A system for separating cut food products includes a flow inlet, a flow outlet, and at least one drum connecting the flow inlet and the flow outlet. The flow inlet may be oriented to direct the cut food product tangentially into the at least one drum. The flow inlet may be oriented to direct the cut food product into the at least one drum at a right angle to a longitudinal axis of the at least one drum. The at least one drum may be a plurality of drums including a first drum having the flow inlet and a second drum having the flow outlet. The system may include a passageway providing fluid communication from the first drum to the second drum. The passageway may include a tapered section. The flow inlet may be aligned with the flow outlet.

A packaged food product with a seasoning disk is provided. The food product includes potatoes. The seasoning disk includes seasoning and fat that is in solid form at the food product's anticipated normal storage temperature. The fat includes milkfat.

Devices, systems, and methods for real-time peeling are disclosed. Peeling can include including evaluating and controlling one or more peelers to remove peel from organic materials. Evaluation can be performed by an evaluation system including a convolutional neural network to determine a peel value. Control can be performed by a machine learning model on the basis of the peel value. Control can include determination of real-time settings for peeler tool speed and/or gate position.

Methods and systems for making a high-purity α-lactalbumin composition are described. The composition may be made by providing a whey protein mixture, and adding an alkaline solution to the mixture to make the mixture alkaline and promote the aggregation of ß-lactoglobulin proteins. The alkaline whey protein mixture is filtered into a ß-LG aggregate composition and a α-LA enriched composition. A final α-lactalbumin enriched composition sourced from the α-LA enriched composition is dried into the high-purity α-lactalbumin composition (a powdered dairy composition) that is at least 70 wt. % α-lactalbumin on a protein basis. A protease enzyme may optionally be added to the α-LA enriched composition to form an enzymatically treated α-LA enriched composition that becomes the source of the final α-lactalbumin enriched composition.

A method of peeling tubers includes providing a peeler device defining a cavity surrounded by a peeling mechanism, inputting tubers to be peeled into the cavity, directing electromagnetic radiation from an illumination device into the cavity, detecting electromagnetic radiation reflected into lens of a camera from tubers located in the cavity during a peeling operation by the peeling mechanism, and operating the peeler device based on the reflected electromagnetic radiation detected by the camera. Also disclosed is an apparatus for carrying out the method.

An example modular meal system includes two or more modular meal components. Example modular meal components include a tray, a meal component disposed within the tray, and a sauce component disposed within the tray. The meal component is selected from a protein component, a starch component, a vegetable component, an appetizer component, and a dessert component. Each modular meal component is configured and/or formulated to reach at least 165° F. or at least 167° F. when heated from frozen for a heating time period within the range of from about 20 minutes to about 60 minutes and at a heating temperature within the range of about 350° F. to about 450° F.

A shelf stable potato/sweet potato french fry product packaged in a hermetically sealed flexible bag/pouch without the need for a surrounding acidic solution has been disclosed. Such product has a lower pH, preferably below 4.6, with enhanced taste and texture profile features, such as: (a) 0% -2% fat content, (b) a hardness of the exterior layer between 350 gram to 2500 gram after frying, that allows for little to no need for battering of such products, and (c) a moisture content above 55%. These benefits are typically obtained by processing the pre-cut potato via a single-step processing technique which may or may not require pre-processing steps.

A packaged food product with a seasoning disk is provided. The food product includes potatoes. The seasoning disk includes seasoning and fat that is in solid form at the food product's anticipated normal storage temperature. The fat includes milkfat.

Devices, systems, and methods for real-time peeling are disclosed. Peeling can include including evaluating and controlling one or more peelers to remove peel from organic materials. Evaluation can be performed by an evaluation system including a convolutional neural network to determine a peel value. Control can be performed by a machine learning model on the basis of the peel value. Control can include determination of real-time settings for peeler tool speed and/or gate position.

A system for separating cut food products includes a flow inlet, a flow outlet, and at least one drum connecting the flow inlet and the flow outlet. The flow inlet may be oriented to direct the cut food product tangentially into the at least one drum. The flow inlet may be oriented to direct the cut food product into the at least one drum at a right angle to a longitudinal axis of the at least one drum. The at least one drum may be a plurality of drums including a first drum having the flow inlet and a second drum having the flow outlet. The system may include a passageway providing fluid communication from the first drum to the second drum. The passageway may include a tapered section. The flow inlet may be aligned with the flow outlet.