A meat processing system and method wherein trim pieces of meat having lean meat portions and fat meat portions are divided into smaller regular sized meat chunks of higher lean meat content and chunks of higher fat content. The chunks are passed seriatim through a photometric sensing zone to photometrically detect an optical property related to the lean meat or fat content of the meat chunks and the meat chunks are thereafter sorted in accordance with the value of the optical property sensed in the photometric sensing zone. Meat chunks of higher lean meat content are thereby sorted from chunks of higher fat content. The temperature of the meat chunks is maintained at or near the freezing temperature to facilitate singularizing and handling of the meat chunks so that the meat chunks can be passed seriatim through the photometric sensing zone.
A method and apparatus for dividing meat components such as fat and lean meat wherein the combined fat and lean meat are passed through an extruder sized to form one or more chains of material wherein the fat and lean meat are divided along the length thereof, the character of material along each chain being sensed by a suitable sensor with the fat and lean meat being divided by a diverter functioning in delayed response to the sensor.
A sorting machine comprising a vertically inclined feed bed, a feeder for feeding objects to be sorted to an upper portion of said feed bed, the feed bed being adapted to be supplied with a fluid which fluidizes the objects thereon so that the latter flow to a lower portion of the feed bed, and a sorting arrangement which is arranged to receive the objects from the said lower portion and to separate them into groups of desired and undesired objects respectively.
The present invention is drawn to various aspects of automated excision of undesirable material (and optionally excision of bone) from meat, and automated production of starting material for restructured meat, including: (a) an apparatus and method generally drawn to, optical detection of the location of undesirable material in meat, communication of information regarding the location of the undesirable material to a control means, and excision of the undesirable material from the meat using a high pressure water jet controlled by the control means; (b) a bone location sensor and method of bone location sensing, each employing a plurality of needles, and; (c) a multiple blade slicer.
A computer controlled method and apparatus for meat slabbing according to updated information from the meat product and/or the slab cut from the meat product. Such information may include the weight and fat content of the cut slab. This information may be used to reoptimize the slabbing of the meat product and also may be used to further process the cut slab. Such processing might include marking the location of fat to be trimmed, trimming the fat from the slab, portioning the slab and sorting the slab in accordance with preselected parameters.
The present invention evaluates an animal to determine characteristics or traits thereof. The invention evaluates the animal as it moves through first and second scenes that correspond to different first and second fields of view.
