Patent ID: 8688267

Claim:
A method for classifying incoming food products into two or more types of end food products to meet specific production goals for the end food products composed of desired specific levels of production for the end food products, and thereafter portioning the incoming food products into the one or more types of end products, the method comprising: (a) receiving information on incoming food products; (b) for each incoming food product, based on the received information and prior to initiating portioning of each food product, calculating a parameter value for each of the two or more types of end food products that may be produced from the incoming food product, the parameter value indicating the suitability of each incoming food product for producing each type of end food product; (c) normalizing the calculated parameter values by performing a mathematical calculation on the calculated parameter values for each of the incoming food products for the two or more types of end food products, respectively, thereby adjusting the parameter values so as to meet the production goals for each of the end food products composed of desired specific levels of production for each of the end food products while achieving optimum parameter values; (d) for each incoming food product, selecting the end food product with an optimum normalized parameter value as the end food product to be produced therefrom; and (e) portioning each incoming food product to produce the end food product selected in step (d) above.