Food-processing system

A food-processing system for processing food products comprising:

• a cutting device configured to cut the food products into one or more slices to form food product portions, and
• a discontinuous conveyor configured to convey the food product portions away from the cutting device, the discontinuous conveyor defining a conveying surface and having at least one conveyed-products carrier movable along a main conveying path which is freely programmable within the conveying surface;
• and
• a belt conveyor defining a conveying direction arranged above the conveying surface, and
• wherein the discontinuous conveyor performs the following functions in the food-processing system:
• buffering the food product portions delivered from the cutting device in a buffer zone on the discontinuous conveyor prior to further transport of the food product portions along the main conveyor path,
• aligning of the food product portions in a lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path by a displacement of the food product portions in the lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path,
• orientation of the food product portions relative to the main conveying path by rotating the food product portions relative to the main conveying path, and
• product formatting from an incoming product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks into an outgoing product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks, wherein the number of incoming conveyor tracks is different from the number of outgoing conveyor tracks, and
• wherein:
• the discontinuous conveyor delivers a first one of the conveyed-products carriers with a first one of the food product portions which is taken over by the belt conveyor,
• the discontinuous conveyor delivers a second one of the conveyed-products carriers with a second one of the food product portions and positions the second conveyed-products carrier on the conveying surface under the belt conveyor, and
• the discontinuous conveyor moves the second conveyed-products carrier out from under the belt conveyor in the conveying direction of the belt conveyor, whereby the belt conveyor deposits the first food product with at least partial overlap on the second food product lying on the second conveyed-products carrier.