A method for measuring the mass distribution along the width of a strip, in particular a dough strip, moved in the longitudinal direction of the strip and having a specified target width. At least two weighing cells are arranged at a distance to each other with respect to the width of the strip. The weight of at least one dough strand or dough piece having a width defined by the distances of the weighing cells is sensed. The mass of the partial pieces of the strip is determined on the basis of the distance of the weighing cells to each other, the position of the weighing cells along the width of the strip, the strip speed, and the measured values of the weight of the partial pieces sensed by the weighing cells, in particular over a defined time period.

The present invention relates to a food forming drum comprising a multitude of rows product cavities, each row comprising a multitude of product cavities, wherein the product cavities are provided as one or more at least partially porous members made from a porous material with interconnecting pores. The present invention further relates to a food forming apparatus comprising a food forming drum and a porous member. Additionally, the present invention relates to a movable unit to transport a drum and a method to change a drum or clean the food forming apparatus.

A device for spreading a runny batter on a hotplate for manufacturing pancakes or crpes, including a rotary shaft intended to be disposed almost perpendicular with respect to the cooking face of the hotplate, a plate fixed to said rotary shaft, said plate carrying a spreading and raking means, and at least one abutment designed to bear, run or slide on the heating face of the hotplate. The spreading and raking includes at least one rake, the working free edge of which is rectilinear, making it possible to spread a portion of batter previously deposited on the heating face of said hotplate and rake the thickness of batter as long as it remains liquid so as to redeposit a layer of material upstream in order to layer the batter and fill in the holes, reproducing the action of a person skilled in the art of making pancakes or crpes.

A funnel cake batter or other batter container with a stop-flow ball to prevent the discharging of CO2 gas into the cooking oil, a convex shaped bottom with a centered hole for improved emptying of the batter container, an easier to operate hand-held, trigger-activated dispensing gun wand, a J hook to hang the dispensing gun wand on when not in use, and a cast iron stand with four legs and four caster wheels making the batter container movable within a place of operation.

Device for forming and dividing of at least one string-shaped pasty foodstuff into slice-shaped products, with a forming nozzle for extruding the string-shaped foodstuff along a conveying direction through a nozzle opening, which determines the thickness of the slice-shaped product, at least one forming plate that is arranged downstream of the forming nozzle and that can be displaced during extrusion with at least one positioning element in at least one component transversally to the conveying direction, and with a control unit that controls the positioning element synchronously to the extrusion velocity in a way that the at least one forming plate forms a longitudinal contour of the slice-shaped product variably during extrusion.

Device for forming and dividing of at least one string-shaped pasty foodstuff into slice-shaped products, with a forming nozzle for extruding the string-shaped foodstuff along a conveying direction through a nozzle opening, which determines the thickness of the slice-shaped product, at least one forming plate that is arranged downstream of the forming nozzle and that can be displaced during extrusion with at least one positioning element in at least one component transversally to the conveying direction, and with a control unit that controls the positioning element synchronously to the extrusion velocity in a way that the at least one forming plate forms a longitudinal contour of the slice-shaped product variably during extrusion.

The present invention relates to a method and a filling machine for portioning pasty masses for the purpose of food production, wherein a pasty mass is fed by the filling machine into the filling flow divider, where it is separated into a plurality of mass flows and discharged in portions in the discharge direction. At the end of each portion the mass flow is sucked back in a direction opposite to the discharge direction.

A dough dividing system includes a hopper for receiving dough constituent including a hopper inlet and a hopper outlet, a divider assembly including a divider block including a divider block cavity, and a first actuator, and a receptacle including a receptacle inlet. The first actuator moves the divider block to align the divider block cavity with the hopper outlet, the dough constituent enters the divider block cavity when the divider block cavity is aligned with the hopper outlet, the divider block moves to shear a dough form from the dough constituent, and the divider block moves the dough form over the receptacle inlet such that the dough form can empty from the divider block cavity.

A dough dividing system includes a hopper for receiving dough constituent including a hopper inlet and a hopper outlet, a divider assembly including a divider block including a divider block cavity, and a first actuator, and a receptacle including a receptacle inlet. The first actuator moves the divider block to align the divider block cavity with the hopper outlet, the dough constituent enters the divider block cavity when the divider block cavity is aligned with the hopper outlet, the divider block moves to shear a dough form from the dough constituent, and the divider block moves the dough form over the receptacle inlet such that the dough form can empty from the divider block cavity.

A novel method and apparatus of controlling dough feeding to process and portioning machines in automated processing lines is provided. The completed system can supply dough and dough like materials to a portioner and or allow it to continue its operation during a period of time when the one or more feeding machine needs to go to a mixer to obtain another load of bulk material, a refill cycle, and returns to a home station so as to resume feeding operations of dough. The desired effect is to have a feeding system that can both store dough to continue dough supply to one or more portioning machine(s) while the feeding machine(s) can go to a mixer to obtain a new batch of bulk dough and again return to home position where it can feed dough to one or more conveyor system(s) to maintain feed of dough to portioning machine(s) without an interruption due to stoppages in feed arising from the need for the feeder to go to a mixer and receive additional dough from the mixer and then return to the feeding conveyors. Additionally the controller allows for a variety of settings regarding the dough level and the portioner to prevent air entrapment.