Meat packaging

Abstract

Meat products are provided to an automated bagging system in a controlled and managed manner. Packaging systems in accordance with the present invention preferably include one or more buffering systems capable controlling the flow of meat products to a bagging system. Buffering systems are positioned along a meat product packaging line to provide such flow control. Plural buffering systems may be used as arranged in one or both of in series and in parallel.

1 . A food processing system for packaging meat products, the processing system comprising a source of meat products, a buffering station, and a packaging station arranged along a process flow path in that order, wherein the processing system is configured so the source of meat products provides a flow of randomly spaced meat products to a first conveyor system that transports the randomly spaced meat products to the buffering station and the buffering station converts the flow of randomly spaced meat products to a regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing and provides the regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing to a second conveyor system that transports the regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing to the packaging station. 
   
   
       2 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the source of meat products comprises one or more fabrication tables of a meat processing plant. 
   
   
       3 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the buffering system comprises at least one of a uniform spacing device, a sensor coupled to a gate to regulate the distance between meat products on the second conveyor system, and a spiral conveyor coupled to a timing device to regulate the time spacing between meat products on the second conveyor system. 
   
   
       4 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the buffering system comprises a first uniform spacing device coupled in-line to a second uniform spacing device, wherein the first uniform spacing device is configured to accumulate a first plurality of meat products having a first characteristic and the second uniform spacing device is configured to accumulate a second plurality of meat products having a second characteristic different from the second characteristic. 
   
   
       5 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , comprising an object recognition system configured to identify a characteristic of the meat products, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of type, dimension, and shape, and wherein the object recognition system is configured to direct a first plurality of meat products having a first characteristic to a first location and direct a second plurality of meat products having a second characteristic to a second location. 
   
   
       6 . The food processing system of  claim 5 , wherein the first location comprises a first uniform spacing device and the second location comprises a second uniform spacing device. 
   
   
       7 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , comprising a sorting system configured to determine a characteristic of the meat products. 
   
   
       8 . The food processing system of  claim 7 , wherein the sorting system is configured to direct a first plurality of meat products having a first characteristic to a first location and direct a second plurality of meat products having a second characteristic to a second location. 
   
   
       9 . The food processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the packaging station comprises a bagging device and a vacuum-sealing device. 
   
   
       10 . A method for packaging meat products, the method comprising:
 providing a flow of randomly spaced meat products as conveyed along a process flow path;   at a first processing station positioned along the process flow path, identifying meat products having a common characteristic and directing the meat products having a common characteristic to a second processing station positioned downstream from the first processing station along the process flow path as a flow of randomly spaced meat products having a common characteristic;   at the second processing station, converting the flow of randomly spaced meat products having a common characteristic to a regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing and having a common characteristic; and   at a third processing station positioned downstream from the second processing station along the process flow path, packaging the meat products.   
   
   
       11 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 10 , wherein converting the flow of randomly spaced meat products having a common characteristic to a regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing and having a common characteristic comprises batch processing plural groups of meat products. 
   
   
       12 . The method for packaging the products of  claim 10 , comprising providing the flow of randomly spaced meat products from a fabrication table of a meat processing plant. 
   
   
       13 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 10 , wherein packaging the meat products comprises one or both of bagging the meat products and vacuum sealing the bagged meat products. 
   
   
       14 . A method for packaging meat products, the method comprising:
 providing a flow of randomly spaced meat products as conveyed along a process flow path;   at a first processing station comprising a first uniform spacing device positioned along the process flow path, passing the flow of randomly spaced meat products through the uniform spacing device;   at a second processing station comprising a second uniform spacing device positioned downstream from the first processing station along the process flow path, accumulating at least a portion of the flow of randomly spaced meat products at the second uniform spacing device;   providing the accumulated meat products as a flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing along the process flow path; and   at a third processing station positioned downstream from the second processing station along the process flow path, packaging the meat products.   
   
   
       15 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 14 , wherein providing the accumulated meat products as a flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing comprises batch processing plural groups of meat products. 
   
   
       16 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 14 , comprising identifying meat products having a common characteristic and processing the identified meat products together. 
   
   
       17 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 16 , comprising identifying meat products having a common characteristic before providing the accumulated meat products as a flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing. 
   
   
       18 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 16 , comprising identifying meat products having a common characteristic after providing the accumulated meat products as a flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing. 
   
   
       19 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second processing stations are configured to convert the flow of randomly spaced meat products to a flow of regularly spaced, distinct meat products. 
   
   
       20 . The method for packaging meat products of  claim 14 , wherein packaging the meat products comprises one or both of bagging the meat products and vacuum sealing the bagged meat products.