The "Crisp Keeper" Household Food Container:  U.S. Patent # 5,799,866

*** The Household Food Container scored very well in independent tests ***

Description: 

The "Crisp Keeper" Household Food Container provides an economical and effective way to store and/or transport perishable food items, such as fruits and vegetables. This food storage device keeps food items fresh for an extended period of time. A removable bottom is contained within the cavity to hold food items inside. 

What is the "Crisp Keeper" concept?

The "Crisp Keeper" Household Food Container has an extra shelf filled with air holes, dividing the container into two halves. You fill the bottom half with fresh water. Moisture from the water-filled bottom half evaporates through the holes. This evaporation allows the stored food to absorb moisture and breath. Allowing the food to absorb the moisture and to breathe extends the time that the food can be kept fresh within a food container. This is what allows it to keeps food items fresh longer. 

Profiting From Innovation: Improving on an existing product allows for a quick R.O.I.

How to store fruits and vegetables while preserving their freshness:

Consumers are quite inventive in storing food items in various types of containers with and without refrigeration. Who hasn't stored homemade soup in an old spaghetti sauce jar or refilled an old plastic Cool Whip tub with tomorrow's lunch? Re-using commercial food containers may seem like a thrifty, eco-friendly idea, but it may not be the safest and best way to preserve food. Most commercial containers have been designed and tested to preserve food only from the food processor to the consumer ... not for re-use for food storage. If these commercial containers are good enough for re-usable storage, they would certainly provide a sustainable competitive advantage for the branded product.

A good example of achieving a "sustainable competitive advantage" through product innovation is Hefty's OneZip plastic zipper bag, which is sealed with a sliding tab. In four years, this new product has gone from zero to fourth place in the market for sandwich, freezer and food-storage bags, which totals $900 million in annual sales. Look for applications for the OneZip to spread to everything from laundry detergent and diaper wipes to cigars and potato chips.

The "Crisp Keeper" product concept of the Household Food Container can provide value-added enhancements to the following markets:

• Food processors
• Food packagers
• Transportation container manufacturers
• Housewares manufacturers
• Refrigerator appliance manufacturer
  

Features and Benefits of the new Crisp Keeper:

How well does the Crisp Keeper work? 

Now that we know the Crisp Keeper concept utilizes aeration and moisture evaporation in tandem to produce a product that effectively keeps most fruits and vegetables in a crisper state than competitive products, how can you prove the concept really Works?

An independent lab performed tests on a prototype Crisp Keeper by comparing it with a Veg-Lock bag and a regular plastic bag with a twist tie. This test demonstrates proof of concept. It is expected that each prospective commercialization partner would be prepared to test the Crisp Keeper product concept against its main competitive products. 

For example, the test shows how the vents in the Crisp Keepers inner rack provide not only moisture to the fruits or vegetables, but also how the water within the container could be sloshed onto the food to enhance the preservation process ... or ... you may wish to personally test the Crisp Keeper's ability to preserve cut vegetables versus leafy or whole vegetables. Call or write to the inventor for a copy of the test results. 

One unique enhancement of the Crisp Keeper, is how it allows leafy vegetables (i.e. Bibb lettuce, spinach, watercress) to retain their flavor and crispness above any main competitor: significant wilting and loss of crispness will occur in air-tight, non-moisture retentive containers -- but not in the Crisp Keeper. Only the Crisp Keeper has this unique advantage over its market competition.

Inventor:  Deeb Hattem
E-mail:  [email protected]