Food & Health Patents

On June 2, 1947, Earl Silas Tupper (1907–1983) of Leominster, Massachusetts sole-filed 'Open mouth container and nonsnap type of closure therefor' in the United States. It was granted as US2487400A on November 8, 1949 and expired by lifetime on November 8, 1966. Claim 1 fences a resilient and locally distortable polyethylene closure with a central wall, peripheral rim, and inner / outer walls forming a groove that receives the container's edge, plus an offset portion on the outer wall — when the rim is forced over the container's mouth, the outer wall flexes outward and creates a seal, and pressing the central wall produces a partial vacuum inside the container. This fenced an FH cage that confines food away from air with a polyethylene burping seal. Original / Current Assignee both Individual (no formal assignment to Tupperware Plastics Company / Tupperware Corporation on this patent's record). **Important DB correction:** the DB-registered patent number **US2613000A is in fact 'Towel or cloth holder' (Dudley E. Moore sole inventor, filed 1950-08-15, granted 1952-10-07, Original / Current Assignee Individual) — a complete mis-identification.** This memo detected the mis-identification through Day 27's WebFetch and confirmed the correct number US2487400A from the primary source. Day 27 / Cage Patents axis FH Open opening memo.

Filed Sep 1, 1959; granted Aug 23, 1960. US patent US2950228A 'Enzymatic process'. Sole inventor Richard O. Marshall (Argo, Illinois); original assignee Corn Products Company (New York, N.Y.); current assignee Unilever Bestfoods North America (succession Corn Products → Bestfoods → Unilever). Claim 1 covers a process for converting dextrose (glucose) to levulose (fructose) by incubating dextrose at ≥ 0.2 molar with an enzyme preparation containing xylose isomerase. The genesis is 1957: Marshall and Earl R. Kooi published 'Enzymatic Conversion of D-Glucose to D-Fructose' in *Science* (Vol. 125, Issue 3249, pp. 648–649, April 5, 1957), reporting the surprising finding that an *Aeromonas hydrophila* xylose isomerase also acted on glucose at concentrations above ~0.2 M. Kooi co-authored the *Science* paper but is not on this patent's inventor list (the candidates.tsv 'Marshall & Kooi' framing is wrong). Commercialization came in 1967, when the Clinton Corn Processing Company implemented glucose isomerase at industrial scale; in 1968 it introduced batch fructose production using immobilized enzymes (42% fructose). Through the 1970s, HFCS-42 / HFCS-55 supplied US soft drinks at scale and became the principal sweetener in major brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi — and the entry point of the HFCS-vs-obesity debate. Together with Day 13 ep51 (aspartame US3492131A) and Day 14 ep55 (Flavr Savr US4801540A), this is part of a 60-year food-and-health-patent lineage. URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread. The candidates.tsv entry US3379608 is a USGypsum mineral-wool building product (1968), wholly unrelated, corrected during Day 15. **Publication of this memo closes Week 3 (Food / Health + Pharma) — 22 entries across FH-001..012 and PH-001..010.**

Filed August 7, 1884; granted June 2, 1885. US patent US319082A 'Manufacture of Saccharine Compounds.' Sole inventor Constantin Fahlberg (then resident in New York; German-American chemist), with one-half assigned to Adolph List (Leipzig, Germany) — the patent cover page reads 'ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ADOLPH LIST.' Claim covers an eight-step synthesis from toluene and coal-tar derivatives yielding a 'new sweet compound' (later named benzoic sulfinide / saccharin). The discovery dates to 1879, when Fahlberg, while working in Ira Remsen's lab at Johns Hopkins on o-toluenesulfonamide chemistry, noticed a sweet taste on his fingers at dinner. Fahlberg patented alone; Remsen claimed shared discovery credit but was kept off the inventor list. A follow-on patent US326281A (1886, improved saccharin compound) and a reissue USRE10667E followed. The patent connects to Theodore Roosevelt's 1907 intervention on saccharin regulation ('anyone who refuses saccharin is an idiot'), the 1977 FDA-proposed ban followed by a Congressional moratorium, the 2000 NTP delisting from carcinogen rosters, and the 2010s artificial-sweetener portfolio (aspartame, sucralose, etc.). Day 13 ep51 (aspartame US3492131A) cites this patent in its 'comparison with saccharin and cyclamate' passage. URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread. The candidates.tsv entry US284081 is a sawmill set-works patent — wholly unrelated — corrected during Day 15.

Filed July 18, 1938; granted October 30, 1945. Earl W. Flosdorf — the University of Pennsylvania microbiologist who, with Stuart Mudd in December 1933, achieved the first successful freeze-drying of human serum — and three F.J. Stokes Machine Co. co-inventors (Charles J. Westin, Francis Joseph Stokes Jr., Edith Wolfrom Westin) co-filed US patent US2388134A 'Biological apparatus, container, and method'. Claim 1 covers an apparatus consisting of a desiccant chamber, a solid-porous regenerable chemical desiccant, multiple outlets for container connection, valves at approximately 45° above horizontal, and vacuum-producing means — i.e., dehydration of biological material via sublimation plus chemical-desiccant water absorption. The context: the December 1933 Mudd–Flosdorf first human-serum lyophilization, the 1935 Flosdorf–Greaves first commercial lyophilizer, and the wartime plasma-drying program (Sharp & Dohme mass-producing dried blood plasma for forward field hospitals). URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread. The candidates.tsv entry — 'multiple inventors; multiple patents in 1920s–1930s' — is vague, so this memo positions US2388134A as a representative commercial-lyophilizer patent.

On January 5, 1983, Luca Comai, a plant molecular biologist at the Davis-based startup Calgene LLC, filed US patent US4535060A as sole inventor. Claim 1 covers a culture of cells containing a mutated 5-enolpyruvyl-3-phosphoshikimate synthetase (EPSPS, encoded by the aroA structural gene) whose inhibition by glyphosate (the active ingredient of Monsanto's Roundup) is less than about half that of the wild-type enzyme. The mutation is introduced in vitro at the aro locus. Granted August 13, 1985. The patent became one of Calgene's flagship IP assets. The commercial Roundup Ready soybean Monsanto launched in 1996 used a different lineage — the soil-bacterium-derived CP4 EPSPS (Agrobacterium sp.), covered by a separate patent (US5633435A) — so Comai's aroA mutant is not the direct ancestor of commercial Roundup Ready. The two are parallel solutions to the same problem: (a) Comai = mutate an existing plant EPSPS; (b) CP4 = bring in a naturally tolerant bacterial enzyme. After Monsanto's full acquisition of Calgene in 1997, this patent passed into the Monsanto portfolio. This note covers (1) Claim 1 verbatim from Google Patents; (2) the EPSPS / aroA / shikimate-pathway biochemistry; (3) the design split between Comai's mutant and CP4 EPSPS; (4) Calgene's two-shot IP structure together with Day 14 ep55 Flavr Savr (US4801540A); (5) the line through to commercial Roundup Ready soy (1996); and (6) corrections to candidates.tsv where 'Monsanto Company; filed around 1986' is wrong on multiple counts. A significant correction case in the Day 8–14 streak.

Filed Nov 1 1873, granted Dec 30 1873. Hippolyte Mège (also known as Mège-Mouriès, 1817–1880), a Paris-based pharmacist and food chemist, is sole inventor of US146012A 'Improvement in Treating Animal Fats'. The work originated in 1869 when Napoleon III opened a public call for an affordable, shelf-stable butter substitute for the army and the working class. Mège-Mouriès won the French patent on July 15, 1869 (the world's first margarine patent), and re-filed in the US in 1873. The claim covers a nine-step process for treating animal fats: (1) neutralizing ferments, (2) crushing fat cells, (3) concentrated digestion using artificial gastric juice, (4) crystallization separating stearin from oleomargarine, (5) centrifugal separation, (6) conversion of oleomargarine into a butter-like material via mammary pepsin, and (7) processing stearin into superior stearic acid for candles. By the time of the 1873 US filing, four years had passed since the French patent, but US law accepted it as a fresh filing. URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread. **DB correction: the candidates.tsv-listed number US119428 is actually John F. Taylor's 1871 'feed-water heater for steam-boilers' patent, completely unrelated. The substantive primary source is US146012A.**

Priority Oct 17 1986; US filing Jan 2 1987; granted Jan 31 1989. Five plant-molecular-biology researchers at Calgene LLC (Davis, California) — William R. Hiatt, Raymond E. Sheehy, Christine K. Shewmaker, Jean C. Kridl, Vic Knauf — co-invent US4801540A 'PG gene and its use in plants'. The claim covers a DNA sequence encoding tomato polygalacturonase (PG) flanked at the 5′ or 3′ end by at least one non-wild-type sequence. Expressed in antisense orientation, the construct suppresses PG, slows pectin hydrolysis, and yields a 'shelf-stable tomato.' In May 1994 Flavr Savr received FDA clearance and went on sale as the world's first commercial GMO food. Production ended around 1996 due to commercial failure. Calgene was fully acquired by Monsanto in 1997 and the patent transferred. URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread.

Filed May 2, 1911 by Kikunae Ikeda and Saburosuke Suzuki, US1015891A claims a process for separating the products of albumin hydrolysis into basic, acidic, and neutral groups by electrolysis. This is the commercial-manufacturing US patent paired with Ikeda's 1908 Japanese discovery patent (JP14805, partially covered in ep10). The candidates.tsv URL (JP1908000009380) returns 404; US1015891A is adopted as the substantive primary source. Patent URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification unread.

Filed July 1, 1939 by Roy J. Plunkett, US2230654A claims polymerized tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as a substance — Claim 1 is just three words: 'Polymerized tetrafluoroethylene.' The original assignee is Kinetic Chemicals Inc., a DuPont/GM joint venture, not DuPont directly (database correction). Patent URL confirmed; Claim 1 retrieved; full specification and litigation history unread.

On April 18, 1966, James M. Schlatter at G.D. Searle & Co. (Chicago) filed US3492131A 'Peptide Sweetening Agents.' Claim 1 covers five esters of aspartylphenylalanine (methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, tert-butyl) in four stereochemical configurations (LL / DLDL / DL-L / L-DL), describing them as '100–200 times as sweet as sucrose' and free of the unpleasant aftertaste of saccharin or cyclamate. The discovery was accidental: in December 1965, Schlatter was synthesizing an intermediate for the anti-ulcer drug tetragastrin, got crystals on his finger, turned a page of his notebook, later licked the finger, and noticed strong sweetness. The patent was reassigned to NutraSweet Company in 1986. The FDA approval history is unusual: initial approval 1974, suspended 1975 over animal-test data integrity (Bressler Report), public hearing 1980, reapproved July 1981 for dry foods, expanded to carbonated beverages July 1983 — about sixteen years end to end. Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Searle CEO from 1977 to 1985, led the reapproval push. This note records (1) Claim 1 verbatim from Google Patents, (2) the meaning of the LL/DLDL/DL-L/L-DL stereo requirement, (3) the 1986 NutraSweet reassignment, (4) the FDA timeline, (5) the post-1983-expiration generic market, and (6) connections to today's artificial sweetener portfolio (aspartame / sucralose / acesulfame K / steviol glycosides / advantame). One database correction: candidates.tsv lists the patent year as '1965,' but 1965 is the lab discovery year — the actual filing date is April 18, 1966.

On August 1, 1898, German chemist Felix Hoffmann of Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co. (later Bayer AG) filed and the U.S. granted on February 27, 1900, US Patent US644077A 'Acetyl salicylic acid.' As the title indicates, this patent enclosed acetyl salicylic acid (the chemical name of aspirin) **as a substance itself** as a 'new article of manufacture,' a substance patent. Claim 1 defines acetyl salicylic acid by physicochemical properties: white needle crystals from chloroform recrystallization, soluble in benzene/alcohol, slightly soluble in cold water, melting point ~135°C, hydrolysis to acetic acid and salicylic acid in hot water. The specification records that Hoffmann established a synthesis using acetic anhydride (higher purity than the existing acetyl chloride method) in 1897. Germany's patent office rejected the patent for 'lack of novelty,' while the U.S. and U.K. granted substance patents. Read this as the precursor to the inventor dispute (in 1949, former colleague Arthur Eichengrün claimed 'I directed the actual synthesis; Hoffmann only executed the experiment'), the post-WWI U.S. seizure of Bayer's American assets (December 1918, sold to Sterling Products Co.; the U.S. 'Bayer' and 'Aspirin' trademarks remained on the U.S. side until 1994), the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic over-dosing records, and the 120-year reckoning to modern 100mg antiplatelet therapy (cardiovascular prevention from the 1980s onward) and OTC market expansion (after the 1917 U.S. patent expiration). Unlike Day 11's PH-007 / PH-005 DB-number/inventor errors, this is the rare case where the DB description (Felix Hoffmann sole inventor, Bayer assignee) matches the primary source.

U.S. filing October 8, 1945; granted January 24, 1950; expired January 24, 1967. Raytheon Manufacturing Company assignee, Percy L. Spencer **sole inventor** for the foundational microwave-oven patent US2495429A 'Method of Treating Foodstuffs.' Claim 1 defines a method that generates electromagnetic wave energy in the microwave region, concentrates and guides it within a restricted region of space, and exposes the foodstuff to the energy long enough to cook it to a predetermined degree. Spencer's biographical account: while standing near a magnetron during radar work, the chocolate bar in his pocket melted — that was the trigger. Spencer received only **a $2 lump-sum bonus** from Raytheon for this invention (long-standing biographical anecdote, primary source unverified). The 1947 first commercial unit Radarange weighed about 340 kg, cost about $5,000, and required cooling plumbing — strictly an industrial appliance. The first home model came from Tappan in 1955 at $1,295. Amana's $495 Radarange Counter Top in 1967 accelerated household adoption. Read this as the precursor to convenience-store bento reheating, frozen-food thawing, microwave recipe books, and the 1-minute instant-food culture. Title, full Claim 1, sole inventor, filing/grant dates, original/current assignees retrieved from Google Patents.

U.S. priority July 13, 1926; filed June 18, 1927; granted August 12, 1930. Frosted Foods Co Inc obtained the quick-freeze food packaging core patent US1773079A 'Method of preparing food products,' invented by **Clarence Birdseye alone**. Claim 1 defines a packaging-and-freezing process: pack food into the container in which it will be marketed, then freeze it under pressure applied to substantial surface areas of the packed container. In 1929, General Foods Corporation reportedly acquired Frosted Foods Co and Clarence Birdseye–related patents for $22 million (primary source unverified — consensus in later business-history books). Read this as the precursor to grocery-aisle frozen food, frozen dumplings, frozen pizza, frozen bakery, IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) seafood, and Uber Eats frozen delivery. Title, full Claim 1 text, sole inventor, filing/priority/grant dates, original and current assignees retrieved from Google Patents. **The DB record (candidates.tsv) listing '1927 patent' actually refers to the filing year; priority is 1926-07-13, and Birdseye-related patents number 20+.**