BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

The invention is in the field of equipment for serving food and particularly relates to holders for food typically eaten using fingers. Description of Related Art

A characteristic of food eaten using fingers, rather than with a knife and fork, is that it can be messy to eat because of its complexity, for example burgers. Burgers are a composite food item comprising a central core of a patty, i.e. a thick disk of food filling such as a processed meat or vegetable product, sandwiched between an upper and lower bread component, each also generally of thick disk shape. Further fillings may be included such as salad, cheese, other meats, relishes, sauces and pickles to create a cylindrical layered food item. The overall shape of the burger food product is a short cylinder having relatively flat top and bottom surfaces with generally parallel sides. It is relatively stable when resting on its bottom surface. This stack of layers is unstable and prone to disintegrate while being eaten.

Conventionally, burgers are served on a plate or in a box and the burger is lifted to the mouth using fingers. A napkin may be wrapped around the burger to prevent it from coming apart, but this can get soggy, disintegrate and get in the way of the food itself.

It is therefore an object of the invention to overcome the problem of holding a messy food item without it disintegrating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention provides a food holder having two opposing sides joined by a gusset, the gusset having corrugations of resilient material, where the corrugations are arranged to provide, in use, a compressive force to hold the food in place and wherein the opposing sides have an open edge and at least one closed edge wherein the gusset joins the sides together along at least one closed edge, wherein the gusset is arranged to allow all of the edges of the opposing sides to move towards and away from each other.

The embodiment provides a food holder having two opposing sides joined by a gusset having corrugations of resilient material, where the corrugations are arranged to provide, in use, a compressive force to hold the food in place. The container holds the food with a spring-like force and provides a grip on the food. The two opposing sides of the container joined by a corrugated gusset provide articulated faces for the user to hold. Each side may have a notch for exposing a food item in use for the user to bite into. A rim may be provided around the notch of thickness greater than the rest of each side.

Each side may have a curved edge and the gusset joins the sides together along the curved edge.

Each side may have protrusions to stabilise the container when resting on the curved gusset.

Each side may have two straight edges that meet at an angle and the gusset joins the sides along the two straight edges. Alternatively, each side may have three straight edges and the gusset joins the sides along the three straight edges.

The corrugations may be semi-circular, square, saw tooth, or zig-zag in shape. The proportions of adjacent corrugations may be different. For semi-circular corrugations, the radius of alternate corrugations may be equal and the radius of adjacent corrugations may differ by a factor of at least 1.5. This provides a double-radiused corrugation effect, where the set of corrugations of greater radius allows expansion of the gusset, while corrugations of lesser radius provides a greater component of compressive force.

The holder may be made from silicon rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer and may be one-piece injection moulded.

In a further embodiment, a method is provided comprising the steps of opening the sides of the food holder, inserting a food item and releasing the sides to allow the sides of the food holder to grip the food item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 a is a perspective view of a food holder in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 b is a side view of the food holder shown in Figure 1 a.

Figure 2a is a cross sectional view of the food holder shown in Figure 1 a. Figure 2b is a detail of the cross sectional view of Figure 2a.

Figure 3 is a side view of a further embodiment having protrusions for stabilising the food holder.

Figures 4a to 4c show embodiments of the invention for holding alternative food types.

Figures 5a to 5d show alternative corrugation formats.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The food holder is a portable container for food items, particularly burgers. It is of one-piece construction and has expandable sides that are made of fluted resilient material. The expandable sides can fit different sized food items and provide a compressive force to retain the food and help prevent the food coming apart during its consumption. The food holder allows the food to be served on its side.

Figures 1 a and 1 b show an embodiment of the food holder 101. The food holder has opposing flat faces 102a, 102b. The faces can also be referred to as sides. Each face has an edge with two distinct profiles; a first edge 103 which has a semi-circular profile that defines the outer periphery of each face; and a second edge 104 that is a compound curve, having a central part 105 that is a part of a circle having the same radius as the first edge 103 and two transition parts 106a, 106b of opposite curvature to the central part 105, joining the second edge 104 to the first edge 103 and meeting at an angle of approximately 90 degrees. The compound curve of the second edge 104 defines a U-shaped notch, a cut-out central section exposing the maximum amount of food item to a users bite while providing sufficient support for it.

The opposing flat faces 102a,b are connected by an intervening expandable elastic gusset 107, joined along the first edge 103 of each opposing face. The gusset 107 is semi-circular in shape and defines a curved side to the food holder 101. The curve allows a burger to nest within the food holder.

The first edges 103 of each opposing face are referred to as closed edges because these edges have the gusset joined along them, whereby the faces and gusset provide an enclosure to form a leak-proof container. The second edges 104 of each opposing face 102a, b are referred to as open edges because they do not have the gusset joined along them and therefore provide an opening into which the food item can be placed.

The arrangement of the expandable elastic gusset 107 is shown in more detail in Figure 2a. The gusset has a stretch system and is formed of a series of parallel fluted folds 201 , or convolutions, or corrugations of semi-circular profile, running parallel to the first edges 103 of each opposing face. The overall shape of the holder is thus of a short gutter with flat ends and concertina-like walls. The convolutions of the gusset 107 allow a degree of relative movement between the opposing flat faces, primarily toward and away from each other. The corrugated resilient material provides a reactive force when the flat faces are separated and the holder then exerts a compressive force on food items that are wider than the holder in its resting state. The folds are structured with alternate wide and narrow flutings, 201 a, b shown in Figure 2b. In this embodiment there are five wide flutings with four intervening narrow flutings. The wide flutings 201 a have a radius that is approximately twice that of the narrow flutings 201 b. This arrangement provides a dual effect; the wide flutings allow for expansion of the holder, while the narrow flutings provide greater resilience and therefore compressive force to hold the food in place.

The wall thickness of the flutings 201 is half the thickness of the opposing flat faces 102, because the flat faces 102 have a degree of stiffness for support while the gusset 107 is flexible. The flat faces 102 are also provided with a rim running along their second edges 104 to provide reinforcement so that the holder maintains its shape during use and also provides the user with a touch cue to prevent them biting into the holder. The flat faces 102 are nevertheless still soft and flexible.

A feature of the holder is that food items like burgers can be served and rested between bites on their side, as opposed to on the bottom surface. This has the advantage of being able to display the layers of the burger food product and also more items can be placed on a serving tray, which is particularly helpful in fast food outlets. Food such as burgers can be consumed without the need of a plate which is helpful for people on the move. The holder makes it much more convenient to pick up and put down food and to dip into sauces, or to hold the food while sauces are squeezed onto the side of the food prior to a bite being taken. The outer surface of the flat faces 102 may be provided with protrusions 301 a, 301 b shown in Figure 3 to prevent the holder from rolling from side-to-side when standing on its side.

Typical dimensions for the food holder at rest are an overall diameter of 120mm and an internal width of 55mm, which reflects the standard dimensions of a burger. When stretched, the width of the holder can increase to 130mm. The wide flutings 201 a have a radius of 3mm, while the narrow flutings 201 b have a radius of 1.75mm. These dimensions are for illustration of a particular embodiment only and many other sizes and proportions are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention as an expandable food holder.

In use, an appropriately sized food holder is selected for the food item to be held. For example a 120mm diameter, 60mm height burger, a 120mm diameter, 55mm food holder is selected, i.e. the food holder is substantially the same diameter as the burger but when at rest it is slightly narrower than the burger. The food holder is then expanded by hand against the resilient force of the gusset and the burger inserted into the food holder. When released, the holder then closes slightly against the burger to gently grip it. The bottom of the food holder may be squeezed to push up the burger.

The food holder is of one-piece construction, which has the advantage of preventing any leakage of liquids, the holder acting as a dish. It is injection moulded using a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) of food grade, such as ENSOFT SO-161-30A from Enplast, or alternatively food grade silicon rubber, selected because it they are non-toxic, odourless and tasteless and also resistant to high temperatures up to 220 °C making it suitable for all types of dishwashers, including heavy-duty commercial dishwashers. These materials are also very difficult to damage and therefore suitable for the rigors of commercial food production environments and can be reused many times.

The elastic sides of the food holder have the advantage that they can exert a gentle compressive force on food items to retain complex multi-layered food products and prevent them from coming apart while being eaten and therefore greatly reduce the mess often made while eating complex foods by hand such as burgers. The food holder is of one-piece construction, which allows it to be leak proof. The use of a TPE or silicon rubber allows it to be a tough, multi use dishwasher proof article.

Corrugations could be other shapes, such as zig-zag (as shown in Figure 5a) or square (Figure 5b), or saw tooth (Figure 5c) or double saw tooth (Figure 5d) or any combination or other shape that allows expansion against a resilient force. The food holder may be shaped to fit other food items, such as sandwiches, pies, sausage rolls, chicken drumsticks, spring rolls, samosas, pittas, kebabs, hot dogs, wraps and toasties. For holding food items that are square, such as sandwiches, the food holder could be triangular in shape, for triangular cut sandwiches as shown in Figure 4a or square cut sandwiches, the food holder is arranged to be rectangular or square in shape as shown in Figure 4b. For oval shaped food products such as pittas the food holder is oval as shown in Figure 4c.

The different shaped containers shown in Figures 4a to 4c share the feature that they have first, closed, edges on each opposing face. These closed edges have the gusset joined along them, whereby the faces and gusset provide an enclosure to form a leak-proof container. The different shaped containers of Figures 4a to 4c have second, open, edges on each opposing face where the gusset is not joined, to provide an opening into which the food item can be placed.