Packaged Food Product Vegetable Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Developing a high-quality, nutritious, and cost-effective packaged food product suitable for commercial production that maintains the freshness and organoleptic properties of vegetable components for extended periods, particularly for microwaveable omelet or egg-based entrées, is challenging due to issues like labor-intensive preparation, waste, and shelf-stability.
Innovation Solution
A packaged food product comprising a cup with sealed pouches containing blanched, acidified, and HPP-treated vegetable pieces, along with other ingredients like meats and cheeses, which are processed to maintain freshness for 75 to 90 days by blanching, acidifying, freezing, and high-pressure processing, ensuring the quality and nutritional content of the vegetables remains intact during storage and cooking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If vegetable components are processed and packaged for extended storage, then shelf life is improved, but organoleptic properties (taste, texture, color, aroma) deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The vegetable components undergo preliminary blanching, acidification, and HPP treatment before packaging. These preliminary actions prepare the vegetables by deactivating enzymes that cause quality degradation, adjusting pH to inhibit microbial growth, and applying high pressure to preserve cell structure. This preliminary processing enables extended shelf life while maintaining organoleptic properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies multiple parameter changes to preserve vegetable quality: temperature changes during blanching and HPP, pH modification through acidification, and pressure application during HPP treatment. These parameter changes create conditions that inhibit enzymatic and microbial degradation, allowing extended storage without compromising taste, texture, color, or aroma.
2Reliability
If manual dicing of vegetables is performed, then freshness and quality are improved, but labor intensity and preparation time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vegetables are pre-diced, blanched, acidified, and packaged in ready-to-use pouches before reaching the consumer. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for manual dicing and cooking at home, significantly reducing labor intensity and preparation time while maintaining quality through controlled processing conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The vegetable components are divided into separate, pre-prepared pouches that can be easily stored and assembled. This segmentation allows for efficient commercial production and home preparation, as the vegetables are already cut to size and prepared separately from other ingredients, enabling quick assembly without manual processing.
3Stability of the object's composition
If multiple processing steps (blanching, acidifying, freezing, HPP) are applied to vegetables, then shelf life and quality stability are improved, but process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The complex processing sequence is performed as preliminary actions during manufacturing. The vegetables are blanched, acidified, frozen, and HPP-treated in a controlled industrial setting before packaging. This consolidates the complexity into the manufacturing process rather than requiring complex home preparation, while ensuring quality stability through standardized procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple preservation techniques (blanching, acidification, freezing, HPP) are merged into a single integrated processing sequence. By combining these steps in a coordinated manner during manufacturing, the patent achieves superior quality stability without requiring consumers to replicate complex multi-step processing at home.
4Reliability
If vegetables are prepared fresh for each use, then organoleptic properties are maintained, but food waste and loss increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vegetables are pre-prepared and packaged in ready-to-use pouches that maintain quality during storage. This preliminary preparation allows consumers to use vegetables directly from the pouch without waste, as the proper quantities are pre-portioned and quality is maintained through controlled processing and packaging.
Solution Approach 2:
The vegetables are sealed in flexible pouches that preserve quality during extended storage. These pouches create a protective barrier that maintains organoleptic properties while allowing for easy storage and use, preventing food waste by ensuring vegetables remain fresh until needed.
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
The solution effectively maintains the taste, texture, and nutritional value of vegetable components for an extended period, allowing for efficient commercial production and consumer preparation of high-quality microwaveable egg-based dishes with minimal waste and labor.
Implementation Method 1
blanching the vegetable pieces for a predetermined period of time at a temperature effective to inhibit enzyme action detrimental to organoleptic properties, and to have an antimicrobial effect
Implementation Method 2
acidifying the vegetable pieces in acid media for a period of time sufficient to have a further antimicrobial effect without unacceptably affecting organoleptic properties
Implementation Method 3
freezing the vegetable pieces to a temperature of below -15°C (5°F) using an IQF technique
Implementation Method 4
subjecting the vegetables to an HPP process; wherein the process enables freshness of the vegetable pieces to be maintained in the sealed containers at refrigerated temperatures for 75 to 90 days
Data Source
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AI summary
A packaged food product (10) and methods of making and using it. In some embodiments the packaged food product may comprise a cup (20) containing multiple ingredients in sealed pouches (38) suitable for use in making an omelet or other egg-based entrees, with the cup being suitable for microwave cooking of an egg-based entree. The ingredients may include vegetable components that offer organoleptic properties similar to those of fresh vegetables after an extended period of time. Ideally, time required for processing, shipment, storage, etc., which may be, e.g., several weeks, may pass without unacceptable degradation of taste, texture, mouth feel, flavor, aroma, color, nutritional content or other important qualities. In some embodiments, the ingredients may also include additional components, such as, for example, one or more meats, and/or one or more varieties of cheese.