This invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to packaging and is particularly concerned with improvements in packaging that can be accessed in use by the provision of a tear strip.

Loosely packaged snack items such as crisps and nuts are supplied in packages that are opened by either pulling apart a seam at one end portion of the package or by tearing off a corner assisted by a small cut in a seam which helps the material that the package is made from to tear or rip across a corner.

Crisp and nut snacks are often consumed in a situation, tike a public house, where the snack item might have been specifically purchased by someone with a mind to sharing the contents with the people they are with.

At home, if anyone is offering crisps or nuts to family and/or guests, one will open the package and transfer the contents to a bowl or similar open topped vessel. This allows anyone to see the items on offer and to pick out the quantity that they want with their fingers.

When not at home and you open a package of crisps, for example, by separating the seam at the top of the package and offer them around, the view of the contents is seen for a brief moment before being obscured by the hand as you reach into the package to pick out one or more crisps; obscuring the contents makes it more difficult to take the quantity required.

The case with nuts is that the purchaser, after having torn a corner off a package, either offers to pour part of the contents into your hand or you are given the package and pour a quantity yourself. This pouring action is not easily controlled and, therefore, a greater or lesser amount of the nuts is delivered into ones hand.

Both of these ways of accessing the contents of a package means that you may get salt and/or oil over your hands. The present invention solves the problems met hitherto by creating a package that may be opened to enable access to the contents thereof in a most efficient way that allows anyone to pick exactly what portion of the contents they require.

The opening allows the package to be held in the hand or placed on a surface so that, in both cases, the package acts as a bowl. It will allow snacks to be packaged in different size packages appropriate to the number of persons that are to share the contents thereof. Such usage would be especially useful in public houses and social clubs and the like venues.

Similar packages may be used for many other applications where the contents of the package need to be easily seen and accessed as opposed to the packages that are presently available and only open at an end of a package that is quite deep compared to its width and so prevents access in the same way as conventional crisp packages.

The other applications for the novel packages of the present invention include: pick and mix sweets; fish and chips and anything else that goes with chips; hot pre-cooked food items as sold in supermarkets, like roast chicken legs and sausages; consumable products for the building trade, e.g. screws, nuts and plumbing accessories.

Thus, the present invention conveniently provides a package for products as hereinbefore defined, the package comprising at least two opposed flexible layers between which, when the package is in use, products are enclosed, characterised in that the package is rectangular in plan, or substantially so, and at least one of the opposed layers thereof comprises a band of reduced thickness extending diagonally across the package between opposite corners of the package thereby providing means whereby the package may be opened to provide access to the products therein.

Preferably, the band of reduced thickness is formed as a laser scored seam that extends diagonally across the package between opposite comers thereof as aforesaid. Conveniently, the opposed flexible layers are comprised of materials that may be sealed together by adhesives or heat-sealing of peripheral edge portions and other overlapping edge portions thereof and more conveniently the materials are chosen from a range comprising Oriented Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate and waxed paper.

In a further preferred arrangement provided by the present invention, the package comprises a pull tab located at one corner of the rectangular package adjacent one end portion of the band of reduced thickness whereby, when the package is to be opened and the products therein accessed, the pull tab is pulled along the band of reduced thickness towards an opposite corner of the package, the package being scored along said band of reduced thickness to reveal the products therein.

In a further preferred embodiment provided by the present invention the package comprises sealing means whereby the package may be resealed if required, the sealing means conveniently comprising an adhesive coated elongate flap portion that extends along and adjacent to the band of reduced thickness so that when a package is to be resealed the flap is positioned overlying the edge portions of the band of reduced thickness to reseal the package and the elongate flap may be provided with a removable layer that protects the adhesive coat of the elongate flap before usage.

In another preferred embodiment provided by the present invention, the package further comprises an inner layer of card that provide added support to an opened package, which layer of card may conveniently be corrugated cardboard, waxed paper or the like.

There now follows by way of example of the present invention a detailed description that is to be read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a typical loosely packed snack product package with the position of the new opening; A-

Figure 2 is a front perspective view of a typical loosely packed snack product package with the new opening having been made and the contents accessible;

Figure 3 illustrates laser scored lines that may be formed in a package blank;

Figure 4 illustrates a package of the present invention being used for fish and chips/hot food placed on a flat surface;

Figure 5 illustrates a hand held package of the present invention being used for fish and chips;

Figure 6 is a plan view of a card insert used with a package of the present invention; and,

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the card of Figure 6 when used in a package for fish and chips.

Figure 1 shows a typical package comprising two seams 2 and 3 formed at opposite ends for use in sealing the products therein when in use. The seals 2 and 3 are also where you would normally split a conventional package apart in order to access the contents.

You choose one of the seams 2 or 3 and by pulling the chosen seam apart you open the package. The reference 1 indicates a seam where a new opening provided by the present invention will be formed in the package, which seam 1 is made using an appropriate method depending upon the material from which the package is made.

There are a number of different ways of enabling the package to be opened. In Figure 2 the reference numeral 4 indicates where a tear point might be on the seam 1 that, when torn, would follow the seam 1 that may be scored using a laser means. Another possible method would be to utilise a ribbon of material, not shown, that is stuck to the package following the line of the seam 1 and having a pull-tab, also not shown, at the end of the seaml. A consumer can pull the tab and the material stuck to the package along the line of the seam 1 tears through the package to create the required opening for access to the contents thereof..

Thus, Figure 2 shows a typical snack package, which is opened along the seam 1 so that you can see the contents through the new opening formed therein.

In Figure 3 there is shown the possible routes that laser score lines might take in order to create two lines 7 on either side of a fold line 8 in order to facilitate the opening of the package. When a package blank is folded a back seam 6 is created, see also Figure 3.

The seam 2 is created when the contents are sealed inside the package, the score lines will match up with each other on either side of the seam 1.

A portion offish and chips 9 is shown in Figure 4 in the package opened and sitting on a flat surface thereby allowing unhindered access to the contents.

A portion offish and chips 9 is shown in Figure 5 in the package opened and being held in a hand 10 of a consumer.

In order to place the fish and chips 9 in the package, a seam 2a would be separated prior to use thereby enabling the portion offish and chips 9 to be placed in the package, which is then sealed to enclose said portion. The sealing of the seam 2a could be by any convenient way depending upon the material of the package. One way could be by using a closure strip similar to that used for envelopes. In an alternative method, a heatsealing process could be utilised by placing the edges of the package in a heat sealing machine, not shown, and the two sides of the seam 2a are bonded together. In all cases, irrespective of the ways in which the contents of a package may be enclosed, the package can be opened by scoring along the seam 1 using an appropriate method.

In Figure 6 there is shown an additional element for use in the package, which element is specifically intended for use when hot and/or greasy foodstuffs are to be enclosed in the package.

The additional element, for use in the package, is provided by a corrugated, cardboard insert 11. As can be seen in Figure 6 all the lines cutting across the line of the seam 1 are those indicating the corrugations in the insert 11. This orientation is important as it allows the cardboard insert 11 to curl in the right direction when the package is opened along the seam 1.

This feature is more evident in Figure 7, which shows curling of the insert 11 in more detail, particularly corrugations 12 on one side of the insert 11 and a flat surface thereof on an opposite side of the insert Il with the flat surface providing a smooth surface for supporting the contents of the package to sit on.

The insert 11 is prone, in use, to curl as required because it is provided with one flat surface and one corrugated surface. This is evident when the novel package is held in the hand or is rested on the lap of a consumer in that it prevents any grease or heat from irritating the consumer and facilitates the opening of the package in the desired orientation.

Where used herein, the term package is intended to include any package, bag, pack or packet that is used for any of the products as hereinbefore defined.