French fry scoop

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a scoop for French fries comprising a mouth for scooping French fries from a bin, a funnel extending from the mouth at a first end and sized to accept an empty French fry package at a second end, wherein the mouth and the funnel share a central longitudinal axis. A handle is mounted substantially along the central longitudinal axis of the funnel and the mouth. The scoop may also include a hood at least partially covering the mouth. The funnel can either be substantially open or closed. The handle can be mounted to the funnel or the hood, if present. A shield may be connected to the hood to provide additional safety and sanitary enhancements.

Description

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 618,283, filed Oct. 12, 2004.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates generally to devices for picking up and directing materials into a container and more particularly to scoops for picking up French fries and feeding them into a package. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Scoops are widely used to transfer materials from one container to another. Typically, a scoop is used to transfer food, ice or other free flowing materials from a larger vessel to a smaller vessel, e.g., from a main storage bin to a bucket or dispenser. There are also more specialized scoops that include attached funneling portions for funneling picked up material directly into a container. A particular example of these specialized scoops is a French fry scoop. There are at least three such scoops that are available commercially. They are made respectively by Traex, Tablecraft and Prince Castle. The design of these thre...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] This basic design provides a number of significant advantages over prior French fry scoops. First, by hooding or partially covering the mouth of the scoop, fries are controlled in their travel into a package. This has the effect of improving the efficiency and speed of the package filling process. It also means that there is less likelihood that excess fries will fall on or otherwise contact the user's hand.

[0010] Second, by mounting the handle above the funnel portion, a user's hand will not contact the French fries or the bin in which they reside during the scooping process. This minimizes or eliminates both the sanitary and safety issues inherent in current designs. This particular configuration also facilitates the use of a single handle that can be oriented to permit use by both right and left-handed persons.

[0011] Various other embodiments of the present invention provide still further advantages. In particular, the handle may be angled both horizontally and vertically from its point of attachment. Vertical angling can be used to ergonomically improve the design and to place a user's hand even further away from possible contact with hot French fries, particularly where the funnel portion is partially or completely open. Horizontal angling can be used to make the scoop more comfortable for right or left-handed users. If such angling results in a fixed handle position, it represents a departure from the universal approach espoused above. However, it provides a more ergonomic approach for particular users than the universal design and can be a tremendous ergonomic improvement over prior scoop designs.

[0012] The inclusion of a shield mounted to or included as part of the cover portion provides additional advantages. Such a shield further protects a user from contact with hot French fries. It also provides better sanitary conditions and can improve the funneling of the fries into the package.

Problems solved by technology

First, because of the location of the handles, a user seeking to scoop up French fries will often have his or her hand come into contact with either the bed in which the French fries are resting or the fries in the bed which are not being scooped.

Since French fries tend to be very hot, greasy and salty, contact with them can lead to a host of contamination and safety issues.

Once again, this presents contamination as well as safety issues.

However, having two handles increases the cost, the weight and the size of the scoop.

As can be seen, the current scoops suffer from certain drawbacks and limitations.

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