JP2003088318A - Sheet indicating eating time of instant food in cup - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a simple display body, with which in an instant food in a cup, an eater can readily know a time required to make the instant food eatable after pouring hot water to the cup while keeping enjoying. SOLUTION: The surface of heat-insulating sheet piece which has <=0.1 kcal/ mh deg.C coefficient of thermal conductivity in the thickness direction and thickness in which a time required to transfer a temperature change on the back to the surface is approximately equal to a time to make the instant food in the cup eatable after pouring hot water to the cup is provided with a display to indicate a time just right for eating by an ordinary ink and with an ink layer to be thermally transparentized, which opacifies or camouflages the display at a normal temperature but is transparentized at the temperature of hot water and the back of the heat-insulating sheet piece is bondable to the container of the instant food in the cup. Preferably the heat-insulating sheet piece is a closed cell foamed plastic sheet having 1-5 electric thickness and 10-50 times expansion ratio and the back of the heat-insulating sheet piece is provided with an adhesive or contact bonding material and a protective sheet.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is an instant process in which boiling water is poured into edible noodles and porridge after a few minutes.
The present invention relates to a sheet for displaying the time when a cup of food is eaten.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Dry noodles and the like are stored in advance in a foamed plastic container, and the consumer partially peels off the thin lid and pour boiling water at 90 ° C. or higher and wait for 2 to 4 minutes before eating. The so-called instant cup food, which is eaten after a while, is widely known. And the basic product form has hardly changed to this day.

[0003]

All such cup foods are designed to be edible 2 to 4 minutes after pouring hot water, but for the user, this time of about 3 minutes is required. It is difficult to estimate properly, and it is not easy and time-consuming to measure the time with a clock or instrument. Therefore, not only does it cause irritation to the user, but sometimes the noodles are too hard or too soft, so the lid is sometimes flipped up to see the state of the noodles. .

In view of the above situation, the present invention allows the user to visually check the time without pouring boiling water and using a clock or the like, and without afflicting the nerve whether or not an appropriate edible time has passed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple display body that can be easily understood.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have used a seal printed with a combination of two kinds of heat-permeable inks that are already transparent at high temperature and used a seal after hot water injection. Although we have tried to display the time of eating, it is not possible to realize a display that matches the actual time of eating with only that. Then, as a result of further various studies and experiments, it was finally solved by the following means.

That is, the thermal conductivity in the thickness direction is 0.1 k.
cal / mh ° C. or less, and on the surface of the heat-insulating sheet piece 1 having a thickness such that the time required for the temperature change on the back surface to propagate to the surface is approximately equal to the time it takes for edible water after pouring hot water into the cup food, A normal ink 2 is provided to indicate when to eat, and a heat permeable ink layer 3 is provided to conceal or camouflage the indication at normal temperature and to make it transparent at hot water temperature, and the back surface can be attached to the cup food container 4. Then, a sheet A for indicating when to eat according to the present invention is used.

In this case, it is particularly desirable to use a foamed plastic sheet having a closed cell expansion ratio of 10 to 50 times and a thickness of 1 to 5 mm, and particularly a foamed plastic sheet of 15 to 20 times and a thickness of 2 to 3 mm. Polystyrene sheets are preferred.
It is to be noted that a material having high heat insulation such that the thickness is less than 1 mm is not realistic at present. Moreover, the vertical and horizontal dimensions are appropriately about 2 to 3 cm in view of the dimensions of an actual instant cup food container.

Regarding the heat insulating sheet piece 1, the side attached to the cup food container 4 is defined as the back surface and the opposite side is defined as the front surface, but the material itself is not specified. Further, not only the cup food is commercialized by pasting the heat-insulating sheet piece 1 on the cup food container 4 with an adhesive or the like in advance, but the back surface of the cup food is coated with an adhesive or pressure-bonding material 5 and further covered with a protective sheet 6. Alternatively, the cup food product may be attached to the cup food product, and the consumer may attach the cup product to himself when using it.

[0009] A specific display mode by the ordinary ink 2 and the heat permeable ink layer 3 provided on the surface of the heat insulating sheet piece 1 is as follows.
The result is as shown in FIGS. However, FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the display at room temperature, and FIGS. 3 and 4 show the appearance of the display after pouring boiling water into the cup food for about 3 to 4 minutes.
In FIG. 3, the heat permeable ink 3 is applied over the entire surface, but FIG.
However, it is applied only to the hollow (uncoated) portion of the ordinary ink 2. It should be noted that the product names, explanations, etc. are omitted in all the figures.

The transparentization setting temperature of the heat permeable ink is different depending on whether it is applied to the ceiling (lid) part of the cup food container 4 or to the side part, but it is about 50 ° C. to 80 ° C. in the former case, and is higher in the latter case. It is appropriate to make it slightly lower. This is the temperature of the surface of the heat insulating sheet piece 1 after about 3 minutes, and this temperature is referred to as hot water temperature for convenience in the present application.

The heat permeable ink layer 3 and the ordinary ink 2 may be directly printed on the surface of the heat insulating sheet piece 1, but may be printed on another film 7 or the like to be printed on the heat insulating sheet piece 1. It may be attached to the surface.

[0012]

In the present invention, the heat insulating sheet piece 1 having a thermal conductivity (in the thickness direction) of 0.1 kcal / mh ° C. or less is provided under the heat permeable ink layer 3. It has been found that when the thermal conductivity reaches this level, it takes about 2 to 3 minutes or more to transfer heat from one side of the sheet to the other side even if the thickness is several mm or less.

Therefore, the thermal conductivity is 0.1 kcal / mh ° C.
If the thickness is below, it is possible to achieve the intended purpose by using a sheet having a thickness of several mm or less, and at such a thickness, the adhesive sheet can be applied to the actual cup food container 4 without any resistance. Can also be used as.

By the way, expanded polystyrene having an expansion ratio of 20 times has a specific gravity of about 0.05 and a thermal conductivity of about 0.05 kcal.
/ Mh ° C. In this case, when the temperature of the back surface of the sheet having a thickness of 2.5 mm reaches 80 ° C., the front surface takes about 50 minutes after about 50 minutes.
Raise the temperature to ℃.

Therefore, if a ready-to-eat display is provided on the surface with ordinary ink and it is hidden with a heat permeable ink which is transparent at 50 ° C., it is hidden at normal temperature and nothing can be read, but it takes about 3 minutes. And the heat is transmitted to the surface and the heat permeable ink becomes transparent, so the display at the time of eating can be read.

According to the experiment, the closed-cell foamed plastic sheet does not impair the heat insulating property because it contains water, and it has a practically preferable feature such that it can be made considerably thin depending on the expansion ratio and it is low in cost and has a wide selection range. It turned out.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Length 2 cm, width 3 cm, thickness 0.2
On the surface of a polystyrene sheet piece of 5 cm and a foaming ratio of 20 times, a petaprinted part and a description printed part with a normal ink of "OK" are provided, and the transparency temperature is 50 ° C so as to cover the part of the blanked character. Conceal printing with thermally permeable ink. However, the color of ordinary ink and heat-permeable ink should be the same color such as black at room temperature. If necessary, the color of the blank character part should be other than white.

Also, a product in which a double-sided adhesive sheet is attached to the back surface, or an adhesive or pressure-sensitive adhesive is applied and a protective sheet is attached thereon, which is set in a cup noodle container so that it can be easily removed. To do. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to this example.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, when eating instant cup noodles, the consumer can easily enjoy visually without having to irritate the time from pouring hot water until the time of eating. The effect is that you can know when to eat.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sketch of the state in which the present invention is attached at room temperature.

FIG. 3 is a sketch drawing at the time of eating with the present invention attached.

FIG. 4 is a sketch drawing at the time of eating with another form of the present invention attached.

[Explanation of symbols]

A: A sheet that displays when to eat 1 ... Insulating sheet piece 2 ... Normal ink 3 ... Thermally transparent ink layer 4 ... Cup food container 5: Adhesive or crimp material 6 ... Protection sheet 7 ... Film

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Ekio Ishihama             3091-3 Tsumakicho, Toki City, Gifu Prefecture (72) Inventor Teiji Okumura             2880-1 Kasahara-cho, Toki-gun, Gifu Prefecture F-term (reference) 3E062 AA10 AB07 AC02 DA02 DA06                       DA08 DA09                 4B046 LB06 LC20 LE19 LP71

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. The thermal conductivity in the thickness direction is 0.1 kcal / m.
On the surface of the heat-insulating sheet piece having a temperature of h ° C. or less and having a thickness that is substantially equal to the time required for the temperature change on the back surface to reach the front surface after being poured into the instant cup food after boiling with hot water In addition to providing a display that expresses when to eat, a heat permeable ink layer that conceals or camouflages the display at room temperature and makes it transparent at hot water temperature is provided, and the back side can be attached to an instant cup food container. A sheet that displays when the cup food is about to be eaten. 2. An instant sheet according to claim 1, wherein the heat insulating sheet piece is a closed cell foam plastic sheet having a thickness of 1 to 5 mm and a foaming ratio of 10 to 50 times, and an adhesive or pressure bonding material and a protective sheet are provided on the back surface thereof. A sheet that displays when the cup food is about to be eaten.