Freeze-drying, storing, rehydrating and feeding using breast milk
OwnerMadeline Owensinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is a system and method for performing freeze drying of small quantities of a liquid for personal use, wherein a liquid material is disposed within a single-use container, the container is then coupled to a small-scale freeze-drying unit which extracts liquid from the material in the container using a freeze-drying process, and the freeze-dried material is then left in the container and the container is stored until rehydration. The container may be a specialized single-use container that may be used to rehydrate the liquid and then fitted with a delivery device to feed an infant or child.
Claims9
A method for freeze-drying, rehydrating and delivering a liquid material for feeding, said method comprising:
- providing a first single-use container having a tubular neck with a first circular opening, wherein the neck is threaded, providing a rehydration container having a rigid tubular neck with a first circular opening, wherein the neck is threaded, and wherein the first circular opening of the first single-use container has a different diameter than the first circular opening of the rehydration container, providing an accessory adapter having a first threaded end that attaches to the neck of the first single-use container, and having a second threaded end that is different in diameter than the first threaded end, and providing a serving accessory having a first threaded end that attaches to the second threaded end of the accessory adapter and having a serving end for delivering a rehydrated liquid material;
- opening the first single-use container that contains a freeze-dried material therein;
- opening the rehydration container that has a rehydrating liquid stored therein;
- attaching the first single-use container to the rehydration container by attaching the neck of the first single-use container to the neck of the rehydration container;
- delivering the rehydrating liquid to the first single-use container and rehydrating the freeze-dried material to create a rehydrated material;
- removing the rehydration container from the first single-use container;
- attaching the accessory adapter to the first single-use container;
- and
- attaching the serving accessory to the accessory adapter and feeding a person the rehydrated material using the serving accessory.
A method for freeze-drying, rehydrating and delivering a liquid material for feeding, said method comprising:
- providing a first single-use container having a rigid tubular neck with a first circular opening, wherein the neck is threaded;
- sending at least one first single-use container that does not contain any material to a user;
- storing breast milk in the at least one first single-use container;
- sending the at least one first single-use container with breast milk to a processor;
- processing the at least one first single-use container with breast milk to thereby create freeze-dried breast milk;
- and
- returning the at least one first single-use container with the freeze-dried breast milk to the user for use.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.