This invention relates to a food portioning aid for use when placing a particular food or two or more different food types on a plate. This invention has particular, but not exclusive application, to a food portioning aid for limiting the amount of food to be served, particularly where different food types are to be served or prepared to be served on, for example, a plate. Accordingly the aid, when used regularly, may assist persons to lose and/or manage their weight, learn or adopt improved eating habits and/or generally improve to a healthier lifestyle. However, it will be appreciated that this invention may have other applications, such as a means for measuring quantities of food items or food portions, including ingredients used when cooking and/or for managing and forecasting grocery expenditures to assist with domestic budgeting .

There are many people who weigh more than the optimum weight for a person of the same gender, height and age. Factors that may contribute to a person being overweight include the daily consumption of more calories than are expended by a person's body as a result of exercise and daily living, as well as poor nutrition, such as the consumption of foods that contain a high proportion of fats, sugar and/or other carbohydrates as a result of different eating habits.

Therefore, persons wishing to lose weight often chose to eat less food and/or eat foods that contain only a small amount of calories. However, it has been observed that many persons struggle to lose weight, even when they do eat foods that contain fewer calories, because dieting is neither a long term solution nor a lifestyle. People do not normally

trVAOHOl appreciate the relationship between the size of the food portions they choose to eat and the number of calories that the food portions contain. This may be because many persons have become accustomed to eating large quantities of food in a single sitting and because most dinner plates are large enough to allow persons to place thereon more food than the person ought to consume in order to manage their weight.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a food portioning aid which alleviates at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art and which will be reliable and efficient in use.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention relates to a food portioning aid for use when placing food items on a plate, said food portioning aid including:

food containment means including a continuous peripheral wall, or a plurality of interconnected peripheral walls;

dividing means for dividing the space enclosed by said continuous peripheral wall, or said interconnected peripheral walls, said dividing means including a dividing wall, and

engagement means for enabling the releasable engagement of said dividing wall with said continuous peripheral wall or at least one of said interconnected peripheral walls, whereby in use said continuous peripheral wall, or said interconnected peripheral walls, when placed on a plate shall define a food containment area and whereby said dividing wall shall divide the food containment area into two discrete portions, and whereby different types of foods may be substantially contained within the boundaries provided by said dividing wall and either said continuous peripheral side wall or one or more of said interconnected peripheral walls. The food containment means and the dividing wall may be constructed from any suitable material. For example, the food containment means and the dividing means may be constructed from wood, metal or plastics materials. The engagement means may include co-operating slots cut into the peripheral walls and the dividing wall. Further, there may be provided multiple engagement means thereby enabling users to vary the position of the dividing wall relative to the continuous peripheral wall or the interconnected peripheral walls, which in turn will alter the relative size of the two portions that make up the food containment area.

In another aspect, this invention relates to a method of weight control, said method including:

providing a plate and a food portioning aid of the type hereinbefore described;

placing the food portioning aid on the plate such that the dividing wall and either said continuous peripheral side wall, or one or more of said interconnected peripheral walls, defines two portions of a food containment area on the plate, and

placing two different foods on the plate such that they at least partially cover a respective one of the two portions of the food containment area, and are separated from one another by the dividing wall.

Preferably the quantity of food covering the food containment area contains sufficient calories to meet the user's needs, but not an excessive amount of calories that may contribute to the user gaining weight rather than maintaining a desired weight or losing weight. Further, the two different foods may consist of two different food types, such as vegetables and meats.

Further, depending upon the desired food balance, the size of the two portions may the same, or one may be larger than the other. According to one embodiment of the invention, this may be achieved by choosing different engagement means from a range of possible engagement means.

In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and wherein:

Figs. 1 and 2 collectively show a pictorial view of a food portioning aid according to the invention;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of the food portioning aid shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in assembled form;

Figs. 4 and 5 collectively show a pictorial view of an alternative food portioning aid according to the invention, and

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view of the alternative food portioning aid shown in Figs. 4 and 5 in assembled form.

Figs. 1 to 3 show a food portioning aid 10 that includes food containment means 11 and dividing means 12. The food containment means 11 includes a thin continuous peripheral wall 13 having a continuous, substantially planar, upper edge 14 and an opposing, substantially continuous, substantially co-planar, lower edge 15 and forms a substantially circular enclosure . The peripheral wall 13 includes a plurality of slots 16 which extend inward from the lower edge 15 towards the upper edge 14 part way across the width of the peripheral wall in a direction that is generally perpendicular to a plane containing said lower edge. The slots 16 are substantially equally spaced around the periphery of the peripheral wall 13.

The dividing means 12 includes a dividing wall 17 that is both substantially flat and plate like, substantially in the form of an elongate strip. The dividing wall 17 includes a co- planar upper edge 18 and an opposing, co-planar, lower edge 19, as well as opposing end portions 20 and 21. The dividing wall 17 further includes three equally spaced slots 22, 23 and 24 cut in each end portion 20 and 21, said slots extending from the upper edge 18 towards the lower edge 19 part way across the width of the dividing wall and in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to said upper edge.

The slots 22 form a first set of slots. The slots 23 form a second set of slots, and the slots 24 form a third set of slots. These sets of slots may be distinguished from one another by suitable indicia, such as different letters, symbols, numerals and/or colours. The dividing wall 17 may be releasably connected to the continuous peripheral wall 13 by the inter-engagement of selected slots of the dividing wall with selected slots of the peripheral wall. Specifically, each one of any one of the sets of slots 22, or 23, or 24 are engaged with a respective one of the slots 16 of the peripheral wall. The slots are of a complementary length such that the lower edges of the peripheral wall and dividing wall lie substantially in the same plane when so engaged, the upper edges of the peripheral wall and the dividing wall also lying substantially in the same plane. With reference to Fig. 3, when slots 22 engage with slots 16, the dividing wall 17 serves to divide the volume enclosed by the continuous peripheral wall 13 into two substantially equal portions. When slots 23 engage with slots 16, and when slots 24 engage with slots 16, the dividing wall 17 serves to divide the volume enclosed by the continuous peripheral wall 13 into two portions of differing sizes. The width of the slots is selected to provide firm engagement of the dividing wall with the peripheral wall so that the food portioning aid may be readily removed from a plate of food once served in the portions determined by the food portioning aid.

Figs. 3 to 6 show the alternative food portioning aid 100 having similar features to those of the food portioning that illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, except that the peripheral wall is square or rectangular in plan. The alternative food portioning aid 100 includes food containment means 111 and dividing means 112.

The food containment means 111 includes four, thin, interconnected peripheral walls 113 which form a square shaped enclosure. The peripheral walls 113 each have a co-planar upper edge 114 and an opposing co-planar lower edge 115.

The walls 113 each include a plurality of slots 116 cut therein which extend from the lower edge 115 towards the upper edge 114, and in a direction that is generally perpendicular to a plane containing said lower edge. These slots 116 are equally spaced along the length of each wall 113.

The dividing means 112 includes a dividing wall 117 that is both substantially flat and plate like. The dividing wall 117 includes a co-planar upper edge 118 and an opposing, co- planar, lower edge 119, as well as opposing end portions 120 and 121. Each end portion 120 and 121 includes a slot 122 formed therein, said slots extending from the upper edge 118 towards the lower edge 119, and in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to said upper edge. The dividing wall 117 may be releasably connected to two opposing walls 113 by the inter- engagement of the slots 122 with a respective one of the slots 116. When this is done, the lower edges 115 and 119 shall lie substantially in the same plane. Also, the upper edges 114 and 118 lie substantially in the same plane.

With reference to Fig. 6, when slots 122 engage with slots 116', the dividing wall 117 serves to divide the volume enclosed by the four peripheral walls 113 into two substantially equal portions. When the slots 122 engage with the slots 116'', the dividing wall 117 divides the volume enclosed by the four peripheral walls 113 into two portions of differing sizes.

The food portioning aid 10 and the alternative food portioning aid 100 may be used to limit the quantity of food and the balance of food types served on a plate. For example, when the food portioning aid 10 is placed on a plate such that lower edges 15 and 19 rest upon an upper, food supporting, surface of the plate, the area on the upper surface of the plate enclosed by said continuous side wall 13 defines a food containment area. The dividing wall 17 further divides the food containment area into two portions.

When serving food, the food portioning aid in accordance with the invention is placed on a plate prior to serving food thereon. Food items may then be placed in the food containment areas, the quantity of food elements being determined by area circumscribed by the peripheral and dividing walls. The food containment area is selected such that the quantity of food so placed does not exceed the user's desired, predetermined, amount of calories. Further, to assist the user to maintain a balanced diet, a different food type may be placed within a respective portion of the food containment area. For example, a meat portion may be constrained to be smaller than a vegetable portion. Thus, by using the food portioning aid as described, the tendency to overeat arising from too much food placed on a plate, or to have inappropriate proportions of food types, may be avoided. It will also be appreciated that the food portioning aid may be provided in a number of sizes. For example, the food containment area associated with a food portioning aid intended to be used by an adult male will be much larger than the food containment area associated with a food portioning aid intended to be used by a child. Further, to help distinguish one type of food portioning aid from another, the different food portioning aids may be colour coded. It will be seen that the use of the food portioning aid in accordance with the invention requires no diet to be followed due to specific portioning of daily food requirements. Also, there is no requirement for complete or partial exclusion of food ingredients due to food portioning flexibility accommodated by the food portioning aid according to the invention.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing description has been given by way of example of invention and that all other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as described herein and defined by the appended claims.