Ready-to-Eat Meal Sterilization Patents: Leaders & Gaps 2026
- One filer dominates. the leading assignee accounts for 71 of the 77 records in scope, with a long tail of single- and double-digit filers behind it.
- Filing has cooled from its 2020 peak of 30. the last complete year shows 2021's 8 filings falling to 5 by 2024, a 38% drop over that span.
- Classification skews biological, not thermal. 76.6% of records carry C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering), well ahead of A23L food-processing classes, pointing to a strain- and enzyme-led approach to shelf stability.
Filing growth compares 2021 (8 records) with 2024 (5) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field.
What this landscape covers
This review tracks 77 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine ready-to-eat or retort-meal processing language with sterilization-adjacent terms such as heat penetration, tray geometry, lethality target and cycle time. The scope captures both classic thermal-process engineering and the biological side of shelf stability — strain modification, enzyme control and fermentation — because the underlying search string pulls in both.
Filing offices skew toward Australia, the United States, Canada and the EPO, with the Philippines and Malaysia also represented. That spread, combined with the IPC mix below, suggests two distinct filer populations sharing this search space: industrial retort-process engineers and agricultural-biotech groups working on raw ingredient traits that feed into processed-meal stability.
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Filing trend and technology mix
Two views of the same 77-record set: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the records actually sit in.
Filing trend: a 2020 peak, then a step down
Filings were at zero in 2017, rose to a peak of 30 in 2020, then eased through the early 2020s. The last complete comparison point runs from 8 filings in 2021 to 5 in 2024, a 38% decline over three years. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as a continued fall.
IPC composition: biology-heavy, not just thermal engineering
C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering) appears on 76.6% of the 77 records, far ahead of A23L food-processing classes at 36.4% and A01H plant-breeding classes at 35.1%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add past 100% by design — the takeaway is that strain- and enzyme-level classes outweigh classic thermal-process classes across this corpus.
Shares are the percentage of the 77 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Sterilization of Ready-to-Eat Meals with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about sterilization of ready-to-eat meals and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this set
Vacuum-packed braised viand with rice/cereals wrapped in plant material (PH12015000217A1)
The filing works through packaging-material selection for a vacuum-packed, thermally processed regional dish (chevon calderetta with rice, wrapped in banana leaf), including retort-pouch layer configuration and a specified heat treatment of 240°F for 70 minutes under overriding pressure.Filed by Antonino, Judith P.; published 2017-01-23.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2014197943A1 | Barley with very low levels of hordeins | 11 |
| 2 | US20040170745A1 | Extruded dry and semi-dry sausage product processing and to products thereform | 9 |
| 3 | WO2021068039A1 | Expression of nitrogenase polypeptides in plant cells | 4 |
| 4 | US20160128345A1 | Barley with very low levels of hordeins | 3 |
| 5 | WO2020181324A1 | Expression of nitrogenase polypeptides in plant cells | 2 |
| 6 | US20220170038A1 | Expression of Nitrogenase Polypeptides In Plant Cells | 2 |
| 7 | US10849345B2 | Barley with very low levels of hordeins | 2 |
| 8 | WO2021155435A1 | Barley with reduced levels of alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitors | 1 |
| 9 | US20240117326A1 | Expression of nitrogenase polypeptides in plant cells | 1 |
| 10 | CA2914687A1 | Barley with very low levels of hordeins | 1 |
Ranked by citation count within this searched corpus. Older filings accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence within the field, not of current commercial weight.
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Three patterns stand out once the filing trend, IPC mix and citation data are read together.
One organisation carries the corpus
The top-ranked assignee holds 71 of the 77 records in this ranking, with the next tier of filers in single digits. That leaves most of the visible filing history in one hand, and a long tail of individual and small-institution filers behind it.
Volume has stepped down from its 2020 peak
Filing peaked at 30 in 2020 and has since settled to single-digit annual counts, with 2021's 8 falling to 5 by 2024. Given the ~18-month publication lag, the 2025-2026 counts are not yet reliable evidence of a further decline.
Biology-led claims outnumber thermal-process claims
C12N (microorganisms & genetic engineering) touches more than three-quarters of records, ahead of A23L food-processing classes at 36.4%. Cycle-time and tray-geometry language in the search string is pulling in strain and enzyme work as often as retort engineering.
Citation weight sits on older barley and nitrogenase filings
The most-cited records in this corpus concern low-hordein barley and nitrogenase expression in plant cells, not retort-process patents. That reflects how long a document has been available to cite, more than how relevant it is to current sterilization-cycle engineering.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to sterilization of ready-to-eat meals, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranking is dominated by one Australian research organisation and its frequent co-filer, with a scattering of individual inventors and a Philippine state university making up the rest of the ranked list.
A single research organisation anchors the field
The leading assignee's filing count dwarfs every other entity in this ranking, and it appears in the strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset, alongside a grain-research partner, on 28 shared records.
Institutional co-filing is concentrated in one pairing
Of the 4 co-assignee pairs identified, the strongest links the leading organisation to a grain-research partner on 28 records. The remaining pairs involve individual Philippine inventors filing together on 3 records each.
Everyone else files in single digits
Below the leader, counts drop sharply — fifth place in the ranking sits at 3 records. That gap between the leader and the rest is the clearest structural feature of this assignee landscape.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 0 | — |
| Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) | 0 | — |
| LHENARD AYUSTE | 0 | — |
| GERALDINE G GANTIOQUE | 0 | — |
| ANTONINO JUDITH P | 0 | — |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | 0 | — |
| NEWKIRK KYLE A | 0 | — |
| CENT LUZON STATE UNIV | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a concentrated core and a thin periphery. Both are actionable starting points.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading assignee
With 71 of 77 records held by one organisation, any new filing touching microorganism- or enzyme-based shelf-stability claims should be checked against that portfolio first, not the long tail.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaScope claims around thermal-process white space
A23L and cycle-time-specific claims are thinner than the C12N biology core. That gap is where a tray-geometry or lethality-modelling claim is less likely to collide with existing filings.
Explore white space with EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One Australian research organisation accounts for 71 of the 77 records in this assignee ranking, making it by far the largest holder in this dataset. Its most frequent co-filer, a grain-research partner, appears with it on 28 shared records, the strongest co-assignee pairing identified. Every other entity in the ranking files in single digits, so due diligence in this space should weight the leader's portfolio heavily before looking at the smaller filers.
Filing peaked at 30 records in 2020 and has since stepped down to single-digit annual counts, with 2021's 8 filings falling to 5 by 2024, a 38% decline over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 counts in any dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as evidence of a continued drop. Judge momentum on the 2021-2024 window, not on the most recent one or two years.
C12N, covering microorganisms and genetic engineering, appears on 76.6% of the 77 records in scope, well ahead of A23L food-processing classes at 36.4% and A01H plant-breeding classes at 35.1%. This means the corpus leans toward strain- and enzyme-level approaches to shelf stability rather than pure thermal-process engineering, even though the search terms target retort and heat-penetration language. A record can carry multiple IPC codes, so these percentages are not mutually exclusive shares of a whole.
PH12015000217A1 describes packaging-material selection and a specific heat treatment (240°F for 70 minutes under overriding pressure) for a vacuum-packed, banana-leaf-wrapped regional dish. Its scope is tied closely to that particular product format and pouch construction, so it is unlikely to block sterilization work on different tray geometries, protein types or packaging laminates. Anyone filing near vacuum-pouch retort processing for wrapped, rice-based dishes should still review it directly rather than relying on this summary.
Thermal-process branches such as tray-geometry-specific lethality modelling, surface-overcooking mitigation and cycle-time optimisation for mixed-protein trays show thinner coverage than the dominant C12N biology classes. These sit inside A23L and cycle-time-adjacent language in the search scope but are not where the leading assignee has concentrated its filings. That gap is a reasonable starting point for a novelty search before drafting a first claim in this area.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.