Methods and apparatuses for dispensing condiments

#Currently, it is common practice to enhance the flavor of food items, such as French fries, by applying a condiment to the exterior of the food items after the food items are cooked. This is done by dipping individual food items in a pool of condiment, such as ketchup, or by dispensing the condiment directly onto the exterior of the food items from a condiment package, or a dispenser such as the large pump-type ketchup and mustard dispensers found at many fast food restaurants.

#There are many disadvantages associated with this prior art practice of applying condiments to food items. First, the practice can be messy. This is due to the fact that the condiment may drip off of the food items before, or as, the food items are eaten. In addition, individuals often make pools of condiment for their food items on flexible sandwich wrappers and other unstable surfaces. This can result in stains if the wrappers inadvertently come into contact with clothing, carpets, or other items.

#A further disadvantage of current condiment application techniques is that it is difficult to use these techniques to apply a condiment to food items while driving. This is a common problem for individuals who order food items from a drive-through window, and then attempt to apply a condiment to the food items while driving. Using current techniques, the individual is presented with the food item (e.g., French fries, onion rings, hash browns, French toast sticks, or a soft pretzel) and several individual packets of condiment (e.g., ketchup or syrup) at a drive-through window. The user then opens the individual condiment packets, pours the contents of the packets onto a napkin or sandwich wrapper to form a condiment pool, dips the food items individually into the condiment pool, and eats the food items. This can be stressful, messy, and distracting to the driver.

#Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional diagram of a condiment dispenser according to one embodiment of the invention.

#FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an injection nozzle that has been inserted into a food item.

#The present invention now will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the relevant field. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

#As used in this disclosure, the term “cooking” refers to any method of cooking a food item. Such methods include frying (such as deep frying or any other type of frying), baking, boiling, microwaving, broiling, poaching, steaming, sautéing, and any other method of cooking the food item.

#Also, as used in this disclosure, the term “nozzle” refers to a projecting spout that is configured for discharging a fluid.