Metered food dispenser with bi-directional dispensing drum movement to reduce product bridging

A product dispenser, comprising:

• a storage hopper;
• a rotatable drum having paddles on a periphery thereof located at a bottom of the storage hopper, and a drive motor connected to the rotatable drum;
• a weighing/dispensing assembly located beneath the rotatable drum, the weighing/dispensing assembly includes a load cell and further includes or is connected to one or more dump doors on which product to be dispensed is adapted to accumulate, the load cell detecting a weight of the product to be dispensed as it accumulates on the one or more dump doors;
• a controller configured to:
• a) actuate the drive motor to rotate the rotatable drum in a rotational direction at a start of a dispensing cycle, b) receive a signal from the load cell and determine a weight of the product accumulating on the one or more dump doors, c) determine if a target weight is reached based on the signal from the load cell of the weight of the product accumulating on the one or more dump doors, d) deactivate the drive motor upon the target weight being detected, e) open the one or more dump doors such that accumulated product is dispensed, f) upon a start of a next dispensing cycle, actuate the drive motor to rotate the rotatable drum in a rotational direction, opposite to the rotational direction of the drive motor in step d), and g) repeat steps b)-e).