872results about "Fish processing" patented technology

A method and apparatus for measuring the physical characteristics of livestock animals such as cattle and hogs. The apparatus of the invention includes a plurality of strategically positioned cameras that are used to obtain data concerning volumetric, curvilinear (surface) and linear measurements of livestock animals such as cattle and hogs and the full carcasses thereof. In accordance with the method of the invention, the data is analyzed to provide information that substantially assists the commercial producer of livestock animals in producing a high-quality end-product for the consumer while adding profitability to the enterprise.

A method and apparatus for measuring target animals, including livestock animals and full carcasses, and more specifically livestock animals such as cattle and hogs using a single camera system. More particularly, the method of the invention is directed toward obtaining key measurements of the target animal, such as animal weight, animal hip height and animal hip width.

A method of linking source units of food with product items that include at least a portion of one or more of the source units of food, where a conversion process produces a plurality of product items from a plurality of source units (e.g., at a meat processing plant). A conversion algorithm is created to estimate within a desired confidence level a range of the amount of time required by the conversion process to produce a product item from one or more of the source units of food. A range of an amount of conversion time required to produce a selected product item is estimated by applying the conversion algorithm. The estimated range amount of conversion time for the selected product item is subtracted from the time of exit from the conversion process for the selected product item to generate an estimated time range of entry. Each source unit having a time of entry into the conversion process within the estimated time range of entry is identified.

A method and apparatus for measuring the physical characteristics of livestock animals such as cattle and hogs. The apparatus of the invention includes a plurality of strategically positioned cameras that are used to obtain data concerning volumetric, curvilinear (surface) and linear measurements of livestock animals such as cattle and hogs and the full carcasses thereof. In accordance with the method of the invention, the data is analyzed to provide information that substantially assists the commercial producer of livestock animals in producing a high-quality end-product for the consumer while adding profitability to the enterprise.

A portioning apparatus (10) includes a powered conveyor (12) for carrying workpieces (WP) past a scanning station (14) and past a cutting station (20). Information from the scanning station pertaining to physical parameters of the workpiece is transmitted to a control system (16) which then determines an optimal cutting strategy for the workpiece, which strategy is implemented at the cutting station (20). The length of time required to portion the workpiece is also determined, and this information is used to ascertain whether the speed of the conveyor (12) is optimal or should be changed.

A system, suitable for high-speed operation, by which raw product (45), such as a slab of meat, can be accurately processed, such as by slicing into segments of desired weight, comprises a product profiling apparatus (15). The product profiling apparats (15) meassures the profile of the physical process. The product profiling apparatus (15) includes line lasers (75, 85) for directing a line of light across the upper and lower surfaces of the product (45) and visual image cameras (80, 90) directed toward the profile surface to capture, at fixed increments, the product profile. The product may also be weighed and the product density determined from the overall profile measurements. A controller (150) receives this data, and instructs the physical process accordingly.

A method of distributing objects, having a random distribution of weights, according to their weights. In the method, the presence of one of the objects is detected, the detected object is grasped by a robot, and the object grasped is weighed by a sensor. The weight measured is associated with the object and stored. The process is repeated for the objects. The weight distribution obtained from the weights measured is used in filling containers with objects so that containers are optimally filled.

A food processing apparatus for detecting and cutting tough tissues from food items such as fish, meat, or poultry. At least one x-ray machine associated to a first conveyor for imaging incoming food items on the first conveyor based on a generated x-ray image indicating the location of the tough tissues in the food items. A vision system supplies second image data of the food items subsequent to the imaging by the x-ray machine. The second image data including position related data indicating the position of the food items on the second conveyor prior to the cutting. A mapping mechanism determines an estimated coordinate position of the food items on the second conveyor by utilizing the x-ray image and tracking position data. The processor compares the estimated coordinate position of the food items to the actual position on the second conveyor based on the second image data.

A method for monitoring and tracking the processing of a plurality of meat items which originated from an animal, with the processing utilizing instructions, such as instructions from a customer. The method comprises the steps of registering one or more of an identification of one piece of meat from the plurality of meat items, an identification of a supplier of the one piece of meat, and an identification of the animal from which the one piece of meat originated; allocating the one piece of meat to one of a plurality of workstations; registering an identification of the workstation; processing the one piece of meat into a plurality of meat cuttings at the workstation utilizing the instructions; and further processing one or more of the plurality of meat cuttings, wherein traceability is established between the one or more of the plurality of meat cuttings and one or more of the one piece of meat, the supplier, and the animal from which the one piece of meat originated.

The invention relates to a processing method of an instant squid. The method comprises the following steps: live or frozen whole squids which are not polluted, have no abnormality and even size are adopted, cleaned, treated to remove internal organs, cleared and cleaned, cut up, scalded, rinsed, pickled and roasted at high temperature for sterilization, and the instant squid is obtained after mild secondary sterilization. The instant squid comprises various parts such as squid rings, squid tentacles, squid mouths, squid wings and the like, and the nutrients of fresh squids are well kept; besides, the squids have beautiful appearance, and can be eaten after being opened; and the instant squid is characterized by delicious taste, convenient eating and rich nutrition. The method adopts small package, and high-temperature short-time sterilization technology is adopted before vacuum packaging to effectively kill microbes, and measures such as a mild secondary sterilization and the like are taken after packaging, therefore, the shelf life of the squid can reach half a year to one year. The method is simple in preparation, and the procedures are reasonable, simple and feasible, the squid product processed has no nutrition loss and natural color, thus improving the edible convenience of the squid product.

An apparatus for trussing a bird comprising a main body having a platform for supporting the bird, the platform and main body having a bird keel end and a bird wishbone end, clamping means movably mounted on the main body for securing the bird on the platform and releasing the bird from the platform, shackle means mounted on the main body and being disposed above the bird keel end of the platform for receiving and at least temporarily securing the legs of the bird, a leg engaging and supporting means movably mounted on opposite lateral locations of the main body for tightening leg knuckles of a bird into the shackle means before flexing, for preventing twisting of the legs and for bending the legs over the wings, a first drive means operably engagable with the clamping means, the shackle means and the leg engaging and supporting means to sequentially clamp the bird, shackle, stretch and flex the clamped birds legs and to release the clamped bird.

The invention relates to an apparatus for automatically removing a tail from poultry. An overhead conveyor moves the poultry or part of a bird suspended by the legs, and a guiding device is disposed underneath the overhead conveyor for supporting and guiding the poultry. A cutting device is functionally disposed behind a lead element for the poultry and which is part of the guiding device. The overhead conveyor is designed to convey the poultry with the back facing forward while the guiding device supports and guides the poultry substantially at the side of the back. The cutting device is disposed in or under an effective supporting surface of the guiding device.

A meat or fish composition which retains moisture during cooking is provided. A concentrated aqueous acidic protein solution derived from animal muscle tissue is added to the meat or fish prior to cooking. The concentrated aqueous acidic protein solution comprises myofibrillar proteins and sarcoplasmic proteins substantially free of myofibrils and sarcomeres.

The present invention discloses one kind of fast frozen white delicious fish fillet of spotted forked-tail Leiocassis longirostris and its production process. The production process includes the steps of temporarily raising, killing to eliminate blood, slicing, eliminating skin, trimming, soaking to sterilize, loading into tray and quick freezing, grading, coating with ice, packing, etc. The production process features complete elimination of blood, low temperature of fish fillet in icy water at 0-4 deg.c, soaking fish fillet in ozone icy water and ultralow temperature quick freezing at below -35 deg.c. The production process has high fish fillet yield and less nutrient loss, and the produced fish fillet is white, translucent and delicious.

A system, suitable for high-speed operation, by which raw product (45), such as a slab of meat, can be accurately processed, such as by slicing into segments of desired weight, comprises a product profiling apparatus (15). The product profiling apparatus (15) measures the profile of the physical process. The product profiling apparatus (15) includes line lasers (75, 85) for directing a line of light across the upper and lower surfaces of the product (45) and visual image cameras (80, 90) directed toward the profile surface to capture, at fixed increments, the product profile. The product may also be weighed and the product density determined from the overall profile measurements. A controller (150) receives this data, and instructs the physical process accordingly.

The invention relates to a machining method and machining equipment for removing heads and viscera of small fishes and belongs to the field of fish processing. The machining method includes the followings steps of firstly, placing small fishes on a fish body conveying belt via a directional fish body feeder unit; secondly, placing the small fishes in distance-adjustable positioning grooves of the fish body conveying belt in a manner that the backs of the fish bodies face upwards and the bellies of the fish bodies face downwards, cutting off spines and peripherally connected muscular tissues via a disc cutter of a head cutting device while guaranteeing that the heads and the bodies of the backs of the fish bodies are cut off without cutting off flesh tissue of the bellies of the fish bodies and throat tissues connected with the viscera and the heads; thirdly, conveying the fish bodies not completely cut off and separated to a viscera remover device via a synchronous feeder, clamping and conveying the fish bodies, pulling and removing the heads, the viscera and connected throat tissues; and fourthly, conveying the fish bodies to a fish container, and feeding the heads and the viscera into other containers.

Apparatus and method for a meat cut classification and fat trimming for sensing the thickness of a layer of fat of a cut of meat and the various contours thereof as it travels along a conveyance and providing the fat thickness or classification information to a downstream system for performing a fat trimming operation. The meat cut classification system comprises a split / multi-belt conveyor having split / multi-belts proximately spaced apart extending in the same direction and having a uniform equidistant gap there between and said conveyor having a drive for conveying the meat cut through the classification system and a multi-probe mechanism assembly.

A method and apparatus for harvesting livers and hearts from a giblet package comprising an infeed pinch roller assembly, a slide assembly, an indexer assembly, an intestine pull down and a liver and heart separator assembly, which teaches a novel method and apparatus for harvesting livers and hearts with an increased yield. The steps of the process include loading a load viscera pack into a feed chute that channels the pack to a pair of counter rollers. The viscera pack is captured by infeed pinch rollers thereby forcing the package into and between the rollers with only the gizzard remaining on top of the roller body. The liver and heart is isolated and separated by a pull down stripper assembly and a stripper arm assembly.

The method for removing a spinal column from a block of meat which includes detecting the position and shape of the spinal column in the block of meat that includes at least a part of the spinal column and cutting the block of meat in the vicinity of the spinal column in a V-letter form from two directions by three-dimensionally controlling the position of a cutter based on data concerning the detected position and shape of the spinal column.

Moisture is retained in cooked or thawed food by adding to the food an aqueous suspension of animal muscle protein obtained from animal muscle tissue. The aqueous suspension is obtained by mixing comminuted animal muscle tissue with a food grade base to form an aqueous basic solution of animal muscle protein. The basic solution is mixed with a food grade acid to precipitate the protein in an aqueous composition. The precipitated protein then is comminuted to form an aqueous suspension of comminuted animal muscle protein.

A method and apparatus for partially cutting hock joints, and letting feet remain attached to the rest of carcass by skin and one or more tendons, exposing the hock joint by folding feet, and hanging the carcasses in the evisceration shackles by hock joints, the method unambiguously ensures that if a carcass is condemned by an Inspector, the feet belonging to that carcass are condemned as well. Furthermore, this invention solves the even more tractable problem of capturing folded feet, separating feet from the carcass while leaving the carcass still hanging in the shackles, transferring feet into an infeed paw cutter wheel, and cutting knuckle portion to produce chicken paws ready for further processing.

The invention relates to a full-automatic fish cutting machine. The full-automatic fish cutting machine comprises a machine body, conveying devices and a fish cutting blade and the like, wherein an oblique V-shaped sliding channel is arranged at the front parts of the transmission devices and is connected with a fish room which is arranged obliquely; a chain-network conveying belt is arranged at the rear part of the transmission device and is provided with a fish pressing plate; fish clamping conveying wheels are arranged at the rear part of the fish pressing plate; and a scraping shovel and a spraying tank are arranged at the rear part of the fish-clamping conveying wheels. The full-automatic fish cutting machine is characterized in that under the driving of a motor and a speed reducer, the fish cutting blade and the conveying devices can work synchronously, fish can be fed into the conveying belt by the fish room and the V-shaped sliding channel, and is conveyed forwards by clamping of the conveying belt, the fish cutting blade at the top part of the conveying belt splits the fish from the middle part, the split fish is pressed by the fish clamping conveying wheels, then the internal organs of the fish are scraped off by the scraping shovel and are suctioned into a negative pressure tank by a vacuum pump and seasonings are sprayed on the fish by the spraying tank. The full-automatic fish cutting machine has the advantages that the working efficiency is high, the production cost is greatly saved for aquatic-product processing enterprises, and the promotion value is good.

The invention discloses a slaughtering method comprehensively utilizing giant salamander resources. A giant salamander is subjected to electric shock anesthetization after being temporarily cultured and cleaned, then white mucus on the body surface of the grown giant salamander is lightly scraped by a stainless steel spoon and the mucus is collected in a preservation box and is cryopreserved at the temperature of minus 20 DEG C; after collection of the mucus is finished, the processed giant salamander is soaked and washed with vinegar solution to remove residual mucus colloid, the washed giant salamander is placed on a slaughtering table, the head of the giant salamander is pressed, the head and the trunk are directly cut off and the slaughtered giant salamander is hung upside down to carry out bloodletting; after bloodletting, cutting is carried out, wherein the cutting operation comprises the following steps: (a) cutting off limbs; (b) ripping along the medioventral line to take out internal organs and peeling off livers; (c) flushing the giant salamander with salt water; (d) peeling off the skin; (e) taking out the lateral line and grease of the tail of the giant salamander; (f) separating out spine and coccyx; (g) cutting into meat slices and finally carrying out sterilization, deodorization, packaging and cryopreservation. The slaughtering method disclosed by the invention can sufficiently show edible and medicinal value of each part of the giant salamander.

A method of treating fish to maintain freshness after freezing and thawing. A whole fish is chilled and cut into four loins, each with two flat sides forming a corner. The loins are chilled and either sliced cross sectionally to form steaks or sliced parallel to one of the flat sides to form sashimi slabs. If sashimi slabs are formed, the slabs are then preferably dipped in a warm flavor enhancing solution. The steaks or slabs are then sealed in non-permeable bags, preferably in a "puzzle pack" configuration that maximizes density and minimizes interstices. The bag with the steaks or sashimi slabs is then submerged in a brine solution. A treatment gas is then injected into the bag. After a treatment time, the gas is removed and the bag is vacuum packed. The bags are then frozen for shipping and storage. When needed, the bags can be thawed in a brine solution.

The invention relates to a machine for cleaning and slicing animal intestines, which comprises a machine body, wherein a cleaning device, a slicing device, a first electronic actuator, a second electronic actuator and a speed governor are arranged on the machine body. The machine can be used for slicing the animal intestines while automatically cleaning the animal intestines, thereby improving the productivity and lowering the production cost. Two electronic actuators are arranged in a control circuit, so stopping operation of a control motor when the work is suspended is realized, and the machine is safe in use. The speed governor can adjust the speed of rotation of the motor according to requirements, so the machine is convenient to use.

The present invention relates to a portable sink or container with a lid that is preferably capable of closing and sealing the sink or container. In certain embodiments, the sink is preferably adapted to be connected to an existing water supply, such as an outdoor hose or faucet, such that running water can be provided inside the sink in an outdoor environment. The sink or container preferably has features that make it easy to use in an outdoor environment, such as folding legs, an adjustable spigot, a spray nozzle, a storage drawer, a shelf, a drain, a funnel, a strainer for the drain, cutting boards, baskets, etc. In one aspect, the sink preferably has handles that support utility panels that can be folded up or down on top of the sink or container.

A knife for producing a butterfly cut of meat, the knife having a handle and a first knife blade attached at one end thereof to the handle, the first knife blade having a first distance between the top and the bottom thereof and being sharpened on the bottom thereof. A second knife blade is operatively attached at one end thereof to the handle, the second knife blade having a fixed position disposed generally parallel to the first knife blade, the second knife blade having being sharpened on the bottom thereof, the bottom of the second knife blade being disposed above and at a predetermined distance to one side of the bottom of the first knife blade over a major portion of the first and second knife blades when the second blade is attached to the handle in the fixed position thereof.