Patent ID: 7204748

Claim:
An apparatus for producing selected portions from a piece of poultry breast meat comprising, in combination; a) a rotatably mounted product holder having a generally cylindrical outer surface provided with a plurality of pairs of laterally spaced cavities, each pair being spaced circumferentially about the outer surface of said product holder, each of said cavities in a pair being configured to receive a laterally spaced first portion of a whole poultry breast for travel along a path defined by the outer surface of said product holder; b) pressing means including an arcuate surface spaced a selected distance from the outer surface of the product holder along a portion of the path of travel of said at least one cavity to engage said poultry breast and urge and hold said first portion into said cavity; c) first cutting means disposed generally tangentially to the path of travel of said at least one cavity between said surface of said pressing means and the outer surface of said product holder to engage said breast meat and separate the first portion of said poultry breast contained in said cavity from a remaining portion of said poultry breast outside said cavity; d) said at least one cavity having an arcuate bottom wall and boundary walls vertically extending from said bottom wall configured to inhibit movement of the rearward portion of a piece of poultry breast located within said cavity rearwardly relative to the path or travel of said at least one cavity upon engagement with said pressing means; e) a slot circumferentially disposed in said outer surface of said product holder between each of said pairs of cavities; and f) second cutting means aligned to penetrate within said slot to vertically engage and separate a whole poultry breast disposed in a pair of cavities into similarly shaped substantially half portions.