Meat grinder

In a meat grinder, having a housing with a central axis, a rotating helical auger to feed material axially to a cutting assembly arranged co-axially with respect to said auger along the central axis of the meat grinder, at least one perforated disk having a frontal area facing the auger and provided with a central boss, a rotatable drive shaft extending co-axially from said auger receivable in a central bore through said boss, at least one cutting blade driven by said drive shaft in front of the frontal area of the perforated disk between the auger and the perforated disk, whereby the solid particles contained in the material to be cut are separated and collected in front of the frontal area of the perforated disk, the improvement comprising an outlet means located in the vicinity of the central axis comprising at least one outlet channel through said boss of the perforated disk near said bore thereof, said outlet channel having a size comparatively large by comparison with the holes of the perforated disk whereby the solid particles separated and collected in front of the frontal area of the perforated disk pass through said outlet channel, a counter-ring co-axial with and adjacent to the perforated disk on the side opposite the frontal area, said counter-ring being substantially open in the area of the perforations to avoid blocking the perforations in said perforated disk, a central, thick-walled pipe piece rotatably mounted within said counter-ring and being rotatable around the central axis, outlet openings in said pipe piece which overlap said at least one outlet channel in the perforated disk, said pipe piece being rotatably adjustable to adjust the amount of said overlap and thereby the effective size of said at least one outlet channel.