped by and sealed into the packaging material.

The invention will hereinafter be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings which show, by way of example, a packaging method and apparatus for preparing a package according to the invention and in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art packaging system; Fig. 2 is a schematic view similar to that shown in Fig. 1 of a packaging method and apparatus in accordance with the invention; IE 0 1 0 7 9 5 Fig. 3 is a side view of a wrapped food item formed in accordance with the invention in a sealed state; Fig. 4 is a side view of the wrapped food item of Fig. 3 in an opening state; Fig. 4a is an end view of the item of Fig. 4 in the direction of the arrows IV - IV; Fig. 5 is a side view of the item shown in Figs 3,4 and 4a in an open state; Fig. 5a is an end view of the item of Fig. 5, similar to the view shown in Fig. 4a in the direction of the arrows V - V; Fig. 6 is a top view of an alternative wrapped food item formed in accordance with the invention; and Fig. 6a is a side view of the alternative embodiment of the food item of Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawings, and initially to Fig. 1, there follows a brief description of a prior art packaging solution indicated generally by the reference numeral 1, which will facilitate understanding of the present invention. Food items 2 are placed on a continuous web, which in turn is moved in the direction of the arrow A. As the items 2 progress through the production process they are wrapped in the web so that a bridge 4 separates individual items. In order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention, specific wrapping and sealing details have been omitted, as it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that a number of seals, welds and wrapping configurations may be used. As the bridge 4 enters a cutting station indicated generally by the reference numeral 5, upper heated platens 6a, 6b descend onto the bridge 4 in the direction of the arrow B. At the same time lower heated platens 7a, 7b rise in the direction of the arrow C to engage with the upper platens 6 trapping the bridge 4 therebetween. The interaction of the platens 6a, 7a and 6b, 7b seal food items 2 on either side IE 0 1 ο 7 9 j of the cutting station 5 with the distance between the seals being about 3 mm. A blade may be used to cut the sealed bridge either at this point or at another workstation. After this process, each food item has a small remaining bridge tab 8 of about 1.5mm on both leading and trailing edges. This and other prior art solutions ensure that individual food items are hygienically wrapped but as mentioned above, problems frequently occur when a consumer wishes to open the item. Previously known solutions attempt to reduce waste in the web by reducing both the distance between individual food items 2 and the distance between the platens 6a and 6b. It is an important feature of the current invention that this distance is not minimised but deliberately and advantageously increased to overcome the technical problem of opening a sealed food item.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 3 there is illustrated a method and apparatus for preparing a package in accordance with the invention, the apparatus being indicated generally by the reference numeral 100. As described above, food items 10 are deposited onto a plastics web and wrapped. To aid clarity, specific wrapping methods and exhaustive discussions of, for example, a fin seal creation process have been omitted, as these do not form part of the current invention. It will be noted that the distance between individual food items is substantially increased over known solutions and this will be described in more detail below.

The food item 10 is wrapped in the web using a fin seal and proceeds through the apparatus in the direction of the arrow A until a leading edge 10a approaches a sealing and cutting station indicated generally by the reference numeral 50. The use of a fin seal ensures that the web between food items is effectively a tube. An upper sealing platen 11 descends in the direction of the arrow B and a lower sealing platen 1 la rises in the direction of the arrow C to trap the tubular web between wrapped items. The platens 11 and 11a compress the web to create a seal 1 lb (Fig. 3). When the seal 1 lb has been created, the item 10 is advanced in the direction of the arrow A until a leading edge of a following item (not shown) is in position for sealing by the platens 11 and 11a. In this position, the item 10 has a trailing edge 10b now located for contact and sealing by an upper sealing and cutting platen 12 and a lower sealing and cutting platen 12a. The platens 12 and 12a operate in the same manner as that described in relation to ΙΕ η ί η 7 g j the platens 11 and 1 la to create a seal 12b and in addition cut the web close to the left of the platens 12 and 12a to define an unsecured opening extension tube or throat 15 on the now packaged, sealed and separated food item 10.

By separating the platens and the food items as described above, each item is more readily opened by a consumer. This is achieved by the relatively simple expedient of opening the throat 15 at an end away from the food item as shown in an opening state illustrated in Figs. 4 and 4a. In this state, the seal 1 lb is intact. The consumer can either insert a finger into the throat 15 to break the seal 1 lb or use the leverage provided by the tube sidewall to break the seal. With the seal 1 lb broken, access is provided to the food item 10 through the throat 15 as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 5a. It will be understood that the nature of the seal may be altered to facilitate this process. The seal may be deliberately weakened to facilitate opening. Additionally, it is envisioned that this seal may be formed as a resealable seal.

Referring now Figs. 6 and 6a there is illustrated an alternative embodiment of a wrapped food item formed in accordance with the invention and indicated generally by the reference numeral 600. Parts described with reference to Figs. 2 to 5b are identified by the same numerals generally. In this embodiment, perforating platens (not shown) are provided. These perforating platens are arranged at right angles to those described above and lie on either side of the throat 15. The operation of these platens produces perforation marks 15c, which flattens the throat 15 and create instead an upper ply 15a and a lower ply 15b. A consumer gains access to the food item by simply pulling the plies 15a and 15b apart as illustrated in Fig. 6a. The separated plies provide the consumer with the necessary leverage to break the seal 1 lb thereby providing access to the contents.

It will be understood that the cutting operation may alternatively be performed upstream of the leading edge as the seal is formed thereby defining the opening extension flap on the trailing edge of the food item.

IE 0 1 0 7 9 5 It will also be understood that the platens may incorporate extension tabs for roughening a surface on the opening extension throat to provide a finger grip. Alternatively, or additionally, the material about the fin seal may provide a finger grip.

The wrapping may be made by arranging the food item between two web sheets, which are then sealed along their longitudinal edges to form the tube. In such case, the package will be opened by separating the two webs from one another by pulling them apart at the opening extension throat.

To ensure that the knife cuts cleanly and evenly between adjacent seals to separate the packages, means may be provided for supporting the web at the cut point. This may be done by tensioning the web using grippers located to flank the area to be cut and to hold the web between them taut. Alternatively, the cutting station may include a support strut operable to support the film during the knife stroke. This strut will advantageously be comprised of a material which does not conduct heat, or indeed may even be cooled by suitable means. This is to ensure that there is no heating effect caused by the strut which might act to seal the film to itself at the cutting station.

In a preferred arrangement, the knife is arranged to cut a notch at either side of the leading edge of the flattened throat. This effectively provides a short area adjacent the throat mouth which has two plies and these will tend to curl apart making it easier for the end user to open the package. The knife may be a single knife with a single cutting blade, the lateral edges of which are angled out of the plane of the blade to form the notch in the web, or may comprise a double bladed knife with the blades lying so close together so that the two blades effectively act together as a single blade, but with their lateral edges angled away from one another so as to notch the web’s two lateral edges on each side of the knife blade.

The length of the opening tube extension may be in the range of 10 to 35 mm. ΙΕ Ο 1 0 7 9 J In a preferred arrangement, the opening throat will be between 18 to 30mm long to facilitate opening, whereas the tail between the seal and the free end of the package on the opposite side of the package will be less than 3 mm.

One web material suitable for use in the present invention is a laminate composed of the following layers: micrometres co-polyester, heat sealable resin 5 micrometres polyethylene terephthate 12 micrometres pressure-sensitive adhesive 23 micrometres polyethylene terephthate.

Other suitable materials will suggest themselves to the skilled person.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific details described herein which are given by way of example only and that various modifications and alterations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (5)

CLAIMS:

1. A package for a food Item comprising a tube of wrapping material formed from a web of material and sealed about the food Item, at least one end of the tube having a seal spaced apart from the mouth of the tube to provide an unsecured opening extension throat between the seal and the mouth of a length sufficient to facilitate a user to find ready purchase to open out the throat to access and break the seal.

2. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which the opening extension throat has a length of at least 10 mm, preferably in which the opening extension throat has a length in the range of 10 mm to 35 mm and most preferably in which the length of the throat is between 18 mm and 30 mm.

3. A package as claimed in any preceding claim in which the seal is resealable and optionally in which the seal is a weak seal which can readily be broken to provide access to the food item within the package.

4. A package as claimed in any preceding claim in which the throat is flattened and at least one side of the mouth is notched to facilitate access to the interior of the throat and/or at least one of the edges thereof extending between the mouth and the seal is perforated so that it can be tom off to provide access to the seal, and/or in which the throat comprises a two-ply flap comprising an upper ply and a lower ply and the seal can be accessed by pulling the plies apart.

5. A package for a food Item, substantially in accordance with any of the embodiments herein described with reference to and/or as shown in the accompanying drawings.