Sweetheart Plastics, Inc.

Fort Howard Cup Corporation

Anthony C Mack

George K Shumrak

David N Shore

Robert A Phillips

David Shore

A disposable plastic lid including a depending skirt formed with stacking, sealing and snap rings, and a pull tab at the lowermost edge of the skirt. The lid is formed such that the plastic is uniaxially oriented in a first direction and the tab is located to initiate a tear in a second direction transverse to the first direction. Tearing is also facilitated by notching the pull tab at either end thereof, and by providing a surface projection interrupting the snap ring in an area immediately adjacent the pull tab.

Tear open lid

Combined eutectic pack and food tray cover

Food tray cover

An energy saving food serving system for rethermalization of the food and for delivery prepared meals to locations remote from the place of preparation, such as to patients to hospitals and nursing homes. The system includes a mobile cart having its own rechargeable power pack that is utilized to propel the cart. The cart has separate bays, each having a tier of racks for carrying individual food serving trays. Each tray has one or more thermally isolated heat transfer devices which are selectably energized when the tray is in place on a rack in the cart. Preferably, each tray has a pair of heaters referred to herein as plate and bowl heaters and adapted to be operated by control means in either a continuous mode of operation or a rethermalization mode of operation. In the rethermalization mode of operation to manually selected heaters associated with trays in all bays are operated for a predetermined period of time of, for example, 25 minutes, to rethermalize the food from a frozen or at least cold state to a temperature on the order of 170.degree. F.-180.degree. F. Thereafter, the heaters in predetermined bays are operated cyclically to hold the food at the desired temperature range. During the initial predetermined period of the rethermalization mode the heaters may be operated on a continuous 'on' basis or may be operated cyclically but preferably at a higher duty cycle and in the maintaining state which follows the predetermined period.

Food serving system

A food serving system for delivering prepared meals to locations remote from the point of preparation, such as to patients in hospitals and nursing homes, which includes a mobile cart having its own low voltage rechargeable power pack that may be utilized to make the cart self powered. The cart has a tier of racks for carrying removable, generally flat, individual, food serving trays. The trays may be disposable or reusable. Each tray is provided with one or more thermally isolated heat transfer devices which may be energized when the tray is placed on a rack in the cart. The trays are constructed to carry conventionally styled, removable dishes, bowls, cups, etc., that may be either disposable or reusable, and the dishes and bowls containing foods to be maintained at a reduced or elevated temperature are placed on the heat transfer devices. The heat transfer devices are intended to maintain the food in the dishes and bowls at the desired serving temperature for extended periods without affecting the temperature of the foods and beverages in other dishes, bowls and cups on the trays, so that when the cart is moved about the hospital they remain at their desired temperatures and the individual trays may be brought to the patients with the different foods and beverages at their separate selected temperatures.

Food service method

Food serving tray

A portable tray warming unit comprising a casing having at least one tray supporting rack, trays to be supported and received upon said rack, and electrical terminal means for interconnecting the tray warming unit with an external electrical source of energy. The casing of this tray warming unit has dimensions and weight small enough so that the unit may be easily carried about or lifted. The upper and lower surfaces of the casing lie in planes parallel to each other so that one unit may be stacked on top of another. To further facilitate such stacking the bottom surface of a unit has protrusions extending downwardly from the bottom and these protrusions correspond to indentations in the top surface of the casing. This correspondence allows the protrusions of one unit to fit into the indentations of the unit on which it is stacked thereby assuring a non-slidable connection between the two units.

Growing community of inventors

North Reading, MA, United States of America

Anthony C Mack