# US 9,040,881 B2 · Cooking methods > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 9,040,881 B2 - Document ID: US9040881B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 14/481,248 - Filed: 2014-09-09 - Published: 2014-12-25 - Granted: 2015-05-26 - Earliest claimed: 2007-12-21 - Assignees: Ovenfeast Limited - Applicants: Ovenfeast Limited - Inventors: Michael James McIntyre; Richard Anthony Devlin - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9040881B2 ## CPC - G05B 15/02: electric - G06Q 50/12: Hotels or restaurants - H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks - H05B 6/687: {for cooking} - H05B 6/688: {for thawing} - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - H05B: ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL ## Abstract The present invention relates to a cooking control method performed by a cooking apparatus for a food item. The method comprises obtaining a unique identifier and cooking data for the food item, and checking for a record of the unique identifier in a memory of the cooking apparatus. If a record of the unique identifier is located in the memory, then the cooking apparatus will not cook the food item. Otherwise a cooking process based on the cooking data to cook the food item is performed. Accordingly, cooking data for a given instance of a food item can only be used once in order to activate a cooking process performed by the cooking apparatus. The present invention also features product recall as well as the ability to track food item sales via a cooking data communications system. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A cooking control method performable by a cooking apparatus on a food item comprising the steps of: obtaining a unique identifier and cooking data for the food item, and checking for a record of the unique identifier in a memory of the cooking apparatus, and if a record of the unique identifier is located in the memory then a cooking process is not performed by the cooking apparatus and the food item is not cooked, but, if a record of the unique identifier is not located in the memory, then performing the step of: controlling the cooking apparatus to perform a cooking process based on the cooking data to cook the food item. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the further step of storing the unique identifier in the memory of the cooking apparatus. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising checking for a record of the unique identifier in memory of any of a plurality of cooking apparatuses linked together via a communications network. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising checking for a record of the unique identifier in a memory of a central communications server linked to the cooking apparatus. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) A cookery control method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising controlling the cooking apparatus to shut down if a food item that has been placed in and cooked by the cooking apparatus is not removed from the cooking apparatus within a predetermined amount of time. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, in which the method comprises the step of encoding the unique identifier and the cooking data in a barcode applied to packaging of the food item. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 6, in which the unique identifier and cooking data are supplied to the cooking apparatus by reading the barcode with a barcode reader of the cooking apparatus. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) A cooking method as claimed in claim 1, in which the method comprises the further steps of generating a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag for storing the unique identifier and the cooking information and applying the RFID tag to the food item. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 8, in which the unique identifier and cooking data are supplied to the cooking apparatus by data transmission from the RFID tag to a radio frequency transceiver of the cooking apparatus. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, in which the unique identifier and cooking data are supplied to the cooking apparatus from a wired or wireless transmission network coupled to a computing server. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, in which the unique identifier and cooking data are supplied to the cooking apparatus using an input keypad of the cooking apparatus. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the step of generating food item status information for the food item, the food item status information comprises one or more of: a food item sell by date, a brand identifier for the food item, a food item batch identifier and a serial code number. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 12, in which the food item status information is encoded in a barcode or stored in an RFID tag applied to the food item. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the further step of controlling the cooking apparatus to adjust the cooking process to compensate for a variation in voltage received to power the cooking apparatus from a predefined input voltage range. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the further step of controlling the cooking apparatus to adjust the cooking process to compensate for a variation in temperature in a cooking cavity of the cooking apparatus from a predefined cooking temperature range for the food item. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed claim 1, comprising the further step of controlling the cooking apparatus to adjust the cooking process to compensate for a variation in weight of the food item to be cooked from a predefined cooking weight range for the food item. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) A cooking control method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the further step of controlling the cooking apparatus to generate a combination cooking process when the unique identifiers for two or more food items are obtained, the combination cooking process enabling the two or more food items to be cooked at the same time by the cooking apparatus.