Dry breakfast food portable storing and direct mouth feeding container apparatus

A dry breakfast food portable storing and direct mouth feeding container apparatus has a detachable cap and integral pour spout for the easy dispensing of dry particulate food matter directly into a mouth of a user. The cap/spout has a dome-shaped, conical or pyramid-shaped surface extending from a large opening at one end which mates to the container to a smaller opening at the other end, which serves as a mouthpiece. The large opening has a threaded or snap-on/press-on type fitting for mating to a complementary opening of a food container. The smaller opening is equipped with a threaded or snap-on/press-on closure cap.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
 The present invention relates generally to containers. More particularly,
 the invention relates to a dry breakfast food portable storing and direct
 mouth feeding container apparatus.
 BACKGROUND
 When in search of a healthy, nutritious dry snack food one has a difficult
 time locating such a product on the supermarket snack food shelves which
 are replete with fat and salt laden snacks such as potato chips, corn
 chips, corn puffs, pretzels, etc. However, one glance at the cereal
 shelves reveals a host of healthy vitamin, mineral and fiber filled
 products in the form of flakes, grains, oats, puffed rice, etc. The only
 problem is that these nutritious products are intended for use as a
 breakfast food and may only be effectively consumed with a spoon after
 being placed in a bowl with milk added. Trying to ingest these cereals
 away from the breakfast table, in dry form, from a cup or glass or from
 one's hand is difficult and frustrating as much of the product is spilled
 onto your shirt and the floor. Thus, aside from incorporating these
 cereals into cookies, snack cakes or puddings, one must be resigned to
 obtaining his daily fiber requirement at breakfast and mixed with milk
 which for some, such as dairy-product-free vegetarians, is not practical.
 This dilemma can be overcome through the use of a container specifically
 designed to conveniently store, transport and dispense such cereal
 products directly into a person's mouth. Unfortunately, at this time, no
 such container exists on the market. There are a multitude of jars, cups,
 pitchers and containers available for the storage and dispensing of water
 or liquid drinks either directly into the mouth or into other dispensers.
 The military canteen is probably the best known of the direct drinking
 containers and is the forerunner to several plastic containers presently
 available that serve a similar function. There are also large plastic
 containers on the market designed to store and dispense dry food products
 into bowls or other containers but definitely not directly into one's
 mouth. Thus, the invented container apparatus will provide a product and
 service which is currently unavailable, and one which will prove to have
 significant value to the presently nutrition conscious public.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 The invented container apparatus is a plastic container designed to
 efficiently receive, store, and transport dry food and to dispense it
 directly into a person's mouth for ingestion. The primary food types
 intended to be carried in the container would be those classified as
 breakfast cereals including various flakes, grains, oats (granola), puffed
 rice, muesli, etc. However, it is expected that other nutritious dry foods
 such as raisins, nuts, chopped dates and prunes, banana chips and those
 categorized as "trail mix" would be included to sweeten the mixture
 resulting in a more appetizing snack food.
 This invention has the following primary characteristics which makes it
 unique and capable of carrying out its objectives. It essentially consists
 of two components:
 (1) A cup or container capable of holding anywhere from ten (10) to fifty
 (50) fluid ounces of food when full, however an ideal capacity is about
 twenty (20) fluid ounces. It is extremely important that this container
 have sufficient diameter (if circular) or width (if rectangular) to permit
 it to have an opening on top, called the fill opening, which is large
 enough to conveniently allow cereal to be transferred into it without
 spillage from a cereal carton or other large container in which a custom
 mix was prepared. The minimum size of this opening is deemed to be seventy
 (70) millimeters. Since the container apparatus is a hand held dispenser
 the maximum diameter (or width) of this container is essentially limited
 by the grip capability of the human hand which is deemed to be about one
 hundred and twenty (120) millimeters maximum with the optimum, most
 comfortable size, at about eighty-five (85) millimeters. However, this
 maximum dimension could be increased if a handle were attached to the
 container directly. In such a case the maximum dimension would be limited
 only by the practical considerations related to packing and carrying this
 device in a back-pack, on a bicycle, boat or car as a personal snack
 dispenser. A diameter, or width, greater than one hundred and sixty (160)
 millimeters would be unwieldy.
 (2) A cap or lid for the container which also functions as a spout to
 direct and dispense the snack food directly into the user's mouth. This
 cap is attached to the container by a threaded or snap-on fitting. This
 cap/spout has two critical qualities: it has a funnel or dome shape, and
 it has a capped second opening, called the pour opening or mouthpiece,
 which is designed and sized to insure that the food enters the person's
 mouth without spillage. The funnel or dome-shaped spout has three
 functions:
 (a) It serves to insure that an air void exists in the volume enclosed by
 the container and spout combined once the container has been filled to the
 rim with food product. Such a void is critical to the effective dispensing
 of the granular cereal and flakes through the mouthpiece. The open space
 allows a free surface condition to be maintained when the container is
 tilted to allow gravity forces to direct the grains down and out through
 the opening. The free surface permits the food particles to slide and
 tumble individually and collectively down the slope. Whereas, without a
 void and free surface effect, particles of a size which would otherwise
 individually pass through the opening, tend to wedge together and create a
 "log jam" effect at the opening. This problem does not enter into the
 design of liquid dispensers.
 (b) It prevents the user's nose from striking the cap during use. In order
 to initiate the flow of dry food particles, the container must be tilted
 at an angle sufficient to overcome the stability, or equilibrium, of the
 product. This angle from the horizontal that must be exceeded, called the
 angle of repose, depends upon the nature of the particles. For the food
 products in question this angle can easily be forty-five (45) degrees or
 more. For liquid products this angle is essentially zero. Thus the tilt
 angle required to dispense the dry product into one's mouth must generally
 exceed forty-five (45) degrees. With a flat container cap having a
 diameter exceeding seventy (70) millimeters and with the pour opening in
 one s mouth, one cannot tip the container even into a horizontal alignment
 without striking his nose on the cap. Thus, to compensate for this
 restriction, one must tilt his head back to uncomfortable positions to
 create an angle which exceeds the angle of repose. This problem is
 overcome by using a funnel or conical-shaped spout with a considerable
 taper.
 (c) A tapered, funnel-type spout directs the flow of granular food product
 smoothly down the walls to the mouthpiece as opposed to a flat cap which
 is less effective in channeling the flow out the mouthpiece.
 The spout can either be in the form of a funnel with constant sloped sides
 or dome-shaped with curved sides proceeding upward from the base. The
 funnel-shaped spout can either be of conical or pyramid form. The
 preferred shape to minimize nose interference is conical or pyramid and
 with a side slope of thirty (30) degrees or larger measured from the
 horizontal plane. The larger the slope of the spout the more effective it
 becomes with regard to this problem, toward providing the maximum void
 space per unit cup diameter, and toward decreasing the tilt angle required
 to dispense the food product when the container is approaching empty.
 However, the optimum angle for a uniformly tapered spout is deemed to be
 about sixty (60) degrees as the log jam effect can be exacerbated with
 very steep funnel angles. The spout should produce a void space equal to
 at least fifteen (15) per cent or more of the volume of food product in a
 full container, yet a larger void is more effective in promoting free
 flow.
 In an alternative embodiment, the shape for the spout consists of an
 asymmetrical, or non-uniform tapered, cone such that a wall of the pour
 opening is aligned vertically above the wall of the container. The
 function of this asymmetrical taper is to produce the greatest free
 surface effect possible for the void space available when the container is
 full. This results when the spout is oriented such that the mouthpiece is
 in the uppermost position when tipping the container to ingest the
 contents. As the container is emptied, the unit is rotated to place the
 mouthpiece at its lowest position to be able to facilitate dispensing the
 remaining food with a minimum tilt angle.
 The pour opening, or mouthpiece, has certain essential qualities to cause
 it to be effective for dispensing solid particulate food, versus liquids,
 into the user's mouth. It must have internal dimensions which are
 sufficient to permit the passage of typical food particles through the
 opening, yet the outside dimensions must be small enough to be compatible
 with the size of a person's mouth. Also, it is helpful if it projects
 somewhat from the walls of the spout to insure that at least the lower
 perimeter of this protruding lip can be inserted into one's mouth to act
 as a trough, or chute, for the food. The length of this projection is
 limited by considerations of log jam potential. From this standpoint, the
 shorter the better. Also, it should be short enough that one's tongue can
 be used to clear log jams at the transition from the spout walls to the
 mouthpiece. The maximum length of this projection would be thirty (30)
 millimeters with the optimum seen to be about twelve (12) millimeters. The
 intersection of the spout walls with the mouthpiece must be rounded and
 fair to insure the smooth flow of food particles. The mouthpiece can be of
 a circular or oval shape, but no axial internal dimension should be less
 than twenty-six (26) millimeters, with the optimum diameter deemed to be
 thirty-six (36) millimeters for a circular opening, with no internal
 restrictions. Optimum axial inside dimensions for an oval shape are
 thirty-three (33) and thirty-eight (38) millimeters, respectively. The
 maximum outside dimension should not exceed fifty (50) millimeters and the
 optimum would be about thirty-eight (38) millimeters for a circular
 opening.
 A preferred mouthpiece would possess a beveled or angled entrance in order
 to minimize the angle of head tilt required of the user to ingest the
 food. A thirty (30) degree taper on the mouthpiece would reduce the head
 tilt required, and inconvenience, by an equivalent amount. A further
 improvement would see the profile of the beveled mouthpiece shaped to
 conform to the contours of an open mouth for comfort and to insure a
 minimum of spillage. The mouthpiece must be capped with a threaded (for a
 circular, non-beveled orifice) or interference fit (snap-on) cap. It is
 preferable that a retaining strap, or tether or hinge, be included which
 attaches the cap to the spout to prevent loss. This strap should be
 flexible enough such that the cap when removed does not strike the user's
 face when ingesting the contents.
 In a preferred embodiment, the dry breakfast food portable storing and
 direct mouth feeding container apparatus includes a wide containment body
 a direct mouth-feeding cap. The containment body has a base, sidewalls
 extending upwardly from the base and an open top. A first connector is
 positioned on the sidewalls near the top of the container.
 The direct mouth-feeding cap includes a sidewall rim and a non-axial funnel
 shaped sloping wall. A second connector is positioned on the sidewall rim
 and cooperates with the first connector in holding the cap assembled on
 the container body. The non-axial funnel shaped sloping wall has a large
 end connected to the rim and a small end opposite the large end. A
 mouthpiece is connected to the small end of the wall. The mouthpiece has a
 broad lower lip for overlying a lower lip of a user and extending into a
 user's mouth beyond a user's teeth and has broad side lips connected to
 the lower lip and sloping therefrom toward the large end and a narrow top
 lip for engaging fitting within an upper lip of a user. The top lip is
 connected to the side lips and is displaced from the broad lower lip
 toward the large end for allowing the assembled cap and container to be
 substantially tipped with respect to a user's mouth beyond an angle of
 repose of a dry breakfast food product. In addition, the mouthpiece is
 sufficiently short so that a user's tongue can be extended through the
 mouthpiece to break dry breakfast food jams at an intersection of the
 mouthpiece and the sloping wall. A releaseable closure is connected to the
 mouthpiece and a flexible tether is connected to both the closure and the
 cap.
 In another preferred embodiment, the dry breakfast food portable storing
 and direct mouth-feeding container apparatus includes a substantially
 hollow container and a substantially hollow offset frustoconical-shaped
 spout. The container has an end wall, a continuous sidewall extending
 upwardly from the end wall and a generally open end opposite the end wall.
 The substantially hollow offset frustoconical-shaped spout has a
 continuous sidewall extending between an open base and a top part cut off
 by a plane that is not parallel to the base thereby forming an opening.
 The base is demountably attachable to the open end of the dry food storage
 container. As previously discussed, the sidewall of the spout has a first
 connector located proximate to the base and the sidewall of the container
 has a second connector located proximate to the open end which cooperates
 with the first connector in holding the spout assembled on the container.
 The invented container apparatus also includes a substantially hollow
 integrally formed mouthpiece that extends upwardly from the sidewall of
 the spout thereby circumscribing the opening and a cap that is removably
 securable in the mouthpiece for closing the opening. Preferably, a tether
 is integrally formed with and extending from said cap and pivotally
 attached to said sidewall of said of said spout. The mouthpiece has an
 open bottom end located proximate to the top part of the spout, a
 cylindrically-shaped sidewall extending upwardly from the bottom end and a
 beveled rim defining an upper edge of the mouthpiece sidewall. The
 mouthpiece is contoured to a shape of a user's open mouth.
 These and further objects and features of the invention are apparent in the
 disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing written specification,
 with the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
 FIG. 1 shows a uniformly tapered conical spout 1, preferably molded from a
 thermoplastic material, which attaches to the opening 5 on a container 3
 by a threaded fitting. This attachment could also be a snap-on fitting.
 This opening has a minimum diameter (if round) or width (if rectangular)
 of seventy (70) millimeters and a maximum of one hundred and twenty (120)
 millimeters with eighty-five (85) millimeters the optimum dimension. If
 the container has a carrying handle 7 shown in FIG. 2, the maximum
 horizontal axial dimension could be increased to one hundred and sixty
 (160) millimeters. The spout 1 has a side slope 6 as measured from the
 horizontal axis of at least thirty (30) degrees and not greater than
 seventy-five (75) degrees with sixty (60) degrees being optimal. The spout
 should provide a void space (volume) equal to fifteen (15) percent or more
 of the volume of the container 3.
 The spout can take several shapes as shown in the examples in FIGS. 3, 4, 5
 and 8. FIG. 3 shows an asymmetrically tapered conical, or funnel-shaped,
 spout with the outer wall of the mouthpiece in line with the wall of the
 container when attached. This configuration permits the maximum benefit of
 the void space in the creation of a free surface condition when the
 container is full, and the mouthpiece is oriented at the top of the
 container when tipping. Also, when the container is near empty, it permits
 easier removal of remaining food if the mouthpiece is rotated so it is at
 the bottom of the tipped container. FIG. 4 shows a spout with curved side
 walls, or dome-shaped, rather than conical. The same void space
 requirement as stated above apply to these shapes. FIG. 8 shows a pyramid
 shaped spout.
 The spout terminates on the upper end with the pour opening, or mouthpiece
 2. This mouthpiece is tubular and projects somewhat from the walls of the
 spout, but the joint between the two is always fair and rounded 14. It can
 have a circular or oval cross section as shown in FIG. 6 but with no axial
 internal dimension less than twenty-six (26) millimeters, with thirty-six
 (36) millimeters optimum for 9, and optimum axial values of thirty-three
 (33) millimeters and thirty-eight (38) millimeters for 10, with no
 internal obstructions existing in either. The maximum outside dimension
 should not exceed fifty (50) millimeters. The mouthpiece on the spouts
 shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 has an entrance rim which is in a plane normal
 to the axis of the tubular opening. A preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 5
 has the entrance 8 beveled at an angle to the axis of from ten (10)
 degrees to forty-five (45) degrees to reduce the head tilt required to
 ingest the food. A further improvement shown in FIG. 7 embodies a
 mouthpiece contoured to the open mouth to provide a trough to better
 direct the food particles and reduce spillage. The longer section 11 is
 placed inside the lower lip. The closure cap may either have a threaded
 fitting 4 for round mouthpiece projections or a snap-on/press-on fitting
 12 which is required on an oval or beveled mouthpiece. Furthermore, a
 tether 13 is helpful to avoid loss of the cap, but this should be flexible
 enough or designed in a fashion that it does not strike the user's face.
 While the invention has been described with reference to specific
 embodiments, modifications and variations of the invention may be
 constructed without departing from the scope of the invention.