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Soup container prototype

Feb. 2025

Self-initiated pet project

A dish is best served… on the floor

A few weeks ago, I had a cold and was in the mood for some soup. My boyfriend suggested picking up some soup from a Vietnamese takeaway since I love Asian food. However, when he arrived home, some of the soup was in his backpack, and some ended up on the floor. 

 

I never got to take an image of the disaster, as our instinct was to make sure we did not stain our carpet and lose what was left of the soup. But the scenario looked a bit like this:

Drawing of couple being sad over spilt soup

Problem

Was this a revenge served cold? Nope, it was warm and smelled amazing. No, it was just the typical soup container from a takeaway place in Denmark. While I know it is a small country, I doubt this issue only occurs here. Larry David expressed his dissatisfaction with the soup container not being sealed properly.

Image of TV show with Larry David

Curb your enthusiasm (TV show)

Analyse of the container

Now, perhaps I am oversaturating this problem, so I want to conduct some desk research to analyse different cops for restaurant and catering businesses provided by B2B companies to see if there is a common pattern among them.

Table of soup container types

Based on viewing 15 soup contains, where 5 of them are displayed in the table above, they are similar to the one I received, which shows it could be a common problem from country to country. They are made of cardboard with a lid placed on top, which is simple and typical.

Solution

Behold! A soup container with tape and built-in tear tape around it! It can bring a tear in your eye! Yes, I used the word tape twice. It can almost be associated with the Matryoshka effect, a dull within a dull. But this is not looking within oneself or becoming a better leader; it is just because tape works. MacGyver knew it, and you know it. But the staff cannot just take some gaffe tape and then tape around the coup container. It would look clumsy, and how would a customer remove it? Pealing the tear tape solves it, and while it is not a new invention and therefore cannot be coined “The Helena tape peeler”, unfortunately, this pet project is to showcase other methods to secure liquid lunches than have been done before. 

Prototype sketch of soup
Tear tape prototype
Drawing for fast food idea
prototyping for better food containing

Step-by-step guide

1. Pour soup into a container

2. Place lid on container.

3. Tape around the lid and container.

4. Peel tear strip off and enjoy.

Interactive and playful feature

Bursting bubble plastic wrappers and piling the label of a soda bottle, we love to fiddle with things and feel the touch of the material.

Deceases wrap rage

You have heard of road rage, but wrap rage? Upon studying for this pet project, I had never heard of this team before, but I sure have experienced it, and so have you. Getting frustrated by trying to rip off a plastic wrapper is real.

Why not Tupperware?

I would not expect takeaway places to choose a more expensive alternative. Tupperware can work wonders, but they are more pricey. While more steady, they also take up more space on the shelves in the back room of the takeaway place, meaning they would have a limited amount and would have to order more frequently.

Why not just tape around the cop?

Let’s say the staff behind the takeaway place decides to tape around the soup container. Is it an extra nice touch in regards to customer service? Yes. But how about once you are back at the office or home? Do you have a box cutter? Maybe. But you might not recall where it is, and let’s be honest, you might poke a hole in the container while trying to slice up the tape. It is also not aesthetically pleasing. You know how it goes when you tape a box or two items together; it will never be straight. Sometimes, you try to remove the tape to redo it, but some of the paper gets removed in the process. It is just a big mess.

Initial discarded idea

Clip on the locker as a solution was another idea I thought of. However, they can be bulky, which may not fit the aesthetics some takeaway restaurants seek. Also, it can be a hassle for the user to unclip and certainly can not be done with one hand.

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