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.

A food product handling device is provided. The food product handling device can include a movable loading head having a plurality of rails and a vacuum system operatively associated with the head. In addition, a plurality of suction devices carried by the head and configured to pick up and transport a food product as the head is moved can be provided. A plurality of mounting blocks can be slidably coupled to the rails where at least one suction device is coupled to each mounting block. An actuating device can be operatively associated with the mounting blocks such that each mounting block is configured to slide between a first position and a second position.

Provided is a gripper device to pick up items, such as sausages, from a first position with the items in a side by side arrangement, to a second position where the items are released. Provided are a plurality of side by side and spaced apart item holders each adapted to the shape of the items configured for picking up the side by side items and having a pitch distance between adjacent item holders substantially the same as the pitch distance between adjacent items at the first position. A pitch distance adjustment mechanism is provided to adjust the pitch distance between adjacent spaced apart item holders to arrange the received items into a group of items, before release at the second position.

The invention relates to a conveyor device (10) for conveying food products on a plurality of parallel conveyor tracks and for formatting the food products in a specific product format, especially for conveying and formatting stacks or interleaved units made of a plurality of slices of cheese or meat products. It is proposed that the conveyor device (10) fills a product gap on one of the conveyor tracks incoming on the input side with a food product so that on the output side all parallel conveyor tracks are supplied with the food products. The invention also includes a corresponding method.

A food product gathering and dispensing system is disclosed. The food product is generally a flat disc shaped article dispensed onto a consumable strip of food product conveyer material. The food product is fed to single, or series related, spools that wind up the consumable conveyer material and food product into a removable roll or stack. The roll or stack is placed into a dispenser pack, optionally subject to further environmental treatment, and refrigeration. The pack is then installed within a refrigerated dispenser system where the food product and consumable material are collectively unwound and/or separated, as the food product is fed into a processing system, i.e., a cooking device. The consumable conveyer material is collected and separately discarded.

An apparatus is provided for transferring at least one sausage link into a packaging item. The apparatus includes at least one drivable, rotatable conveyor device having at least one protruding vane, with the conveyor device being adapted and configured in such a way that the at least one sausage link can be placed on the vane in a receiving position, and that by rotating the conveyor device, the at least one sausage link can be placed onto or into the packaging item by the vane in a delivery position. The conveyor device may further include an impeller that forms, in part, a horizontal support surface for a group of sausage links.

A system and method for displaying items such as food allowing for an unobstructed view of the food item is disclosed. The system includes a backer card and a transparent film. The food item is stored in the transparent film allowing an unobstructed view of the food item. An upper portion of the transparent film is secured to the backer card leaving a portion of the transparent film below the point of attachment unsecured allowing the food item to move away from the backer card. Information pertaining to the food item is printed on the backer card leaving the view of the food item unobstructed.

The invention relates to a food-processing system for processing food products (e.g. pieces of meat, pieces of cheese), comprising a cutting device (1) for cutting the food products into slices and a conveyor (4) for conveying the food product portions (6) away from the cutting device (1) along a main conveyor path, wherein the conveyor (4) fulfills several functions in the food-processing system, such as buffering, aligning, orienting and product formatting of the food product portions. The invention provides that the conveyor (4) fulfills the multiple functions by means of a discontinuous conveyor (4), the discontinuous conveyor (4) comprising at least one conveyed-products carrier (3) movable along the main conveying path, the main conveying path being freely programmable within a conveying area.

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.

Methods and apparatuses for portioning and storing a meat chub are disclosed, including providing an apparatus comprising: a housing having an opening; a lid removably coupled to the opening of the housing, the lid comprising a plurality of slotted openings; and one or more cutters removably insertable through the plurality of slotted openings; wherein the housing is configured to receive a meat chub through the opening and retain the meat chub within the housing, wherein the lid is configured to secure the meat within the housing when the lid is coupled to the housing, and wherein when the lid is coupled to the housing, the one or more cutters are configured to pass through the plurality of slotted openings to cut through the meat chub retained in the housing.