Conveying device for food products and associated operating method

A conveying device for conveying food products from a slicing device to a packaging machine which requires a specific product format of the food products on the input side, wherein the product format includes multiple food products which are arranged in rows parallel to the conveying direction and columns transverse to the conveying direction, the conveying device comprising:

• a format-generating conveyor belt for taking over the food products from the slicing device and for generating the product format required by the packaging machine on the format-generating conveyor belt or for taking over the food products in the predetermined product format;
• a buffer conveyor belt which takes over the product formats from the format-generating conveyor belt and buffers at least one of the product formats, wherein the buffer conveyor belt is arranged downstream along the conveying direction behind the format-generating conveyor belt;
• an output conveyor belt for outputting the product formats to the packaging machine, wherein the output conveyor belt is arranged downstream along the conveying direction behind the buffer conveyor belt and the product transfer from the output conveyor belt to the packaging machine generates a product gap at the beginning of the output conveyor belt;
• and
• a control unit for controlling the format-generating conveyor belt, the buffer conveyor belt and the output conveyor belt,
• wherein the output conveyor belt is operable bidirectionally and can convey the food products either in the conveying direction or against the conveying direction, and
• wherein the control unit drives the output conveyor belt back against the conveying direction after the transfer of a product format to the packaging machine, in order to close the product gap generated at the beginning of the output conveyor belt by the product transfer to the packaging machine and to be able to take over a next product format from the buffer conveyor belt without a product gap on the output conveyor belt.