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[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/478,021, filed Jun. 12, 2003 and entitled FOOD TRAY LINER, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] The present application relates to a liner for a tray and, more particularly, to a food tray liner.
[0003] Over the years and, especially more recently, fast food has expanded to include healthier foods, such as salads, including taco salads, pasta dishes, or like, which do not lend themselves to being wrapped in paper or foil wraps, which have been historically used to wrap more conventional fast foods, such as hamburgers, sandwiches or the like. Instead, these newer fast food groups are delivered or served on trays or in containers. Furthermore, like the hamburgers, salads, pasta dishes, are offered in a variety of different combinations of ingredients and toppings. However, unlike the paper or foil wraps, the food trays tend to look alike and do not identify the food being served, which can lead to incorrect orders being dispensed or being served, resulting in inefficiency and customer dissatisfaction.
[0004] In addition, many of these newer fast food groups have components, such as salad dressing, sour cream, sauce or the like, that tend to leak or drip, unless the food is adequately contained in a closed serving tray.
[0005] Accordingly, there is a need for a serving tray that can be used to serve food to, for example, fast food customers, and that will contain the liquid ingredients of the food in the tray. Furthermore, there is a need for a tray that may uniquely identify the food being served to increase efficiency of the food establishment and increase customer satisfaction.
[0006] The present invention provides a food tray liner that is preformed to conform to the inner surfaces of a tray, and particularly to a tray with upstanding sidewalls, to provide a food tray assembly that can hold and retain the food in the try, including the liquid ingredients, and, further, in a manner that can identify the food being serve in the tray.
[0007] Accordingly, the present invention provides a food tray assembly that includes a tray and a preformed flexible liner. The tray has a base wall and sidewalls extending up from the base wall to form a cavity therein. The preformed flexible liner is configured and arranged to substantially conform to the inner surfaces of the base wall and sidewalls to form a liquid containing bowl in the cavity for holding food and liquid therein.
[0008] In one aspect, the sidewalls of the tray form a contiguous perimeter wall.
[0009] In other aspects, the liner comprises a preformed flexible paper liner, including a preformed flexible paperboard liner.
[0010] In other aspects, the base wall of the tray may comprise a circular wall or a rectangular wall.
[0011] According to other aspect, the liner may include indicia. For example, the indicia may be formed in the liner or on the liner. Preferably, the indicia are printed on the liner. For example, the indicia may be used to identify the food or a characteristic of the being served on the tray or may bear the trademark of the establishment serving the food or the indicia may be arbitrary, such as a design.
[0012] In another form of the invention, a food tray assembly includes a tray and a flexible liner, with the flexible liner having a base wall and upstanding sidewalls. The base wall of the liners substantially conforms to the base wall of the tray. Similarly, the sidewalls of the liner substantially conform to the sidewalls of the tray. The sidewalls of the liner form a contiguous perimeter wall, which forms a liquid containing bowl in the cavity of the tray for holding and containing food and liquid therein.
[0013] In one aspect, the sidewalls of the tray form a contiguous perimeter wall.
[0014] According to yet another aspect, a food tray liner for a tray includes a preformed flexible liner. The preformed flexible liner has a base wall and an upstanding perimeter wall extending around and upwardly from the base wall. The perimeter wall is contiguous with the base wall and forms a continuous wall around the base wall wherein the base wall and the upstanding perimeter wall define a liquid containing bowl when placed in the tray.
[0015] In one aspect, the liner includes indicia, for example indicia printed thereon, which may be used to identify the food of the food establishment.
[0016] Accordingly, it can be appreciated that the present invention provides a food tray assembly that is particularly suitable for serving food that contains a liquid ingredient, such as sauce, salad dressing or the like. In addition, the liner may provide a means for identifying the food contained therein, by way of indicia that can be formed in or printed on the liner.
[0017] These and other objects, advantages, purposes, and features of the invention will become more apparent from the study of the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings.
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[0028] The numeral
[0029] Referring to
[0030] Optionally, perimeter wall
[0031] As best seen in
[0032] Referring to
[0033] As noted above, liner
[0034] Furthermore, base wall
[0035] When forming liner
[0036] While several forms of the invention have been shown, it can be appreciated that further modifications may be made. Therefore, it will be understood that the embodiments shown in the drawings and described above are merely for illustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention which is defined by the claims which follow as interpreted under the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents.