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.

A warm forming process for forming a meat patty includes heating a ground meat product to a temperature T.sub.1, wherein T.sub.1>32? F. The ground meat product is formed into an uncooked patty at temperature T.sub.1. The uncooked patty is precooked to form a precooked patty having a skin of depth D comprising denatured protein. The skin is formed on at least an area on the outside of the precooked patty. At least a first portion of the meat product disposed beneath said skin is at approximately T.sub.1. The precooked patty is cooked to form a cooked patty, wherein said at least a first portion of the meat product is at a temperature T.sub.2. The cooked patty is then frozen and then packaged.

An apparatus for forming a meat patty includes heating a ground meat product to a temperature T1, wherein T1>32? F. The ground meat product is formed into an uncooked patty at temperature T1. The uncooked patty is precooked to form a precooked patty having a skin of depth D comprising denatured protein. The skin is formed on at least an area on the outside of the precooked patty. At least a first portion of the meat product disposed beneath said skin is at approximately T1. The precooked patty is cooked to form a cooked patty, wherein said at least a first portion of the meat product is at a temperature T2.

Disclosed is a method for producing products from warm dough, which includes producing a dough by means of cooking; dispensing the dough into a first container up to a predetermined level; inserting, while the dough is warm, a first forming cutting mold provided with a plurality of tubular cells in the shape of the product to be obtained, for example, a croquette, to fill each of the cells with the dough; and rapidly cooling, thereby forming the croquettes, which are pushed out by means of a first ejector mold to obtain a plurality of croquettes simultaneously. Any leftover dough is dispensed warm into a second container provided with a movable separator, which moves after dispensing, until the dough reaches the predetermined level, and the previous steps are repeated.

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 method of operating a device for preparing a formed food product includes receiving at a controller an input indicating one or more parameters of the formed food product, molding a portion of a food composition into a shape corresponding to the desired form in response to receiving the input, and separating the molded food composition from a non-molded portion of the food composition in response to receiving the input to create the formed food product having a desired thickness.

A system and method are provided for processing and packaging food product. The system includes at least a transportation system configured to move food product on a conveyor belt, and a collection system configured to receive the food product from the transportation system on a disposable conveyor sheet, and further configured to package the disposable conveyor sheet with the food product thereon on and/or in a dispenser pack.

The present invention relates to a food product forming apparatus with a food forming member, which comprises a multitude of product cavities and a seal plate which sealingly cooperates with the surface of the mould drum.

An installation for moulding of three dimensional products from a mass of pumpable foodstuff material, for example from ground meat. The installation comprises a feed pump and a moulding device with a mobile mould member having multiple mould cavities. A mass feed member is arranged at a fill position relative to the path of the mobile mould member, which mass feed member is connected to an outlet of the feed pump. The member has a housing defining an elongated chamber with a longitudinal axis and having a pair of spaced apart long lateral walls, short end walls, and a bottom wall facing the mould member at the fill position along the path of the mould member. The bottom wall is provided with a discharge mouth formed by one or more discharge openings spanning the path of said mould cavities, so that foodstuff mass flows into each row of mould cavities via said discharge mouth. The mass feed member is provided with a single elongated plunger that is slidably received in the chamber, sliding between the lateral walls and the end walls. At least one lateral wall is provided with an introduction mouth formed by one or more introduction openings spanning a major portion of the length of said lateral wall.