Food Storage and Serving Device

Abstract

A reusable kit for managing multiple different foodstuffs (although adaptable to common foodstuffs or other categories of items) for storing, or presenting separately when serving. The kit is comprised of a plurality of bins and bins lids, a base holding container and a plurality of indicators. The indicators having indicia associated with the names of the days of the week and / or the number of servings. The bins are convertible from a serving function to a storing function. The bins can also be used separately apart from the kit. The serving arrangement and method of the invention comprises placing foodstuffs in bins, setting the indicator(s) for each bin to the day that the foodstuff had been prepared, placing the bin in a base holding container and setting it out at a serving table. For the storing function, method involves placing the bins containing food in a base holding container, (re)setting the indicators as appropriate, then closing the bins with individual bin lids or, alternatively, a single overall base container cover, to make an airtight enclosure.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]Numerous examples of food containers in the prior art fell into the categories of disposable merchandising packaging for marketable food products or commercial / institutional food serving functions.[0002]There are few prior art serving and storing assemblies that consists of multi-compartmental food containers that are directed specifically to the object of generating efficiencies for the daily management of food prepared in a home or similar environment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,116 describes an assembly of dishes with open faces that connect and an interconnecting disc member attaches the two dishes. The interconnecting disc member keeps the contents of the food in the dishes separate. The disc may also be perforated allowing for drainable foods, such as canned tuna, placed in one compartment to drain into another compartment. This prior art is more specifically directed to the needs of home prepared, portable lunches for carrying to the workplace.[0003]...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]From this survey of the prior art, it is apparent there is a need in the art for a multi-compartmental, datable food container system that is efficiently convertible from a serving function to a storage function that provides space saving economies, is easy to use, and avoids the shortcomings of prior art devices.

[0011]The primary object of the invention sought to create a kit to ease the burden of making available healthy, minimally processed food in an exceptionally fast, efficient manner with minimal attention or planning required.

[0012]The present invention has the more specific object of facilitating healthy eating of raw, or minimally processed vegetables for children.

Problems solved by technology

This prior art and others like it have the limitation that a particular indentation could not be easily be emptied, cleaned and refilled without disrupting the contents of other indentations.

Also since the systems must be expanded in a vertical manner they are less versatile for storage as an assembled arrangement on refrigerator shelving.

The tray introduces inflexibility into the design in that it limits the overall number and dimensional combinations of inner containers.

Besides the tray also adding to the molding costs of the configuration, it is difficult to foresee how indicia associated with each of the inner containers could be brought into the design.

This multi-compartment first lid, which really has qualities of a tray, leads to difficulties in changing the contents of one of its compartments without disturbing the contents of other compartments.

These dating mechanisms were inadequate.

Some required container shapes that did not economized on space (cylinders) or they necessitated bulky apparatuses preventing stackability.

The ones with dates on lids mostly had relatively complex dating systems directed more at meeting dating accuracy requirements for long term storage rather than rapid, daily use.

Furthermore, having dates on lids would result in the problem that lids could easily be separated from the containers or mixed up with other containers in a system of similar containers.

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