Spout assembly for food or beverage containers

a technology for food or beverage containers and spouts, which is applied in the directions of transportation and packaging, pliable tubular containers, packaging goods types, etc., can solve the problems of unrecommended pressure increase, package rupture, and finally open up in an uncontrollable explosion

Inactive Publication Date: 2017-08-03
NESTEC SA
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a spout assembly for food or beverage containers that allows for the sequential extraction of ingredients from multiple containers. The spout assembly has a primary fluid inlet and a secondary fluid inlet through which fluid can be supplied into the containers. The spout assembly also has a dispensing outlet through which the product is dispensed. The spout assembly can be attached to the container using a machine or by hand. The spout assembly allows for the efficient preparation of food or beverage products from the container.

Problems solved by technology

However, this configuration presents important drawbacks for the consumer: the opening of the closing means is obtained by increase of pressure inside the sachet.
Yet this pressure increase is not recommended for the preparation of some beverages because it creates bubbles at the surface of the beverage, for example this would not be desired for the preparation of tea.
Besides, there exists the risk for the user that the packages may not rupture at the desired pressure, and that they would finally open up in an uncontrollable explosion.
Another drawback of these known sachets is that the inlet nozzle introduces water in the pack always according to the same vertical top-down orientation in the sachet.
Moreover, these sachets do not allow the preparation of food or beverage products that would comprise multiple ingredients: in case the user would like to make a recipe, a plurality of sachets comprising different ingredients would be needed; the sachets would have to be operated individually, with the corresponding annoyances, operations and time required from the part of the consumer.
Besides, as already cited, all the products are processed in the same way, so no optimization of the product dispensed according to the ingredients provided is possible.
An inconvenient of such a pouch is that at the end of the preparation of the beverage and the introduction of water, beverage remains in the pouch which is an issue for the user who cannot properly remove the pouch from the beverage production machine.
Besides, in this pouch, neither the water inlet nor the beverage outlet are closed by a membrane, which is not recommended in terms of hygiene and shelf life as it could present problems to the consumer.
Moreover, these sachets do not allow the preparation of food or beverage products with multiple ingredients, as already explained for WO 99 / 05044, and similarly, all the products are processed in the same way, so no optimization of the product dispensed according to the ingredients provided is possible with this system.

Method used

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  • Spout assembly for food or beverage containers
  • Spout assembly for food or beverage containers
  • Spout assembly for food or beverage containers

Examples

Experimental program
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first embodiment

[0060]FIGS. 3a-e and 4a-f show the invention, where the spout assembly 10 comprises two composing parts 100, 200 attached together through primary and secondary attaching means 15, 15′. FIGS. 3a to 3e show the resulting spout assembly 10, composed of two parts, while FIGS. 4a to 4f show one of these two composing parts configuring the final spout assembly 10. The two composing parts 100, 200 making the spout assembly 10 are exactly identical: they are not symmetrical or mirror parts, but they are exactly the same. Preferably, the spout assembly 10 comprising two composing parts 100 and 200 is used together with two food or beverage containers, a primary container 20 and a secondary container 20′, comprising the ingredients for the product to be dispensed: one of the configuring parts 100 is attached to the primary container 20, and the other configuring part 200 is attached to the secondary container 20′. Preferably, according to the invention, there is one composing part of the spo...

fifth embodiment

[0079]The reason for having such configuration is the use of the spout assembly 10 with the same machine, particularly with the injecting and piercing means of such machine, such that the spout assembly 10 is reversible and can be operated one sense or the other when introduced in the machine. The primary composing part 100 also comprises primary attaching means 15 engaging with identical secondary attaching means 15′ on the secondary composing part 200, so that the two parts 100 and 200 are brought together to configure the spout assembly 10 according to this The primary composing part 100 also comprises a primary dispensing outlet 13, preferably configured as a vertical pipe, through which the product can be dispensed.

[0080]When the two identical composing parts 100 and 200 are brought together into a spout assembly 10, the resulting spout assembly 10 shown in FIGS. 5a-e comprises one primary fluid inlet 11, preferably arranged on the frontal part of the spout assembly 10, one su...

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Abstract

A spout assembly (10) for one or a plurality of food or beverage containers, each container comprising at least one ingredient for the preparation of a single or multiple product, the spout assembly (10) comprising at least one primary fluid inlet (11) and at least one secondary fluid inlet (12) through which a fluid can be supplied into one or a plurality of food or beverage containers, the fluid inlets (11, 12) being either connected to the same single container or each one of the fluid inlets (11, 12) being connected to one of the plurality of containers; at least one dispensing outlet (13) through which the single or multiple product is dispensed; the spout assembly (10) being configured in such a way that the fluid can be supplied into a single container or into a function of the single or multiple product to be dispensed.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a spout assembly for being used with food or beverage containers; in particular the invention relates to a spout assembly for food or beverage containers comprising at least one ingredient for the preparation of a single or a multiple product.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Preparing beverages by introducing a capsule containing a food or beverage ingredient, such as ground coffee or instant coffee, in a beverage dispensing machine and injecting water into the capsule is known in the state of the art: the beverage or food ingredient is typically extracted or dissolved into water to form the beverage or the desired final product, which flows out of the capsule through a suitable outlet.[0003]As such, different capsules have been developed in the past, these capsules being at least differentiated by the nature of the capsule body used for storing the food or the beverage ingredient. Whereas most of the capsules are made of ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): B65D47/06B65D47/36B65D83/00
CPCB65D47/06B65D47/36B65D83/0055B65D85/8049B65D85/8052B65B3/045
InventorAIT BOUZIAD, YOUCEFAGON, FABLEN LUDOVLCNEUROHR, DAMIEN
OwnerNESTEC SA