Patent ID: 8297545

Claim:
A food ingredient grinder, comprising: a frame with a top and a bottom; a grinding chamber attached to the top of the frame, said grinding chamber containing a grinding mechanism and having a top with an upwardly facing inlet opening and a bottom; and a hopper assembly with a top and a bottom, a hopper for feeding unground ingredient to the grinding chamber, said hopper having a hopper inlet opening for receipt of unground ingredient, an inwardly tapered section connected with the hopper inlet opening and a hopper outlet aligned with the grinding chamber inlet opening for passing unground ingredient into the grinding chamber, and hopper support members surrounding the inwardly tapered section of the hopper and extending downwardly in laterally spaced relationship with respect to the tapered section to a distal end at the bottom of the hopper assembly, said distal end being located beneath the hopper outlet and beneath the grinding chamber inlet opening, said distal end being toolessly mounted to and supported by the top of the frame to support the hopper outlet above the grinding chamber inlet.