Apparatus for selectively heating an individual food item in a

Abstract

A cabinet type enclosure, for refrigerating a plurality of food items on a plurality of specially configured meal trays has a plurality of thin, generally horizontal, fixedly mounted heater shelf members extending into the enclosed space from one side wall thereof. One or more covered containers of food to be heated are positioned on one side of the trays and are mounted on the trays slightly above the top surface of the tray and with their bottom surfaces in contact with heater plates on the heater shelf members. The meal trays have integral transverse abutment means which cooperate with portions of a container for hot food placed on the tray adjacent the abutment means for preventing longitudinal movement of the hot food container past the transverse abutment means by frictional contact of the container with the heater shelf as the tray is moved into or out of the enclosure and relative to the heater shelf along tray guides. The heater shelf members are preferably sufficiently narrow that they will terminate short of the transverse abutment means. Guide means, which may comprise elongated side runners on the bottoms of the containers and spaced complementary retaining ribs on the tray surface, prevent the containers from rotating as they are moved along the heater shelves. The apparatus is particularly useful for inflight feeding as well as for institutional feeding.