Coating of food products with a particulate coating material

A coating machine adapted to coat food products with a particulate coating material, the coating machine comprising:

• an infeed conveyor assembly;
• a rotary tumbling drum;
• an elevator device, and
• a discharge conveyor assembly;
• wherein in a drum mode of the coating machine, the rotary tumbling drum is arranged to be supplied with particulate coating material and to tumble the food products and particulate coating material together about a longitudinal axis, to subject the food products to a coating treatment;
• wherein some of the particulate coating material adheres to the food products while a remainder of the particulate coating material is excess coating material;
• wherein the rotary tumbling drum includes a drum wall, an intake opening, and a discharge opening;
• wherein the infeed conveyor assembly is arranged to receive food products to be coated at an inlet of the coating machine and to convey the food products to be coated to a release end of the infeed conveyor assembly, wherein in the drum mode of the coating machine, the coating machine is arranged for dropping of the food products to be coated in the rotary tumbling drum from said release end;
• wherein the elevator device is arranged to receive a mixture of a portion of said excess coating material and coated food products from the discharge opening of the rotary tumbling drum and to supply said coated food products to the discharge conveyor assembly;
• wherein the discharge conveyor assembly is arranged to receive the food products on a receiving part of the discharge conveyor assembly and to convey the coated food products to an outlet of the coating machine, wherein in the drum mode of the coating machine, the food products are gravity fed from the elevator device;
• wherein the coating machine is configured so that in a conveyor mode of the coating machine, a position of the release end of the infeed conveyor assembly and the receiving part of the discharge conveyor assembly is arranged to adjoin each other while extending through the rotary tumbling drum, so that food products bypass the rotary tumbling drum and the elevator device.