A mass of divisible food in a sealed bag is placed between a first part of a frame having a plurality of walls depending from a common plane and forming a plurality of cavities and a second part of the frame having cavities that correspond with and confront the cavities of the first part. The second part is forced toward the first part to pressurize the divisible food in the bag and force the bag to occupy the cavities. Then, the frame, bag and contents are placed in a freezer.

Methods, systems, apparatus, devices and computer program products automatically package an object, such as, for example, whole muscle meat pieces, in a covering material. The devices include an automated compression assembly with an electric drive motor and a pusher assembly with an electric motor, preferably each electric motor is a servo motor. The systems/apparatus devices can include a programmably adjustable index and/or speed profile for the compression and/or pusher assembly.

A method of pressing a plurality of food pieces into a block of compressed food is provided. The method includes transporting a plurality of pieces of food to a plenum, the plenum with a movable piston and compression chamber. Upon the movement of a first portion of the food pieces into the plenum, moving a closure to a first position that prevents further movement of pieces of food from the scale to the plenum, then moving the piston against the pieces of food toward the compression chamber. The closure and piston are withdrawn from the extended positions and additional food is moved into the plenum, and again moving the closure and the piston, the piston toward and into the compression chamber. After all pieces of food have been urged toward the compression chamber, removing the compressed food from the compression chamber.

Systems and methods for processing stackable articles, such as, frozen hamburgers or compact disks, are provided. The systems include mechanisms for determining the number of articles in a stack of articles, a transfer device adapted to transfer the articles when the number of articles equals a predetermined number of articles, a gripping device adapted to receive the stacks of articles from the transfer device, an automated manipulator adapted to transfer the gripping device with the stacks of articles, and a mechanism for discharging the stacks of articles from the gripping device to, for example, a container. The systems and methods may also provide staging areas adapted to receive the stack of articles and then transfer the stack of articles to the gripping device. Though aspects of the invention may be uniquely adapted to handle food items, aspects of the invention may also be used for non-food items.

The present invention relates to a food production line (11) with a forming apparatus (5) that comprises a rotating drum (1), which is utilized to form a product (7) from a food mass and a packaging machine (13), which packages the products in a packaging (14). The present invention further relates to a process for forming a product, whereas several products are formed and subsequently dropped simultaneously from a drum on an accumulation belt.

A system for processing food products comprises a cutting apparatus for cutting off slices from the food products and for forming portions from the slices, a packaging machine, and a transport apparatus that transports the portions from the cutting apparatus to the packaging machine. Furthermore, the system comprises a provision device for providing portion supports for the transported portions, and a folding device that is configured to fold a portion support along a bending line. The system further comprises an insertion device by means of which the portion supports with the portions can be brought onto a packaging space such that the bending lines of the portion supports are aligned in parallel with a transport direction of the packaging machine.

In order to prevent a slice from being separated from each log during the last cut in the case of multiple portions produced in parallel, that is to say there is no unproductive cut in the last cut, as is required, for example, in EP 2942165 B1, the basic idea is to already provide an unproductive cut for at least one log during the first cut for the simultaneously produced portions, wherein a distinction must be made in the following procedure whether or not separately controllable portioning belts are present per lane and whether the portion lengths should be the same or not despite different numbers of slices.

The invention relates to a draft handler. The draft handler has a tool stem adapter for coupling to a robotic arm, and has a spatula for lifting a draft product and an elastomeric band for gripping the draft product. The robotic arm moves the draft handler to pick up the draft product in a first orientation from a first conveyor assembly, and to place the draft product on a second conveyor assembly, optionally in a second orientation.

A station includes one or more loading positions; feeder to feed empty boxes to loading positions; loading robot with gripper to take groupings of frozen food and transfer them to the boxes; scale to automatically weigh the boxes; and dispenser to automatically deposit individual units of frozen food in the loaded boxes. The conditioning station is controlled for slightly downward loading of the boxes so that at the end of the loading by means of the loading robot it is not necessary to remove any individual unit of frozen food from the box, as well as so that, after depositing by the dispenser, the weight of the loaded box is equal to or greater than a predetermined set point within a predetermined tolerance. It enables the loading to be automated and the weight of the boxes of frozen food to be optimised.

A method of cutting a meat portion to make a plurality of meat slices according to exemplary aspects includes cutting the meat portion in a planar spiral pattern, thereby creating an elongated strip, wherein the planar spiral pattern comprises a curve on a two-dimensional plane coincident with a substantially planar surface of the meat portion.