Fruit chunking and spear forming method

A method of automatically chunking unpeeled pineapples or melons at high speed, wherein said fruit has an axis extending through the fruit from its stem through the center of said fruit to the bottom of said fruit, comprising the steps:

• slicing each unpeeled pineapple or melon to form a plurality of unpeeled wedges wherein each wedge has a generally C-shaped, longitudinal cross section having a central region and two upturned ends, and a longitudinal axis extending between said two upturned ends,
• moving each of said unpeeled wedges in singulated fashion onto a separate flight of a flighted conveyor so that the longitudinal axis of each unpeeled wedge lies perpendicularly relative to the direction of travel of said flighted conveyor, and wherein said upturned ends of each wedge extend outwardly from said flighted conveyor,
• conveying said unpeeled wedges through a series of transverse cutting blades, wherein said blades are staggered along the direction of motion of said conveyor, whereby said blades make transverse cuts through the longitudinal central region of each wedge first without severing said peel, and thereafter make transverse cuts through regions that lie further away from the longitudinal center of each wedge without severing said peel, whereby each of said upturned ends of said wedges is caused to flatten out as it is cut transversely in a sequential fashion from its center toward each of its upturned ends, thereby forming chunks of said fruit having maximized rectangular prism shape, wherein said chunks are still connected to said peel of said wedge, and
• peeling said wedges only after said chunks having maximized rectangular prism shape have been formed.