ADJUSTABLE FOOD CARTON

Abstract

An illustrated view of an improved food container for saving space when the food container is less than full is presented. The improved food container is useful for reducing an amount of storage space necessary to store the improved food container. Furthermore, the food product inside of the improved food container will have preservability because it will contain less air. The improved food container further is useful for providing an indication of the amount of food product remaining in the improved food container.

Description

PRIORITY

This utility application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/191,927, filed on May 22, 2021, the entirety is hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to food cartons. More particularly, it relates to a adjustable food carton.

BACKGROUND

A carton is a box or container usually made of paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box.

Although quite often shaped like a cuboid, it is not uncommon to find cartons lacking right angles and straight edges, as in a squround used for ice cream. Tetrahedrons and other shapes are available. Cartons with a hexagonal or octagonal cross section are sometimes used for specialty items.

Cartons for food products are convenient and useful for safe storage of food items. However, when items are removed from the carton, these cartons do not reduce in size. Thus, the less-filled carton continues to use and take up space in a cabinet, refrigerator and/or freezer. This is less than desirable. Furthermore, when a carton is less than full, the consumer cannot detect the amount of food product remaining in the carton without opening the carton.

Accordingly, and in light of the foregoing, it would be desirable to devise an improved food carton that is adjustable in size dependent on an amount of food product remaining in the food carton. It would be further advantageous that the improved food carton can further provide the amount of food product remaining in the food carton.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustrated view of a prior art food carton.

FIG. 2 is an illustrated view of an exemplary improved food carton.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The phrases “in one embodiment,” “in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. Such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. Such terms do not generally signify a closed list.

“Above,” “adhesive,” “affixing,” “any,” “around,” “both,” “bottom,” “by,” “comprising,” “consistent,” “customized,” “enclosing,” “friction,” “in,” “labeled,” “lower,” “magnetic,” “marked,” “new,” “nominal,” “not,” “of,” “other,” “outside,” “outwardly,” “particular,” “permanently,” “preventing,” “raised,” “respectively,” “reversibly,” “round,” “square,” “substantial,” “supporting,” “surrounded,” “surrounding,” “threaded,” “to,” “top,” “using,” “wherein,” “with,” or other such descriptors herein are used in their normal yes-or-no sense, not as terms of degree, unless context dictates otherwise.

Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. While embodiments are described in connection with the drawings and related descriptions, there is no intent to limit the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents. In alternate embodiments, additional devices, or combinations of illustrated devices, may be added to, or combined, without limiting the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art food carton 10 for storing of food product is presented. The food carton 10 has an outside 11, an inside 12, a top 13 and lid 14. The outside 11 of the food carton 10 has a picture 15, a logo 16, an indicator of flavor 17 and an expiration date 18.

The inside 12 of the food carton 10 contains one or more food products. The top 13 of the food carton 10 is open, thus allowing for access to the inside 12 of the food carton 10. By accessing the inside 12 of the food carton 10, a consumer may consume the food product, this consumption of the food product may be all of the food product or a portion of the food product.

The lid 14 is removably coupled to the top 13 of the food carton 10 allowing for the food product contained on the inside 12 of the food carton 10 to be safely stored.

The picture 15 on the outside 11 of the food carton 10 preferably describes in picture form the food product contained in the food carton 10. The logo 16 of the outside 11 of the food carton 10 preferably identifies a manufacturer or brand name of the manufacturer of the food product contained in the food carton 10.

The indicator of flavor 17 on the outside 11 of the food carton 10 generally identifies a flavor of the food product when the food product comes in one or more flavors or types. For example, if the food product is ice cream, then indicator of flavor 17 may indicate the flavor being rocky road, vanilla, chocolate, etc. When the food product is a potato chip, the indicator of flavor 17 may indicate rigged chips, bar-b-que chips, etc. When the food product is coffee, the indicator of flavor 17 may indicate, bold, Columbian decaffeinated, hazelnut, etc. As would be obvious to one of skill in the art, the food container 10 may contain any type of food product.

The expiration date 18 on the outside 11 of the food carton 10 generally identifies a date the food product is still considered to be safe to consume.

Moving now to FIG. 2, an illustrated view of an improved food container 100 for saving space when the food container 100 is less than full is presented. The improved food container 100 is useful for reducing an amount of storage space necessary to store the improved food container 100. The improved food container 100 further is useful for providing an indication of the amount of a food product 110 remaining in the improved food container 100. Furthermore, the food product 110 inside of the food improved food container 100 will have preservability because it will contain less air.

The improved food container 100 is preferably a squround shape, such as that used to package ice cream, however the shape may be any other shape, such as, but not limited to, square, rectangular, tetrahedron, etc. The food product 110 is preferably ice cream product, however other products are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, potato chips, coffee, crackers, etc.

The improved food container 100 has a lid 101, an upper section 102, a tear strip 103, an outside 104, a lower section 105 and an inside 106. The upper section 102 and the lower section 105 each have a top 107, 108 and a bottom 109, 111. The top 108 of the lower section 105 has a first sealing lip 112. The bottom 109 of the upper section 102 has a second sealing lip 113. The top 107 of the upper section 102 is preferably open. The inside 106 of the improved food container 100 is preferably open, thereby can store and access the food product 110 in the improved food container 100.

The tear strip 103 has a first end 114 and a second end 115. The first end 114 of the tear strip 103 is securely and removably coupled to the second sealing lip 113 of the bottom 109 of the upper section 102. The second end 115 of the tear strip 103 is securely and removably coupled to the first sealing lip 112 of the top 108 of the lower section 105.

Optionally, and or additionally, a middle 116 of the tear strip 103 has a tab 117. The tab 117 of the middle 116 of the tear strip 103 is useful for allowing an easy access to remove the tear strip 103 when the food container 100 has a reduced amount of food product 110 remaining on the inside 106 of the improved food container 100.

The outside 104 of the improved food container 100 has a plurality of level indicators 118, a logo 119, a product indicator 120 and a flavor indicator 121. The level indicators 118 provide an indication of the amount of food product 110 contained in the improved food container 100. The logo 119 indicates the brand name or food product in the improved food container 100. The product indicator 120 indicates the food product 110 in the improved food container 100. The product indicator 120 is preferably an icon or picture, however the product indicator may be a name of the food product.

The expiration date 122 on the outside 104 of the improved food container 100 generally identifies a date the food product is still considered to be safe to consume.

The lid 101 is coupled to the top 107 of the upper section 102 of the improved food container 100 when the improved food container 100 has food product in the upper section 102. When the improved food container 100 has only an amount that is contained in the lower section 105, the tear strip 103 is removed and the lid 101 is then removably coupled to the top 108 of the lower section 105 of the improved food container 100.

In the numbered clauses below, specific combinations of aspects and embodiments are articulated in a shorthand form such that (1) according to respective embodiments, for each instance in which a “component” or other such identifiers appear to be introduced (with “a” or “an,” e.g.) more than once in a given chain of clauses, such designations may either identify the same entity or distinct entities; and (2) what might be called “dependent” clauses below may or may not incorporate, in respective embodiments, the features of “independent” clauses to which they refer or other features described above.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specific exemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies are representative of more general processes and/or devices and/or technologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filed herewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.

The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features of other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. An improved food container for reducing storage space when the improved food container is less than full, the food container comprising:

an inside, the inside having a food product;

an outside;

a lid;

an upper section, the upper section having a first end and a second end, wherein the second end of the upper section have a second sealing lip, wherein the lid being removably coupled to the first end of the upper section; and

a lower section, the lower section having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end of the lower section having a first sealing lip, the lid being removably coupled to the first end of the lower section when the tearing strip has been removed.

2. The food container of claim 1, further comprising: the sealing strip having a tab, the tab being for easy removal of the tearing strip.

3. The food container of claim 1, wherein the outside of the food container having a product indicator.

4. The food container of claim 3, wherein the product indicator is a picture.

5. The food container of claim 4, wherein the picture is ice cream.

6. The food container of claim 1, further comprising: a plurality of food product levels, wherein the food product levels are for an indication of the amount of food product in the upper section of the food container.

7. The food container of claim 1, wherein the outside of the food container having a flavor indicator on the lower section.

8. The food container of claim 1, wherein the food container has a squround shape.

9. The food container of claim 1, where the food product is ice cream.

10. The food container of claim 1, wherein the upper section of the food container has a logo.

11. The food container of claim 10, wherein the logo identifies a manufacturer of the food product.

12. The food container of claim 1, wherein the lower section has an indication of flavor.

13. The food container of claim 12, wherein the indication of flavor being rocky road.

14. The food container of claim 1, wherein the upper section has a plurality of tabs.

15. The food container of claim 14, wherein the tabs indicating the amount of food product in the food container.

16. The food container of claim 15, wherein when the tabs indicate that no food product is contained in the upper section, the tab of the tear strip is pulled to reduce the size of the food container.

17. The food container of claim 16, wherein the lid is removed from the top of the upper section of the food container.

18. The food container of claim 17, wherein the lid is removably coupled to the top of the lower section.

19. The food container of claim 1, wherein the food product is coffee.

20. The food container of claim 1, wherein the food product is potato chips