Method and apparatus for forming and processing food spears

Apparatus for the forming of food spears from an integral food product, and for delivering the spears onto a support means in predetermined orientations about their longitudinal axes, comprising:

• knife means for cutting said food product into spears in response to pushing of said product through said knife means;
• support means for receiving and supporting said spears;
• channel means having a different channel extending therethrough for each of said spears formed by said knife means, each of said channels having an inlet end positioned to receive a corresponding different one of said spears from said knife means and an outlet end positioned to deliver said one spear onto said support means;
• at least some of said channels being twisted about their respective axes between said inlet and outlet ends thereof so as to change the orientation of the spears about their longitudinal axes as they pass through the twisted channels, thereby to deliver said spears onto said support means in a predetermined orientation about their axes different from the orientations in which they leave said knife means;
• said apparatus comprising pusher means provided with flexible rod members having forward ends for contacting said spears and reciprocable in and out of said inlet ends of said channels for pushing said spears through said channels onto said support means.

Apparatus for forming and loading food spears, comprising:

• knife means for cutting a set of spears from a food product pushed through it;
• spear-receiving means onto which said set of spears is to be loaded;
• spear-guiding means having a set of curved channels for receiving said spears individually and for guiding them slidingly into respective predetermined different positions on said spear-receiving means;
• reciprocable pusher means for pushing said food product through said knife means and through said separate channels onto said spear-receiving means, said pusher means comprising a plurality of flexible rod members, one for each of said channels, said flexible rod members being adapted to extend into said channels to push each of said spears through the corresponding channel of said spear-guiding means.