Apparatus for portioning meat

Apparatus for portioning meat, comprising in combination

• a bandsaw arranged with a horizontal cutting flight,
• first and second meat holders positioned above said flight for rotation about a vertical axis, each meat holder being adapted to hold meat to be portioned substantially vertically at a position spaced from said axis,
• a respective drive means for rotating each meat holder about said axis,
• a respective depth stop associated with each meat holder below said flight whereby the meat to be portioned is fed across said flight while resting on the depth stop by rotation of the meat holder, and
• a cover selectively positionable so as to cover one of said meat holders at a time, said cover comprising
• (1) a slidable inverted channel section member positionable so as to cover one of the said meat holders at a time,
• (2) first end plate means at one end of the apparatus which cooperates with the selectively positionable channel section member when the latter is at one end of its travel to form therewith a protective cover for the meat holder adjacent the said first end plate means, and
• (3) second end plate means located at the opposite end of the apparatus which co-operate with the selectively positionable channel section member to form a protective cover for the other meat holder at the opposite end of the apparatus when the channel section member has been moved to that end of the apparatus.