Assembly for food product and method for heating said assembly

The present invention relates to a pack for a food product and a heating and/or cooking method for said pack.

Film-covered trays containing food products which are heated up in microwave ovens are already known. With these trays, as a food product packaged inside this type of packaging is regenerated, the water contained in the food evaporates under the effect of the energy supplied by the microwaves. The increase in pressure inside the packaging caused by the formation of steam causes the upper film to rise. When a threshold pressure inside the packaging is reached, the welded edges will yield at a point which we will call the rupture point, in order to release this excess steam. This phenomenon is known as “self-venting”. In the case of products with a high water content such as meals in sauce, it may happen that during regeneration the sauce, brought to boiling point, rises up as far as the rupture point, leaks out of the packaging and dribbles down over the plate of the microwave oven. This phenomenon is often observed with sauces with a high content of foaming agents (milk proteins, mushroom extracts) and with emulsion sauces containing crème fraîche, margarine, butter, oil or any other fat dispersed in an aqueous phase. The higher the power of the microwaves used for regeneration, the worse this phenomenon will be.

The aim of the present invention is to provide the consumer with a pack for microwave-regeneratable food products in which there is no risk of the food product overflowing during heating in said microwave oven.

The present invention relates to a pack for a food product comprising

• a tray with a lip, a side wall and a bottom,
• a film sealed all around the periphery of said tray, partly over the lip and over the top of the side wall, directly adjacent to said lip, and
• a food composition contained in said tray,

the film coming substantially into contact with the food composition.

The pack according to the invention differs from the prior art in that the tray is made of a material such that the lip of said tray deforms under the effect of the microwaves, thus preventing any leakage of product out of the tray. Specifically, during regeneration, the film rises under the effect of the pressure and exerts a force on the welded edges, causing the lip of the tray to tilt vertically. Hence, when the threshold pressure is reached, the rupture point will be oriented vertically, thus forming a chimney allowing the steam to escape. Therefore, since the rupture point is oriented vertically, the boiling sauce does not flow over the top of the lip and will thus not leak out of the packaging.

As mentioned above, to ensure that the lip of the tray does indeed rise, it must be made of a material allowing said lip to rise easily. Preferably, the material from which the tray is made is a multilayer composite comprising the following layers, alone or in combination:

• Ionomer resin,
• Ethylene methacrylic acid (EMA) copolymer,
• Low density polyethylene (PE),
• Polybutylene,
• Adhesive resin,
• Polypropylene,
• Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer and
• Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer.