Patent ID: 8220383

Claim:
A slicer for use in slicing a food product, the slicer comprising: a slicer body; a slicer knife mounted for rotation relative to the slicer body, the slicer knife having a peripheral cutting edge, and an associated knife drive motor; a food product carriage mounted to the slicer body for reciprocating movement back and forth past a cutting zone of the slicer knife; a controller operable to activate a sharpen knife annunciator based upon at least one operating parameter of the slicer in order to alert an operator of need to sharpen the slicer knife, the controller associated with the knife drive motor to effect operation thereof; an operator actuatable knife sharpen input device associated with the controller, upon operator actuation of the knife sharpen input device the controller causes the knife drive motor to be energized for a set knife sharpening time period.