FOOD STORAGE AND COOKING BAG AND ASSOCIATED HOLDER AND DISPENSING ELEMENT

• US 3,819,089 A
• Filed: 08/11/1971
• Issued: 06/25/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: John K. Scales
• Original Assignee: John K. Scales
• Inventors: Scales, John K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Reeves, Robert B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Skaggs, Jr., H. Grant
• Application Number:
  US05/170,791
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: 222/190,95,541,493,181,65 150/3 99/77.1,171H 248/95
• US Class Current: 222/95
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 81/3415 specially adapted to be heated in hot water, e.g. boil pouches dissolvable packages B65D65/46; packaging articles or materials intended to be mixed or infused with a liquid B65D85/808

Abstract

A food storage and cooking bag of conventional lay-flat tubular construction is heat sealed at one end to form a handle, V-shaped notches being formed immediately adjacent the handle along the opposite longitudinal edges of the bag. A tearable seal is formed at the opposite end of the bag to permit vacuum sealing of the contents of the bag and subsequent tearing open of that end of the bag for ease of removal of the contents. A bag holding and dispensing element includes a central portion having an elongated slot through which the upper, or handle, end of the bag is inserted for assembling the bag with the element, and a pair of arms formed integrally with the central portion and extending outwardly therefrom. The arms engage the upper edges of the side walls of a cooking vessel containing boiling water into which the food containing portion of the bag is immersed, the element maintaining the handle portion of the bag accessible for ease of removal thereof from the vessel when cooking is completed. Thereafter, the tearable seal is removed to open the end of the bag, the bag then being grasped by the handle and withdrawn through the slot of the element or, equivalently, the element being slid toward the open end of the bag, to extrude, or dispense, the contents of the bag for serving.

Claims

1. A combination of a holding and dispensing element and a food storage and cooking bag intended to be immersed in a heated liquid within a container for cooking the food contents thereof, comprising:

an elongated element having a central portion and integrally formed arms extending from the opposite ends of that central portion, said arms being adapted to be received over the upper edges of the side walls of the container and said arms including depending lips at the extremities thereof to maintain said arms in engagement over the upper edges of the side walls, and said central portion being enlarged relatively to, and depending from, said arms, said food storage and cooking bag comprising;

opposed sheets of plastic material joined along the opposite longitudinal edges thereof, a plurality of lateral seals extending across a first end of said bag to define a handle at said first and thus upper end of said bag, and a tearable seal along at least the lower end of said bag, said bag further including a pair of indentations in the opposite longitudinal edges thereof adjacent the upper end to define a reduced neck portion of said bag beneath the handle defined by the lateral seals, said central portion of said element including a slot of a length approximately equal to the width of the reduced neck portion of the bag and of a width slightly in excess of the thickness of said opposed sheets of the bag, said bag being received at its upper end through the said slot and said element engaging the bag in the reduced neck portion thereof whereby when said arms of said element are received over the upper edges of the container side walls, the bag is suspended beneath the element for immersion in the liquid while the bag handle remains accessible above the liquid, said element and bag handle thereby facilitating removal of the bag from the container, said tearable seal, when torn, opening the lower end of the bag and said bag handle facilitating grasping of the bag for withdrawal through said slot, said element thereby extruding the contents of the bag from the opened lower end thereof and said slot of said element further including enlarged portions at opposite ends thereof to accommodate the bag material in the portions of a width exceeding that of the reduced neck portion to facilitate the said withdrawal of the bag through the slot.

2. An element as recited in claim 1, wherein said slot is formed in said element to be disposed in a generally horizontal plane when said element is positioned in use on a container.

3. An element as recited in claim 1, wherein said slot is formed in said element to be disposed in a generally vertical plane when said element is positioned in use on said container.

4. An element as recited in claim 1, wherein there is provided a strengthening rib along each of the exterior edges thereof.