A47J - Definition 
Definition statement
This subclass covers:
Devices for domestic (or restaurant) use for preparing, cooking, or warming food or for making beverages. Storing and handling arrangements for these devices. Devices for storing food.
Preparing, cooking, or warming food refers to the various possible stages when preparing a meal:
- food is prepared before cooking / consumption: e.g. peeled, cut, shaped, strained, mashed, sifted, washed, opening of eggs, separating contents of eggs, nut cracking, introducing fat etc. into meat
- food is cooked: e.g. boiled, fried, deep fat fried, broiled, braised, grilled, roasted, toasted, baked, steamed (i.e. a raw potato becomes a cooked one)
- food is prepared after cooking: e.g. mashed, held or clamped during cutting after being cooked
- food is warmed: cold prepared or cooked food is warmed for consumption (i.e. a cold cooked potato becomes a warmcooked potato)
Devices for preparing, cooking, or warming food therefore include:
Domestic implements or machines for preparing food, e.g.
- for shaping butter or the like,
- for peeling, stringing, or paring foodstuffs,
- for mashing or straining foodstuffs,
- for coring, for stoning, or for removing stalks from, fruit,
- kitchen robots, devices for mixing, beating, stirring, grating, whipping food
- for holding, gripping or clamping food, e.g. during peeling or during cutting after being cooked
- Cutting boards
- Coffee mills, spice mills
Domestic cooking implements, e.g.
- Cooking vessels or accessories therefor
- Household vessels or apparatuses for boiling, frying, deep fat frying, broiling, stewing, grilling, roasting, toasting, baking, steaming, e.g. pressure cookers, steamers, rice cookers, deep fat fryers
- Egg cookers
- Camp cooking devices without integral heating means
Devices for warming drinks or food
Warming vessels containing drinks or food
Heat insulated chambers to warm or to keep food warm
Devices for gripping, lifting or supporting above devices (pincers, pads)
Culinary hand implements for handling or supporting food during preparing/cooking/warming
Making beverages refers to:
- extracting flavor from solids by a liquid: e.g. extracting flavor from coffee grounds or tea leaves by brewing with hot water
- diluting concentrate powders or liquids by diluents: e.g. diluting coffee concentrate with hot water
- changing the consistency of a beverage: shaking a beverage, foaming milk
Devices for making beverages therefore include:
- Household apparatuses for making beverages, e.g. by brewing or diluting
- Beverage shakers, devices for foaming milk
Storing and handling of devices for preparing, cooking, or warming food or for making beverages refer to:
- fastening these devices in order to immobilise them for use , irremovably fixing them
- arranging these devices when temporally not in use or for warming them
Storing and handling arrangements therefore include:
- Devices for fastening kitchen utensils to tables, walls, or the like
- Stands, or holders for kitchen articles
- Grids, racks, or other supports irremovably mounted in, on, or over sinks
- Devices for warming kitchen utensils, e.g. dishes
Storing food refers to:
- storing food or ingredients to be prepared/cooked/warmed or ingredients for making beverages, e.g. storage containers for flour, sugar, coffee beans, ground coffee, tea leaves or rice, storage boxes for leftovers
- storing prepared/cooked/warmed food or beverages, e.g. thermally insulated vessels or flasks
Devices for storing food therefore include:
- Kitchen containers
- Thermally insulated vessels, e.g. flasks, jugs or jars
Relationship between large subject matter areas
This subclass is primarily intended for domestic kitchen equipment for preparing/cooking/warming food. Preparing/cooking/warming foodstuff on an industrial scale is not covered by this subclasses and will be classified in the following places:
subclass A01J for machines or implements for shaping butter or the like used in dairies, e.g. for forming slabs of butter
subclass A21B for bakers’ ovens, machines or equipment for industrial baking
subclass A23J for industrial machines for opening eggs
subclass A23N for machines for preparing foodstuffs or fruit in bulk, e.g. peeling vegetables or fruit in bulk
Implements for table use will be classified in A47G.
Subclass A47J further covers the domestic making of (hot) beverages, in particular the preparing of tea or coffee by extraction with hot water. Other apparatuses and methods for preparing beverages mostly on industrial scale are classified in the following subclasses:
subclass A23F for the industrial making of coffee or tea
subclass C12C for brewing of beer
subclass C12G for preparation of wine or other alcoholic beverages
subclass B67D for dispensing beverages, e.g. on draught
subclass A23L for preparation of non-alcoholic beverages, e.g. by adding ingredients to fruit or vegetable juices
In relation to the subclasses that cover domestic stoves or ranges for solid or liquid fuel in general, this subclass is an application place. Features of stoves or ranges which are of general interest should be classified in the relevant general place, such as F24B, F24C.
Storing arrangements in A47J does not cover cabinets or racks in general even with provision for attachment of kitchen implements. This subject matter is classified with the subclass for cabinets or general details of furniture A47B. Devices for fastening household utensils are classified in A47G. Storage containers (both thermally insulated as without thermal insulation) in general are classified in B65D.
References relevant to classification in this subclass
This subclass does not cover:
Apparatus for treating milk in dairies, e.g. appliances for preventing or destroying milk foam, aerating or de-aerating milk | A01J 11/00 |
Hand devices for forming slabs of butter in dairies | A01J 19/00 |
Machines for forming slaps of butter in diaries | A01J 21/00 |
Apparatus for smoking food | A23B 4/044 |
Machines or apparatus for treating harvested fruit or vegetables in bulk | A23N |
Machines or apparatus for extracting juice | A23N 1/00 |
Machines for coring or stoning fruits in bulk | A23N 3/00 |
Machines for stoning fruits or removing seed containing sections | A23N 4/00 |
Peeling vegetables or fruit in bulk | A23N 7/00 |
Machines for removing stalks from fruit | A23N 15/00 |
Making ice cream | A23G 9/00 |
Washing or rinsing machines for crockery or table-ware | A47L 15/00 |
Apparatus or implements used in manual washing or cleaning of crockery, table-ware, cooking-ware or the like | A47L 17/00 |
Drying devices for crockery or table-ware, e.g. tea-cloths | A47L 19/00 |
Polishing of table-ware, e.g. knives, forks, spoons | A47L 21/00 |
Table devices or equipment, e.g. table ware | A47G |
Brewing of beer | C12C |
Preparation of wine or other alcoholic beverages | C12G |
Traveling cookers heated by gaseous fuels | F24C 3/14 |
Domestic stoves or ranges | F24B, F24C |
Microwave ovens | F24C 7/02, H05B 6/64 |
Induction heating hobs | H05B 6/12 |
Lunch boxes, picnic boxes or the like | A45C 11/20 |
Table service | A47G 19/00 |
Vessels or pots for table use | A47G 19/12 |
Coffee or tea pots | A47G 19/14 |
Tea infusers, e.g. tea eggs | A47G 19/16 |
Table ware | A47G 21/00 |
Devices for fastening household utensils, or the like, to tables, walls, or the like | A47G 29/087 |
Weighing spoons | G01G 19/56 |
Informative references
Attention is drawn to the following places, which may be of interest for search:
Bakers’ ovens, non-domestic baking apparatus or equipment | A21B |
Machines or equipment for making or processing dough; handling baked articles made from dough | A21C |
Provers, i.e. apparatus permitting dough to rise | A21C 13/00 |
Preparation of non-alcoholic beverages, e.g. by adding ingredients to fruit or vegetable juices | A23L 2/00 |
Machines for roasting coffee in bulk | A23N 12/08 |
Racks or shelf units | A47B |
Kitchen cabinets | A47B 77/00 |
Disintegrating, e.g. mincing | B02C |
Spouts in general | B05B 1/22 |
Hand-held cutting tools not otherwise provided for | B26B |
Cutting characterised by the cutting member or nature of the cut performed; Details of apparatus for severing | B26D |
Containers with thermal insulation in general | B65D 81/38 |
Dispensing beverages on draught | B67D 1/00 |
Removing cooking fumes from domestic stoves or ranges | F24C 15/20 |
Glossary of terms
In this subclass, the following terms or expressions are used with the meaning indicated:
| cooking | boiling, braising, steaming, pressure cooking, frying, baking, roasting, grilling or barbecuing food note: in A47J/27 cooking includes only boiling, braising, steaming and pressure cooking |
| boiling | cooking food by submerging it in boiling water, or other water-based liquid (stock, milk); keeping liquid foodstuff (or water) at a boiling temperature |
| braising | cooking food with moist heat , e.g. stewing, pot roasting |
| steaming | cooking food in an atmosphere with hot steam |
| pressure cooking | cooking food at a pressure different than that of the atmosphere |
| super-atmospheric cooking | pressure cooking at a pressure higher than that of the atmosphere note: often called "pressure cooking" |
| sub-atmospheric cooking | pressure cooking at a pressure lower than that of the atmosphere, e.g. by using a pump to remove the air from the cooking environment note: sometimes called "vacuum cooking", although "vacuum cooking" refers more often to vacuum flask cooking |
| vacuum flask cooking | cooking food inside a removable pot sealed inside a vacuum flask for prolonged heating with minimum heat loss |
| frying | Cooking food in hot oil or fat, e.g. pan frying, deep frying |
| Frying inside a frying pan or wok | cooking food on a hot surface such as a frying pan, wok, griddle or grill pan, usually in a thin layer of hot oil or fat note: frying pan: called skillet in American English griddle: a sheet of metal of appropriate thickness with a flat frying surface grill pan: frying pan which has raised metal ridges for the food to sit on (often used for "frying" without the use of oil or fat, to get a pattern similar than that achieved by direct barbecuing, called "grilling" in American English) |
| deep (fat) frying | cooking food by submerging it in hot oil or fat |
| baking | cooking food by dry heat acting by conduction note: normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones; baked food products are dough-based products like pastries, cakes or bread, or baked potatoes, baked apples, baked beans,... |
| roasting | cooking food with dry high heat, in an oven or near hot coals note: usually resulting in a caramelised surface; the food surface is often basted during roasting |
| grilling | applying direct dry high heat to food, most commonly from above, with heat transfer primarily via thermal radiation, e.g. by using the upper heating element of an electric oven, or inside a drawer below the flame of a gas oven note: grilled food products are for instance the grilled cheese on top of lasagna or the caramelised surface of crème brûlée; grilling is called "broiling" in American English |
| barbecuing | cooking food with a "barbecue" by the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood or hot coals of charcoal, or of an electrical heating element note: depending on the heat source, the barbecues are called gas barbecues, electrical barbecues or charcoal barbecues |
| barbecuing, direct method | barbecuing food directly over high heat, e.g. food is cooked on a grate directly over hot charcoal, or food is cooked in a frying vessel on a grate directly over hot charcoal note: this method is sometimes called "grilling" in American English; meat is often marinated before direct barbecuing |
| barbecuing, indirect method | barbecuing food using indirect heat and/or hot smoke, i.e. a slow barbecue-cooking process, e.g. food is cooked on a grate with the coals dispersed to the sides of the food, or at a significant distance of the food note: this method is sometimes called "barbecuing" in American English |
| smoking | flavoring, cooking or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood note: smokers are not classified in A47J, only smoking inserts as accessories for a barbecue |
| cooking by smoking on a barbecue | very slow cooking of food on a barbecue with hot smoke which is drawn past the food by convection |
| toasting | browning sliced bread by exposure to dry radiant heat, i.e. grilling of sliced bread on both sides |
| warming | raising temperature of food, not cooking it |
| grating | disintegrating e.g. cheese with tool with several sharp protrusions; different from slicing, no specific shape of cut particles of food |