Seasoning system and method

A seasoning system for coating a food product with seasoning, comprising:

• a product tray driven to move the food product longitudinally along the tray;
• a drive mechanism for driving the product tray;
• a seasoning unit for applying a seasoning to the product moved by the product tray;
• a sensor for sensing an upper level of product moving along the product tray and producing a product feed rate signal functionally related to the volume of product being conveyed along the product tray;
• and
• a proportional gate for adjusting the feed rate of product to the tray in response to the product feed rate signal.

A seasoning system for coating a food product with seasoning, comprising:

• a first product tray driven to move the food product longitudinally along the first tray;
• a drive mechanism for driving the first product tray linearly in slow forward/fast backward manner to slide the product along the first product tray;
• a second product tray for moving product longitudinally along the length of the second product tray;
• and
• a deflector for inverting the product discharged from the first product tray and input to the second product tray.

An improved tumble drum for mixing a food product with another food product, the tumble drum comprising:

• a rotating tumble drum for rotating the product and the another food product;
• a tumbler drive motor for rotating the tumble drum;
• and
• another drive motor for reciprocating the tumble drum linearly in a slow forward/backward manner to slide product along the tumble drum and thereby discharge the product from the tumble drum.

A method of coating a food product with seasoning, comprising:

• powering a product tray to move the food product longitudinally along the tray in a slow forward/fast backward manner;
• sensing an upper level of product moving along the product tray and producing a product feed rate signal functionally related to the volume of product being conveyed along the product tray;
• and
• supplying seasoning to the product moved by the product tray in response to the product feed rate signal.

A method of coating a food product with seasoning, comprising:

• powering a product tray to move the food product along the tray longitudinally in a slow forward/fast backward manner;
• applying a seasoning to the product moved by the product tray;
• sensing an upper level of product moving along the product tray and producing a product feed rate signal functionally related to the volume-of product being conveyed along the product tray;
• and
• adjusting the feed rate of product to the tray in response to the product feed rate signal.

A method of coating a food product with seasoning, comprising:

• powering a product tray to move the food product longitudinally along the tray;
• sensing an upper level of product moving along the product tray and producing a product feed rate signal functionally related to the volume of product being conveyed along the product tray;
• supplying seasoning to the product moved by the product tray in response to the product feed rate signal;
• periodically testing a selected volume of seasoned product with a standard;
• and
• altering at least one of the food product volume moving along the product tray and the seasoning rate applied to the food product in response to a periodic test.