Abstract: One variation of a method for dispensing toppings onto topping vehicles includes: indexing a first topping vehicle to a first position adjacent a first topping module, the first topping module including a first hopper containing a first topping of a first topping type; indexing a second topping vehicle to a second position adjacent a second topping module including a second hopper containing a second topping of a second topping type; retracting a first blade of the first topping module; advancing the first blade through the first topping; retracting a first retaining plate to dispense a topping slice from the first topping onto the first topping vehicle according to a first topping order for the first topping vehicle specifying the first topping type, the first retaining plate offset from the first blade opposite the first hopper; advancing the first retaining plate; and indexing the first topping vehicle to the second position.

Abstract: The present invention provides a double bladed spiral slicer including a first and second blade assemblies on a surface, each assembly having a mechanical output and operable to rotate about a vertical axis. A meat rotation assembly, having a headstock and tailstock, is adapted for rotation of a received meat. A processor and controller in communication with the blade assemblies operate to direct the blade assemblies to form a spiral slice on the surface of the meat. The meat product is engaged to the meat rotation assembly where the upper position of the meat product is determined. The meat product is rotated about a vertical axis and the blade assemblies operate by simultaneously reciprocally engaging the meat product and moving vertically from the central position of the meat product.

Abstract: One variation of a method for dispensing toppings onto topping vehicles includes: indexing a first topping vehicle to a first position adjacent a first topping module, the first topping module comprising a first hopper containing a first topping of a first topping type; indexing a second topping vehicle to a second position adjacent a second topping module comprising a second hopper containing a second topping of a second topping type; retracting a first blade of the first topping module; advancing the first blade through the first topping; retracting a first retaining plate to dispense a topping slice from the first topping onto the first topping vehicle according to a first topping order for the first topping vehicle specifying the first topping type, the first retaining plate offset from the first blade opposite the first hopper; advancing the first retaining plate; and indexing the first topping vehicle to the second position.

Abstract: The invention relates to an installation for conveying products, in particular product slices or product portions combing from a slicing machine for food products, having at least one conveyor which includes a carrier and at least one conveyor section held at the carrier, wherein at least a part of the conveyor section is tiltable relative to the carrier between a conveying position and a safety position about an axis extending in the conveying direction.

Abstract: A food processor includes a bowl with a removable lid. Food items are advanced into the bowl through a feed tube formed in the lid where they are cut by a blade assembly. A rotating disk is adjustable relative to the blade assembly to vary the thickness of the food items cut by the blade assembly. The rotating disk includes a blade support having a plurality of slots that receive a flange of the blade assembly.

Abstract: The invention pertains to a method and apparatus for separation of seeds from fruit pulp/skin/twigs, in general, coming out from juice producing industry as a waste and in particular from apple pomace. The method involves addition of apple pomace and water in a particular ratio to a vessel (1), mixing with an agitator (6, 8) at optimum rpm for sufficient period, allowed to stand followed by secondary agitation. Based on difference in bulk density, seeds were separated from pomace. The seedless pomace withdrawn from horizontal (13) or inclined (14) outlets and seeds collected in seed collection chamber were removed through bottom valve (11). The seed trap (15) provided at inclined outlet (14) helps in their retention in the vessel (1). The seedless pomace is recovered by filtration from water. This spent water can be recycled for few times and then purged. Easy to handle separation device is energy efficient, compactly designed and can be used to separate the seeds efficiently up to 97%.

Abstract: Systems and methods for filling a fleshy fruit or vegetable with a filler are described. Embodiments include tool having an expandable member that is expandable to an expanded position to make a cavity in the fruit and collapsible to a collapsed position for withdrawal from the fruit, with the expandable member in the expanded state comprising a cross-section that is larger than the maximum diameter of the tool in the collapsed position. A cavity may be created without substantially affecting the natural visual appearance of the fruit or vegetable. Fillers and filling methods are disclosed.

Abstract: A device for mincing food includes at least one cutting blade or grater and a feed device. Food to be minced is feedable through the feed device to the at least one cutting blade or grater. The feed device includes parallel first and second mutually opposing inner walls.

Abstract: A food processor includes a base, a container having a side wall and an open end including a rim, and a lid for engaging the open end of the container in an operating position and a storage position. The lid has a top wall with a first and second principal surface, an annular ledge with a first and second side, and a food chute extending from the first principal surface generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of the top wall. The food chute has a length and extends away from the container with the second side of the annular ledge contacting the rim of the container when the lid is in the operating position. When the lid is in the storage position, the food chute extends into an interior of the container with the first side of the annular ledge contacting the rim of the container.

Abstract: An avocado pitting device comprises a housing having an inner surface defining a recess. The recess is configured to receive a pit of an avocado. An engagement member projects inwardly from the housing inner surface. The engagement member is configured to engage the pit and retain the pit within the recess such that the pit is removable with the housing from the avocado.

Abstract: A food processor includes a bowl with a removable lid. Food items are advanced into the bowl through a feed tube formed in the lid where they are cut by a blade assembly. A rotating disk is adjustable relative to the blade assembly to vary the thickness of the food items cut by the blade assembly. A user-operated pin is positioned below the rotating disk and is moveable between a first position in which the rotating disk is prevented from moving upwardly and downwardly, and a second position in which the rotating disk is permitted to move upwardly and downwardly.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for splitting apart a pomegranate fruit employ a pair of elongated splitting levers and a pivoting connecting mechanism, carried on the pair of elongated levers. Each one of the elongated levers has a penetrating end and a shape configured to enable the pair of elongated levers to be arranged in a substantially closed configuration in contact or contiguous lengthways with one another to form a penetrating structure to enable the elongated levers to be at least partially inserted into a pomegranate. The elongated splitting levers are hingedly connectable at the penetrating ends by the pivoting connecting mechanism which is configured to outwardly pivot the elongated splitting levers from the substantially closed configuration into a substantially open configuration in response to forcing the elongated splitting levers apart about a fulcrum.

Abstract: A fruit scoop is configured to form part of a set of fruit scoops, and in some versions it is employed as a set of two, three, or more fruit scoops in which each of the individual scoops is formed with a cutting hoop of a different diameter.

Abstract: A container includes an internal plate having slicing blade supported by a lower container and covered by a lid. A threaded axle is connected to a hand crank extending from the top of the lid and urges a pusher downward toward the blade as the crank is turned. A food item carried on the pusher is thereby forced downward and rotated against the blade and cut in accordance with the size of the threads on the axle. Additional interchangeable plates are provided, including cheese grating and juice reaming plates.

Abstract: The vegetable peeler for separating the peel from fruits and vegetables includes a handle, a tool head or blade mount, and a blade. The handle is configured to be able to receive and store at least one spare cutting blade such that the blade can be removed from the tool head and replaced with a different blade stored in the handle.

Abstract: A stuffing hand tool for inserting food material into pitted or cored produce items such as olives, figs, strawberries, cherries, which includes a body easily gripped with one hand by a user allowing a tube projecting from one end to be pressed into a mass of food material creating a plug of food material retained in the tube which is stuffed into an item when a plunger is advanced by depressing a pusher cylinder extended out from the opposite end of the body.

Abstract: A device drills longitudinally a fruit, such as a banana, for its subsequent filling. The device includes a header with a projecting cylindrical part. The header is vertically perforated by a cylindrical upper part and a lower cylindrical or conical part, and from the internal face of such header and from diametrically opposite areas respective arms in parallel extend in longitudinal laterally opposite edges arched sections defining such perforation a connection for a tubular member with a spindle-shaped edge and an inner wing. The inner wing is fixed to a perforated part and arched so as to form a handle, having each arm part of the device in their lower ends surfaces arched outwards that define a component in which are fitted and supported a pair of arched diametrically opposite grooves in a cylindrical part forming the base and concentric to a central cylindrical cavity.

Abstract: A hand-held, manually operated seed shucking appliance enables a food preparer to remove the seed coverings of black-eyed peas from their kernels. A spring and piston inside a chamber are arranged to compress a load of pre-soaked black-eyed peas against a shuttle rasp threaded between side slots. As a user manipulates the shuttle rasp, the shucks are scraped off the seeds by a scraping surface and both pass through the side slots. The piston is configured to be cocked back such that the chamber can be loaded through one end with a fresh charge of black-eyed peas.

Abstract: A processing machine for soybeans and soybean-embryos is provided, with improved efficiency in the deodorizing and drying processes and the capability to perform a deactivating process in a stable manner. A closed container is divided into individual sections by partitions. In each section, the temperature conditions for the deodorizing and drying processes can be independently determined, so that these processes can be performed within the same closed container and yet at different temperatures. A space is provided above a screw conveyer within the closed container. A heater is wound around the closed container so that the temperature can be freely regulated.

Abstract: A dough dividing apparatus includes a dough discharge member (26) having a front end surface (30) having a recessed surface (28) extending substantially horizontally and having a circular arc-shaped cross-section and dough discharge holes (34) having outlets (32) opening on the front end surface, cutters (38) having cutting edges (36) extending in the longitudinal direction of the recessed surface (28), and a cutter driving device (40) that causes the cutting edges (36) to perform circular motion while keeping the cutters in a fixed posture so that the cutting edges periodically slide along the recessed surface downward from above it to cut and divide dough continuously extruded from the outlets (32).

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for trimming the surface of meat, in particular fish fillets, comprising a transporting element by means of which the products which are to be processed are conveyed continuously in the transporting direction T into the region of a knife head, also comprising an element for detecting the position of the products, as well as a knife head for trimming the products and a means of controlling the movement of the knife head in dependence on the information and data determined by the position-detecting element, the device being distinguished in that the knife head is designed for automatically executing free trimming cuts along the surface contour of the products. The invention also relates to an apparatus for processing meat using a device mentioned above, and to a corresponding surface-trimming method.

Abstract: An avocado pitting device comprises a housing having an inner surface defining a recess. The recess is configured to receive a pit of an avocado. An engagement member projects inwardly from the housing inner surface. The engagement member is configured to engage the pit and retain the pit within the recess such that the pit is removable with the housing from the avocado.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming a food material, such as an apparatus for encrusting a filling material such as bean jam, where production cost is reduced because one driving motor and one rotating shaft control the opening and closing movements of a cutting apparatus and the lifting and lowering movements of the cutting apparatus and a food-receiving member. A simplified control system is also provided.

Abstract: An automatic bread maker (1) comprises: a bread container (not shown) into which bread ingredients are put; a body (10) having an accommodation part (30) for accommodating the bread container; a grinding blade (not shown) for grinding cereal grains inside the bread container accommodated in the accommodation part (30); and a duct (16) and fan (17) for creating an airflow for cooling the accommodation part (30) using ventilation holes (32, 33) provided to the accommodation part (30).

Abstract: The hard shells or hulls of whole nuts are effectively cracked and separated from the nut meat by propelling and impacting the whole nuts at a predetermined trajectory velocity against an adjustable impacting plate set at the appropriate impacting angle. By controlling the manner in which the whole nuts impact against the impacting plate, the fracturing of the hard shell may be controlled so as to optimize the whole nut meat recovery while minimizing the production of split nut meats. A variable speed impeller in combination with adjustability of the impacting plate optimizes the nut cracking and nut meat separation for any type of whole nut. An orderly sequential feed of whole nuts to an off-set feed zone of rotating impellers equipped with vanes having a catching section and an accelerating section at a regulated rotational speed effectively propels the whole nuts against the adjustable impacting plate.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for non-invasive lean recovery from a sparse lean product or other animal muscle trimming, which can include conveying ground sparse lean through a conveyance channel where the conveyance channel extends along a path that extends through a scanning position adjacent a scanner. The process includes scanning along a predetermined length with the scanner the ground sparse lean product traveling through the conveyance channel and further analyzing the scan and determining the percent fat content for each ground sparse lean product segment which is defined by the predetermined length of the ground sparse lean product within the volume of the conveyance channel and the cross section areas of the conveyance channel. The process can further include directing each ground sparse lean product segment down one of a plurality of processing paths corresponding to the one defined fat content range in which the corresponding percent fat content falls.

Abstract: A corn kerneler having a cutting apparatus including an expandable, ring-shaped blade. The corn kerneler further includes a housing supporting the cutting apparatus and cooperating with the blade to form a substantially enclosed kernel collection chamber.

Abstract: A food cutting and manipulating apparatus includes having an aperture extending therethrough. A gear housing is mounted on the table and includes first and second driving axles. A plurality of pairs of food manipulating members is provided. Each of the manipulating members includes a shaft, releasably engageable with the first and second driving axles, attached to an elongated base. The plurality of pairs of food manipulating members includes a plurality of pairs of cutting members. Each of the cutting members includes at least one cutting plate that is attached to the base. The at least one cutting plate extends over the aperture when the shaft is attached to the one of the first and second driving axles. Food is positionable between the food manipulating members and the motor turned on so that the food manipulating members engage the food as the food moves downwardly through the aperture.

Abstract: A food processor includes a bowl with a removable lid. Food items are advanced into the bowl through a feed tube formed in the lid where they are cut by a blade assembly. A rotating disk is adjustable relative to the blade assembly to vary the thickness of the food items cut by the blade assembly. The rotating disk includes a blade support having a plurality of slots that receive a flange of the blade assembly.

Abstract: A food processor includes a bowl with a removable lid. Food items are advanced into the bowl through a feed tube formed in the lid where they are cut by a blade assembly. A rotating disk is adjustable relative to the blade assembly to vary the thickness of the food items cut by the blade assembly. A user-operated pin is positioned below the rotating disk and is moveable between a first position in which the rotating disk is prevented from moving upwardly and downwardly, and a second position in which the rotating disk is permitted to move upwardly and downwardly.

Abstract: A food processor includes a bowl with a removable lid. Food items are advanced into the bowl through a feed tube formed in the lid where they are cut by a cutting blade. A rotating disk is adjustable relative to the blade assembly to vary the thickness of the food items cut by the blade assembly. A mounting arm is positioned below the cutting blade and has a ramp defined therein. The food processor includes an adjustment assembly operable to move the rotating disk relative to the cutting blade.

Abstract: An automatic bread maker comprises a container in which bread ingredients are fed; a body for accommodating the container; a control unit for carrying out bread-making steps in a state in which the container is accommodated in the body; and a rise detector for detecting that dough has risen to a prescribed height from an upper surface of the container in a state in which the container is accommodated in the body.

Abstract: A food cutting device comprising an elongated body having a pointed tip at a first end, a thread attached to the body and having a beginning proximate the first end and terminating a distance from the first end, and a cutting edge attached to the body proximate the termination of the thread, is disclosed. In an embodiment, the disclosed cutting device comprises an elongated metal rod body having a first end and a second end, the first end of the metal rod body having a point, a metal thread beginning proximate the first end and extending in a winding fashion a distance along the rod body toward the second end before terminating at a point on the body, a looped cutting blade attached to the body proximate the termination point of the metal thread, and a handle proximate the second end of the body comprised of a bend in the body such that the handle facilitates rotation of the device about an axis.

Abstract: A manually operated food dicer having a frame structure which is supported above a support surface, the frame structure having a top surface that includes at least a first slicing blade and at least one carriage guide configuration. A food item carriage displaceably deployed on the frame structure by way of the carriage guide configuration, the food item carriage including an upper receptacle for receiving food items and a lower dicing blade platform. As the food item carriage traverses the length of the frame structure in a cutting direction, the upper receptacle passes over the slicing blade resulting in a slide of the food item being deposited on the lower dicing blade platform, after which the carriage guide configuration brings a top surface of the lower dicing blade platform into contact with a bottom dicing surface of the frame structure further cutting the food item slice into diced food cubes.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a food slicing device. In the present invention, the opening of the horizontal shell disposed horizontally is a material output port; a material-input tube is disposed on the upper part of the shell, and the material-input tube extends upward to form a material-input port; a cutter unit with the same direction to the opening disposed inside the horizontal shell; the rotating shaft protrudes out of the bottom of the shell; a protective cover is disposed on the material output port, whose ring is inserted in the material output port, and the top portion of said protective cover extends outward to form a tongue portion for covering up the opening of said material output port of the shell. So the problem that fingers of consumer are injured accidentally by rotating blade of the cutter is solved.

Abstract: A food cutter has a base and at least two transverse panels extending from the base and sized to complement a pan. The panels may form a grid with an upper end located in the base. The grid has a lower end with cutting edges adapted to cut food. The upper end may be concave and the lower end is flat. The base is formed from a smooth rigid material and may be covered in a soft pliable material. The grid may be coated with a food safe, non-stick material.

Abstract: A food slicing apparatus includes a container, a removable top, and a slicing device that includes blades and slides relative to the top. The top defines a patterned hole which accommodates the blades as the slicing device slides from an open position in which the blades are spaced from the top, toward a closed position in which the blades are disposed through the patterned hole. A piece of food that is placed on the top below the blades and is sliced by pressing the slicing device against the food and the sliced pieces are moved into the container by further pressing on the slicing device thereby pressing the frame of the slicing device against the food. The slicing device and top are thereafter removed from the container, and a lid is placed on the container to accommodate the food after it has been sliced.

Abstract: A dough dividing apparatus includes a dough discharge member (26) having a front end surface (30) having a recessed surface (28) extending substantially horizontally and having a circular arc-shaped cross-section and dough discharge holes (34) having outlets (32) opening on the front end surface, cutters (38) having cutting edges (36) extending in the longitudinal direction of the recessed surface (28), and a cutter driving device (40) that causes the cutting edges (36) to perform circular motion while keeping the cutters in a fixed posture so that the cutting edges periodically slide along the recessed surface downward from above it to cut and divide dough continuously extruded from the outlets (32).

Abstract: A processing machine for soybeans and soybean-embryos is provided, with improved efficiency in the deodorizing and drying processes and the capability to perform a deactivating process in a stable manner. A closed container is divided into individual sections by partitions. In each section, the temperature conditions for the deodorizing and drying processes can be independently determined, so that these processes can be performed within the same closed container and yet at different temperatures. A space is provided above a screw conveyer within the closed container. A heater is wound around the closed container so that the temperature can be freely regulated.

Abstract: A cutting wheel using knives with slice thickness gauging surfaces defining, with the knife cutting edges, a thickness dimension of sliced food products and a throat dimension measured perpendicular to the wheel cutting plane between each knife cutting edge and the terminal edge of the adjacent gauging surface, wherein the knives each have a single primary bevel extending practically tangent to the cutting plane on the side of the knife facing towards the cutting plane and a smooth transition area on the opposite side of the knife, and the ratio of throat dimension to slice thickness dimension is 1 to 1.7.

Abstract: This invention relates to an apparatus for forming a food material, such as an apparatus for encrusting a filling material, such as bean jam. The purpose of this invention is to provide an apparatus for forming a food material, such as an apparatus for encrusting a filling material, whose production cost is considerably reduced by employing the following constitution for the apparatus. Namely, mechanisms that can control the opening and closing movements of a cutting apparatus and the lifting and lowering movements of the cutting apparatus and the food-receiving member by only one driving motor are employed for the apparatus. Further, a simplified control system is employed for the apparatus.

Abstract: An easy-to-use food slicer can slice food into predetermined thickness. This easy-to-use food slicer includes a motor 30 and a structure 10 in which the belt blade 14, four sets of pulleys 11, 11?, 23, 23? and a driving transmission system 12, 12?, 13, 13?, 15, 16, 16?, 17, 17?, 18, 19, 19?, 20, 20? are installed, four sets of pulleys 11, 11?, 23, 23? and a driving transmission system 12, 12?, 13, 13?, 15, 16, 16?, 17, 17?, 18, 19, 19?, 20, 20?. The driving transmission system transforms rotation movement of motor 30 into back and forth movement of belt blade 14, which cuts food under the easy-to-use food slicer.

Abstract: A device for mincing food includes at least one cutting blade or grater and a feed device. Food to be minced is feedable through the feed device to the at least one cutting blade or grater. The feed device includes parallel first and second mutually opposing inner walls.

Abstract: In a system to separate shredded vegetable pieces, a slicer cuts a vegetable having leaves and a core into pieces to form a mixture of leaf and core pieces. The mixture then passes through a sorting mechanism that separates the core pieces from the mixture.

Abstract: A food slicer includes a support member having a base portion and an upstanding portion. A rotatable cutting blade is secured to the upstanding portion for slicing food product. A food product table is mounted for movement past the cutting blade for holding product while being sliced by the cutting blade. A product fence assists in holding and stabilizing food product during slicing. An inner side of the food product table includes multiple spaced apart slots and the product fence includes an inner side with at least one finger extending downward within one of the slots of the food product table. Elongate protrusions may be provided at the bottom of the product fence for seating within grooves on a food support surface of the food product table. A food contact wall surface of the fence may be angled away from the food contact location and an inner faced of the food contact wall may be angled away from a gage plate of the slicer.

Abstract: A rotary food cutting device is provided. The rotary food cutting device comprises a handle assembly and a removable blade assembly. The removable blade assembly has a blade, a first blade mounting member, and a second blade mounting member. The blade is positioned between the first blade mounting member and the second blade mounting member. The first blade mounting member and the second blade mounting member interact with the handle assembly to removably secure the blade.

Abstract: A vegetable and fruit slicer for slicing vegetables and fruit comprising a knife part (1) and a cooperating anvil part (2). The knife part (1) comprises at least two sets of knives (3), where a set of knives (3) comprises at least two knives (4) arranged at predetermined lateral distances and predetermined level distances from each other forming a stair or a fan (3). Only one knife (4) of each set (3) is positioned at each level and the lateral distances between the knives (4) positioned at the same level are the same and constant for each level of knives (4). A method, wherein a first level of at least two knives (4) starts cutting the vegetable or fruit to be cut, followed by at least a second level of a preferably corresponding number of knives (4) and having the same internal distance in between the knives in every level.

Abstract: A refreshment preparation apparatus (10) is described. The apparatus comprises a chilled pulveriser assembly for pulverising a frozen ingredient, a chilled storage assembly for storing the pulverised ingredient and dispensing apparatus (16) for dispensing the pulverished ingredient.

Abstract: A coffee grinder-dispenser comprising a base housing an electric motor, with a vertically extending rotatable shaft which is connected to a grinder located in a grinding chamber. A vessel located above the grinding chamber receives coffee beans to be ground. A closure plate allows the coffee beans to enter the grinding chamber. A conduit allows the coffee, after grinding, to be delivered to a funnel; the ground coffee passes downwardly through the funnel into a filter holder. One cooling fan faces the grinding chamber, is activated by a keypad on the funnel, and delivers air transversely across the interior of the housing. A second cooling fan is located on the vertical shaft of the electric motor. The fans are operated by a controller, located within the housing, and provide sufficient cooling air to the grinding chamber to maintain the desired qualities of taste and aroma in the ground coffee.

Abstract: In one aspect of the invention, a container for displaying, preparing and presenting food including a base having an integrated cutter having a plurality of blades and a central hub and a cover removably attached to the base for displaying the food prior to use and for storing the food during and after cutting, the cover having indentations to receive the central hub and possibly the blades to enhance the depth of cutting by the cutter through the food. The base and cover have side walls dimensioned so that the cover interfaces with the base after driving.