Poultry leg meat slit-forming device and poultry leg meat automatic slit-forming method

A poultry leg meat slit-forming device comprising:

• an ankle holding part configured to hold an ankle of bone-in poultry leg meat cut from a femur of a poultry carcass;
• a blade unit having a slit-forming blade;
• an inserting driving part configured to drive the blade unit such that an blade tip of the slit-forming blade is inserted into the poultry leg meat along an opposite side with respect to a kneecap in a tibia among the poultry leg meat held on the ankle holding part;
• a leg meat pressing part configured to elastically press a surface of the poultry leg meat from a side of the kneecap;
• and
• a moving part configured to move at least one of the ankle holding part and the blade unit with respect to the other one such that the slit-forming blade makes a slit-forming movement in an extending direction of the poultry leg meat held by the ankle holding part, wherein
• the blade unit comprises:
• a blade holding part that is configured to hold the slit-forming blade such that a blade edge of the slit-forming blade faces a side opposite with respect to the ankle holding part in a direction of the slit-forming movement of the slit-forming blade and that is configured to hold the slit-forming blade so as to be displaceable in a front surface/back surface direction of the slit-forming blade;
• and
• a biasing part configured to elastically bias the slit-forming blade toward a bone of the poultry leg meat in the front surface/back surface direction of the slit-forming blade.