An apparatus for acquiring a profile of a food product for use in subsequent processing of the food product, comprising: a) a scanning area; b) one or more product drives for driving a product through the scanning area in a longitudinal direction; c) a first vision system for scanning a first surface of the product in the scanning area, the first vision system having: c1) at least one first line laser, the first line laser projecting at least one first transverse laser line transversely to the longitudinal direction on the first surface, c2) two first cameras arranged to capture different first transverse image portions of the at least one first transverse laser line, the two first cameras capturing overlapping images; and c3) a control system for processing the different first transverse image portions, wherein the control system calculates a first profile of the first surface at multiple positions along a length of the first surface as the product is driven through the scanning area, characterized in that d) the first vision system comprises a reference laser projecting a beam on the first surface that indicates a transverse reference position; e) the two first cameras capture the reference position along with the different first transverse image portions; and f) the control system uses the transverse reference position to combine the different first transverse image portions captured by the two first cameras to eliminate overlap in the different first transverse image portions. a) a scanning area; b) one or more product drives for driving a product through the scanning area in a longitudinal direction; c) a first vision system for scanning a first surface of the product in the scanning area, the first vision system having: c1) at least one first line laser, the first line laser projecting at least one first transverse laser line transversely to the longitudinal direction on the first surface, c2) two first cameras arranged to capture different first transverse image portions of the at least one first transverse laser line, the two first cameras capturing overlapping images; and c3) a control system for processing the different first transverse image portions, wherein the control system calculates a first profile of the first surface at multiple positions along a length of the first surface as the product is driven through the scanning area, characterized in that c1) at least one first line laser, the first line laser projecting at least one first transverse laser line transversely to the longitudinal direction on the first surface, c2) two first cameras arranged to capture different first transverse image portions of the at least one first transverse laser line, the two first cameras capturing overlapping images; and c3) a control system for processing the different first transverse image portions, wherein the control system calculates a first profile of the first surface at multiple positions along a length of the first surface as the product is driven through the scanning area, d) the first vision system comprises a reference laser projecting a beam on the first surface that indicates a transverse reference position; e) the two first cameras capture the reference position along with the different first transverse image portions; and f) the control system uses the transverse reference position to combine the different first transverse image portions captured by the two first cameras to eliminate overlap in the different first transverse image portions.