Determining the position and angular orientation of food products

A method for processing a food product, comprising:

• (a) scanning the food product;
• (b) developing a distribution map of the food product from the scanning data selected from the group consisting of an area distribution of the food product and a volume distribution of the food product;
• (c) determining the direction of one or more directional lines related to the orientation of the food product relative to a reference line selected from the group consisting of:
• a directional line corresponding to the line of least inertia of the food product based on the second moment of one of the area or volume distribution of the food product;
• a directional line corresponding to the location of at least one notch located in the food product and at least one projection located on the food product;
• and
• a directional line corresponding to a linear depression defined by portions of the food product;
• (d) utilizing one or more of the determined directional lines to determine the angular orientation of the food product relative to the reference line;
• and
• (e) using the determined orientation of the food product to determine how the food product is to be further processed.

Determining the location and orientation of raw poultry breasts relative to a reference line, comprising:

• (a) scanning the poultry breasts;
• (b) generating distributions of the poultry breasts from the scanning data selected from the group consisting of an area distribution and a volume distribution of the poultry breasts;
• (c) determining the position of the poultry breasts relative to the reference line from the scanning data;
• (d) determining the direction of one or more directional lines related to the axis of symmetry of the poultry breasts, selected from the group consisting of:
• the line of least inertia for the poultry breast calculated from the second moment of the area or volume distribution of the poultry breast;
• a directional line extending between the neck notch as determined from the scanning data and the tail projection as determined from the scanning data of the poultry breast;
• and
• a directional line extending along a linear depression of the poultry breast corresponding to the location of the keel of the poultry breast as determined from the scanning data;
• and
• (e) determining the angular orientation of the poultry breast by considering one or more of the determined directional lines.