GB1333140A - Heat and serve packages for slice-like or generally flat meat product contents - Google Patents

Abstract

1333140 Heat-and-serve packages for flat meat products OSCAR MAYER & CO Inc 19 July 1971 33702/71 Heading B8C A compact, generally flat, heat-and-serve package 5 comprises a disposable, oven-heatable tray 6 formed, with interconnected foldable sides 10-13, from sheet material capable of retaining melted fat and greasy liquid, generally flat slice-like, pattie, or link, meat product contents 7, from which fat, or greasy, liquid renders on heating, laid generally flat over the bottom of the tray with the sides 10-13 thereof folded inwardly and downwardly substantially parallel to the bottom of the tray and over the margins of the contents, and disposable film 8, having air, moisture, and grease barrier properties enclosing at least the top side of the tray, the sides 10-13 being erectable, on removal of the film 8, to form a continuous upstanding sidewall around the tray bottom. As shown, Figs. 1, 2, the tray 6 may be formed of paper-board lined with metal, such as aluminium foil, with heat resistant plastics coatings, or laminates, of polycarbonate or trimethylpentene polymers, or of sheet aluminium. The disposable film 8 may be initially in the form of an envelope; alternatively it may comprise two webs of film, each formed from a single sheet or a laminate, for instance of P.V.C. or polycarbonate, and sealed along all four sides of the tray. In some cases the envelope 8 is formed while it is in a super-cooled, amorphous condition, the package being evacuated before being hermetically sealed. Preferably the product 7 is pre-fried, or pre-cooked, the grease absorbent vegetable parchment 9 being removed before, for instance, the bacon, or sausage, is heated in the tray at a temperature of about 400‹ F. In a modification, Figs. 4, 5 (not shown), a filled tray (20) with a parchment layer (19) is folded over upon itself before being hermetically sealed in a film envelope (21) which holds the folded tray parts tightly together. In another arrangement, Figs. 6, 7 (not shown), the two filled trays (30, 31) are superposed face-to-face before being hermetically sealed in an envelope (32). The pairs of trays may, alternatively, be initially placed back-to.back or facing the same way. The tray, Fig. 8, has a bottom 41 with grooves 44, 45 which are surrounded by a raised ridge 41 to retain the melted grease. A two-tray blank (55), Fig. 10 (not shown), has a line of perforations (58) and two V-cuts (56, 57) to facilitate separation into two separate trays.