Picking and placing objects may be performed using a system based on 2-D or 3-D vision being used to control a robotic arm system having a gripper. Objects to be picked up and placed into one or more containers may be conveyed to a pick and place apparatus under control of a sensor camera whose output may be processed to provide control signals to the robotic arm system. Multiple such systems may be used to operate on one or more streams of objects being conveyed. The objects may be food items, such as, but not limited to, sliced meat or cheese, and the slices may be picked up and placed into containers for further processing, such as vacuum sealing.

A line having a food processing apparatus and a packaging machine between which a placement and transport apparatus is provided that has a plurality of tablet trays on which food products are placed and with which the food products are transported towards the packaging machine, the tablet trays move in a contact-free manner along a closed transport surface; a method for producing packaged food slices using the line, the food products are deposited onto the tablet trays and then transported towards the packaging machine; a method for cleaning the line, the tablet trays are lifted from the transport surface and the transport surface is cleaned with a cleaning liquid; and a method for cleaning the line, the tablet trays are removed from the transport surface and cleaned in a cleaning machine.

A method comprises: receiving meat having an animal identifier, transporting the meat or a first meat portion on a conveyor during a process, sensors being positioned along the conveyor, and the meat and the first meat portion not being physically marked with the animal identifier; receiving sensor outputs during the process each characterizing the meat or the first meat portion; assigning, by a frontend component implemented using a first processor and a first memory, native identifiers to the meat or to the first meat portion using the sensor outputs; defining, by the frontend component, events regarding the process, the events being defined based on heuristics about the meat or the first meat portion; and storing, by an identifier manager implemented using a second processor and a second memory, the events in an append-only database, wherein the append-only database associates the native identifiers with the animal identifier.

A method for the production of a stabilized packaged food product comprising the steps of: filling a tray with a predetermined quantity of a food starting material; introducing the tray into a pressure vessel and conveying the tray through the pressure vessel while performing the following steps in sequence inside the pressure vessel: (i) treating the food starting material with high-temperature pressurized steam to sterilize the material, and (ii) dosing the sterile food material inside said tray with a predetermined amount of sterile water; and (iii) applying a lid to the tray to seal the food product inside the tray while maintaining the tray in a sterile environment. Suitable food starting materials comprise starchy food products, such as rice, wheat or pasta, and/or meat or vegetable pieces. Also provided are an apparatus for performing the method and packaged stabilized full moisture food products obtainable by the process.

A method, device, and system of classifying quality and selling packed meat based on an image are disclosed. The method of classifying quality and selling packed meat based on an image performed by a server includes acquiring an image of each of packed meats, storing each of the packed meats, classifying quality of each of the packed meats based on the image of each of packed meats, calculating a price of each of the packed meats based on the quality classification of each of the packed meats, displaying each of the packed meats by each meat, each part, and each grade on each user terminal, acquiring a purchase request for first packed meat selected by a first user through a first user terminal, determining a sale of the first packed meat, and shipping the first packed meat.

A food-processing system for processing food products (e.g. pieces of meat, pieces of cheese) includes a cutting device for cutting the food products into slices and a conveyor for conveying the food product portions away from the cutting device along a main conveyor path. The conveyor fulfills several functions in the food-processing system, such as buffering, aligning, orienting and product formatting of the food product portions, by a discontinuous conveyor. The discontinuous conveyor includes at least one conveyed-products carrier movable along the main conveying path. The main conveying path is freely programmable within a conveying area.

A hand device for holding a food article with left and right finger-shaped portions that are configured to be operated to open and close. Each of the left and right finger-shaped portions includes a first member and a second member that are configured to be independently operated to open and close, wherein the first member and the second member are disposed in a vicinity of each other in each of the left and right finger-shaped portion. For each of the left and right finger-shaped portions, an inner edge portion of the first member is configured to be projected and retracted relative to an inner edge portion of the second member when the first member is being operated to open and close.