Patent ID: 8377490

Claim:
A method for forming cheese slices from a quantity of cheese, comprising: introducing at least one discrete cheese piece into an elongated chamber housing a conveyor operable to form a homogenous cheese mass from the at least one cheese piece, the conveyor having twin intermeshing screws configured to minimize shear forces on the homogenous cheese mass and provide a substantially continuous feed, the twin intermeshing screws having minimal clearance relative to an inner surface of the elongated chamber; forcing the cheese mass forwardly and longitudinally of said chamber to a discharge outlet of the chamber and into a funnel downstream of the discharge outlet of the chamber; extruding the cheese mass at a temperature less than about 50° F. through a plurality of elongated orifices at a discharge side of a die plate which receives the cheese mass after exiting the funnel, providing cheese extrudate sheets; and cutting the cheese extrudate sheets into cheese slices.