Portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food

Abstract

A portable and openable package (1 ) for containing and transporting cooked take-away food comprising a support casing (2) made of cardboard for food use and provided with a first base portion (3) and a second covering portion (4) separated from each other through weakening means (5) which make such portions (3, 4) mutually foldable so that the support casing (2) takes at least a rest position, in which an inner face (3a) of the first base portion (3) and an inner surface (4a) of the second covering portion (4) are substantially mutually coplanar and the portable package (1 ) is in an open condition, and an operating position, in which the inner surface (4a) of the second covering portion (4) faces the inner face (3a) of the first base portion (3) from above and the portable package (1 ) is in a closed condition to cover one or more take-away food items temporarily arranged on the inner face (3a) of the first base portion (3). In particular, the portable package (1 ) includes a laminar coating sheet (6) made of non-stick baking paper and stably coupled, through gluing means, to at least one part of the inner face (3a) of the first base portion (3) and / or of the inner surface (4a) of the second covering portion (4).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a package (or box or box-shaped element) which is portable and openable for containing and transporting cooked take-away food such as, generally but not exclusively, pizzas.

[0002] As known, a portable and openable package for containing, storing and transporting cooked and warm take-away food, such as, for example, pizzas (hence the accepted meaning of "pizza box"), consists of a foldable support box (or casing) made of cardboard, generally corrugated, die-cut and provided with creases (or, in other more general terms, weakening or fracturing means) which are useful to allow, if required, folding the component portions of the support box to arrange it, particularly, in the use or closed condition, in which the support box itself receives the take-away food the user consumes in a more or less far place, which is different from the public store where the purchase thereof occurred. Conventionally, a portable and openable package of the known type, of the type of interest herein, (used for containing, storing and transporting take-away food) therefore comprises a support casing made of cardboard for food use and provided at least with a first base portion (or bottom portion) and a second covering portion separated from each other through the already mentioned weakening means which make the aforesaid portions mutually foldable so that such a support casing can take at least a rest position, in which an inner face of the first base portion and an inner surface of the second covering portion are substantially mutually coplanar and placed side by side and the portable package is in an open condition; an operating position, in which the inner surface of the second covering portion faces the inner face of the first base portion from above and the portable package is in a closed condition to cover, protect and store one or more take-away food items temporarily arranged on said inner face of the first base portion.

[0003] The pizza box is often made of corrugated cardboard and the paper with which it is produced must be mainly if not entirely made up of virgin vegetable fiber.

[0004] Furthermore, the pizza box must be resistant, adapted to transport food, economical, stackable, thermally insulated so as to allow adjusting the humidity and maintaining the temperature of the food contained and transported to destination as much as possible.

[0005] Even though current portable and openable packages (or cartons or boxes) for containing, storing and transporting cooked and warm take-away food, such as, conventionally, pizzas, examples of which are disclosed by yet published documents WO2013 / 065012 A1, IT201900011259 A1 and US2017 / 275070 A1, do satisfy (or at least try to satisfy) the aforesaid needs to some extent, some recognized drawbacks do however remain in the current state of the art, linked in particular to the actual capacity of the packages themselves to correctly preserve the temperature, humidity and, consequently, the integrity and taste of the food temporarily accommodated therein.

[0006] Indeed, it happens frequently if not constantly that the food, such as pizza, introduced and temporarily stored inside the support casing which forms the portable package, loses, in a negative and disadvantageous manner, part of the fragrance, of the crunchiness, or in any case of one or more of the relevant and required organoleptic features thereof, due to the material (cardboard) with which the food comes into contact.

[0007] Furthermore, especially in case of food, such as pizzas, just cooked in the oven and placed inside the foldable support casing immediately after, rash movements, however fortuitous, suffered by the portable and openable package during transport, and the elevated cooking temperature of the food contained therein, cause annoying and unwanted spills of food substances (generally mushrooms, melted mozzarella and so on) on the inner face of the aforesaid first base portion (or bottom) of the support casing itself which inevitably wet, soak and damage the involved portion of the support casing of the portable package, even to the point of adhering thereto and deforming it significantly, with all the inconveniences for the customer or the deliveryman that this entails during the transporting step and the subsequent opening step for the consumption of the take-away food.

[0008] Thus, the present invention aims to overcome the above-described drawbacks of the known art.

[0009] In particular, it is main purpose of the invention to provide a portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food which preserves intact the constructional material making (or manufacturing or conception or composition) and the organoleptic and thermal features of the take-away food temporally introduced therein, or which at least better preserves them for a longer time as compared to equivalent portable and openable packages of the known type.

[0010] In the cognitive sphere of such a first purpose, it is task of the invention to provide a portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food which allows the final customer to consume and enjoy food in an almost optimal condition, almost as if it was directly served on the plate as it is the case in a public store (for instance, a restaurant or a pizzeria), and in any case in a more pleasant state on the palate and, therefore, better satisfying the requests of the final customer.

[0011] It is another task of the present invention to manufacture a portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food, generally cooked and warm, which maintains the temperature of the food unaltered more effectively and for a longer time as compared to what occurs with packages of the prior art which are comparable thereto.

[0012] It is a last but not least purpose of the present invention to indicate a portable package for containing and transporting cooked take-away food which, contrarily to what is constantly found in the prior art, avoids the harmful effects deriving, on the one hand, from the unavoidable uncontrolled movements which are unintentionally transmitted to the portable package during transport and which cause a certain dispersion of semi-solid and / or liquid ingredients contained in the transported food and, on the other hand, from the high temperatures of the transported food.

[0013] Within such a purpose, it is task of the invention to devise a portable package for containing and transporting take-away food which, when the food is placed therein, it is capable of preventing the deterioration or the even partial deformation of the support casing (in particular, of the first base portion thereof), if not in absolute terms, at least to a much more significant extent as compared to the similar portable and openable packages of the prior art.

[0014] The aforesaid purposes are achieved by means of a portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food as in the appended claim 1, to which reference is made and which is not reported in this section for the sake of brevity of description.

[0015] Further detailed technical features of the portable and openable package of the invention for containing and transporting take-away food are described in the dependent claims.

[0016] The aforesaid claims, hereinafter specifically and concretely defined, are intended as an integral part of the present description.

[0017] Advantageously, the portable package of the invention for containing and transporting take-away food (the conventional carton for take-away food, in particular, for pizzas) keeps the constructional concept thereof intact and the organoleptic and thermal features of the food contained therein unchanged in almost absolute or at least somehow better terms as compared to similar portable packages of the prior art.

[0018] This is by virtue of the fact that the box-shaped portable package of the invention includes a laminar coating sheet made of non-stick baking paper and stably coupled, through gluing means, to at least one part of the inner face of the first base portion and / or of the inner surface of the second covering portion.

[0019] In essence, therefore, the laminar coating sheet which makes the portable and openable package of the invention innovative remains hidden and is always in contact with (and / or facing) the food contained therein, when the portable package itself is in a closed condition and the foldable support casing belonging thereto takes the operating position.

[0020] As a result, again advantageously, the take-away food contained in the portable package of the invention retains the taste features thereof almost intact, thus allowing the end customer a better consumption as compared to what is allowed by the known equivalent portable packages.

[0021] Equally advantageously, the portable package of the invention for containing and transporting take-away food has a lower degree of deterioration as compared to the portable packages of the known type since the laminar coating sheet of the first base portion, on which the cooked and warm food rests, disposes and absorbs any liquid spills coming from the food without particular or immediate negative consequences on the structural integrity of the foldable cardboard casing.

[0022] Said purposes and advantages, as well as other ones which will emerge throughout the disclosure, will become more apparent from the following description, related to a preferred embodiment of the portable and openable package of the invention for containing and transporting cooked take-away food, given by way of indicative and non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: figure 1 shows an assonometric view of the portable and openable package of the invention in the conventional use or closed condition, during the transport of the take-away food; figure 2 shows a first assonometric view of the portable and openable package of figure 1 in the conventional non-use or open condition, while it is, for example, placed at an oven of a take-away pizza shop, ready to receive the freshly cooked pizza; figure 2a shows a view of figure 2 according to the cross-section plane IIa-IIa; figure 3 shows a second assonometric view of the portable and openable package of figure 1 in the conventional non-use or open condition; figure 4 shows an assonometric view of the portable and openable package of figure 1 in an intermediate semi-open (or semi-closed) condition.

[0023] The portable and openable package of the invention for containing, storing and transporting especially cooked and warm take-away food (or food items) is shown in figures 1 and 2 where it is globally numbered with 1.

[0024] As it can be seen, the portable and openable package 1 comprises a support casing 2 made of cardboard for food use and provided first and foremost, although not exclusively, with a first base (or bottom) portion 3 and a second covering portion 4 separated from each other through weakening means, indicated by 5 as a whole, which make such portions 3, 4 mutually foldable so that the support casing 2 takes at least a rest position, in which an inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 and an inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4 are substantially mutually coplanar and the portable package 1 extends substantially flat and is in the conditions shown in figures 2-4, i.e., opening, non-use or transport from the producer (box factory) to the public store (takeaway pizzeria) where it is intended to be used to accommodate cooked or otherwise prepared take-away food; an operating position, in which the inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4 faces the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 from above and the portable package 1 is in the conditions shown in figure 1, i.e., closed and used to cover, enclose, store or protect one or more take-away food items temporarily arranged on the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3.

[0025] According to the invention, the box-shaped portable package 1 includes a laminar coating sheet 6 made of non-stick baking paper, suitable for cooking, stably coupled through gluing means, numbered with 7 as a whole and seen in the detail of figure 2a, in this case to the entire inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 and also to the entire inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4 so that the laminar coating sheet 6 is, on the one hand, in contact with, and on the other, facing (or facing towards), the food accommodated on the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3.

[0026] In summary, the laminar coating sheet 6 remains in view when the support casing 2 made of cardboard takes the rest position, while it remains hidden from view and in direct or indirect contact with food (not shown for simplicity) when the support casing 2 made of cardboard takes the operating position.

[0027] In particular, the laminar coating sheet 6 is single-sided siliconized, since such a laminar sheet 6 comprises silicone material only on a second side face 6b facing outwards and opposite to a first side face 6a of the laminar sheet 6 which, in the specific case being described, is therefore directly in contact with the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 and / or with the inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4.

[0028] It is also reiterated that in the preferred but non-binding case described herein, the laminar coating sheet 6 is a monolithic body which completely overlaps both the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 as well as the inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4.

[0029] Furthermore, in other advantageous but not limiting embodiments, not shown in the following drawings, of the portable and openable package for containing, storing and transporting take-away food of the present invention, the laminar coating sheet can also be stably coupled to an inner part of a plurality of delimiting side plates (indicated by 8 in the accompanying figures) coupled to the side edges 3b, 3c and 3d of the first base portion 3 through auxiliary weakening means (indicated by 9 in the accompanying figures and of the same type as the weakening means 5), adapted to make the delimiting side plates 8 foldable with respect to the first base portion 3.

[0030] Preferably but not necessarily, the laminar coating sheet 6 has a basis weight with a value in the range of 50 - 90 g / sqm.

[0031] Even more preferably, the basis weight of the laminar sheet 6 takes a value in the range 52 - 78 g / sqm.

[0032] In addition, the laminar coating sheet 6 presents a thickness with a value in the range of 50 - 100 µm.

[0033] After various experimental tests, the applicant of the present invention has discovered that, for example, a precise preferred basis weight value of the laminar coating sheet 6 is equal to 55 g / sqm when it takes a thickness of 67 µm, while, in a another preferred solution, the laminar sheet 6 has a basis weight equal to 75 g / sqm and a thickness equal to 95 µm: these executive solutions have proved to offer an excellent yield as compared to the stated purposes of the invention.

[0034] The non-stick baking paper with which the laminar coating sheet 6 is made is waterproof, anti-grease (or resistant to fats), anti-humidity and produced with raw cellulose fiber, without the addition of coloring substances.

[0035] In addition, the non-stick baking paper used in the portable carton 1 of the invention for warm food complies with standard 1935 / 2004 / EC and Italian Ministerial Decree no. 21 / 03 / 73.

[0036] In particular, the anti-grease property of the non-stick baking paper of the laminar sheet 6 allows the portable and openable package 1 of the invention to retain dirt to a somewhat lower extent (in an estimated percentage between 50% and 70%) as compared to the portable packages of a known type which are comparable thereto, to the point that it is possible to assume that, once employed and finished the use thereof, the portable and openable package 1 of the invention can be disposed of and recycled as paper rather than as dry waste as it is the case in the current state of the art.

[0037] With regard to the gluing means 7, preferably but suitably introduced above, they are uniformly distributed on the inner face 3a of the first base portion 3 and on the inner surface 4a of the second covering portion 4 of the foldable support casing 2 as well as only on the first side face 6a of the laminar coating sheet 6.

[0038] By way of preferred but not limiting example, the gluing means 7 comprise a biodegradable organic adhesive substance, mainly adapted to glue paper and cardboard also at an industrial level, for example in box factories.

[0039] More specifically, the aforesaid biodegradable adhesive substance is presented in the form of a protein-based paste and also does not have a chemical-physical effect which is harmful to human health and the environment.

[0040] Furthermore, the biodegradable adhesive substance of the gluing means 7 preferably used in the invention has a Brookfield viscosity equal to about 2,900 [mPa] s at 60°C, a boiling point equal to about 100°C, a pH value between 5.5 and 6.5 and is 100% water soluble.

[0041] As already mentioned, the present invention also relates to the use of non-stick baking paper as a material for supporting or preserving the cooking temperature of take-away food in the form of at least one laminar coating sheet 6 internally coupled to a support casing 2 made of cardboard for food use, in portable packages 1 for containing and transporting said take-away food.

[0042] By virtue of the description just provided, it is therefore understood that the portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food, as well as the use of non-stick baking paper as a support material for take-away food in a portable package, both of which are the subject of the present invention, achieve the purposes and reaches the advantages mentioned above.

[0043] The portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food, and the use of non-stick baking paper as a support material for take-away food in such a portable package, allow maintaining the fragrance and crunchiness of the food in a clearly better manner as compared to the portable packages of the known type, while avoiding the inevitable leaks of ingredients from the food itself from deteriorating, damaging or otherwise affecting, even only in terms of cleaning, the support casing which is kept intact until the final destination of the take-away food.

[0044] Upon execution, changes could be made to the portable and openable package of the invention for containing and transporting take-away food consisting, for example, of weakening means of different concept and different location with respect to those found in the accompanying figures.

[0045] In addition to this, in other constructive embodiments, not shown in the accompanying drawings, of the portable and openable package of the invention for containing and transporting take-away food, the laminar coating sheet can be stably coupled through gluing means only to a part of said inner face of the first base portion and of the inner surface of the second covering portion.

[0046] In addition, further embodiments of the portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food exclusively claimed herein, still not accompanied by explanatory figures, can provide for the laminar coating sheet to be stably coupled, through gluing means, to at least one part of the inner face only of the first base portion or at least one part of the inner surface only of the second covering portion, so that the laminar coating sheet is only in contact with, or only facing, the food, respectively, when the foldable support casing takes the operating position, which does not affect the general technical advantage provided by the present invention.

[0047] Finally, it is apparent that several other variations can be made to the to the portable and openable package for containing and transporting take-away food in hand, within the limited scope of the appended claims, just as it is apparent that any materials, shapes and sizes of the details shown can be used as required in the practical implementation of the invention, and can be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

[0048] Where the constructional features and techniques mentioned in the following claims are followed by reference signs or numerals, such reference signs were introduced for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims themselves, and therefore such reference signs have no limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example only by such reference signs.

Claims

1. Portable and openable package (1) for containing and transporting take-away food comprising: - a support casing (2) made of cardboard for food use and provided at least with a first base portion (3) and a second covering portion (4) separated from each other through weakening means (5) which make said portions (3, 4) mutually foldable so that said support casing (2) takes at least • a rest position, in which an inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and an inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4) are substantially mutually coplanar and said portable package (1) is in an open condition; • an operating position, in which said inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4) faces said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) from above and said portable package (1) is in a closed condition to cover one or more take-away food items temporarily arranged on said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3); - a laminar coating sheet (6) made of non-stick, waterproof, anti-grease, anti-humidity baking paper, adapted for cooking, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet (6) is produced with raw cellulose fiber, without the addition of coloring substances and is stably coupled to the entire said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and to the entire said inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4) through gluing means (7) applied to said entire inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and to said entire inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4), so that said laminar coating sheet (6) is in contact with, and / or faces, said food when said support casing (2) takes said operating position.

2. Package (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet (6) is single-sided siliconized comprising silicone material only on a second side face (6b) facing outwards and opposite to a first side face (6a) of said laminar sheet (6) directly in contact with said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and / or with said inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4).

3. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet (6) completely overlaps said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and / or said inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4).

4. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet (6) presents a basis weight of a value in the range of 50-90 g / sqm.

5. Package (1) according to claim 4, characterized in that said basis weight takes a value in the range of 52-78 g / sqm.

6. Package (1) according to claim 5, characterized in that said basis weight presents a value equal to 55 g / sqm.

7. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet (6) presents a thickness of a value in the range of 50-100 µm.

8. Package (1) according to claim 7, characterized in that said thickness has a value equal to 67 µm.

9. Package according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said laminar coating sheet is stably coupled to an inner part of a plurality of delimiting side plates, coupled to the side edges of said first base portion through auxiliary weakening means adapted to make said delimiting side plates foldable with respect to said first base portion.

10. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said gluing means (7) are uniformly distributed on said inner face (3a) of said first base portion (3) and / or on said inner surface (4a) of said second covering portion (4) of said support casing (2) and on a first side face (6a) of said laminar sheet (6).

11. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said gluing means (7) comprise a biodegradable organic adhesive substance.

12. Package (1) according to claim 11, characterized in that said biodegradable adhesive substance is in the form of a protein-based paste.

13. Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said biodegradable adhesive substance presents a Brookfield viscosity equal to about 2,900 [mPa] s at 60°C.

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