Food production apparatus for the production of food and novel food product

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said dough sheet feeding station is in the form of a dough sheet loading and unloading station which comprises at least one rotatable dough tray, divided into a plurality of equal sectors, said means for lifting a single sheet of dough from said dough tray and depositing said lifted sheet of dough onto said conveying means.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough includes a spreader nozzle, secured to the rod end of a penumatic cylinder and adapted to dispense a band of viscous foodstruff product along a selected region of said sheet of dough while said sheet of dough is disposed in a diamond-shaped orientation.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said mechanism for loading foodstuff on said of dough includes a pepperoni slicing and spreading mechanism including a storage facility for a pepperoni, a rotatable slicing blade, and a manually-adjustable depth gauge disposed below said rotatable slicing blade, whereby slices of pepperoni of a selected thickness are sliced by said rotatable blade by transverse movement of said rotatable blade across said pepperoni.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough includes a cheese slicing and spreading mechanism including a storage facility for a piece of cheese, a transversely-slidable cheese slicing blade, and a manually-operable depth gauge disposed below said cheese slicing blade, whereby slices of cheese of a selected thickness are sliced from said piece of cheese by sliding movement of said blade across said cheese.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough includes a ground or minced product production and spreading mechanism including a funnel leading to a grinding or mincing chamber fitted with a grinding auger and terminating in an apertured outlet disc, and a reciprocal blade disposed across the mount of said apertured outlet disc to spread ground food product effluent emerging therefrom.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said loaded, folded dough sheet folding mechanism has longitudinally spaced-apart mutually-opposed means which are operable to hold the diamond-shaped sheet of dough which is loaded with foodstuff in place, and transversely spaced-apart mutually-opposed means which are operable to raise the diametrically-opposed transverse corners of the diamond-shaped sheet of dough which is loaded with foodstuff and to fold them inwardly to meet and overlap slightly at the center;
• thereby to provide a substantially hexagonally-shaped, overlapped-folded, filled sheet of dough, while said conveying means is stationary.

For use with a food production apparatus including a supporting, frame structure, a conveying means mounted thereon, a dough sheet feeding station adjacent to the conveying means, at least one foodstuff loading mechanism for loading foodstuff on said sheet of dough, a loaded dough sheet folding mechanism, a loaded, folded, dough sheet rolling mechanism, and discharge means for discharging a generally-cylindrical, overlapped-folded, loaded, rolled dough product, the improvement wherein:

• said mechanism for rolling a loaded, overlapped-folded dough product has first means operable to raise an unfolded portion of an hexagonally-shaped, overlapped-folded filled sheet of dough, and second means operable to engage said raised hexagonally-shaped, overlapped-folded, filled rolled sheet of dough and to rotate it at least two and one half turns;
• thereby to provide a generally, cylindrical, overlapped-folded, filled rolled product, while said conveying means is stationary.