As hardcore pizza enthusiasts, we’re no stranger to the recent pizza-related innovations that have been made recently. You can order pizza with your shoes, get pizza in a box made of pizza, and even smoke weed with a pizza box. Though the latter two are fun ways to reimagine the pizza box, has any real progress been made since the standard cardboard box most of us are working with now? Not that we’re aware of, and while Apple has been making some of the world’s finest phones, computers and whatever other devices will dominate our lives next year, they also took a minute to design, patent and make a pizza box of their own (via Engadget).

It’s actually a pretty impressive pizza vessel. The ribbed and ventilated container was designed so pizza wouldn’t get soggy by allowing air and moisture to escape. The box’s creation is largely due to Francesco Longoni, the maestro of the Apple Park café (which was profiled by Wired, who included this odd bit of trivia in their story). Take a look at the patent image below:

The patent itself, which was filed in 2010 and approved in 2012, is fun to look at because of the detail and length of writing that went into describing a pizza box. For example, here’s the first item from the “Claims” section of the document:

“1. A molded fiber container suitable for containing a food item, comprising: a base, the base comprising: a plurality of ridges integrated with an interior surface of the base, wherein when the food item is placed on at least some of the plurality of ridges, a gap is formed between the food item and the interior surface of the base, the gap assisting in thermally isolating the food item and allowing moisture expelled from the food item to be transported away from the food item; and a lid, the lid comprising: a plurality of openings arranged in accordance with at least some of the plurality of ridges, and a moisture channeling feature integrally formed in the lid, the moisture channeling feature cooperating with at least some of the plurality of openings and the gap to provide a path by which at least some of the moisture expelled from the food item is transported out of the container and into an external environment.”

Soggy pizza is a significant issue, obviously, but do you think Apple’s finally cracked the code? Let us know in the comments!

Image: cyclonebill/Wikimedia Commons, United States Patent and Trademark Office