Compartmentalized Warming Tray With Sliding Cover for Food Palatability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pre-cooked foods lose palatability quickly, limiting their holding time in fast-food settings to around 15-20 minutes, which is contrary to common practice and results in food disposal, necessitating a method to extend the palatability of cooked food products.
Innovation Solution
A multi-level compartmentalized insert for a food holding cabinet with a slideable tray and cover that creates encapsulated environments for pre-cooked food products, allowing for sequential access and preservation of food items, maintaining their palatability over extended periods.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If pre-cooked food products are kept warm in a food holding cabinet, then they are ready for quick service, but they lose palatability after 15-20 minutes
Solution Approach 1:
The food holding cabinet is divided into multiple independent compartments, each capable of holding different food items separately. This segmentation allows selective access to individual compartments without exposing other food items to air, thereby maintaining palatability while enabling quick service of specific items.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs nested drawer structures where compartments are arranged in a hierarchical manner. The first compartment is accessible without opening the cabinet, the second compartment requires opening the first, and so on. This nesting allows selective access to maintain palatability of food items in deeper compartments while enabling quick retrieval of frequently ordered items.
2Area of stationary object
If multiple food items are kept in the same warming tray, then space is utilized efficiently, but all items are exposed to air when accessed
Solution Approach 1:
The storage space is segmented into multiple independent compartments that can be accessed sequentially. Each compartment maintains its own microenvironment, allowing food items to be stored in the same cabinet space without mutual contamination when accessed.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of arranging food items horizontally in a single tray where all are exposed simultaneously, the patent uses vertical stacking of compartments. This dimensional change allows efficient space utilization while maintaining independent access to each level, preserving palatability of items in deeper compartments.
3Speed
If the cabinet is opened frequently to access food items, then service speed is maintained, but all food items are exposed to air and lose palatability
Solution Approach 1:
The cabinet is segmented into multiple independently accessible compartments. Service personnel can access only the specific compartment containing the ordered item without opening the entire cabinet or exposing other food items to air, thereby maintaining palatability while preserving service speed.
Solution Approach 2:
Frequently ordered items are pre-positioned in the most accessible compartments (first compartment requiring no opening, second compartment requiring only opening of the first). This preliminary arrangement enables quick service without frequent full cabinet openings, reducing air exposure and maintaining palatability of less frequently accessed items.
Data Source
AI summary
An insert for a food holding cabinet provides multiple, individual food holding compartments, which can be operated as encapsulated environments. The insert is made from an elongated tray formed to have at least one food product holding compartment, which is formed at one end of the elongated tray. A slid-able is configured to be able slide back and forth and formed to have at least one additional food product holding compartment. A slid-able cover is configured to be able to slide in the elongated tray, over the slide-able cover. Multiple individual food holding compartments can be uncovered, one-at-a-time as need for food product arises.