High strength open bottom meat container

Claim 1

In a generally rectangular molded tray for the packaging of meat, fish or poultry in conjunction with a transparent overwrap film heat-sealed thereabout, said tray comprising a pair of upwardly anD outwardly inclined sidewalls, each said side wall forming a long side of said tray; a pair of upwardly and outwardly inclined end walls, each said end wall being adjacent to ends of said side walls, and thereby forming the rectangular configuration of said tray; a generally rounded corner between each said side wall and each said end wall; and a peripheral lip extending outwardly from said side and end walls and defining the periphery of said tray, the improvement comprising: means for supporting the meat, fish or poultry at the bottom of said tray, said support means comprising a plurality of ribs having an inverted V-shaped cross-section, some of said ribs extending across said tray between said side walls and the remainder of said ribs extending across said tray between said end walls, said ribs joining or intersecting substantial right angles and defining therebetween and a plurality of open windows of substantially rectangular shape; means to increase the side wall compression strength of said tray when overwrapped with transparent film, comprising a series of smooth bulges extending convexly toward the interior of said tray from said end and side walls and smoothly merging with said inverted V-shaped ribs, said bulges being of maximum width along the bottom of said end and side walls and becoming uniformly increasingly narrower as they extend upwardly and outwardly along said side and end walls and inwardly as they merge with their respective ribs, each said bulge thereby defining a generally elliptical or diamond-shaped pattern when viewed from above, each said convex bulge being shaped concavely when viewed along a vertical section passing therethrough.