Machines and methods for cutting products to produce reduced-size products therefrom

A machine for cutting products, the machine comprising:

• a casing comprising a circumferential wall and a slicing knife disposed in the wall;
• an impeller within the casing and having a rotational axis about which the impeller rotates within the casing to cause a product within an interior of the impeller to be held by centrifugal force against the wall of the casing as the product is carried past the slicing knife to form a cut through the product during a rotation of the impeller, the impeller comprising multiple rings that are axially-spaced and concentric in relation to the rotational axis of the impeller to delineate multiple annular-shaped cavities within the impeller that are parallel to each other and axially-spaced and concentric relative to the rotational axis of the impeller, the impeller further comprising paddles oriented transverse to the annular-shaped cavities to define within each annular-shaped cavity a circumferential series of pockets that are circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing so that the product is circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing and the cut through the product is a first longitudinal cut and a substantially longitudinally sliced product is produced;
• and
• a feed unit adapted to simultaneously deliver a plurality of the product to the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller, the feed unit comprising a feed chute unit that defines multiple feed troughs, the feed chute unit comprising a feed chute extension that protrudes into the interior of the impeller, the feed chute extension comprising feed chutes that are each configured to deliver a portion of the product to at least one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.