While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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Chili Sauce Container

REPORT

Mission:

Investigating and analyzing possible causes which stopped chili sauce coming out of plastic sauce container.

Context and Problem Witnessed:

My two friends and I had been for nearby restaurant to our work place. Requested for a sandwich; in 5 minutes we were served. Along with sandwich we got chili and tomato sauce containers.

As it was a rainy chill evening, my friend took chili sauce to make him bit warm. He tried to get the sauce by squeezing sauce container, but sauce did not come out. He said, “Probably the container has no sauce in it.” He asked for another chili sauce container and he was served. Tried to get sauce from it; sauce did not come out of container. Finally he gave up and began to use tomato sauce alone. Tomato sauce came out just for gentle squeeze of container.

I was looking at all these and got puzzled, as I was able to make out chili sauce container having something in it. But that did not come out; whereas the tomato sauce came out smoothly on to plate for having it.

I walked across the restaurant and brought all visible chili and tomato sauce containers to table we were seated. Restaurant guys were bit confused; looking at us strangely a restaurant guy asked me “can I take these sauce containers?” I said, “No. I need all them for some time.”

Began to squeeze tomato sauce from containers I had on my table. The sauce came out. Studied the tomato sauce and its containers; wrote down my observations. Later took each chili sauce containers and squeezed them. Couple of containers did not let the chili sauce flow out and others did not. Studied the chili sauce and its containers; wrote down my observations.

Next day, we went to other restaurant. Requested for tomato soup and I brought all tomato and chili sauce containers I saw to table we were seated. Began to experiment to see whether sauce came out of containers or not. Interestingly found same behavior i.e. tomato sauce came out while chili sauce struggled to come out; made note of these observations. Began to make inference what all appears to be in common in sauces & its containers of two restaurants.

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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Information about chili sauce and sauce containers used:

It was a green chili sauce, given in a plastic container. The container was half full and sauce appeared like gravy. Its color appeared to be as pale algae green-in-color.

Studying external appearance properties of the container, observed that I was able to make out remaining quantity of sauce left out in container. May be container which had chili sauce was quite transparent to see remaining available quantity. Sauce container was of around 20 centimeter in height. Touching container’s body felt smooth surface and it had a knob on neck of the container. Diameter of knob tip looked as 0.4 mm in diameter

Observed other plastic sauce containers having green chili sauce; they also appeared to have similar external appearance properties. Later looked for other sauces which were available and found only two sauces served in restaurants. Those two sauces were of tomato and green chili. Pic – 1 has two sauce containers; the one which appears to be as red-in-color container is tomato sauce. Pic – 2 shows the chili sauce container.

Pic – 1 Pic – 2

Tomato sauce container was not transparent or not transparent enough for me. Hence it was not easy to make out what remaining quantity left in it or what was in it, by just looking at tomato sauce container. Squeezing tomato sauce container, sauce came out flowingly. Tomato sauce that came out looked as gravy.

This puzzled me, because chili sauce did not come out on squeezing the sauce container. Probably an egg of a hen would have broken, with the force or pressure I squeezed chili sauce container. And the *force or pressure that I had put on chili sauce container was more than what I had put on tomato sauce bottle. Opened the knob of both containers to see what quantity of sauce was available. Found both containers relatively half full with sauce.

*Note: The force said in this context can be visualized with the force that is needed to break an egg of a hen seen in grocery stores at Bengaluru.

Gathering Information:

Asked who was manufacturer of sauces and sauce containers being used. I got the information from both restaurants. Made note of sauce manufacturers and about sauce containers in these restaurants. This struck me few questions, “How sauces appear to have likely taste and odor when it is of two different manufacturers? How users would

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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have faced problem in getting chili sauce out of container in both restaurants? Did they talk to restaurant manager or staff regarding this? If yes, why still the problem is lying around on each table’s chili sauce containers? What users did, to get chili sauce out? Did they visit the restaurant again? Or, though they visited the restaurant, did they request for eatable that is served with chili (or other) sauce? What was the user’s group or age of user’s, who had chili sauce with eatable in these restaurants? What was diet and food type of users who used sauces in this restaurant? What users ordered while using chili sauce? Did they have any health problem having this chili sauce from these restaurants? Were they contempt with tomato sauce alone?” Sauce container appeared to be similar with external appearances in two restaurants, but of different container color. Made note of these observations and left from there.

Next day requested for few information from couple of gentlemen from each restaurant regarding how the restaurant environment is maintained. Began to test what I was said by visiting these two restaurants in three different times for a day.

Testing, experimenting, interpretations and biases:

Investigation:

1. Made sure that chili sauce container was not empty.

2. Came to know that sauce container was refilled once in 3 days, when container had no more sauce in it. Tomato sauce was filled once in 3 days but not chili sauce. Restaurants took around a week to refill the half full bottle of chili sauce. This gives a hint that people may have tried tomato sauce more than chili sauce; or due to the problem of chili sauce container, users/customer did not try to squeeze more and get sauce out of it; or users did not find chili sauce container when they visited these restaurants; or was there something which users did not like by looking and smelling at chili sauce and its container?

3. Was sauce container cleaned or rinsed while refilling? I did not get answer for how many days once sauce container is cleaned.

4. Would person refilling the sauce, does look at sauce, container and its condition for using? Would that person know the usage quality of chili sauce by user in her or his restaurant? If no, is there any information about this is said to her or him?

5. Will all sauce container gets empty once in 3 days every time? I did not get answer for this question?

6. For how many days once the new sauce bottle or container is opened for filling plastic sauce container?

7. How many containers can be filled from one sauce bottle?

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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8. Suppose if I fill 20 cups of sauce from one sauce bottle, will all 20 cups have same resembling properties? Did any of your staff experiment this? The answer was ‘No, we have not done that’.

9. From past 3 days I observed the restaurants environment for possible extent. Found that ceiling fan was switch on all working hours and confirmed this from restaurant staff.

10. Found few sauce containers was placed on table which was next to a window. Green tress outside one of the restaurant brought in bit fresh air.

11. Found air conditioners switched on during noon onwards. Air circulated from air conditioners was enough to make my palms go cold in one of the restaurants.

12. At end of the day, all sauce containers was kept in a place and locked. This place looked like a cupboard, probably which would not have much air flow inside.

13. Sauce container was given when any dish that needed it. Otherwise, in noon and evening, the sauce container will be placed on tables in both restaurants.

Experimenting, testing and reproducing:

1. I requested for two chili sauce container through which sauce flowed out smoothly.

2. From first container squeezed it for chili sauce. Found traces of chili sauce remaining on inner side of container’s knob tip, after sauce came out.

3. Kept it in few distance from ceiling fan which was switched on. After 3 minutes, tried to get more chili sauce out of it. Chili sauce did not come out.

4. With other chili sauce container I had, squeezed little sauce out of it. Took it to a place where there was no fan or windows. After 15 minutes, tried to squeeze sauce out of it. Observed sauce did not come out of it.

5. The tip of container knob was blocked by contents of sauce from inside. This was not visible for a user in normal sight at sauce container. Probably, the content or ingredients of chili sauce caused this. Made observation with tomato and chili sauce on a plate. Chili sauce looked as bit thick and dense gravy compared to tomato sauce.

6. Inference was whether ceiling fan switched on or not, sauce gets blocked inside the knob tip.

7. Shook the chili sauce container before using it and made sure knob tip was clear. Still saw the same behavior after couple of minutes. Felt like, if diameter of knob tips is increased by 0.1 centimeter more than current diameter, what would be result? I’m not sure what will be the outcome of this? Will it stop the sauce or overflow the sauce from container?

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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8. Took chili sauce container whose tip was already blocked. Cleared the tip so that I could see through it clearly. Tried to reproduce the problem and found it happening again. May be when user who wished to have chili sauce squeezed container, chili sauce came out and later it came out meagerly. Each time it was squeezed, the container tip began to get accumulated with chili sauce ingredients and dried from within inside. May be this behavior happened in bit quicker speed when continer tip was exposed to air after getting little chili sauce out of it.

9. Moved to other restaurant and tried to reproduce the problem. Took two chili sauce containers; one had clear knob tip and other containers knob tip was blocked with chili sauce.

10. With the container which had clear knob tip, squeezed little sauce out of it. Made sure that traces of sauces were left behind in the inner side of sauce container. Waited for 10 minutes, and found that it was becoming hard to get sauce out of container but still sauce came out of container meagerly.

11. Now began to wave my observation book over tip of the container, so that it brought some more air around sauce container’s knob tip. Within two minutes, observed tip and inner side of knob was blocked with hard and dried chili sauce content. Trying to get sauce out of container did not work. A video of this was made and it is available here. (http://viddler.com/explore/ravisuriya/videos/17)

12. With other sauce container, cleaned the knob tip so that it was clear for sauce flow. Later tested for the said problem and observed that problem was reproducible.

13. Mixed about 100 milliliter of warm water into half full chili sauce container. Shook the container well. Tried now whether sauce comes out or not. Chili sauce that came out had different taste and odor from earlier it had. Need to test with warm and cold water. May be the behavior of problem turn to appear once all mixed water moves out or may not. Need to test this conjecture.

Analysis:

1. May be sauce container was not cleaned well enough by restaurants staff regularly or daily.

2. May be this was due to the thickness of chili sauce and its ingredients.

3. May be this was due to the small opening tip of sauce container being used.

4. May be sauce got dried up when exposed in air. I get questions for myself, why it dried so soon at tip of container knob? What happens if I open the knob of container and keep just container exposed to air? Will the complete chili sauce inside gets dried? Or really did air circulation made it to dry up or was there something else? But observations and context’s for that time, gave more

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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inferences on circulation of air. Observed that though knob tip appeared to have dried sauce, found it was bit wet within it and not completely desiccated.

5. May be this was from all observations above said or not.

Probable cause of this problem:

1. May be left around chili sauce ingredients on inner side of container’s knob tip.

2. May be the smaller diameter of sauce container’s knob tip.

3. May be from above said inferences or not.

Symptoms of this problem:

1. Created confusions/illusions: i) there was no chili sauce in sauce container. ii) it was problem of sauce container alone. iii) it was due to sauce inside container and every sauce container in these restaurants will have similar problem.

2. Chili sauce hardly came out. Expected amount of sauce did not come out. Gradually, it was not possible to squeeze chili sauce out of sauce container.

3. Time to get chili sauce out of container was more than the time to get tomato sauce. User needed to spend more time here with chili sauce container. But no guarantee chili sauce came out.

4. Energy spent by user to get chili sauce out of container was more than the energy to get tomato sauce. User needed to squeeze chili sauce container hard and hard to see some sauce.

5. Purchased chili sauce bottles were not getting consumed, as tomato sauce.

6. Smell of fresh chili sauce on container’s tip and within container did not appear alike.

7. Looked like chili sauce was not consumed more when compared tomato sauce in these restaurants.

8. Squeezed out chili sauce was left as it is on plates and in bowl after seeing these behaviors by users/customers. This caused wastage of chili sauce without consumption of it.

Note:

There may be possibility of health issues when chili sauce was used from sauce container without cleaning its knob. But not sure about this symptom as user/customer of these restaurants did not report about health upset. Since

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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user/customer of these restaurants did not repot, this probable symptom cannot be underestimated.

These are few symptoms that were very obvious to me from above said problem till now. May be other symptoms too exist along with above written and may uncover if problem persist or unhandled.

Oracles and Heuristics used:

1. Tomato sauce container.

2. Tomato sauce.

3. Size of sauce container’s knob tip.

4. Air circulated around sauce container.

5. Warm Water.

6. Allowing blocking contents to dry and time.

7. Dried and wet sauce content.

Fixing the problem:

By cleaning container’s knob tip, was flashing fix for that instant. But this may not be a satisfying fix.

How often it can be cleaned in a day? Or serving sauce in open container which is well closed, but it may not be as comfort as in plastic sauce container.

Need to try with sauce container whose knob has bit bigger opening tip.

These restaurants need to find better fix for them based on their contexts.

Talking with staff of these restaurants:

Explained what is happening with chili sauce container and possible causes for that. And came to know few users/customers have said regarding this. Reproduced the problem in front of them and hope they make their user/customer not to face this problem any more.

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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Snap shots of sauce container and chili sauce:

Pic – 1: Chili sauce inside container. Pic – 2: Chili sauce traces around neck of container.

Pic – 3: Chili sauce inside the container’s Pic – 4: Sauce container’s tip from knob. outside container.

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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Pic – 5: Chili sauce traces around container’s Pic – 6: Chili sauce traces inside the neck (in restaurant 2). container’s knob tip (in restaurant 2).

Pic – 7: Chili sauce traces inside the Pic – 8: Dried chili sauce traces at the container’s knob tip (in restaurant 1). container’s knob tip (in restaurant 1).

While tomato came out, green chili did not.

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Pic – 8: Tomato and Chili sauces on plate.