Food serving system

Abstract

A portable food serving system for keeping food cold or for cooling hot food and keeping it cool that does not require a power source includes a generally rectangular inner pan and outer pan. Each of the pans has a bottom wall. The outer pan also has four sidewalls with a drain plug on one of them and rails at the bottom to form feet. The inner pan fits within the outer pan and the bottom wall of the inner pan is raised above the bottom wall of the outer pan. The inner pan has a plurality of compartments located therein with spaces formed between the compartments. A plurality of baffles extend upwardly from the bottom wall of the outer pan and extend into the spaces between the compartments. The system also includes a plurality of clips for releasably locking the inner pan with the outer pan. Ice and a cooling liquid may be placed in the spaces between the compartments and between the bottom walls of the pans. A cover fits over the pans.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention is directed toward a food serving system and more particularly, toward a system that chills food and allows the food to stay cold for an extended period of time.[0002]A problem facing many businesses in the food industry is the inability to maintain the temperature of foods meant to be kept cold. For example, in a salad bar type of setting or in catering situations it may be necessary to keep foods chilled for extended periods of time after they have been removed from normal refrigeration facilities. Particularly difficult is the inability to maintain cold temperatures at the upper level of the foods which is required by the health authorities. That is, while it is normally not too difficult to maintain salad or the like located near the bottom of a serving pan at a relatively cold temperature, it is difficult to maintain salad or a similar food at the top of the pan at an equally cold temperature.[0003]In one type of salad bar ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The present invention is designed to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a food serving system that allows food to be chilled and which allows the food to stay cold for an extended period of time.

[0010]It is another object of the present invention to provide a food serving system that allows food to be chilled at a relatively consistent rate.

[0011]It is an even further object of the present invention to provide a food serving system that is capable of quickly cooling hot foods and safely holding the foods at a cool temperature.

Problems solved by technology

A problem facing many businesses in the food industry is the inability to maintain the temperature of foods meant to be kept cold.

Particularly difficult is the inability to maintain cold temperatures at the upper level of the foods which is required by the health authorities.

That is, while it is normally not too difficult to maintain salad or the like located near the bottom of a serving pan at a relatively cold temperature, it is difficult to maintain salad or a similar food at the top of the pan at an equally cold temperature.

These systems do not provide a consistent, chilled environment for the food.

The problem with these types of systems is that it is difficult to maintain a suitable temperature.

That is, the food either freezes if it directly overlies a refrigeration coil or becomes too warm if it is located far from a coil.

Furthermore, the cooling tends not to be uniformly distributed to all of the food or containers particularly near the top of the pan.

These systems are also not normally suitable for portable use as they require electrical power or another source of energy for the refrigeration equipment.

This tray appears to be rather inconvenient to use, however, as there must be room enough in a freezer to freeze the refrigerant.

Also, the tray is not ready to use at any time.

This food cooling system, however, appears to only have one compartment so that only one type of food can be chilled at a time.

Another problem facing the food service industry is the ability to quickly cool hot foods and to safely hold them at a cool temperature.

While expensive blast chiller equipment and the like can perform such functions, to Applicant's knowledge, there are no inexpensive or portable products available to accomplish this.

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