Portable thermal treatment and storage units for containing readily accessible food or beverage items and methods for thermally treating food or beverage items

Abstract

A portable thermal treatment and storage unit includes a housing with a thermal treatment chamber, and a support member secured to the housing and including a plurality of openings to receive and support food or beverage items such that a substantial portion of each of the food or beverage items is disposed within the housing chamber. Ports are disposed on at least one of the housing and support member. The ports provide a flow path between the chamber and an environment surrounding the unit to facilitate a flow of air into the housing, through the chamber, and out of the housing. The unit is insulated and configured to selectively open and close at least one port to limit or prevent the flow of air into the housing and through the chamber such that, when the at least one port is opened, the unit facilitates heat transfer between the flowing air and the food or beverage items supported by the support member so as to change the temperature of the food or beverage items. When the at least one port is closed, the unit insulates the food or beverage items to maintain the food or beverage items within a selected temperature range for a selected time period.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority from the following U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos.: 60 / 697,984, entitled “Refrigeration Unit for Food Service Portion Cups and Process Thereof”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; 60 / 697,985, entitled “Refrigeration Unit for Making Slush Beverages Without a Slush Machine, and Process Thereof”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; 60 / 697,986, entitled “Portable Refrigeration Unit With Ready Access”, and filed Jul. 12, 2005; and 60 / 702,298, entitled “Portable Insulation Unit for Partially Frozen Beverages With Ready Access”, and filed Jul. 26, 2005. The disclosures of these provisional patent applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention pertains to a portable unit for thermally treating and / or maintaining food or beverage items at desired temperatures for select periods of time. The present invention ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a portable thermal treatment and storage unit comprises a housing including a thermal treatment chamber, and a support member secured to the housing and including a plurality of openings to receive and support food or beverage items such that a substantial portion of each of the food or beverage items is disposed within the housing chamber. Ports are disposed on at least one of the housing and support member. The ports provide a flow path between the chamber and an environment surrounding the unit to facilitate a flow of air into the housing, through the chamber, and out of the housing. The unit is insulated and configured to selectively open and close at least one port to limit or prevent the flow of air into the housing and through the chamber such that, when the at least one port is opened, the unit facilitates heat transfer between the flowing air and the food or beverage items supported by the support member so as to change the temperature of the food or beverage items. When the at least one port is closed, the unit insulates the food or beverage items to maintain the food or beverage items within a selected temperature range for a selected time period.

[0019] In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the invention, a method of thermally treating food or beverage items comprises loading frozen food or beverage items in a unit such that a substantial portion of each food or beverage item is disposed within a chamber of the unit, and thermally treating the frozen food or beverage items by facilitating a flow of air from an environment surrounding the unit through the unit chamber, where the air is at a higher temperature than the frozen food or beverage items such that the frozen food or beverage items are warmed over a selected warming time period to form partially frozen food or beverage items at a selected temperature range that is higher than the temperature of the frozen food or beverage items. Upon achieving the selected temperature range for the partially frozen food or beverage items, the flow of air is limited or prevented through the unit chamber so as to maintain the partially frozen food or beverage items within the selected temperature range for a selected storage time period.

[0020] The units and corresponding methods of the present invention enhance point-of-sale foodservice operations by thermally treating food or beverage items while minimizing costs and labor associated with such foodservice operations. Most significantly, since the unit is configured to convert a frozen product into a slush or milkshake beverage product, the need for a slush or milkshake beverage machine in foodservice operations is eliminated altogether. Further, when utilizing the unit of the invention for providing slush or milkshake beverages, the unit eliminates the need for multiple slush or milkshake beverage machines disposed at different locations in order to ensure that the requisite volume of such beverages is available for consumption over a select time period. The unit of the present invention further requires no electrical energy or mechanical devices such as compressors to ensure effective refrigeration of food and beverage items.

Problems solved by technology

There are numerous drawbacks to the currently available refrigeration devices that are used for maintaining the food or beverage items in the desired state and at the desired temperatures for point-of-sale use.

In particular, refrigeration for display to consumers is typically expensive, and requires a lot of counter space or floor space as well as routine maintenance.

In addition, such machines are expensive, require periodic maintenance, require the replacement of parts that wear with use, and require periodic disassembly and reassembly for cleaning.

In addition, many foodservice operations offering food items such as slush beverages must serve relatively high numbers of customers in relatively short periods of time.

However, many of the models of slush machines in current use are limited in capacity to the amount of beverage product initially poured into the product reservoirs of the machine plus the small additional amount that can practicably be added to the machine and frozen to the desired consistency during the serving period.

As a result, such high-volume foodservice operations are unable to prepare and dispense from a single machine a sufficient amount of slush beverage in the allotted serving time.

Thus, multiple machines would be required to achieve the desired volume of slush beverage, which leads to increased equipment and maintenance costs for a particular foodservice operation.

Some foodservice operations attempt to overcome this problem by dispensing cups of slush beverage from the machine prior to the first period of service to customers, thereby creating capacity within the reservoirs of the machine for additional liquid beverage to be added with the result that it may freeze into the desired state in time for the first period of service to customers.

However, this approach is not very effective.

If stored at too cold a temperature, additional ice forms within the beverage, which renders it too viscous to be easily consumed.

In contrast, if the slush beverages are stored at too warm a temperature, the beverage will melt, which renders it less appealing to consumers.

It is not desirable to store dispensed slush beverage in the freezer of a typical foodservice operation, because such freezers generally maintain an interior temperature of 10° F.

Nor is it desirable to store dispensed slush beverage in the cooler or refrigerator of a typical foodservice operation, because such coolers and refrigerators generally maintain an interior temperature between about 35° F.

In addition, many foodservice operations with multiple serving lines or points of service outside the main cafeteria, lack the ability to transport cups of slush beverage from the slush machine to such locations that increase the opportunity for additional sales without risk of melting the beverage.

The problems posed by the inherent limitations of conventional food service preparation and / or cold storage devices such as slush machines can occur in a wide range of high-volume foodservice operations, including cafeterias (as noted above) and other foodservice sites operated within schools, colleges, office buildings, government buildings, convention centers, military feeding sites, stadiums, movie theaters, cruise ships, passenger trains, casinos, amusement parks, catered events, buffets, county fairs, and the like.

In particular, the above-noted problems associated with providing a high volume of slush beverages to children in school cafeterias based upon the use of conventional foodservice devices often results in the decision by schools to abandon the serving of slush beverages to students, despite the popularity of such beverages to students.

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