Box Vox

packaging as content

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April 14, 2010

Low Pollution Food Unit

LowPollutionFoodUnit

Reading James D. Ashley’s 1970 “Low Pollution Food Unit” —(a patent for edible cereal packaging assigned to The Quaker Oats Company)—gives one a vaguely Soylent Green sort of feeling in it's pragmatic approach to impending ecological disaster:

This invention relates to a low pollution food unit comprising the integral combination of a ready-to-eat breakfast cereal with a new and unique packaging arrangement.

Pollution is increasingly becoming a worldwide concern. One problem that is now present is the magnitude of packaging materials which must be disposed of in some manner… Heretofore, ready to eat cereal packaging has consisted of an inner wrapping which is moisture-proof and is usually a metallic foil or some other nondegradable material which is in turn enclosed in a stiff paper cereal box…

The object of this invention is accomplished by a low pollution food unit comprising a ready-to-eat cereal completely enclosed in an edible milk soluble pouch… The consumer… when ready for consumption will remove the individual portion… place it in the cereal bowl , and add milk thereto. When the milk is added to the packaged product, the package will dissolve and the consumer will eat the entire contents in the same manner that a cereal product is normally consumed.

James D. Ashley
“Low Pollution Food Unit” 1970 (U.S. Patent 3,778,515)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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