NL1043765B1

NL1043765B1 - An article to package and distribute food safely, more durably and at lowered cost to consumers

Info

Publication number: NL1043765B1
Application number: NL1043765A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Johannes Maria Ooms Adrianus
Original assignee: Unipak Beheer B V; Unipak B V
Priority date: 2020-08-19
Filing date: 2020-08-19
Publication date: 2022-04-14

Abstract

Described is a method for producing, by means of thermoforming or injection moulding, articles that can be used to distribute food safely, with tamperevidence functionality to the consumer in a more durable and cheaper way than the alternatives currently available in the art. This is achieved by means of a combination of design and production methods never applied before to the packaging of perishable food. As a result of the invention such tamper-evident packaging articles can be produced with less plastic and at substantially lower total costs per kilogram of packaged food which the food producing company incurs when using the present invention rather than the alternatives currently available for use.

Description

An article to package and distribute food safely, more durably and at lowered cost to consumers The invention relates to a method for producing, by means of thermoforming or injection moulding, articles that can be used to package and distribute food safely to consumers in a more durable and cheaper way than the alternatives currently available in the art. This is achieved by means of a combination of design and production methods never applied before to the packaging of perishable food. As a result of the invention such articles can provide tamper-evident food packaging produced with less (plastic) polymers and at substantially lower total costs which the food producing company incurs when using the present invention rather than the alternatives currently available for use. Food products for usage by end-consumers at home (for example fruits, vegetables and products thereof, salad spreads, sauces, nuts, butter and many other types of food) are typically sold in packaging articles (often referred to as containers) containing relatively small volumes of such food (in general between 50 gram and 500 gram of food, noting that higher weights of food per packaging article are also possible) to enable easy storage and consumption of the full amount of food so distributed prior to its due date.

Such packaging articles are typically made of plastics (typically polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene or polypropylene) and produced by means of a thermoforming production process, to keep the costs low and to reduce the amount of (plastic) polymers used. Higher-end applications or branded food, where costs are less relevant and appearance is deemed more important, more often use such packaging articles produced by means of injection moulding.

For those products where food safety is of high concern (for example prepared food like salad spreads, sauces, vegetables or fruits) such containers typically consist of three separate elements. The first component is the base container which actually holds the food. The second is a foil, typically made of polyethylene or polyethylene terephthalate but sometimes of different materials and often referred to as the seal, which is glued on a small horizontal strip forming the top edge of the base container. The primary purpose of this seal is to safeguard the food from being contaminated. As such the seal’s function is to provide comfort that the contents of the container have not been tampered with as a result of it being possible to easily and reliably conclude if the distributed food container has already been opened (intentionally by somebody or unintentionally by means of an unplanned external force on it), and whether it is still in the unopened condition in which it was produced in the factory of the food producer. The third component is a lid which is placed on the sealed base container. This lid also serves multiple purposes. It protects the seal and therewith increases the chances that the seal remains undamaged and its functionality is maintained during the lifetime of the product. Further, the usage of a lid strengthens the whole of the container and makes it possible to stack the containers vertically one on the other, which increases the cost efficiency at which such products can be stored and transported without damage and which enables the retailer to efficiently utilize the shelf space in its shop and the consumer to efficiently store the food products e.g. in the fridge. Furthermore, the lid has a function for the consumer as a means for re-closing the container after partial consumption of the contents of the container. By placing the lid back on the base container after having removed and disposed of the seal and partially having consumed the food, the consumer can thus close the container again so that the remainder of the food can be stored safely. And finally, the lid typically also serves as the surface area via which product and brand related information is communicated to the consumer (most often by means of stickers placed on the lid, or otherwise by means of printing such information directly on the lid).

Apart from these benefits such sealed containers also have certain disadvantages. Firstly, they lead to high costs for the food producing company. The foil of which the seal is made is costly, amongst others because of the process to print sealing lacquer on the foil, but also because the process step in the filling line of the food producer where the seal is applied is typically the determinant of the speed at : which the whole filling line operates, and as such applying a seal to a food container limits the output per hour of any given production line (therewith substantially increasing the total cost per unit filled). Thirdly, the usage of a seal leads to a higher weight of the packaging article. This is to some extent caused by the weight of the seal itself (which of course adds to the total weight of the packaging article), but is primarily caused by the fact that for sealing the base container needs to have a flat outer edge on which the seal is glued and the lid needs to encase the outer edge of the base container, both leading to larger surface areas of polymer foil required than strictly needed for the holding capacity of the base container itself. In other words, because

: 3 of the application of the seal the base container and the lid contain more (plastic) polymers than is strictly necessary to fulfil the function of the base container (which is to hold the food). This weight increase not only causes economic disadvantages (more (plastic) polymers are used leading to higher material costs and with taxation of packaging being based on the weight per packaging unit further adding to the cost), but also environmental disadvantages: food packaging typically uses (a large portion of) virgin material since these are best to guarantee food safety, and using more of such virgin material than strictly necessary for the primary function of the container negatively affects the environmental footprint of such food distribution.

Until the present invention was made, it was not possible to produce an article without a seal that could serve as a tamper-evident packaging article for demanding types of food such as fruits, vegetables and products thereof, salads, spreads, sauces, nuts, butter and many other types of food packaged in such small containers with the economic and environmental benefits described below.

It has now been found that when an article is produced by means of thermoforming or injection moulding on the basis of the following design and production principles, that even demanding food products can be packaged safely in an article without any such seal (thus by only using a base container and a lid), with as additional benefit of the article designed and produced according to the present invention that, when compared to the current alternatives available in the trade, it not only lowers the total costs incurred by the food producing company in packaging and distributing its food products to consumers but also reduces the environmental impact of utilising a packaging for distributing food in relatively small amounts by reducing the amount of (plastic) polymers necessary. These substantial benefits to food production companies and society as a whole are derived from utilising a mixture of design and production features in a way that has at the present time never been used as such: a. The article is based on a base container (made of polymers such as plastic or other polymers such as for example starch) holding the food and a lid (made of polymers such as plastic or other polymers such as for example starch) that closes internally (rather than a lid used for virtually all containers, that is wrapped over the outer part of the container and as such can be opened from the outside surface perimeter). After placing the lid, the lid is "sunk" into the base container such that an "inner-closing" container is achieved (rather than a system in which the lid is secured on the base container and extends across the top opening, which is the most commonly used mechanism to have a lid closing a container). The design provides for the possibility to reduce the weight of the packaging compared to existing packaging articles because compared to traditional packaging articles the surface of the polymer foil required for the production of the base container is smaller since no extending outer edges to attach the seal are required and similarly the foil surface of the “inner-closing” lid is smaller since it has no edges which need to fit around the outer edges of the base container; and/or b.

The lid is kept firmly in place by means of combination in the design of the base container and the lid.

At the top of the base container there is a slightly outward sloping vertical part (under a corner of between 1 and 45 degrees, whereby the range between 3 and 12 degrees has been tested to work best) and/or with a steep outward oriented corner (up to 90 degrees, whereby the range between 70 and 90 degrees has been tested to work best) which is subsequently followed by a curve of up to 180 degrees.

The base container is combined with a (seen from above) | slightly outward sloping vertical part of the side of the lid (also under a corner of between 1 and 45 degrees, whereby the range between 3 and 12 degrees has been tested to work best) together with a steep outward oriented corner (up to 90 degrees, whereby the range between 70 and 90 degrees has been tested to work best) which is subsequently followed by a curve of up to 180 degrees.

After filling the base container with the food product the lid is pushed with force on the top of the base container, and given the flexibility of the material used the lid can be pushed down into the container to then firmly close the container, not being able to loosen by itself, given that the shaping of the two slopes, corners and/or curves require the imposition of a force to enable the lid to loosen; and/or c.

The lid contains (other than the general surface area of the lid) one or more specific areas with a surface area of between 0.4 square centimetre and 225 square centimetres (with the best results obtained by means of a surface area of between 1 and 25 square centimetres) in which a perforated line is made in the polymer (by means of laser etching, cutting, drilling, punching or stamping processes), which makes as described below for a lid that will remain on the container until the 5 packaging article is first opened by means of this technology.

This area is placed directly adjacent to the outer edge of the lid, noting that if the base container has a rectangular or square form this area is best placed in a corner, thus not only leading to maximum strength of the design but also to a maximum release of tension after tearing the material along the perforated line such that the lid can be removed easily.

The surface of this specific area is extended beyond the outer edge of the base container to form a tongue of either rectangular or square or oval or circular form which the end-consumer can grab with two fingers, thus making it possible for a consumer to take this tongue between two fingers and, by applying force in the direction of the perforated line, tear the lid along the perforated line.

The perforated line is made in such a way that it does not go from external perimeter to external perimeter, so that if the perforated line is torn the tongue (partially torn off) is still firmly attached to the lid itself.

The breakage of the lid along the perforated line is required for an initial opening of the packaging article and is subsequently evident to the consumer, thereby providing a tamper evidence functionality to the packaging article; and/or d.

The section of the line in the lid in the specific area described above which is not perforated is formed in such a manner that a hinged tongue is created by bruising the lid exactly along this section of the line through application of a pressure with a force between 30 and 60 t.

As a result of this bruise, after the packaging article having been opened the natural position of the tongue is at an angle with the horizontal surface of the lid, adding to the tamper evidence functionality of the packaging article;

and/or e.

The outer edge of the base container is formed by a vertical element, e.g. an inversed “U” whereby the height of vertical element is larger than the thickness of the polymer foil from which the lid is formed such that the outer edge of the lid resides below the top of the base container,

with the exception of the area where the tongue is located. As a consequence, the possibility of opening the lid at a different position than the tongue is significantly reduced; and/or f. As a result of the combination of the base container, the “inner-closing” lid and the hinged tongue, the packaging article may be reclosed by the consumer in case not all food is immediately consumed and thus the food can be safely stored until further consumption; and/or g. In addition to the form of the outer edge of the lid, which provides for the inner-closing functionality of the lid, a rim is formed in the top surface of the lid which follows the outer contours of the bottom of the base container. In the area which is used for the tongue of the lid, the perforation line of the tongue can be integrated into this rim. This rim provides the packaging article with the functionality of stacking various articles one on top of the other whilst maintaining stability of the stack.

it will be convenient to illustrate a preferred embodiment of the present invention with the accompanying drawings. It is however to be appreciated that other embodiments are possible, and consequently the particularity of the accompanying drawings is not to be understood as superseding the generality of the preceding description of the invention. In the drawings a packaging article according to the present invention is shown: - Figure 1 is a perspective view of a packaging article with a base container and a lid in closed condition; - Figure 2 is a perspective view of a packaging article in opened condition with the lid placed back on the base container; - Figure 3 is a cross-section view of a base container; - Figure 4 is a cross-section view of a lid; - Figure 5 is a cross-section view of a lid inserted in a base container; - Figure 6 is a top view of a closing mechanism with tongue in a lid. The combination of the base container and lid described above serves various purposes, many of which contain features which are currently achieved in packaging by the application of a separate seal, and as such the invention makes it possible to avoid using a seal at all, therewith reducing the number of separate parts of which the food container is ultimately made from the previously described three to only two. The lid and its hinged tongue make it possible to easily and quickly see if the container has been opened before, to make it possible for the consumer to conclude if the consumption of food from that container is still to be considered or whether it is safer to not use this food. The tongue so-made creates what is in the art called a tamper- evidence closure mechanism. Such tamper-evidence closure mechanisms are in the art applied at the outer edge of a packaging and mostly form part of the base container, and not inside (within the perimeters of the outer wall of the base container) within a design that is based on a lid that achieves the enclosure from the inside (rather than from the top plus the outside).

Other than increased food safety a key benefit of using the present invention rather than the currently available alternatives in the art are that the speed at which food filling lines can be operated can be higher. The filling-line speed determining step of sealing has been eliminated, meaning that the output per hour increases without any increase in the fixed costs nor of personnel costs. Together with the lower amount of raw material required, the present invention thus provides for a significant cost reduction and lower environmental impact for food producing companies.

As described above, such packaging articles have characteristics in view of its ability to package, store, transport and distribute food safely, with tamper evidence, | in a durable and cost efficient way. This makes such articles perfectly suitable to be shaped as containers or tumblers in all sorts of forms for many applications, such as for food, in particular fruits, vegetables and products thereof, salads, spreads, sauces, nuts, butter and many other types of food.

Claims

CONCLUSIONS

1. Method for the design and manufacture of items that can be used to safely package, store, transport and distribute food, with tamper evidence, in a more sustainable and less expensive way than currently available alternatives are in the art, through a combination of: a. using an elastomer (such as polyethylene terephthalate or polypropylene or other polymers including starch) as a raw material to produce a container and a lid by means of a thermoforming manufacturing process; and/or b. the lid being designed so that it can be placed in the top of the container to be pushed in to provide a closure (rather than on top of the container and over the edges of the container as is customary to provide in a container locking system); and/or c. wherein the container includes an inwardly inclined vertical section at an angle between 1 and 45 degrees and/or with a steep outwardly inclined angle up to 90 degrees which is then followed by a bend of up to 180 degrees, and the lid has a similarly inclined vertically part also at an angle of between 1 and 45 degrees and/or with a steep outward angle up to 90 degrees which is then followed by a bend of up to 180 degrees, such that when pressure is applied to the cover the cover slides into the container sinks and the walls and angled corners fit together perfectly to keep the lid firmly on the container, creating a strong closing function; and/or d. wherein the lid comprises one or more planes between 0.4 square centimeters and 225 square centimeters containing a perforated line that can be torn open and which is placed on the outer edge of the lid (in the case of a rectangular or square lid preferably in one or more of the four corners), such that if the plastic is torn, a tongue is formed that can be used to open the lid and provides evidence that the container has been opened; and/or e. wherein the portion of the line in the lid in the specific area described above which is not perforated is formed to form a hinged tongue by crushing the lid exactly along this portion of the line by applying a pressure with a force between 30 and 60 t; f. wherein the outer edge of the container is oriented vertically, e.g. in the shape of an inverted "U" with the height of this edge being greater than the thickness of the polymer film from which the lid is formed, such that the outer edge of the lid is positioned below the top of the base container; and/or g. with a rim formed in the top surface of the lid, which follows the outer contour of the bottom of the container, and in which the perforation line of the tongue can be integrated in the area used for the tongue of the lid.

A method according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the container is rectangular or square or polygonal or oval or circular.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the shape of the lid is rectangular or square or polygonal or oval or circular.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the container has a content between 15 milliliters and 10 liters and a total height between a minimum of 2 centimeters and a maximum of 50 centimetres.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the cover has a height between 2 millimeters and 10 centimetres.

6. Thermoformed article, available by the method of one of the | previous claims. 1043765 ,

A thermoformed article according to claim 6, being a container (e.g. a food container or tumbler) together with a lid for closing it.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the container and/or the lid is not manufactured by means of thermoforming but by means of injection moulding.

9. A container substantially as described above with respect to what is shown in the accompanying drawings.