Compartmented Meal Packaging for Even Cooking and Food Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current food products, such as fast food and prepared meals, often lack nutritional value and are high in calories, salt, and fat, and they can be unevenly cooked, leading to quality issues like undercooked or overcooked components, and degradation during storage and reheating.
Innovation Solution
A cooking apparatus and food product system that allows for separate cooking and storage of different food items, using a variety of configurations like trays, bags, and films, which can be used in microwave or conventional ovens, enabling contemporaneous completion of food items and maintaining their integrity and quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If different types of food items are combined together for manufacturing, processing, and cooking, then convenience is improved, but cooking quality deteriorates due to uneven cooking times
Solution Approach 1:
The food product is divided into multiple separate compartments, each containing a different food item. This segmentation allows each food item to be cooked independently at its optimal rate, preventing undercooking or overcooking while maintaining the convenience of a single-packaging solution. The compartments are separated by heat-transfer members that enable thermal coupling during cooking.
Solution Approach 2:
Heat-transfer members (such as metal bridges or conductive structures) are introduced as intermediaries between the compartments. These intermediaries facilitate controlled thermal energy transfer from one compartment to another, allowing synchronized cooking of items with different cooking requirements while maintaining their physical separation.
2Productivity
If food items are processed together, then manufacturing efficiency is improved, but food item quality deteriorates due to over processing
Solution Approach 1:
Different food items are placed in separate compartments within the same packaging, allowing them to undergo different processing treatments (freezing, cooking, or room temperature storage) simultaneously without相互 interference. This maintains manufacturing efficiency while preserving the quality and texture of each individual food item.
3Ease of operation
If food items are stored together in a single package, then storage convenience is improved, but food item integrity deteriorates due to partial degradation and discoloration
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging is divided into separate compartments for different food items, each with its own lid or closure mechanism. This allows selective opening of only the required compartment, preventing exposure and degradation of other food items. Each compartment maintains the integrity and freshness of its contents while being stored together in a single convenient package.
4Ease of operation
If mixed contents are cooked or reheated, then convenience is improved, but cooking uniformity deteriorates with undercooked and overcooked components
Solution Approach 1:
Food items requiring different cooking times are placed in separate compartments. During cooking, each compartment can be processed independently or simultaneously with controlled heat transfer, ensuring that each food item reaches its optimal doneness without undercooking or overcooking adjacent items.
Solution Approach 2:
Different compartments are designed with specific thermal properties, insulation levels, or heat transfer characteristics tailored to the cooking requirements of each food item. This local optimization ensures uniform cooking results across diverse food types while maintaining a single-packaging convenience.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution provides high-quality, plateable, and convenient meals that allow consumers to customize their meals, ensuring even cooking, preventing degradation, and maintaining the nutritional value of individual food items, while being economical and compatible with existing cooking methods.
Implementation Method 1
a support portion for suspending a first food item above a heatable liquid that is at least partially perforated
Implementation Method 2
The cooking apparatus may be utilized in a microwave oven, a conventional oven, a convection oven, a combination oven, and/or a pan of boiling water on top of a stove
Implementation Method 3
The cooking apparatus may be utilized in a microwave oven
Implementation Method 4
a convection oven
Data Source
AI summary
A cooking apparatus facilitates cooking with a heated/boiling liquid of a food item by utilizing a cooking bag, a cooking tray, and/or a cooking film. A food product that utilizes the cooking apparatus and food items produces cooked food that may be plateable.