Fruit chunking and spear forming apparatus

Apparatus for chunking unpeeled pineapples or melons automatically and at high speed, comprising:

• means for slicing pineapples or melons into unpeeled wedges, each wedge have two upturned ends, a center section and a longitudinal axis extending between said upturned ends,
• means for singulating and conveying said unpeeled wedges in a direction perpendicular to said longitudinal axis,
• means for first chunking and thereafter peeling said wedges, said means including a plurality of stationary chunking blades that are staggered along the direction of motion of said conveying means to make transverse cuts on each wedge without severing said peel, said transverse cuts being made sequentially from said center section toward each upturned end of each wedge to flatten each wedge as said transverse cuts are made, thereby forming chunks having maximized rectangular prism shape while still attached to said peel, and
• a stationary peeling blade that severs the peel from each of said chunks.