Abstract: A system and method for manufacturing a cooked egg product includes an automated egg cracker that receives the raw, shelled eggs from the infeed conveyor and removes the shells from the eggs; a cooking conveyor having a plurality of cooking pans that receives the whole eggs and induction heats the cooking pans sufficiently to completely cook the eggs contained in the cooking pans, resulting in cooked eggs; a pasteurization tunnel that receives the cooked eggs in the cooking pans from the induction heater; and a control that actuates the pasteurization tunnel to heat the surfaces of the eggs to a pasteurization temperature. A freezer freezes the cooked and pasteurized eggs, and a packaging machine packages the frozen, cooked and pasteurized eggs. Alternatively, the induction cooked eggs are frozen after cooking and individually vacuum packaged, sous vide heated to a pasteurization temperature, then chilled or frozen for storage or shipment.

Abstract: A method for making a protein loaf, which may take the form of whole-muscle poultry, beef, pork, or veal, may include coating at least a portion of at least one of two pieces of protein with a bonding enzyme preparation along a bonding surface of one of the pieces; nesting the two pieces of protein in a mold and orienting the pieces such the coated bonding surface contacts a bonding surface of the other of the two pieces of protein; evacuating and sealing the pieces in a package such that the pieces are urged together along the bonding surfaces thereof and conform to the mold to form a loaf shape; and holding the pieces in the sealed package a time interval sufficient to allow the bonding enzyme preparation to cause cross-linking to occur between the bonding surfaces to form a unitary protein loaf from the two pieces of protein.