Method of preparing and distributing portioned meals, preferably for use in air transport

When making meals ready for air transport, soiled service and cutlery (24), when arriving in an airport, are sorted, cover-divided in baskets, for use for the next flight. The soiled service is sent into an industrial dishwasher, following which it is provided with food and packed in carts. Large amounts of storage space are saved in this manner in the individual airports, since the cycle time for storage of service and cutlery can be reduced from 26 hours to about 2 hours.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention concerns a method of preparing and distributing portioned 
meals, preferably for use in air transport. 
The invention moreover concerns a basket for use in the performance of the 
method and a cutlery holder for use in the basket. 
As will be known, much transport today takes place by air. In connection 
with air transport, a meal is usually served, which may be composed rather 
differently according to which airline is in charge of the transport. 
Generally, however, some form of food is served on the vast majority of 
flights. 
With the many daily flights it is huge amounts of meals that have to be 
prepared. It is therefore quite natural to try to rationalize all cycles 
of operations in connection with the preparation of air meals. 
FIG. 1 shows a typical sequence in the preparation of meals in connection 
with flights. As will be seen in FIG. 1, a kitchen for cold dishes and a 
kitchen for hot dishes receive food products from external suppliers. When 
the food has been prepared, the meals are made ready, i.e. served on 
trays, including e.g. saucers, glasses, cups, cutlery, etc. When the meals 
have been-made ready, they are placed in a trolley, hereinafter called a 
cart throughout this specification. The cart is driven out to the 
aircraft, and following departure the meals are served to the passengers. 
Before the aircraft lands, all service and cutlery are collected and again 
placed on a cart. Then the soiled service and cutlery are moved to an 
industrial dishwasher in which they are washed. After washing, service and 
cutlery are placed in a store, so the entire procedure can be repeated 
again. As will be appreciated, a store is required in each air kitchen, 
and this store must be so large as to constantly have enough service and 
cutlery available for subsequent flights. Cutlery, service, cups and 
glasses are stored in the individual air kitchens in such a manner that 
the store is divided according to each type of service for each individual 
airline. Further, it is not unusual for stores to have to be provided with 
a capacity of covering the needs for service and cutlery for about 26 
hours, which is the cycle time from arrival to departure of service, and 
with the many daily flights it will be appreciated that air kitchens must 
have very large stores of service and cutlery. 
Accordingly, the object of the invention is to provide a method of 
preparing and distributing portioned meals which saves storage space. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This object is achieved by a method of the type defined comprising the 
steps of: 
a) receiving raw materials from suppliers 
b) preparing meals in portioned units which are placed in service, 
c) making service and cutlery ready on trays 
d) packing meal units in carts 
e) transporting carts to aircraft 
f) packing the soiled service in carts after the passengers of the aircraft 
have consumed the meals 
g) transporting the soiled service back from the aircraft, removing service 
and cutlery from the carts and passing them on for washing-up in a 
dishwasher. 
This method is characterized by 
h) sorting the soiled service and cutlery immediately upon removal from the 
carts into such units as correspond to the requirement for ready and clean 
service, and 
i) directly passing the soiled service to the dishwasher, and then 
j) repeating steps a-g. 
When the method is performed in this manner, a very great storage space 
saving is obtained, since instead of a store for 26 hours, a store for 
about 2 hours now suffices, said 2 hours being the cycle time from arrival 
to departure. 
In an advantageous embodiment of the method, a minor buffer store for the 
completion of service and cutlery is provided in step h). 
This provides the advantage that where some service has disappeared for one 
reason or another during transport, it is possible to supplement with new 
cutlery from the buffer store. Further the buffer store is also 
advantageous, if other meals than those just arrived with the last 
aircraft have to be served. 
Additionally, the method is advantageous in that the soiled service, 
cutlery and trays are placed in baskets, which are adapted to receive at 
least a complete set of soiled service with cutlery and tray. 
This provides an extremely well-arranged cycle of operations, since trays, 
cutlery and service, when leaving the dishwasher, can be handled and made 
ready very quickly. 
In an embodiment, the method is also advantageous in that, between steps i) 
and j), cutlery is packed in bags in cover units, or that the cutlery is 
packed by rolling-up in a napkin and is put back in the baskets. 
Additionally, the method is advantageous in that, after wrapping of 
cutlery, service, cutlery and trays are removed from the baskets, and a 
napkin as well as cutlery, cups, glasses, salt and pepper and the like are 
placed on the tray, while the units to be provided with food are collected 
in other baskets and are passed to a central location to be filled with 
food, and then the units provided with food are returned to the trays, 
which are then placed in carts. 
This provides a very flexible organization of the work, it being noted that 
within a period of 2 hours from the arrival of the soiled service with the 
aircraft it is made ready on carts, after washing, and is ready for the 
flight. Finally, the method is advantageous in that the preparation and 
distribution of the portioned meals are performed by means of several 
parallel dishwashers. 
When several parallel dishwashers are used, the work may be organized such 
that each parallel dishwasher serves a few, e.g. three to seven, airlines. 
This is a help to the operators, because the number of different tray 
accessories to be managed is then reduced. 
As mentioned, the invention also concerns a basket for use in the 
performance of the method. This basket is characterized in that the basket 
is divided into compartments, which correspond precisely to the reception 
of the contents of service to be washed from preferably one, max. two 
baskets. 
The basket gives a clear cycle of operations for the staff, since service, 
cutlery and trays, already when leaving the dishwasher, are divided into 
portioned units with the things that are to be present on the next flight. 
The basket is advantageously equipped with a lid that partly covers it. 
This is an advantage in connection with the washing-up, since cups, which 
are usually used in aircraft, are light cups of plastics which do not turn 
while the machine washes. 
Finally, it is advantageous that the bottom of basket is constructed for 
conveyance on conveyor belts. 
Finally, the invention also concerns a cutlery holder for use in the 
basket. This cutlery holder is characterized in that it is constructed as 
a ramp having at least two elevations, one of which terminates the ramp 
and merges into a horizontal member. 
This cutlery-holder is extremely expedient in connection with ready-making 
on a conveyor belt, where many baskets are to be filled and emptied, since 
the cutlery holder ensures rapid removal and positioning of cutlery from 
and in the baskets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
FIG. 2 shows the lay-out of a kitchen for use when making meals ready. The 
kitchen is divided into three areas, where area I is the area where soiled 
service is received and sorted, area II is the actual dishwasher, and area 
III is the area where washed service is made ready. In area I, the soiled 
service from a flight is received in carts (i.e. trolleys) and is sorted 
in a special basket, which will be described in connection with FIG. 4. 
Waste is discarded into a hole 2 near the sorting location 1. A buffer 
store 4 is provided at the sorting location 1, and this buffer store is 
used for completing and/or supplementing the cover units that are to be 
made now of soiled service. The buffer store is arranged such that it has 
precisely the units that are to be used for the next flight. If the next 
flight is to have another composition of meals, the buffer store is 
provided with sufficient cutlery for this. The buffer store moreover has 
the advantage that it is now possible to check the amount of waste that 
might have occurred at the last flight. This is easily done, it being 
merely observed how much of the service from the buffer store is used in 
the making of the new covers. The waste can thus be measured merely by 
counting the buffer store before and after use. When the soiled service 
has been divided into portions, it is conveyed by a conveyor belt 5 into 
the area II, where it is washed up in a dishwasher 6. After washing-up, 
which takes place in a modified industrial dishwasher, the cleaned service 
arrives at the area III, the baskets arriving at an area 7 where the 
cleaned cutlery is wrapped in plastics sheet or placed on a napkin. The 
ready cutlery is put back where it came from in the basket, following 
which the basket is transported to the next area where service and cutlery 
are removed from the basket in such a manner that the service to be 
provided with food is placed in larger trays and is transported to a 
kitchen for cold dishes or a kitchen for hot dishes. The rest of the 
service, such as cutlery, cups, glasses, salt and pepper, etc., made ready 
on a tray, is conveyed on a conveyor belt further on to the location 10 
where the saucers and bowls filled with food are put back on the tray. The 
ready trays are then packed in carts 11 and are now ready for the next 
flight. As will be appreciated, the transport of service and cutlery takes 
place on a belt provided with baskets that circulate in an endless path, 
the baskets being at no time removed from the belt that runs in the 
directions of the arrows shown in FIG. 3. 
FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of the process in the ready-making of portioned 
meals according to the invention. It will be seen to the left in FIG. 3 
that raw materials are supplied by external suppliers, said raw materials 
being transported to a production department where the food is prepared 
and portioned. FIG. 3 shows an assembly line consisting of three flow 
lines. These three flow lines separately correspond to the one shown in 
FIG. 2. The three flow lines are constructed in the same manner and can 
each handle typically from three to seven different airlines. Thus, the 
assembly line shown in FIG. 3 can typically serve up to 21 different 
airlines. The advantage of dividing it into several units is that the 
staff then just have to be attentive to the requirements of seven airlines 
with respect to the laying of trays. This minimizes possible errors, and 
simultaneously the smaller units have the effect on the staff operating 
the assembly line that they constitute a team who are jointly responsible 
for the operation proceeding as smoothly as possible. After the trays have 
been made ready, and they have been packed in carts, they are transported 
out to the external customers which are the various airlines. When the 
flight is over, the process is repeated, and when it is performed as 
described, the service just arrived at an airport can be sent off within a 
time interval of just 2 hours. 
FIG. 4 shows a basket which is extremely expedient for use on the line of 
FIG. 2. The figure shows that the basket has two insertable cutlery 
baskets 13 and two elongate compartments 14 for trays and some centrally 
located compartments 16 to receive saucers, glasses and cups. FIG. 4 
additionally shows a lid 15 which may be placed over part of the tray. 
This is an advantage in particular concerning cups and glasses that are 
used in aircraft, since they are ordinarily of a light material, such as 
plastics, and are therefore generally susceptible to the washing jets of 
the dishwasher. In other words, the cups and the glasses might turn during 
the washing process, which, of course, is not desirable since a further 
buffer store then has to be provided at the exit of the dishwasher. The 
lid 15 can thus retain the cups and the glasses in the correct positions 
during the entire washing sequence. As an alternative to the lid 15, 
holding means in the form of pins 20 may be provided in the basket itself, 
said pins being capable of pivoting about the pivot 21. When light cups 
are placed in the basket, the pins hold the cups, which then to do not 
topple about in the basket during washing. 
FIG. 5 shows a cutlery holder 22 which may be used instead of the cutlery 
basket 13. As will be seen from FIG. 5, it is constructed as a ramp 25 
having two elevations 23, one of which terminates the ramp and merges into 
a horizontal member 26. When the cutlery 24 is placed on the elevations 
23, it will be effectively washed on all faces in a dishwasher. 
As will be seen, the basket in FIG. 4 is designed for precisely two covers. 
This is extremely advantageous, since the basket then lends itself for 
e.g. the serving of both luxurious meals, e.g. on long first class 
flights, and more modest meals on short flights, as the basket may then be 
used as a cover for first class preparation, while the basket may contain 
two covers for somewhat shorter flights where the requirements with 
respect to the meals and thus the amount of service are not so great. 
Finally, FIG. 6 shows part of the air kitchen according to the invention. A 
section is shown at a location where the cutlery has been made ready, and 
where saucers are sorted in bigger baskets 18 for conveyance to a cold 
dish kitchen or a hot dish kitchen to be filled with food. The rest of the 
contents of the basket, such as glasses, cups, salt, pepper and a cloth on 
a tray, is conveyed by a conveyor belt 19 further on to a receiving 
station where the saucers now filled are again placed on the tray, 
following which everything is placed in carts and is ready to be sent with 
the next flight.