PASTEURIZATION PANELS FOR A PLASTIC CONTAINER

摘要

A sidewall portion (16) for a plastic container (10) used to receive a commodity and to retain the commodity during high temperature pasteurization and after cooling. The plastic container (10) has an upper portion (12) defining an aperture sealed by a closure, a lower portion (14) forming a base, and a sidewall portion (16) unitarily connected with and extending between the upper portion (12) and the lower portion (14). The sidewall portion (16) includes panels (17) having a vacuum panel portion (20) unitarily formed in and inwardly recessed from the sidewall (16), and a pressure panel portion (18) unitarily formed with the vacuum panel portion (20). The pressure panel portion is movable from a first position to a second position during pasteurization thereby increasing the volume of the container and avoiding any significant deformation of the sidewalk portion (16). The panels (17) are movable from an increased volume position to a reduced volume position thereby decreasing the volume of the commodity in the container (10) and increasing apparent volume of the commodity in the container (10) upon cooling after high temperature pasteurization.