An apparatus including a housing; a plurality of prongs connected to the housing so that the prongs are movable with respect to the housing; and a device for holding a food; and wherein the plurality of prongs are configured to be moved from a position outside of the food to a position where the plurality of prongs are inserted into the food; and wherein the plurality of prongs are configured to insert a substance into the food. The substance may be a seasoning. The apparatus may include a device for cleaning the plurality of prongs through a vacuum process and/or a blower process; wherein the device has an input configured to connect to one of the plurality of prongs. The apparatus may include a cook food platform; a sandwich platform; a hot beverage platform; and a cold beverage platform.

A system for processing food products comprises a slicing apparatus that is configured to cut off slices from food products and to form part portions having one or more slices in a portioning section. A transport device adjoining the portioning section is provided and the portioning section comprises a conveying device that transfers the part portions to the transport device. The system comprises a stacking apparatus that is configured to form a food portion comprising a plurality of part portions. The transport device is configured to transport the part portions onto a product support of the stacking apparatus, wherein the transport device and/or the stacking apparatus has/have a scale for measuring the weight of the part portions and/or of the food portion.

Methods for separating lean and fat from beef or other meats and the separation apparatus are shown. The methods use microbiocidal fluids to reduce or eliminate possible sources of contamination.

Methods for separating lean and fat from beef or other meats and the separation apparatus are shown. The methods use microbiocidal fluids to reduce or eliminate possible sources of contamination.

The present disclosure involves an intelligent method and device for cutting squid white slices, the intelligent method being implemented on the intelligent device for cutting squid white slices. The method may be implemented on a calculating device, the calculating device may have at least one processor and at least one storage medium including an instruction set used for cutting the squid white slices, the method including: reading a laser point cloud data of a three-dimensional (3D) topography of the squid white slices; optimizing the laser point cloud data; extracting an effective area of the squid white slices; determining a cutting zero point; determining a cutting process area; and determining optimization of a cutting point position and a cutting angle. The one or more embodiments provided by the present disclosure may satisfy the needs of large-scale continuous production in factories, reduce labor costs, and improve production efficiency.

A cutting apparatus for cutting a food object where inlet and outlet conveyors are arranged in an end-to-end arrangement. A moving mechanism is provided for adjusting the relative position between the ends of the inlet and outlet conveyors, a cutting device is provided having a cutting plane extending between the inlet and outlet conveyors, a detection mechanism is provided for detecting at least one characteristics related to the food object, and a control device is provided for controlling the moving mechanism and the cutting device. Controlling the moving mechanism includes utilizing the at least one detected characteristics in determining a target width of an opening between the ends of the inlet and outlet conveyors, and controlling the cutting device includes subsequently cutting the food object into smaller food pieces. The target width of the opening is selected such that it allows smaller food pieces to fall through the opening.

A system for processing meat pieces includes a radiation inspection apparatus configured to receive a primary stream of meat pieces conveyed by a conveyor and to detect trim products containing undesired objects; a reject device; a control unit configured to operate the reject device using the detected undesired objects as an operation parameter such that the meat pieces containing the undesired objects are separated from the primary stream of trim products; an object remover configured to remove the undesired objects from the meat pieces separated from the primary stream of trim products; and a recirculation apparatus configured to receive the meat pieces after undergoing the object remover and recirculate it as a secondary stream into the radiation inspection apparatus. The secondary stream is separated from the primary stream, and the radiation inspection is configured to detect whether any remaining undesired objects are in the secondary stream.

Disclosed is a conveyor system including a first conveyor leading to an inspection point, the first conveyor including a diversion mechanism configured to divert an object based on failing to meet an inspection parameter. The system includes a second conveyor configured to transport a container configured to receive the object from the diversion mechanism. A control module is configured to co-register an image of the object captured at the inspection point with container ID data of the container.

An apparatus for introducing dry ice pellets into fresh meat comprises a housing, in which an injection device for introducing dry ice pellets is arranged, and guide channels, which lead to a front face of the housing, for guiding a penetration needle, and a drive device for axially moving the penetration needle. A loading unit can be inserted between a rear portion and a front portion of the housing, which loading unit is provided with feedthroughs, which can be equipped with dry ice pellets and brought into a position in alignment with the guide channels. During operation of the apparatus, penetration channels are first produced, by means of the penetration needles, in a piece of meat to be cooled, into which penetration channels the dry ice pellets are subsequently introduced from the feedthroughs using the penetration needles. The feedthrough enables efficient introduction of dry ice pellets into the meat.

A processing system (10) and corresponding method (158) are provided for processing workpieces (WP), including food items, to cut and remove undesirable components from the food items and/or portion the food items while being conveyed on a conveyor system (12). An X-ray scanning station (14) is located on an upstream conveyor section (20) to ascertain size and/or shape parameters of the food items as well as the location of any undesirable components of the food items, such as bones, fat or cartilage. Thereafter the food items are transferred to a downstream conveyor (20) at which is located an optical scanner (102) to ascertain the size and/or shape parameters of the food items. The results of the X-ray and optical scanning are transmitted to a processor (18) to confirm that the food item scanned by the optical scanner is the same as that previously scanned by the X-ray scanner. Once this identity is confirmed, if required, the data from the X-ray scanner is translated or transformed onto the data from the optical scanner. Such translation may include one or more of the shifting of the food items in the X and/or Y direction, rotation of the food item, scaling of the size of the food item, and sheer distortion of the food item. Next, the location of the undesirable material within the food item is mapped from the X-ray scanning data onto the optical scanning data. Thereafter, the undesirable material is removed by a cutter(s) (28). The food item may also (or alternatively) been portioned by the cutter(s) (28).