A food product, suitable for slicing into helical strips, comprising a whole fruit or vegetable having an outer surface, a longitudinal center axis and a plurality of penetration slots which extend radially inwardly from the outer surface to the longitudinal center axis.

An apparatus for cutting helically shaped pieces from potatoes has a top portion forming a drive section, a center portion forming a feed section and a lower portion forming a cutting section. The drive section comprises a plurality of rotatable shafts extending in a circle about a central axis. The feed section comprises a plurality of rotatable rods arranged in a circle about the central axis, each rod at its upper end connected to a lower end of a shaft. At least the lower part of each rod has a spiral outer surface. The cutter section includes a cutter of hollow conical form having a series of spiral channels on its interior surface, each spiral ending in an aperture, the apertures forming cutting edges. Potatoes are fed through the feed section, on rotation of the rods, by the spiral surfaces of the rods, and pushed into the cutter, which on rotation, cuts helical pieces from potatoes.

Potatoes are conveyed one at a time along a predetermined path ending at a cutter that cuts the potatoes into helical strips. A series of four rings surrounds the path. Each ring has a plurality of nozzles that produce jets of water intersecting at a point in the path. At the outlet of the series of four rings is an orienter through which the potatoes pass. The rings and the orienter align and guide the potatoes as they move along the path and through the cutter.