Patent ID: 7264186

Claim:
In a grinder assembly for grinding a food ingredient and having a frame, a protective housing mounted to the frame with a top, a grinding chamber containing at least one powered grinding member mounted to the frame within the housing, the improvement being a removable hopper assembly, comprising: a removable ingredient hopper body for holding ingredient to be ground, said ingredient hopper body having an open top for receipt of ingredient to be ground, a bottom with a hopper outlet opening and means for releasably mounting the hopper body within the housing at an operative position in which ingredient may be passed from the hopper body to the grinding chamber; a hopper closure assembly attached to the hopper and including a closure member mounted for movement between an open position and a closed position, and means attached to the hopper body for automatically moving the closure member to the closed position in which the hopper outlet opening is closed by the closure member; and an electromechanical device permanently mounted within the housing for selectively moving the closure member to the open position when the hopper is releasably mounted at the operative position, engagement of the device with the closure member being non-interfering with manual, tool-less removal of the hopper body by simple manual lifting of the hopper upwardly away from the operative position and out of the top of the housing.