Food processing apparatus for detecting and cutting tough tissues from food items

A food processing apparatus adapted for detecting and cutting tough tissues such as bones, cartilage, and fat from food item pieces such as fish or meat fillets or poultry items, comprising:

• a first solid conveyor belt for X-ray imaging, having an in-feed end and an out-feet end,
• at least one x-ray machine associated to said first solid conveyor belt for imaging incoming food items conveyed on the first solid conveyor belt and based on the imaging generating x-ray image data indicating the location of the tough tissues in said food item pieces, wherein the x-ray machine comprises two or more x-ray sources placed at different viewing angles with respect to the incoming food objects adapted to emit x-ray beams onto the incoming food objects under said different viewing angles and thus generate at least two x-ray measuring data,
• a processor for generating said first image data by processing the at least two x-ray measuring data for generating three dimensional (3D) x-ray image data of said tough tissues,
• a second porous conveyor belt for water jet cutting, which in-feed end is adapted to be placed adjacent to the out-feed end of said first solid conveyor belt for receiving said food items pieces from the out-feed end of the first solid conveyor belt,
• a vision system for supplying second image data of said food item pieces subsequent to the imaging by said at least one x-ray machine, the second image data including position related data indicating the position of the food item pieces on said second porous conveyor belt prior to said cutting, said second porous conveyor belt being adapted to convey the food item pieces during said imaging and while cutting said tough tissues from said food item pieces, and
• a tracking mechanism for tracking the position of the food item pieces at all times, and
• a mapping mechanism comprising:
• a processor for utilizing the tracking position data for the food items subsequent to said x-ray imaging data so as to determine an estimated position of the food item pieces on said second porous conveyor belt where subsequent to obtaining the second image data, comparing said estimated coordinate position of the food item pieces to the actual position on the second porous conveyor belt based said second image data, where in case of non-match between said estimated coordinate position and said actual position, wherein the processor maps the x-ray image data onto the second image data such that the position of the tough tissues matches to said second image data, the processor comparing the estimated position of the food item pieces on said second porous conveyor belt to the actual position on the second porous conveyor belt based on said second image data comprising determining whether the total volume of the 3D x-ray image data matches with the volume of the 3D image data, where in case of non-match, mapping by said processor the volume of the 3D x-ray image data onto the volume of the 3D image data such that the volumetric error is minimized, and
• a control unit operable to operate a cutting means for cutting said food items pieces by utilizing said mapped x-ray image data as operation data.