Portable thermal treatment and storage units for containing readily accessible food or beverage items and methods for thermally treating food or beverage items

Abstract

A portable refrigeration and insulation unit includes a hollow cartridge with a sealed cavity and a top wall including a plurality of wells extending from the top wall. The wells are configured to receive and thermally treat food or beverage items, in particular slush beverage products, where each well is suitably contoured so as to contact a majority of outer surface area portions of a food or beverage item that is placed within the well. The cartridge cavity includes a heat transfer material that surrounds portions of the wells and facilitates heat transfer from food or beverage items placed within the wells to the heat transfer material during operation of the portable unit. The unit further includes an outer insulating case that receives the cartridge and provides additional insulation features. The cartridge is cooled to achieve a suitable temperature, is loaded with food or beverage items, and is placed within the case for use in a foodservice environment.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority from the following U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial Nos.: 60 / 697,984, entitled “Refrigeration Unit for Food Service Portion Cups and Process Thereof”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; 60 / 697,985, entitled “Refrigeration Unit for Making Slush Beverages Without a Slush Machine, and Process Thereof”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; 60 / 697,986, entitled “Portable Refrigeration Unit With Ready Access”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; and 60 / 702,298, entitled “Portable Insulation Unit for Partially Frozen Beverages With Ready Access”, and filed Jul. 26, 2005. The disclosures of these provisional patent applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention pertains to a portable unit for thermally treating and / or maintaining food or beverage items at desired temperatures for select periods of time. The present inventio...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019] The unit further includes an outer insulating case including a compartment that is suitably dimensioned to receive and retain the cartridge. Preferably, the case includes an insulating space disposed between at least one inner wall of the case that contacts the cartridge and an outer wall of the case that is exposed to the surrounding environment in which the unit is disposed. The insulating space minimizes or prevents heat transfer between the cartridge and the surrounding environment.

[0022] Thus, the portable refrigeration and insulation unit of the present invention enhances point-of-sale foodservice operations by thermally treating high volumes of food or beverage items while minimizing costs and labor associated with such foodservice operations. For example, when utilizing the unit of the invention for providing slush beverages, the unit eliminates the need for multiple slush beverage machines disposed at different locations in order to ensure the requisite volume of slush beverage is available for consumption over a select time period. Since the unit can further be designed to convert a starting liquid product into a slush beverage product, the need for a slush beverage machine in foodservice operations can be eliminated altogether.

[0023] The device of the present invention further requires no electrical energy or mechanical devices such as compressors to ensure effective refrigeration of food and beverage items. In addition, the device is compact in size and configuration and is stackable, thus minimizing floor space required for point-of-sale storing of high volumes of food or beverage product.

Problems solved by technology

There are numerous drawbacks to the currently available refrigeration devices that are used for maintaining the food or beverage items in the desired state and at the desired temperatures for point-of-sale use.

In particular, refrigeration for display to consumers is typically expensive, and requires a lot of counter space or floor space as well as routine maintenance.

In addition, such machines are expensive, require periodic maintenance, require the replacement of parts that wear with use, and require periodic disassembly and reassembly for cleaning.

In addition, many foodservice operations offering food items such as slush beverages must serve relatively high numbers of customers in relatively short periods of time.

However, many of the models of slush machines in current use are limited in capacity to the amount of beverage product initially poured into the product reservoirs of the machine plus the small additional amount that can practicably be added to the machine and frozen to the desired consistency during the serving period.

As a result, such high-volume foodservice operations are unable to prepare and dispense from a single machine a sufficient amount of slush beverage in the allotted serving time.

Thus, multiple machines would be required to achieve the desired volume of slush beverage, which leads to increased equipment and maintenance costs for a particular foodservice operation.

Some foodservice operations attempt to overcome this problem by dispensing cups of slush beverage from the machine prior to the first period of service to customers, thereby creating capacity within the reservoirs of the machine for additional liquid beverage to be added with the result that it may freeze into the desired state in time for the first period of service to customers.

However, this approach is not very effective.

If stored at too cold a temperature, additional ice forms within the beverage, which renders it too viscous to be easily consumed.

In contrast, if the slush beverages are stored at too warm a temperature, the beverage will melt, which renders it less appealing to consumers.

It is not desirable to store dispensed slush beverage in the freezer of a typical foodservice operation, because such freezers generally maintain an interior temperature of 10° F.

Nor is it desirable to store dispensed slush beverage in the cooler or refrigerator of a typical foodservice operation, because such coolers and refrigerators generally maintain an interior temperature between about 35° F.

In addition, many foodservice operations with multiple serving lines or points of service outside the main cafeteria, lack the ability to transport cups of slush beverage from the slush machine to such locations that increase the opportunity for additional sales without risk of melting the beverage.

The problems posed by the inherent limitations of conventional food service preparation and / or cold storage devices such as slush machines can occur in a wide range of high-volume foodservice operations, including cafeterias (as noted above) and other foodservice sites operated within schools, colleges, office buildings, government buildings, convention centers, military feeding sites, stadiums, movie theaters, cruise ships, passenger trains, casinos, amusement parks, catered events, buffets, county fairs, and the like.

In particular, the above-noted problems associated with providing a high volume of slush beverages to children in school cafeterias based upon the use of conventional foodservice devices often results in the decision by schools to abandon the serving of slush beverages to students, despite the popularity of such beverages to students.

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