Patent ID: 6413073
Filing Date: 2002-07-02
Classification: A23L

Abstract:
A perforated die plate for a machine supplying ground meat under pressure, said die plate having mutually opposite, broad, material entry and material outlet faces and multiple, sidewise-extending rows, one above another, of extrusion openings as perforations extending between and into said faces, for receiving and passing ground meat between said faces, said openings in each of said rows being elongate and closely spaced end-to-end by imperforate intervening portions of the die plate, but short relative to the length of the rows, for receiving ground meat and discharging it from said rows as continuous expanses of substantially merged, side-by-side, longitudinal strands of the ground meat as muscle fibers, said expanses together simulating a natural cut of unground meat, the expanses of extrudate from said multiple rows being one above another as layers in a ribbon-shaped product of the machine; wherein the multiple rows of perforations include at least one interior row thereof in which said extrusion openings are non-communicative and separated by said imperforate intervening portions of the die plate; and wherein said multiple rows of perforations also include a top exterior row and a bottom exterior row of said extrusion openings that are respectively interconnected endwise by passages extending through their said imperforate intervening portions of the die plate to provide top and bottom, exterior expanses of said merged strands of extrudate as respective layers protectively covering the interior extrudate layer or layers of said product, but leaving part of their said otherwise imperforate intervening portions of the die plate holding the die plate together.