Slicing machine having a knife monitoring device

An electrically operated slicing machine for cutting off slices from an item, the slicing machine comprising:

• a cutting device, the cutting device comprising a rotating circular knife configured to be driven by an electric knife motor;
• a carriage, movable in parallel to the circular knife, and configured to receive and move the item to be cut;
• a knife monitor configured to monitor a state of the circular knife;
• and
• a controller,
• wherein the knife monitor is further configured to sense a knife motor current over time to obtain a temporal profile of the knife motor current,
• wherein the controller is configured to:
• determine measurement data based on the temporal profile of the knife motor current, and
• determine a current cutting characteristic value based on the measurement data, the measurement data comprising:
• a load-dependent area comprising a sum or integral of a load-dependent current component of the temporal profile;
• and
• a load-independent area comprising a sum or integral of a load-independent current component of the temporal profile,
• wherein the current cutting characteristic value comprises:
• a soiling characteristic value derived from the load-independent area, and at least one of:
• a wear characteristic value derived from the load-independent area, or
• a knife sharpness characteristic value derived from the load-dependent area, and
• wherein the controller is further configured to output an indication signal indicating that the slicing machine is soiled based on the soiling characteristic value.