An apparatus for formation of products comprising an edible material and an interleaver, the apparatus including a drum with mold cavities, each with a bottom and a sidewall, in which the edible material is formed. The apparatus including an interleaver storage having one or more interleavers, and a transportation means configured to transport the one or more interleavers from the interleaver storage to a circumference of the drum where the edible material is placed on the interleaver. The bottom and/or the sidewall is made from a porous material and pressurized gas is forced through the porous material to eject the edible material from the mold cavities. After ejection, the products are stacked such that one interleaver is between two edible materials.

The present invention relates to a mold drum for molding products from a mass of food starting material. The mold drum comprises one or more cavities with a mold cavity wall having at least partially a porous structure, whereas each cavity is connected to a passage. The present invention further relates to a cleaning apparatus for the inventive mold drum with supporting means for supporting the axis of the drum. Additionally, the present invention relates to a process for cleaning the inventive drum.

The present invention relates to a rotary cylindrical mould member and a method for manufacturing a rotary cylindrical mould member for moulding food products suitable for consumption. One or more recessed mould cavities (21) are formed in an curved outer surface (22c) of at least one porous mould body (22), defining the shape of the products which are to be produced. An airflow-resistive skin layer is formed by plastic deformation of a cavity surface layer, having a first flow resistance. An inner volume of the porous mould body (22) between an inner surface (22i) and the airflow-resistive skin layer has a porous structure with a second flow resistance to a compressed air flow through the porous inner volume, wherein according to the invention the first flow resistance is essentially the same as the second flow resistance.

The invention relates to the design of a food forming drum (2) which will be used for moulding food in shaped products. The application field wherein the drum will operate is the field of human consumption and pet food and reaches from meat products (poultry, pork, beef, etc), meat replacement products, fish, dairy to potatoes and vegetables products. Particularly, the present invention relates to a food forming drum comprising an inner member (24) with an inner cylinder (16) and a multitude of ribs (17) extending in radial direction from the inner cylinder and with at least one porous member, made from a porous material with interconnecting pores, connected to the ribs and wherein a multitude of rows with product cavities, each row comprising one or a multitude of product cavities, are provided in the porous member(s). The present invention further relates to a method to produce such drums.

The production of three-dimensional products from a mass of pumpable fibrous foodstuff material includes feeding the mass into a chamber via an inlet. A perforated plate is stationary arranged at an outlet side and has a multitude of perforations therein between an inlet face and an opposed outlet face. A flow channels assembly include multiple flow channels. Each flow channel receives therein strands of fibrous foodstuff material emerging at an outlet face from a subset of the multitude of perforations. The strands merge into a coherent bundle, in which the strands are arranged against one another in a generally parallel orientation. A production device is arranged at the discharge mouths of the flow channels assembly, which production device is configured and operated to produce three-dimensional products, each product out of a portion of a bundle that is discharged from one of the discharge mouths.

A system that includes a mould drum having one or more product cavities, a first front end, and a second front end; a forming apparatus, which utilizes the mould drum to form food products from a food mass; a cleaning apparatus, which cleans the mould drum after forming the food products, the cleaning apparatus is remote from the forming apparatus; a movable unit that is configured to transport the mould drum from the forming apparatus to the cleaning apparatus, and vice versa; and a support structure and a spindle, which are reversibly attached to the forming apparatus during production and reversibly attached to the movable unit during the transport of the mould drum.

A method of moulding products from a mass of food stuff. The method includes providing a pump, which pumps the mass towards a mould member, providing detection means, which detects unwanted objects in the mass, removing a portion of the mass via a valve in case an unwanted object is detected, moving a mould cavity, which is part of the mould member past a feed channel, wherein the feed channel is connected to a feed pump, filling the mass into the mould cavity to form a product until a predetermined filling pressure is reached, ejecting a gas through a porous sidewall and/or a porous bottom of the mould cavity to eject the product, wherein no ejection gas is provided when the predetermined filling pressure has not been reached.

A rotary cylindrical mould member for moulding products from a food starting material having at least one mould body having a curved outer surface, the at least one mould body is made from a porous material with a porous structure of intercommunicating pores, the outer circumference is at least partially sealed airtight, the at least one mould body has at least one mould cavity formed in the curved outer surface and having at its porous bottom wall and/or its porous sidewall and/or its boundary a deformation layer formed by plastic deformation from a milling operation, the mould member having a gas supply which forces a fluid gas through the inner volume and the deformation layer into the at least one cavity to assist the removal of moulded products, an average flow resistance of the deformation layer is 1-30% of the average flow resistance of the inner volume.

The present invention relates to a mould drum for moulding products from a mass of food starting material. The mould drum comprises one or more cavities with a mould cavity wall having at least partially a porous structure, whereas each cavity is connected to a passage. The present invention further relates to a cleaning apparatus and a forming apparatus preferably provided with a cleaning device for the inventive mould drum with supporting means for supporting the axis of the drum. Additionally, the present invention relates to a process for cleaning the inventive drum.

The invention relates to a system for forming all variants of hamburger steaks (10), without being dedicated to a single variant, from a mass of meat (V) comprising a mold (12) including at least one cavity (140) for forming hamburger steak and a channel (3) for supplying the meat mass to the mold, and an element (20) for forming an interface between the supply channel and the mold. Said interface element includes: a pipe length (24, 25) having a first end (241) connected to an outlet of the supply channel and an opposite second end (201) connected to an inlet of the mold; a grinding plate (28, 48), and means (242, 251) for holding the grinding plate in a cross section of the pipe length, the holding means being discretely distributed along the pipe length.