Marinating bag and a method to utilize a marinating bag.

The present invention relates to an apparatus in which food is wrapped in and prepared, in particular a throwable bag in which food can be wrapped in and later roasted/baked after removal of a removable part/section of the bag.

There is an increasing need for food products which are pre-wrapped in such a way that the time taken to prepare the food is reduces to a minimum. The manufacturers of frozen food have responded to this need. Furthermore, the food industry has been inventive in developing wrapping for food by using waxed paper, plastic film, aluminum foil, and other varieties which combine these methods.

Paper and plastic film have the disadvantage that they are not suitable at high temperatures and the paper is moreover permeable to moisture. As a consequence, parts or the entire wrapping must be removed before preparation of the food. Furthermore, the wrapping is often not standardized according to the standards existing on the market.

It is thus one object of the present invention to provide a product that is adapted both to the manufacturers of the raw ingredients and to the end user/consumer. This is accomplished by the product as defined in the claims. The invention will be further described in the following in connection with some exemplifying embodiments with reference to the drawings, where figure 1 shows a perspective view of the bag according to the invention and figure 2 shows a cross section of the bag according to the invention along the line A-A.

Referring now to figure 1 and figure 2. The bag 1 which is illustrated in the figures is mainly produced by flexi aluminum that tolerates normal roasting/baking temperatures, where some areas 2,3 comprise plastic/rubber elements. These plastic/rubber elements are however removed from the bag 1 prior to being placed in an oven and the preparation of its content. The bag 1 is designed as a tray, i.e. a squared board with relatively high edges 5. The upper side 6 of the bag is designed with a window 4 (hole) that covers almost the entire side of the bag and it is firmly/tightly welded along three of the sides. At the fourth side both the edge and the upper side is lengthened and welded together at the sides 7,8 to create a "funnel" 9 for filling of marinate, food products or the like. The window 4 at the upper side will have an opening that is less than the area of the lower/opposite side. The role of the window 4 is to make sure that steam is released during roasting/baking. The window 4 will be covered by a plastic film 10 that will be removably attached to and along the edges of the window 4.

A label 11 will be placed on the window covering plastic film 10 that describes the content of the bag plus other necessary and descriptive text. Moreover, the plastic

film 10 has a mark 12 at one of the comers which indicates where one should grab to remove the plastic film 10 prior to the preparation of the bags content.

The funnel comprises three sections (i) a welding section 13 consisting of flexi aluminum, (ii) a temporary ziplock section 14 and (iii) a vacuum welding section 15. The bag 1 will often go through different stages and be handled by several food manufacturers until the finished product ends up by the end user. The welding section 13 of flexi aluminum has the objective to provide manufacturers, i.e. manufacturers of marinate or the food product itself being placed within the bag, the opportunity to vacuum seal the bag prior to the subsequent work by the next food manufacturer. Welding equipments for flexi aluminum are normal tools among the manufacturers. Furthermore, this section has tear-off notches 16 at the edge of the funnel 9 to enable the removal of a former closed welding of the funnel 9 without the necessity of other equipments.

The ziplock section 14 comprises a standard ziplock that is internally glued inside the funnel 9. The objective of the ziplock is to give the manufacturer the possibility to close the funnel 9 without having to weld together the welding section 13 each time to prevent leakage/spillage, if the manufacturer is going to carry out several operations with the end product. The ziplock is not heat resistant at roasting/baking temperatures close to 200 ⁰ C. However, such heat resistance is not necessary since the ziplock will be removed before the preparation of the product.

The purpose of the vacuum welding section 15 is for the regular food shops to be able to vacuum pack the final product before it reach the end user. Shops of this type usually do not have the equipments which give them the opportunity to weld aluminum. However, they do have the usual vacuum welding equipments for plastic. When the vacuum section 15 is welded, the other two sections of the funnel 9 will be removed from the bag in the same process. From then on, the product cannot be changed prior to the opening of the window 4 by the end user.

The bag 1 exist in sizes that is defined by the standard "Gastronom" (GN) to ensure that they are suitable within the catering and restaurant industry as well as in ordinary household.

The bag 4 arrives folded and flat. When the first food manufacturer make use of a bag 1, the funnel is opened and through the funnel 9 one fills marinate and/or a product. The ziplock 14 is then closed, and provided that no more operations will be performed with the bag by this manufacturer, the welding section 13 is welded together. The next manufacturer will tear off the part of the funnel 9 that is welded, open the ziplock and will fill his or hers product through the funnel 9. The ziplock is closed again and welding of the welding section 13 will once again be carried out. When a restaurant or a retailer/foodshop receives the bag 1, they will either prepare the food as it is or prepare the bag to go for sale. The sale preparation implies to vacuum

weld the bag 1 after the addition of possible additional ingredients and the food product becomes none changeable. Furthermore, a label 11 will be added, containing text information or alternatively add text to an already existing label 11 on the plastic film 10 covering the window 4. When an end user is going to prepare the food, the plastic film that covers the window 4 is torn off by grabbing the marked corner 12. The whole bag including its content is thereafter placed in the oven for roasting or baking.